We’re continuing to achieve remarkably little here in Phuket, and it’s great! Dawn has enjoyed a lengthy spa treatment – everything from the severe pummelling of a Thai massage to a full body wrap – as well as swimming in the ‘Busakorn‘ pool, and getting her nails done, of course. Gavin has taken the opportunity to relax at the poolside, making friends with a number of different adult beverages, and spending some quality time with the laptop. :-)

The advice in the hotel, as elsewhere, is not to drink the water, so we’ve been knocking back quite a lot of beer instead – for health reasons. Chang – elephant beer – is the cheapest, but tastes a bit rough, and is apparently so packed full of congeners that even locals talk about the dreaded ‘Chang-over’ the morning after. Singha is plentiful, though, and at around US$1.50 for a large bottle in the local shops, it’s pretty good value. It’s about the same price in the hotel, too, as they have an enlightened policy of leaving the mini-bar empty, and letting you buy your choice of stuff in a shop near reception, at market prices. Back to the Singha… it’s brewed somewhere in Bangkok, so we’ve been having fun checking the bottles for freshness by reading the bottling date on the label. In Phuket and Chiang Mai, a lot of the stock is a month or so old, but in Bangkok we were sipping beer that’s been bottled less than a week!

We should probably have done more sightseeing while we’ve been here, but have spent so much time loafing around, that our excursions have been limited to the local beach (Patong) and a few nearby coves, the Phuket museum, and a sanctuary where abused Gibbons are rehabilitated and returned to the wild. We’ve caught up with our souvenir shopping at the local stores and markets, but lack the killer instincts to be good hagglers, so we’ve probably made several shopkeepers very happy!

Our Priority Club status scored us another bonus, as we got invited to the hotel’s weekly cocktail party, which we think is mostly for repeat visitors. Cocktails, wine, finger-food and a chance to meet the hotel management and other guests, all for free – a very nice idea!