This was a perfect holiday! -- referring to the Phuket Anantara Resort we enjoyed! This blog is not about food.
We are in Phuket because we got 2 free nights at the Anantara Resort Villas. We had to pay for the third night. The service staff quality is top notch, we have buggies to help us get around from our villas, to the lobby and restaurants. The service level was so impressive, we got a surprise birthday cake for Hugo's 16th birthday! and when his teeth-braces were inadvertently "lost", the staff dug through their garbage collection in the middle of the night and retrieved them! Incredible level of service! We really like the staff attending to us at Anantara Resort!
By way of introduction, Anantara Resort is on Mai Khao beach, on the north-west side of the island of Phuket. It's a few km from the Sarasin Bridge linking Phuket to the mainland. We were told that the beach was popular as the breeding grounds for turtles who swim up to lay their eggs for the next generation of turtles. Due to degradation of traditional breeding grounds, those turtles that come up now are looked after by the Mai Khao Turtle Foundation which was set up to help rejuvenate the turtle population.
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| Uprooted tree on the Mai Khao beach. This is due to the soil erosion from the relentless pounding of the surf. |
Anantara Resort has beautiful grounds around the resort and villas, very leafy and shady, and really make us feel like walking through some botanical gardens. Greenery is everywhere we turn.
Just look at the photos.
Anantara Resort Villas, Mai Khao beach, Phuket
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| Walk ways are covered by canopy of shady trees |
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| Entrance to lobby |
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| Bridge leading to the lobby on the right and Turtle Village on the left |
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| Heliconia flowers everywhere |
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| The yam is a popular plant in the resort |
When we arrived in Phuket the first 2-3 days were very nice with relatively low humidity. Temperatures in the day averages around 29-30 degC. On our last day late afternoon, the humidity picked up signficantly, and it became very uncomfortable...luckily we were leaving.
Mosquitoes are a problem between dusk hours of 5-7pm, so we were fortunate to be provided with many tubes of lemongrass mozzie repellents!!
Resort's beach front
There are lots of warning signs about not swimming in the sea. Not only are the waves ferocious, the undercurrents are very strong. There's also the threat of sightings of Portuguese Man 'O War - a type marine hydrozoan which delivers very painful and poisonous bites. It looks like a "jelly fish" but is not.
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| The glorious sunset over the Andaman sea |
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| Tree with no hope.... |
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| ........has been stripped of its soil covering, awaiting the inevitable.....petrified wood |
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| From the pool into the sand before the beach |
The mall has Coffee Club where we enjoyed lunches and tea breaks at, and also Swensen's restaurant, plus other minor eateries.
About Phuket....
Phuket is embraced by the Andaman Sea, and is the largest island in Thailand. It is approximately the size of Singapore, and has many smaller islands. Phuket was on the important trade routes and boasts of tin mines and rubber plantations. The Chinese, British, Portuguese came to do business here. Much of the tin mining left huge unfilled treacherous holes in the degraded grounds, which had filled up with water and became picturesque lakes with lush natural greenery.
Many of these lakes now form part of the water features for the many hotels and resorts dotted all over the island.
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| Phuket and Mai Khao beach (courtesy of Google) |
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| Location of Phuket (courtesy of Google) |
As we said earlier, this holiday is not above food. But we had to eat, so here are some of the restaurants we went to.....
Black Ginger, The Slade, Nai Yang beach
The Slade is a big resort about 25 minutes by taxi from our Anantara. The Slade was previously known as Indigo Pearl Resort and is located in the protected Sirinat National Park.
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| The lighted walls leading to the jetty. |
Black Ginger restaurant is located on an island. The only way for diners to get on and off is on the floating platform that is pulled by rope across the water. An interesting novelty.
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| Hanging flowers at the jetty |
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| The floating platform to bring diners to the restaurant on the island. |
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| The floating platform is "propelled" by rope. |
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| Ngoh hiang |
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| Fish cake |
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| Chicken green curry |
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| Fried rice with condiments to be mixed in. |
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| Returning by floating platform to The Slade. |
La Sala cafe - our breakfasts at Anantara Resort
We had a lunch and all our breakfasts here. Its nice and cosy. Pat also got to feed the ducks and the fishes in the morning as the staff provide expired-date breads for their "pets". We did enjoy having our breakfasts at the La Sala cafe.
The lunch we had was the first day when we arrived and we were hungry. Here are some photos...
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| Appetiser |
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| Tom yam soup |
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| Prawn on leaves fried in batter. |
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| Pak Thai |
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| Pork curry chicken |
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| Fried morning glory (kang kong) |
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| Mojito |
Cucina Italian restaurant, J.W.Marriots Hotel
We thought an Italian dinner may served us well after many lunches and dinners of Thai food. Actually, the quality of the food at Cucina caught us by surprise....we are used to Italian food in Singapore, HK, Italy, London, Vancouver, New York and even Spain, but this was interesting.
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| Its been a long time since we had brushetta. The freshness of the tomato was nice. |
Roast veal and tuna sashimi with creamy salad dressing. Hmmm...?
We usually like beef carpaccio but couldn't find in menu, so we ordered the next best thing. The tuna sashimi was a little bland, and maybe the cream salad dressing was a bit out of place?
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| Lasagna |
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| Vongole spaghetti |
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| Octopus grilled |
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| Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream - this was our favorite. |
$60 Bajo, a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
The chef came round to say hello. We generally like Italian food but guess we are just not used to real authentic Italian cooking!
Sea Fire Salt restaurant, Anantara Resort
We were at the beach the whole morning, so decided to just catch quick lunch at the restaurant beside us.
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| Tyson-size fried chicken |
We had some crispy fried chicken wings in Coffee Club at Turtle Village mall. Those wings were small and we quite like them. We like those better.
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| Fried calamari - the best bites we had |
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| Chicken satay. Hmm? |
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| Sauteed mushrooms. Hmm? |
Salad with soft-shell crab
Ginja Taste, J.W.Marriots Hotel, Mao Khao beach
This was our last night, and we decided to try to fine Thai food restaurant in the next door J.W.Marriots Hotel. Ginja was about a 1-km beach walk from our villa!
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| Iconic entrance into restaurant. But we sat outside facing the darken beach |
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| Appetisers |
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| Fried morning glory or kang kong |
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| Soft-shell crabs. This serving was a bit too generous. |
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| Tom yam souip |
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| Fried beef with pepper corn and garlic |
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| Live soft-shell crabs outside the Ginja entrance. |
Saying goodbye to Mai Khao beach
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| Our last sunset on Mai Khao beach as we bid goodbye |
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| The sun has set |
Forget the food which was not our focus, this was a perfect holiday for rest and "rejunevation"!
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