Goodbye Khao Lak, Hello Phuket

While I was only staying in Thailand for eight days, Jess was moving digs to Phuket, for a change of pace and scenery.

We enjoyed our last breakfast at The Sands, I had a last swim in the pool and we finally bought one of the tiny cute ice creams they sold in front of the gym.

I forgot to take the photo before I bit off the ear.

It takes about two hours to get to Phuket’s Old Town from Khao Lak, so we left The Sands at about midday. Jess has been the organiser of the trip, and for once I get to play the travel princess, which has been very enjoyable! Although knowing someone else has all the info meant I asked her the same questions repeatedly and my brain did not retain anything. What a strange phenomenon!

Jess booked us a taxi through Grab, which is like Uber. The fancy Grab car cost the same as a regular car and it was amazing!

The interior had lights all over and even fancy tassels for the curtains

There was a bit of traffic on the way so we got to Jess’ hotel, the Mid Town Hotel, a bit later than expected. Rather unusually, it used to be a shopping mall, so the layout was kind of interesting.

After dumping our bags and turning on the aircon, we headed out into Old Phuket, which has Portuguese history and beautiful architecture. It was a little New Orleans, Nottingham Hill and Bangkok all rolled into one.

Our first stop, for something fun to do, was a Japanese icecream place that did a weird noodle-shaped topping on icecream in a cone.

We got to watch the guy do the noodles and wondered what on earth they were made from before Jess googled it. Turns out they’re a ‘Mount Blanc’ dessert, invented in Paris 100 years ago and loved by the Japanese. The strands are made of flavoured chestnut paste!

We must, must remember to save our energy for the evenings next time! The afternoon was so hot and humid, I couldn’t stand being in the sun. We walked through some cooler market alleys and then Jess navigated us to an air conditioned coffee shop for a drink while we worked out somewhere to go for dinner.

Markets getting started. Not too busy at 5pm

Jess found a restaurant that was almost in view of the coffee shop and we went to see if it was a decent temperature.

The wait staff kindly put on the aircon for us and we gladly sat in the gorgeous decor: the place had been described online as having a French influence. It had a cement floor but the decor was all teal velvet drapes and cushions, marble tabletops and purple walls with giant disco balls revolving slowly. I loved it!

We had some simple but delicious Thai food and then walked back to the hotel and lay in the aircon. Jess has definitely not suffered anywhere near as badly as I have with the temperature and humidity, which I think is exacerbated by the city environment (and not having a pool handy) and possibly perimenopause.

Despite the discomfort, I really liked what I saw of Phuket. I don’t know why I’d previously imagined it as a soulless tourist trap. The markets did have stalls selling lots of the same things over and over, but I could imagine coming here with a group of friends and having an amazing time just visiting all the fun and unusual bars and restaurants. Being a pride month, this really is a good time to come. I think we missed the initial celebrations by one day, I’m not sure if they have a parade to kick it off.

I took a Grab car to the airport and arrived in plenty of time. After throwing away my water bottle at security, I bought some water for the plane then they had a second security set up as we boarded and I had to throw away the new bottle, which I wasn’t happy about. I read later there had been some bomb threats in Phuket in the previous two days. I don’t know how a clear bottle of water bought in the cafe inside the airport was a threat but there you go.

Jess hadn’t cancelled her return flight as it was part of a package so I had an empty seat next to me – what a luxury! I slept most of the at home, caught the Skybus then a train and was home around lunchtime. Luke was working from home so he picked me up, made me a sandwich and then I went to bed and slept for another five hours.

A rare gang of yellow-tailed black cockatoos were destroying a pine tree when I got off the train at Heathmont. So cute but so violent!

Corch and Leah’s favourite restaurant, the Afghan Kitchen, was closing down so they brought over a feast for dinner and it was lovely to catch up with them. Kat and Luke had saved two weeks of the Saturday quiz and we did them while we had dessert. Trivia with friends – one of my favourite things!

I slept for another six or so hours then it was time to get up, go back to the airport and fly to Queensland! More about that in the next post 🙂 .

22Jun2025

Jess and Amanda In Thailand, 21/06/2025

by Miss Penny Black

In the winter holidays last year, everyone at my school went to Bali or Thailand or somewhere sunny, so Jess and I booked a mid year holiday this year so we could be two of the snow birds flying north for some warmth and an extended mid year break.

Come July, the situation is not quite what we anticipated, with me being on a year long leave from work and spending a lot of time driving back and forth from Orange frequently (Mum died at the end of last year and Dad was diagnosed with dementia), but Jess has earned her tropical break and I’m looking forward to some cocktails by the pool and breathing some dense, humid air. Inhaling smoke from Dad’s wood fire in his shed has given me pretty severe asthma, so I’m seeing this trip as a medical necessity. If I’d asked a doctor I’m sure it’s what they would have ordered.

We are staying 8 days at The Sands, Khao Lak, which is an hour north of Phuket.

Jess and I have both been to Thailand before but not this area. For a while I was looking forward to seeing sunsets but the weather looks to be overcast at the least and thunderstorms at the worst but that’s fine, it probably means the resort will be quieter.

Luke got up before 7am to take Jess and I to the station with our meagre luggage – we’ve both opted for carry-on only. No checked baggage! Going to the tropics for a week or two really doesn’t require much stuff.

From Ringwood we took the 7:15 train, then the Sky Bus from the city to the airport.

We were a few minutes early for check in (just the way we like it) then calmly sailed up to the security check point where I had not one, but TWO knives confiscated, since I’d brought a wooden picnic set of cutlery and not looked to see that there was a small metal knife along with a bamboo one in the set. The embarrassment!

We booked our trip through Luxury Escapes which, despite the name, combines a resort deal for 8 nights with the most bare-bones of Jetstar flights. No meals included! I brought a pile of snacks and Jess bought a toasted sandwich on the plane.

We both bought puzzle books in the airport (I *am* in my 50th year, after all) and spent most of the flight happily solving sudoku and arrow words.

Our first flight was pretty much full and we had the window and middle seat, with a tiny old lady wrapped in black clothing sitting on the other side of me. Fortunately she liked to get up pretty frequently so would get up too and have a stretch. The Jetstar plane had a USB port at each seat, so my deep fear of running out of battery on my phone was, once again, proved unnecessary.

Jess and I have a mini book club project on this trip. We each chose a novel and we are going to read chapters concurrently. I chose ‘Mania’ by Lionel Shriver, which we are reading first because I didn’t download Jess’ book ‘Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley. On the plane we read the first couple of chapters of Mania which, as I suspected, has plenty to discuss in it already.

After 8 hours we landed in a Singapore without delay or incident, and found the food court in the delightfully decorated and spacious Changi Airport. With only two hours between flights we didn’t have time to see any of the big gardens or the butterfly house, but what we did see was lovely.

At the gate Jess. noticed these rather anatomically-suggestive chairs and insisted on a photo.

The next flight was two hours and we were surrounded by a large Russian family. The dad’s seat was next to us but there were several empty rows, so before the plane took off he moved several rows away from his wife who was next to us and three kids who were in the row behind us. It was great to have an empty seat, but what an ass.

When the lights dimmed for take off we had our overhead light on so we could do puzzles and one of the kids in the seat behind asked me if we would turn it off so they could sleep. I just can’t imagine a time in my life where I would’ve had the confidence to ask a stranger who is clearly at least 30 years older than me to do me a favour like that! Obviously I said no.

We got into Phuket airport 2 whole minutes early and found the Luxury Escapes people in the pick up bay. There were a lot of people milling around but we ended up with a lovely new minibus to ourselves. the drive to the resort was an hour in the driving rain, but the roads looked pretty new and there was no traffic.

Highlights the first day:

Jess has said about five times that buying the friction erasable pens for the puzzle books was a game-changer (pun intended).

No travel hiccups and no waiting for baggage carousels.

Cheap food in Changi – Jess’ dinner was only $3!

Seeing Jess get excited about travel stuff that I don’t think about, like the condensation thing that happens on some planes – we googled it and it’s to do with the aircon system in the cabin when it starts up.

The novelty of the thick air and smells of the tropics.

Down sides:

Being exhausted and having dry skin and eyes after so long in aircraft.

I don’t know why this picture of our room won’t load properly but it’ll have to do. We are on the ground floor and our room opens onto some grass then the swim-up bar. Fun!

21Jun2023

Salzburg: Days 2 to 4

by Miss Penny Black

Well, I won’t lie, we didn’t do a whole heap in Salzburg. It was hot, especially after about 11am, all the way to the middle of the night.

I combated the heat somewhat by soaking my T-shirt then rolling it in a towel so it was lightly damp. This technique keeps you cool for at least an hour outdoors. If it gets really hot I add a wet thin cotton scarf for my head and neck. By then I look like Lawrence of Arabia but with more dripping.

Every morning we started our day with breakfast in the apartment followed by a trip to Kaffee Alchemie.

Luke probably looks sad because I’ve won more wordle games than him.

We tried their cappuccinos, iced cappuccinos and affogatos. Their coffee was extremely flavourful and not bitter or burned, it had a light sweetness and their milk foam was thick, not like the styrofoam- consistency milk froth you get in the UK. If I had two I never felt jittery either, just perfectly awake. Basically I’m crying on the inside leaving it behind ;-).

We did do a few activities in Salzburg after the first day.

On the recommendation of our lovely friends from the Mozart concert, we went to the midday organ recital at Salzburg cathedral. It was worth the €6 just to spend an hour sitting out of the heat, the architecture was very imposing and elaborate and the organ music was… fine. Not my thing but kind of interesting to see live. They had two organists who moved around and played each of the six organs in the building.

At the end we saw our friends (if you’re reading this, ladies please leave a comment, I wasn’t sure how to spell your names!) and they took another photo and I wish I had too. It’s always nice to run into familiar faces in a new city.

We spent some time walking around the narrow alleys of the old town. Most of the shops were luxury brands and had tourist prices but we did go into one cheese store that sold cheddar style cheese but with lots of different flavours.

The most unusual was lavender, which had the colour of blu tac. I ended up tasting some the second time we went in and it barely had any taste beyond cheese, the colour was a bit off-putting though. We did buy some aged sheep’s cheese and used it for our dinner.

The cheese shop also let us try some of their white port, which we hadn’t had since Porto. We bought a small bottle of that too.

We had two meals that I cooked in the apartment – pasta with grated cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and cherry tomatoes. I feel like it’s my travel go-to since it’s so easy and usually most of the ingredients are already in the cupboard if there’s a kitchen in the Airbnb.

The fresh fruit and vegetable stall around the city sell the most amazingly perfect produce. I bought a big tub of red currants – something you almost never see at home. Luke didn’t want any so I got to eat them all myself.

There were many stores around town selling traditional clothing. Much like in Munich, it’s not unusual to see people wearing outfits like this around town. At around €500 for a complete set, it was out of my budget. I would’ve loved a proper dirndl for multicultural days at school though, a connection to my German heritage.

Luke did a load of washing when we first arrived and repurposed the shoe rack into the worlds smallest drying rack.

We spent two nights eating at a beer garden just around the corner from our apartment. It was a huge setup with both indoor and outdoor spaces, but we preferred sitting beneath the chestnut trees.

The food was very Germanic – meat, gravy, potato-based sides or dumplings, beans or noodles.

We also ate (or rather I ate while Luke watched because he was feeling a bit hungover) at the Afro Cafe, which was also only a couple of hundred metres from our accommodation. It was recommended online as a good place to eat and something different from Australian cuisine. It was good for brunch – I had the shakshuka, admittedly something that’s pretty common at home.

We went back to the Mirabell Gardens and saw a bit more of them. We were interested in seeing more of the palace but only a small part was open… or we couldn’t find any other open sections. The roses smelled lovely.

Outside the university was a funny set of sculptures of giant gherkins. I had a student last year who was obsessed with gherkins so we took a few photos.

One of these cucumbers in not like the other ones.

One thing that should be mentioned if you’re thinking of going to Salzburg, is the fact that they sell Mozart chocolates everywhere. They look very fancy but be warned – they are primarily filled with marzipan so just don’t bother unless you’re one of the 1% of the population that actually likes it.

There really isn’t much else to report about Salzburg. It seemed like a really nice city and there are several hills I would’ve loved to climb if it hadn’t been uncomfortably hot. I know no European Airbnb owners are going to read this, but for god’s sake please put some fans in your apartments. Just a pedestal or desk fan would make life more bearable!

The heat has convinced me that April to mid-June are definitely my preferred months for European trips. Either that or autumn. Go when it’s quieter, cooler, cheaper and just generally more pleasant.

Right now we’re in Frankfurt airport, which surely has to be one of the biggest in the world. Terminal B was approximately a kilometre from Terminal A and staff ride bicycles around!

Next stop: Belfast! Don’t let us down, Lufthansa, we have a dinner booking somewhere fancy.

14May2023

Santiago to Stansted

by Miss Penny Black

Chapter two of the holiday is drawing to a close. Spain and Portugal have been very enjoyable – in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s been my best trip to both countries. Going with someone who not only speaks the language but has lived here really makes a difference. My own familiarity with the culture has improved and I am impressed that I managed to do a grocery shop by myself.

Last night we finished up with Eurovision at 1am and, as always happened before a travel day, I had a terrible sleep. It’s not such a bad thing though as Luke will also be dead tired after his flight from Korea.

We cleaned the apartment then left at midday. In Australia having a check out time after 10am feels like luxury but here it’s quite common. Our flights (Danny, Peter and Ash are flying back via Dublin with a different airline) are only five minutes apart and leave at almost 5pm so we stopped at a sunny cafe for a bit of lunch.

We caught a taxi to the airport and I now know what it’s like to do 80kph over speed bumps. The driver was a nice old guy but his disregard for speed limits and parking guidelines was a quintessentially Spanish experience.

We had a slice of cake in the airport while we waited for the check in counters to open. It’s a local delicacy made with almond flour.

After checking in separately we headed to the VIP lounge. Danny has membership and we could pay a bit extra to be guests. We made an effort to get our money’s worth and enjoyed the very comfortable lounges.