Print Friendly

We recently visited Patong Beach, Phuket Thailand for a family celebration. Although it was the wet season, we were very fortunate with the weather, although very humid and hot, we were spared the rain except for a couple of short heavy showers generally overnight.

Our accommodation for the trip was at Holiday Inn Resort Patong Beach. We had a group booking in the Busakorn Wing which is like a hotel within a hotel having its own reception and two themed swimming pools. One of the swimming pools is restricted to adults only, which is nice when you have a group of people with no children.

There was a welcome gift in the room consisting of beautiful local fruit, and every night there was a turn down service and a lovely orchid on each pillow.

There are a few ponds around the resort, some with large koi, small sculptures and water lillies. The large egg shell decorations were beautiful and early in the evening some of the frogs come out amongst the lillies.

The flower arrangements through the resort are really lovely and it was interesting to see the silver palm in the hotel grounds amongst the more standard green ones.

Stop and relax at The Bar, grab a local beer or try one of the cocktails, this one comes in the coconut shell, yummoh?

As normal when travelling you must visit the local shopping centre. Jungceylon is a very large shopping complex with shops on a few levels, offering lots for the tourist to choose from. I must say we were a little surprised with the prices.  People prior to travelling spoke how reasonable the prices were here, however we found the prices quite high.

One of the stores which drew a lot of attention was the Metal Art shop.  All types of figurines and objects made from recycled metal of all descriptions. It was worth paying the fee to take the photograph to share this art form.

One of the restaurants we visited to celebrate the 40th birthday had a beautiful outlook over the water.  Lighting was good even in the evening.

We decided to go to The Thai Cooking Academy and learn how to prepare true Thai cuisine. We were picked up from our hotel and stopped at a local market to learn a little about local produce and to purchase a few items. It was so informative we could have spent all day there learning about the different ingredients. 

It was great learning about the health benefits that most of the food have.  A very different way of looking at ingredients and meals.  The last picture is coconut milk which is purchased in large plastic bags. The stall owners have a machine at the back which removes the milk from the coconuts.

The cooking stations set up ready for us to begin learning.

This was the outlook from the cooking school.

When making the booking we had a choice of 5 courses and could decide what we wanted to cook from each prior to the class. On arrival we were given all our ingredients, and an apron.  We made our way to our cooking station, and were given the basic rules of wok cooking and safety.  Some of the dishes we made, they were yum. Would highly recommend this cooking school to anyone that is interested in learning about Thai food.

Our last group event was dinner at Sams Steak and Grills at the hotel. We enjoyed a  relaxed atmosphere and some really great food.

The desserts were great, and the surprise birthday cake was really great and a very nice end to the evening. 

Final farewell from the hotel, a small elephant keepsake.

What a great holiday with plenty of varied food and sights.