2010-12-20: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers

A week ago we came back to our home in snowy Sweden. It is beautiful, but very cold for us that have been in the tropical heat for so long time. Now we will spend Christmas and New Year with family and friends. Our plans after that are not 100% set yet, but we will continue our quest for a nice catamaran as soon as possible.

We wish all our followers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010-12-10: Bangtao Beach, Phuket

We have spent a week in Bangtao Beach. Another nice place in Phuket. We love the fantastic beach and the clean water. After an upgrade we are also very happy with our bungalow - it is more or less on the beach and we have wonderful sea view.

The pool area at the hotel is magnificent, and we are almost alone to use it.

During the week there has been some celebrations. It was the king of Thailand, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyade´s birthday. The Kings birthday is celebrated all over the country with a lot of fireworks.

Also the kids in school honour the Kings birthday. Anne was invited to a dance show at Kem´s school. The girls were sooo cute and it was a fantastic show.

















Some more pictures from Bang Tao: BangTao

2010-12-01: Phuket - Nai Yang Beach

We are now in Nai Yang Beach since a couple of days. Nai Yang is a small village in the north west part of Phuket, close to the airport. The atmosphere here is relaxed and friendly - very similar to how we experienced Langkawi. The restaurants are situated right on the beach, and we enjoy the sundown every day. We love the long beach that isn´t crowded, and the crystal clear water. Both north and south of the main beach there are a lot of wonderful old pine trees, only meters from the water. It is magical to take a walk there.

Click this link if you want to see more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/107331556466319051223/ThailandAndMalaysia?feat=directlink

One of the first evenings we walked the beach after dark. Were we planned to turn back there was some lights, and a restaurant, so we stopped for a beer. We were the only guests, so the owner joined our table for a chat. We had met Mr Poon - the owner of Poon´s restaurant. He promised that he made good food, so we decided to try - we let him decide what he wanted to serve. The result was impressive, and we have been guests to the restaurant every day since that evening - either for lunch or dinner.

At the restaurant we have had the pleasure to meet some lovely locals. It is a privilege to get to know them, and learn a bit about their life. They are all very hard working, and put in 12-15 hours a day, 7 days a week - with no vacation! Jack is a very gentle man. He walks around on the beach and sells corn that he barbecue. The perfect lunch, and fantastic taste!

We also met Kun and her 6 year old daughter Kem, at the restaurant. She is a sweat girl that sells wonderful pearls on the beach, when she isn´t serving at Poon´s restaurant. Kun´s English is very good, so it is very easy to communicate with her. She sometimes helps with translation when we speak to anyone else in the group, but most often we understand each other well with limited English.

Yesterday we rented a longtail boat for 3 hours. We had asked to be taken to a nice place for snorkelling. We asked Kun and Yupin (Poon´s wife) to join us, which they were happy to do. The snorkelling was excellent, and we all enjoyed the trip.



Some more pictures from Nai Yang: Nai Yang

2010-11-27: Kata - some places to eat

In general we were not that lucky with the restaurants
we visited in Kata. We found many places that we considered highly priced, but didn´t deliver good food. So we asked around with the locals and found a couple of restaurants that served good food and gave value for money.



Red Snapper

Very good sushi and sashimi. Nice and friendly staff. Recommended by Urai. Our last dinner in Kata was at Red Snapper with Urai, her boyfriend Herwig, and some of their friends.




Dome
Very nice thai restarant. We found this place more or less by chance, when we asked in a tailors shop about good thai restaurants.We spent a lovely evening at Dome together with new found friends from Frankfurt.




Rugantino
Owned by a former Italian fotball pro, that claims they serve the best pizza in Phuket. He is probably right, but they also serve other good italian courses.
We ended up at Rugantino one evening when we walked back to our hotel, that is just opposite the road from the restaurant.

2010-11-23: Kata Lucky Villa

After a couple of days in Karon, we have now moved to Kata Beach and a very nice hotel here called Kata Lucky Villa. The service is really good at the hotel, and everyone are so friendly. This is the best hotel we have had so far during our trip.

Link to Kata Lucky Villas
www.kataluckyvilla.com/

We have a very nice spacious 2 room apartment just 10 meters from the pool. We spend the days either by the pool or at the beach, reading or playing backgammon. The beach is a bit away - 10 minutes walk, but the hotel offers a free shuttle that leaves every hour.

Working hard as we do, we also need someone to take care of our bodies. Lovely Urai gives us massage and takes care of us in best possible way. We feel 10 years younger every time she done something with us - we are soon teenagers!
Urai also knows Kata well, so we get good advice were to eat.





Some more pictures from Kata Beach: KataBeach

2010-11-19: Back in Phuket - Karon

The trip back to Phuket went without any trouble at all. In general we are very pleased with all travel arrangements. All reservations has been done over internet, and not once there has been any difficulties. Everything is straight forward and works like a clockwork. We would recommend anyone to travel in the region - it´s easy and uncomplicated.
The driver from Karon Cliff Resort, where we stayed before, picked us up at the airport. Arriving to the hotel we got a warm welcome, and a very nice room with fantastic sea view.

We have had a couple of lazy days at the beach improving the sun tan, snorkelling and just enjoying life

The service at the beach is excellent, as well as the food and beer

The evenings we have spent in Karon, where there is a big festival leading up to a public holiday Sunday 21st. In the festival area there is a lot of business going on.

Much of it has to do with food and drink, but everything from gambling to selling underwear can be found.

2010-11-17: Last night in Langkawi - Little Lylia’s Chill Out Bar

Our last night in Langkawi we went to a really cool place by the beach in Cenang. The place is named after the owners daughter :-) - and called Little Lylia´s Chill Out Bar.







The people were really nice and friendly, and during the evening all members of the band had been at our table at least once. Interesting discussion about music, politics, Malaysia, and of course Langkawi.

One of the guys was Aru - a man with the longest dreadlocks we ever seen, going all the way to the knees.
He is playing in two Malaysian groups, Republik of Brickfield and Koffin Kanser. Links below with music samples:

http://www.myspace.com/republicofbrickfields

http://www.myspace.com/koffin69kanser

The music was great and the type we like - reggae and rock.

The guy on the right side of the picture is a talented  guitar player and singer. The guy on the left hand side is more a wannabe and not part of the band.

We must admit that it was very late when we walked back to our place and the tracks in the sand showed that there had been some beer consumption.

Langkawi is definitely one of our favorite places in the world, and we look forward to coming back - hopefully sailing.

2010-11-16: Langkawi sightseeing

Yesterday we decided to go for a sightseeing around this beautiful island, so we rented a small car early in the morning. First stop was Seven Wells, with some waterfalls and wonderful nature. After the 542 steps to reach the wells we were pretty tired, so sitting down with the feet in the water was a nice break.

Rebak Marina

Close to Seven Wells is Telaga Habour Park, one of three marinas in Langkawi. Telaga is a nice calm habour in lovely surroundings, but our favorit is Rebak Marina, situated on a small island with a nice resort. To get there you need to take a jetty managed by the resort. Rebak offers everything we would look for if we were cruising - nice atmosophere, safe habour, service, restaurants and other resort facilities. The third marina is Royal Langkawi Yacht Club with a rather fancy clubhouse, situated just outside the main town on the island , Kuah, which gives good access to shopping.






We continued our trip by going through the country side to the north. Once stopped by a cow and once by a monkey, we managed to reach the lovely beaches on the north side.

We stopped 4-5 times and just enjoyed the breathtaking views.  At the very northeast tip Tanjung Rhu Beach is situated, which was a place we fell in love with. There was also a resort that seemed to be fantastic. If we come back we would like to stay there a couple of nights and enjoy the tranquility, a nice contrast to the more vibrant Cenang Beach we have stayed at for the last 10 days.

We continued our drive and headed for Kuah for some shopping. Langkawi is a taxfree zon, and everything is inexpensive for us coming from Sweden. Cloth cost a fraction of what we are used to, and a decent whisky cost around 9 Euros for a liter.
We came back to our hotel while it was still daylight, and could enjoy the sunset with some red wine in the glas. After a much needed shower we went to our favorit meat place in Cenang.

A place on the beach called Yellow Café. They serve fantastic meat that is perfectly grilled. We have also been to other restaurants in Cenang that serves good meat, like Beach Garden Resort, but we prefer Yellow Café.
After the dinner we just followed the music to Babylon, a cool place for reggae lovers and enjoyed a couple of beers.

Langkawi pictures: Langkawi

2010-11-10: Langkawi - Another day in paradise

We arrived to Langkawi late Sunday afternoon and a kind boat seller picked us up at the airport. After viewing his 53 foot Bruce Roberts, he drove us to our hotel. The boat was not for us, but it´s always nice to see an older boat nice, tidy and well maintained.
We have spent 3 full days hunting our dream boat. Looking at boats here is definitely not pure pleasure. We have 30+C, and inside the boats it´s sometimes considerably warmer. In total we have looked at 8 boats during these days, which is all the boats that could be of interest for us. Disappointingly none of them suits our needs, and we have decided to not buy any of them.

We stay at a small resort in Cenang. Our cabin (the left one on the picture) is only 5 meters from the water at high tide. Everything is rather basic, but there is air condition, warm and cold water, refrigerator and a wonderful view. We fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the waves. We love the relaxed atmosphere and the amazing seafood here. Yesterday we had lobster and giant tiger shrimps at our favourite restaurant Orchid Ria.

Langkawi is really a true paradise.

The beach in Cenang is clean and the water is clear. There are a lot of activities going on all the time, but it does not disturb us. We have a week left to spend here, so we will work on our sun tan.

We will not look at more boats, if not anything special happens. The days on the beach we will spend figuring out plan B, as we do not believe we will find our boat here.

Some more pictures from Langkawi: Langkawi

2010-11-07: A couple of days in Kuala Lumpur

We left the rain in Phuket and arrived to a sunny Kuala Lumpur late in the afternoon. After checking in we went out for a short walk and a meal. Our hotel is located in the very central area called Bintang, so there was no problem finding restaurants. Again we went for the place with most people, and got a fantastic tandoori meal.
The following day we joined one of the hop on - hop off buses, and looked at a lot of the "must see" things in KL.

Of course we visited the KL Tower and enjoyed the fantastic view you only can get from a building that high.












What we really liked was the Birdpark, and all the beautiful and sometimes strange birds. Most of the birds were able to fly more or less free, and you walked around them.

We decided to go to a chinease restaurant in the evening. After some discussions we got a table, and after a while we were accompanied by a couple from Singapore. Very soon the conversation was intense. We had a lot of fun during the dinner, and ended the evening together in a karaoke bar, were we also met some of their friends.

The last full day in KL we decided to visit China town - an area with a lot of shops and great opportunity to get very good deals. We had time to visit the fantastic Aquarium with fish from all over the world. Walking in a tunnel with sharks over your head is really amazing.

Some more pictures from Kuala Lumpur: Kuala Lumpur

2010-11-06: Karon Beach

We spent a couple of days in Karon Beach. We were not that fortunate with the weather, as it was raining most of the time. What we saw of Karon Beach was not impressive, but we have decided to go back again for a couple of days when we return to Phuket. The good thing with Karon is definitely the beach. On the negative side is the huge amount of people that want to sell you massage, cloth, dinner or just anything you do not need.We took a taxi to the much larger city Patong, and realized that this probably is something you have to live with if you are in Phuket.
Although we had rain a lot of the time, we tried to walk around and see as much as possible. During the rain and storm one of the days, there was some damage to the electrical system. Fixed the next day by the brave guy on the picture below.

We also found some really good eating. We always try to find restaurants that are crowded, and this was no exception as we had to wait for a table.
Anne selected a wonderful lobster from the fishtank to be grilled with a lot of garlic.


Some more pictures from Karon: KaronBeach

2010-10-30: Phuket Orchid Farm - near Chalong

As we still are in the "wet season" we get some rain more or less every day. Three days ago the rain had already started when we woke up, so we decided to ask a taxidriver to take us to Phuket Orchid Farm which we read about in one of the maps that are available for free,

Although it was raining all the time, and most of the nursery was outside, it was a fantastic experience.


Some more pictures from Nai Harn and orchids: NaiHarn

2010-10-29: Nai Harn Beach - Baan Krating Resort

A couple of days ago we arrived to Baan Krating Resort in Nai Harn Beach. Nai Harn Beach is at the very south of Phuket, and is a lovely area. Baan Krating Resort is situated att the hillside overlooking the sea. The setting is truely amazing. We are surrounded by jungle with all the sounds and atmosphere that brings, yet only 100 meters to an almost private beach. The staff is really friendly and extremely serviceminded. The breakfast which is included is delicious and we have had a couple of tasty dinners in the restaurant. This is a place that we without hesitation would recommend for any couple that wants to get away to tranquility, fantastic setting and good service.

Link to the Baan Krating homepage: www.baankrating.com/Phuket/index.aspx

Wonderful cabins

Pool area

Our "private" beach

2010-10-25: Phuket Town - do not miss this!

Yesterday evening we went into Phuket Town for a meal, and if possible some entertainment. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a specific restaurant we read about, in the central parts of town. The driver had no luck in finding the place, so we asked him to pull over and let us out. After a short while we found a nice restaurant with only thai people. The food was excellent and the prices on the very low side of the scale.

Some more pictures from Phuket Town and Boat Lagoon: PhuketTown

What you shouldn´t miss if you ever come to Phuket Town is the place we went to afterwards. A tiny bar called Rockin Angels, Fantastic live music and a relaxed atmosphere. We really enjoyed ourself, and stayed until they closed.