Before returning to Bangkok on our way home, we spent less than a week in Phuket, another Thai province in the south.

After almost two weeks of active vacation it was time for us to slow down a bit. I have planned several fun activities but in the end we did only two of those. About one you can read in the next post.

🐘 🐘 🐘

Arriving in Phuket (with a ferry from Phi Phi) was actually kind of tragic. And comic at the same time. While in Phi Phi, Debeli realized we didn’t have a place to sleep the first night so he made a last minute booking that turned out to be horrendous.

We booked the room with a view and this is what we got:

The basement apartment (former garage) smelled funky, but there was nothing left to do, but to stay the night and change the accommodation early next morning. We explored the surroundings and we decided to cancel our originally booked accommodation and to move closer to the city center and the beach.

The final solution came in a form of a small hotel owned by an Italian and with a decent setting.

The hotel was close to the beach where we spent most of our time, although we did take a short ride to Patong that is some six miles away.

Since the main beach in Patong is more than a mile and half long it’s no wonder it was more crowded and polluted than our Kata beach.

We took a chance of being in Patong and we dined in a restaurant opened by the winner of Croatian MasterChef, Nikola Lesar.

Lesar opened his Rustic eatery & bar after spending some time living and traveling in Southeast Asia and after having an additional education in Bangkok.

Since his concept is relaying on both traditional Thai dishes as well as the international, his main customers are tourists, of course, and local hospitality managers.

We had some of Lesars fantastic Thai re-interpreted dishes, but the highlight of the dinner was pastry chefs (and Lesar’s life partner) mango sticky rice with mango sorbet.

The dessert was both light and not too sweet, and beautifully arranged. Fantastic!

When it comes to culinary and tourist offers in Patong in general, it’s interesting to mention that everything is adjusted to the Russians, because they make the majority of the visitors.

It goes so far that the signs are bilingual; Thai and Russian and the vendors mastered basic Russian just to make the conversation with the guests easier. And because – money, right?

Together with some local spots like the Red Duck and Food & Drink Kata bar, we have discovered the food market with the rich seafood offer.

If it’s unclear from the photos, the time that we didn’t spend eating, we were laying on the beach. Debeli took any opportunity to lay down and drift away to sleep while I read some books.

We would soak up in the warm Andaman sea until we would wrinkle like dried plums and the sun started to set.

Every evening the whole beach would crowd in to watch and photograph the sunset. No wonder why, right? It was beautiful 🙂

---

 

PHUKET

Prije povratka u Bangkok na putu nazad doma, proveli smo nešto manje od tjedan dana u Phuketu, drugoj južnoj pokrajini Tajlanda.

Nakon puna dva tjedna aktivnog odmora, konačno smo malo usporili. Od predviđenih nekoliko aktivnosti koje sam imala u planu, ostvarili smo samo dvije od kojih ćete jednu čitati u narednom tekstu.

🐘🐘🐘

Dolazak je započeo tragikomično, jer je Debeli pobrkao dane dolaska tako da smo još na Phi Phiju shvatili da nemamo gdje spavati prvu noć. Uzeli smo neki preloš smještaj koji je bio smješten u suterenu iako su nam obećali sobu na katu.

Podrumski stan nije mirisao najbolje, ali zapravo je bio super za jednu noć i da izvidimo okolinu i na kraju otkažemo originalni smještaj te se premjestimo bliže plaži.

Mali hotel čiji je vlasnik Talijan, bio je manje od 10 minuta hoda glavnom cestom do Kata plaže na kojoj smo provodili većinu vremena.

Jedan dan provozali smo se javnim busom do Patonga, udaljenog nekih desetak kilometara sjevernije od Kata plaže.

Obzirom da je istoimena plaža duga preko dva kilometra, broj posjetitelja i ugostiteljskih objekata daleko je veći nego na Kati.

Mi smo iskoristili priliku i objedovali u restoranu koji je otvorio pobjednik hrvatskog MasterChefa, Nikola Lesar.

Lesar je Rustic eatery & bar otvorio prije nekoliko godina nakon usavršavanja u Bangkoku i putovanju po jugoistočnoj Aziji. Obzirom da se na meniju nalaze tradicionalna tajlandska jela, ali i internacionalna, Lesarovi gosti su prvenstveno turisti i lokalni biznismeni kojima je dosta domaće kuhinje 🙂

Mi smo se osladili s nekoliko klasičnih tajlandskih jela pripravljenih na malo drugačiji način.

Oduševljenje je svakako bio mango sticky rice desert s mango sorbeom za koji je bila zaslužna slastičarka i Lesarova životna partnerica.

Lagano i ne preslatko te neobično dekorirano, svakako je odnijelo medalju za najbolji desert na Tajlandu

Inače, kad se radi ne samo o kulinarskoj ponudi u Patongu, nego turističkoj ponudi općenito, zanimljivo je spomenuti da je sve podređeno Rusima, jer su oni najčešći gosti.

Tako su natpisi uglavnom dvojezični (tajlandski i ruski), a prodavači uglavnom barataju s nekoliko ruskih riječi koji im omogućavaju lakše sporazumijevanje s gostima. Sve za paru 🙂

Uz omiljeni Red Duck gdje smo uobičavali doručkovati ili večerati, otkrili smo i noćnu tržnicu s velikom ponudom raznolikih i cijenom prihvatljivih morskih plodova.

 

Ako po fotografijama nije jasno, vrijeme između boravka na plaži provodili bi jedući. Dane smo planirali i vrtili oko dnevnih obroka i kad bi bilo vrijeme za jelo, prema našem nekom satu, samo bi se spustili u restoran iz sobe i produžili na plažu.

Za ništa drugo nije ni bilo 🙂

Njupanje, ležanje na plaži, dugo namakanje u toplom moru i predivni zalasci sunca, kojim bi prisustvovala cijela plaža, bili su sve što bi nam ispunilo dan.

Uz ovakve fotografije nije teško reći zašto 🙂