Before leaving Australia we purchased a multi-entry tourist visa, which allowed us 2x 60 day lots in Thailand. After being in Thailand for 7 weeks already, our first 60 day lot was quickly running out. We decided to temporarily leave Koh Tao and explore Phuket and parts of Bangkok before we would have to cross the boarder and return back to Koh Tao to finish our diving.
Two of our close friends were coming over from Adelaide to celebrate new years with us in Phuket.
We were so excited to see them that the ferry ride to Koh Samui and the flight from Koh Samui to Phuket just wouldn’t go fast enough.
We finally landed in Phuket and caught a taxi to the hotel they were staying in – we thought we would stay at the same place as them to spend as much time together for the next week as possible – we were staying at The Sky Dream.
The Sky Dream wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, the pictures make it look a lot newer than it really is. We were the only people staying there and to be honest it reminded us as a wee bit of a horror movie….the way things were left, the fact that there was no one else around and the restaurant clearly hadn’t be used for years, was rather eery.
However the rooms were nice and it was great being able to be as loud as we wished and to have breakfast served whenever we were ready for it.
We originally started in the ‘Honeymoon suit’ but decided to swap once we saw our friends room as it was huge, had two levels, spa bath, heaps of space and a funky door…
This is a view of our room from the upper level where the bedroom is
We had just over a week to spend with our friends and what a busy week we had planned! Starting with sea kayaking…
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Waking up early we had a unique breakfast of fritz, sausage, egg and toast before our tour bus came to collect us.
Today all four of us were going sea kayaking, a wedding gift from two of our dearest friends who unfortunately couldn’t make it over to Thailand this year.
When we got to the pier we were grouped up and all got on to the appropriate tour boat. Our first stop was a lovely beach, where Crystal and Matt had cocktails. It was a shame that the weather wasn’t the best, but that didn’t stop Matt from swimming in the bath like ocean.
After spending about an hour on the beach, we all got back on to the boat and headed to the first lot of limestone caves. Pairing up we all got in a pink kayak and had a tour guide show us interesting shapes and formations in the stones, was really interesting.
After about 30 minutes we got back on the boat and was greeted with an amazing aroma from the Thai buffet. There were all kinds of food for us to select from, from fish to chicken, rice and pasta, vegetables and salad, was really tasty.
After lunch we got back into our pairs and joined our tour guide again. When we got to the limestone caves that we were going to be kayaking through I was surprised at how low the entrance was.
We went through the shallowest entrance ever and at one point our guide had to deflate the kayak so that we could fit through! The limestone was almost touching our noses and we were as flat against the floor of the kayak as we could get! Was a really cool experience…and a little bit scary 😉
Once we got through the entrance the exit was amazing, so beautiful and there were even monkies who came to say hello 🙂
Our guide gave us each bananas and we both fed the monkeys who came down for a feed. You can view our video of us feeding the crazy monkeys here.
We then explored the beautiful limestone caves and the ‘hidden’ beauty behind them for at least an hour before it was time to get back on the boat and head back to the mainland.
Once we were back on shore we taxied it to Patong beach and had a feed at a nearby steakhouse – had really worked up an appetite. We then walked down Bangalore Road found a bar where they had buckets for 149 baht and 6 shots for 100 baht and relaxed for the rest of the night.
