We awoke to a grey, cold, miserable morning in Düsseldorf – nothing like the last few days we’d spent with Mattia, Inna and Marko. We’d already decided there was some clothing we were going to donate: among them Rod’s green Kathmandu puffy jacket he originally purchased for our trip 10 years ago. Rod picked up the car, found a space across from the apartment and before we knew it, we were free of the car and waiting for the check in to open at the airport.

Security was surprisingly slow, our home made jam from Inna was confiscated, and after a last minute panick about our Schengen visa (had we overstayed?) we found our gate and waited. Nothing to report about this flight except the stunning views over the snow covered mountains across the east of Europe. We crossed Egypt with the Sinai peninsula on our left and made our way to Dubai. Hamish asked, “how long is our hangover in Dubai?” – you can certainly feel hungover when you have multiple flights across multiple time zones!

We boarded our next flight and waited a further hour until take off due to the late arrival of a connecting flight. I am not sure how delaying a full flight, for 5 people makes financial sense, however, I am not running an airline. I was comfortable enough watching Anchor Man, but at the end of this relatively short flight (6 hours), we started to feel that extra hour. My gluten free ‘snack’ gave me indigestion for the better part of 4 hours, so not my favourite flight. Flying into Phuket certainly made us all feel a bit better, seeing the blue skies and the even bluer sea below. Further delays in disembarking the plane, didn’t help our tired state, nor did seeing an Aeroflot plane sitting on the tarmac (more on that later). Immigration, add another hour until we finally got to our pre booked taxi. Phew! A huge day! At this point it’s nearly 2pm Monday the 30th of December – we’ve been in transit for 24 hours.

The taxi driver is a very quite, tiny Thai lady and she plays, on repeat, what can only be described as ‘80’s Easy Listening’ tunes – we all fall asleep for the twice as long drive from the airport to Kata Beach. We finally arrive at our apartment, which is maybe 15 metres from the resort we stayed in last time, get into our swimmers and head to the pool. This is bliss and we are instantly refreshed. The swim is followed by a nap and then we head into town for dinner.

Our days have been relaxing. No sight seeing. No schedule. Breakfast is tropical fruit (mini pineapple, mango, mangosteen & passionfruit) with iced coffee for me, regular coffee for Rod. We have been sleeping in, adjusting to our new time zone, so breakfast is anywhere between 9am and 11am. Then it’s either beach & smoothie (600ml smoothie for $2.50) – home for lunch (salmon onigiri from the 7-11) – nap/read – exercise – pool – out for dinner. OR, walk into town to buy fruit and supplies, then lunch – read – nap – exercise – pool or beach – out for dinner. Somewhere about 6pm there’s a gin and tonic either by the pool or on the balcony – sounds dreadful doesn’t it! We had one trip to Jungceylon which is a huge shopping centre in Patong, but otherwise have just been around Kata Beach. The days don’t differ by much and for many people this might seem a bit monotonous, but not for us; it’s heaven. Rod and I are reading books like crazy and it’s good for our usually overthinking/overactive minds.

We spent New Year’s Eve at the Ska Bar and Restaurant, a place we visited last time which is situated right on the beach. We hadn’t booked, but thought we’d try our chances. The maitre’d said she had no seats for us, but managed to find us a tiny table in the bar side of the restaurant. With reggae playing in our ears, we had a few beers/fantas and enjoyed the multiple sets of fireworks going off. The other stand out were the sky lanterns. We’d seen them from our pool in the afternoon, but thought they were drones. For $5 you buy a lantern, it is lit and you wait a few minutes for the air to become hot enough for the lantern to rise into the sky. I love the idea of packing up 2024 into a lantern and sending it on its’ way – all the good and bad, ready for a fresh start the next day. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the lanterns – some of them got caught in trees, some of them caught on fire on the ground, some of them caught on fire in the air causing them to plummet into the sea (or into a buffet, as was one case!). Our little Pooh Bear lantern flew high and she flew away into the distance without any of the aforementioned trauma. Only later we discussed the environmental impact of the lanterns, in that, the cane and metal shells fall into the ocean, hundreds and hundreds of them. To rest my conscience, the next day I picked up a frame from the sea floor – practically an environmental warrior!

Wednesday we leave via a ferry to the Thai mainland west coastal town of Ao Nong next to Krabi town. This area is new to us and I expect we will be a little more active with an island trip to Phi Phi and some other things which are currently undecided. We have booked a small stand alone villa about 10 minutes drive from town in a complex with 8 other villas, so it’ll be a bit more rustic (although we still have aircon, wifi and a pool…so not exactly doing it tough). I think it’s the cheapest of the accommodations in the entire trip at about $75 per night.

A side note about Russians. I have read there were over 1 million Russians to visit Phuket last year – the largest nationality to visit. Many now live here since the invasion of Ukraine. We noticed this 18 months ago when we were here, but it has really ramped up since then. We have pro-Ukraine t-shirts but I feel this type of provocation may only get us in trouble – I am sorry we are not brave enough to wear them. It is rare I hear an English, Aussie or American accent. This island is definitely set up to cater for Russians; some restaurants even have a section in their menu “Russian Foods”. I’m going to make a big generalisation here – the Russian tourists can be quite rude and demanding when interacting with the quiet Thai’s. At the beach, one Russian man walked up to the beach bar, didn’t wait his turn, called out his order, threw his money at the staff and said, “Bring them to me – I am over there”. I mean, the staff do this anyway, no need to have the attitude. And yes, I know, there are plenty of rude people around from plenty of different countries, but it’s the sheer number of Russian tourists here that amazes me. Ukrainians can’t leave their country, why should Russians be allowed to do whatever they like?