Phuket - Day 4
Our last day in Phuket =( We woke up to no power! Apparently the whole island's power was out. There was no running water either... cuz it runs on a pump. So we decided to see if there was any breakfast. Luckily there were some of those great croissants and watermelon. After that we just went back to the room, opened up all the windows, and popped open our bottle of champagne. It was a lovely way to spend the morning! The lady from the spa saw I was in pain with the sunburn and made that rosemary ice water thing again and brought it down to our villa. So I sat there ooo'ing and ahhh'ing from the relief. Hiroshi said I was spoiling the romance. *lol*

The power eventually came back on and we wandered over to get some lunch. We decided to try some different dishes. We had a spicy/sour vermicelli salad that was absolutely delicious. Then there was an oyster beer stir fry which was so-so. The chicken coconut soup was good and the fried rice was bland. But the soup and the noodles were fabulous.

After lunch we headed back to the spa for facials. Mmm, relaxation! We also got manicures and pedicures. They did Hiroshi's manicure well, but I don't know what they were thinking of for me. Instead of shaping what nails I had, she cut them all off! And then didn't polish them or anything. Not too happy, but didn't want to complain cuz the sunburn stuff was free, and I'd've paid an arm and a leg for that! The pedicure was good though. It was quite funny cuz I got a brownish pink colour on them - and it was the same colour as my feet were in their sunburned state!

After the spa session we went back to our room and found that the maid had folder all of our disarray of clothing which had been left all over the place. That was a nice, if not embarrassing, surprise.

That evening we went out to a nice restaurant for a romantic dinner. We hired a car to take us. It cost aobut $20US for a drop off and pickup - and each was was about 30 minutes. I thought that was quite reasonable considering we were in a new, leather interior car. Much better than the rundown Thai taxis (think Toronto taxis, but in slightly worse condition and with maniac drivers). It was a very relaxing drive and the driver pointed out the different beaches to us. I got a change to see where other hotels were located, and I'm really glad we chose the one we stayed at. The other hotels are in their own complexes as well, but you step outside and you are in tourist hell. The exact opposite of relaxing. The Mangosteen Resort was wonderful - quite, secluded, not many guests. Seeing the other places served to reaffirm that it was a good choice.

We got to the restaurant (Baan Rim Pa) a bit early for our reservation but they had our table ready. We had wonderful views of the ocean. Unfortunately the day was rainy, so there was no sun. I had been looking forward to having a romantic sunset dinner. The sky still went thru some nice shades of blue though, and it was great to hear the surf while we ate.

The food was beautifully presented. We had shrimp wrapped in filo dough which was heavenly. Hiroshi said it was taseless, but I thought it was the best shrimp I have ever had. Then came fried vermicelli -which is exactly what it says. We were hoping for something a bit more. Next came the coconut soup with chicken and shrimp held in a real coconut. This was lovely. The best dish of the meal.

After that came the lobster and fish with mango sauce. Now, I should know better with the lobster. The baby lobster dish on the way over on the plane should have been a hint. But Hirohsi and I both though "Lobster!" and got a 1 kg honking big one... without asking the price. Duh! $65US is too much for something that doesn't have any taste. We should have got a bottle of wine instead. It looked really nice though. The fish with mango sauce didn't appear to have any mango sauce on it actually, and it had a funny taste. I ate a fair bit more of it than Hiroshi did... and I'm convinced that this is what made us very sick the next day.

At this point we were getting disappionted with the meal - it had started off so wondefully. Then the Pad Thai came, and the noodles were soggy, and it tasted like the sauce was ketchup. *sigh* Oh well. We moved on to dessert, which was coconut ice cream. That was good - it had a very strong coconut taste. At this point the jazz pianist started playing, so the romantic factor quadrupled... and the taste of the food wasn't so important. We ordered some port (Harveys Bristol Creme) which was marvelous and just sat and listened to the music, and looked into each others eyes and did that romantic stuff :) It was really nice. Well worth the ambiance. I would go again, but would be a bit more careful in choosing the dishes (i.e. no lobster and not going for Pad Thai which is what every foreigner probably orders). And, I'd time it for a little later so we could spend more time listening to the pianist.

After dinner we took a tuk-tuk down to Patong beach. A tuk-tuk is a small truck with bench seats in the back. (In Bangkok tuk-tuk's are three wheeled motorcycles). Patong beach is the main tourist area. I got the driver to drop us off at a jewellery shop. (Hiroshi forgot our anniversary on the 17th so I told him he had to buy me 'make-up jewellery' when we were in Thailand). I was looking for a ruby necklace but there weren't any. Then debated back and forth between emerald (my birthstone) and sapphire earrings. I ended up going with the sapphire cuz I wear a lot of blue. I was going to be nice to him and get the cheaper pair, but then decided I really liked the more expensive ones. So I told Hiroshi to get his credit card out ;) And now I have a lovely pair of earrings. At first I was thinking it would've been nice to have a necklace, but then I realized I have never owned a really good pair of earrings. So, these are more special. And 18K gold posts don't irritate my ears! Usually I can only wear earrings for a couple hours and my ears start to hurt. I've been wearing them every day with no problem. I love my new earrings!

After the important jewellery purchase we wandered thru the streets looking for souvenirs. If people weren't accosting us every second with "want a tuk-tuk", "Thai silk!", "cheap!", "good price for you!", "come and look", "we have the best t-shirts!", "tuk-tuk?", it might have been a nice shopping experience. Too much going on. I found a nice table cloth (well, it is a large piece of material that I'm going to use as a table cloth) and didn't bargain very hard and that was it for the shopping. I decided not to bargain because a couple bucks just wasn't worth it. So we went to McDonald's and had a coffee (yes, they're everywhere!) while we waited for our ride to come back.

So after a wonderful evening, we went back to the hotel, settled our bill (cuz we were leaving very early) and then had a jacuzzi. I couldn't get out! My sunburn seized up and I couldn't move! I tried to move my arms back, but the skin was tight from the burn and was tearing, and I couldn't have any water in the tub, cuz my feet were in agony (I jacuzzi'd with my feet hanging over the side), otherwise I could have used the bouyancy of the water to help me up. Keep in mind that the bathtub and shower are outside, and at 1am we were trying to be really, really quiet! Eventually I got out though. It would have been a good excuse to stay for a few more days though... I got stuck in the jacuzzi in my hotel room, so I won't be into work. *lol*

Anyway, then we had to pack everything up and get ready to leave. It was kinda sad, cuz we had had such a wonderful trip