So this is 5-star service!

We had left the curtains open when we went to bed last night so we woke up to the sun trying to break through the clouds, and the wonderful view of our balcony (above). Thailand is two hours behind Japan, so when we woke up around 10 Tokyo time, it was actually only 8 in Phuket. So we went back to sleep for a couple hours!

We wandered down to breakfast, which was included in our room rate, around 10. Wow. The breakfast buffet was huge! A man was on hand to make eggs as you wanted as well as pancakes and waffles. We both ordered omelettes with olives, mushrooms, onion, tomato and bell peppers. There was also bacon, sausage, potatoes, seared baby plum tomatoes and toast. And that was just the western breakfast side. There was also a Thai dish, Japanese breakfast food (rice, seaweed paper, raw egg, natto which is fermented soy beans, and some other stuff), a ton of multi-grain breads and pastries with a selection of homemade jams, fresh juice, fruit, make-your-own muesli and cereal.

The staff rushed to pull out my chair every time I came back to the table. They also re-filled our coffee cups with the little pot that was sitting on our table (it was really cute porcelain with little fish on it). They also put the napkin on my lap every time. So this is 5-star service! As we ate a leisurely breakfast we could watch the ocean and listen to the waves. Birds flitted by and were chirping happily and there were butterflies everywhere! One brave bird was even hopping among the tables looking for crumbs.

When we got back to the room, housekeeping had come and restocked the water, brought more fruit (green citrus fruits today), filled the ice bucket and tidied up our messy pile of clothes! They were all folded and the desk had been tidied into neat piles as well. So this is 5-star service! Of course after having a hard morning of eating breakfast, it was time for a nap. Hiroshi went to bed and I went and had a quick nap on the balcony and read a bit of a magazine.

At 1:00 there was a cooking demonstration. Hiroshi was still sleeping so I went by myself. It was just one hour, but it was free! A special activity put on by the hotel. There were about ten of us all together and we made Tom Yam Koong soup. It was so easy! I imagine a lot of this had to do with the fact that everything had already been cut up for us, but I really like the fact that the measurements for the ingredients were basically 1 spoon or two pieces. For example, two pieces of lime leaf or one spoonfull of fish sauce. I went easy on the chili sauce in mine and created a soup masterpiece. It was so good! I was so impressed with myself!

I ran up to tell Hiroshi about my cooking adventures, but he was still half asleep so I hung out on the balcony to do some more reading. The wicker couch was really comfortable! Finally I was bored around 4:00 or so I woke up Hiroshi and we decided to go to the beach.

Right now it is rainy season in Thailand so the waves are quite big and there is also a big undertow so swimming is dangerous. There are red flags all along the beach. We just sat on the lounge chairs and watched the waves. It was really nice. We also waded in the water up to our knees, just to get in the ocean.

We wandered back to the hotel (all of 20 meters) after about half an hour and gabbed to the towel attendants while we washed the sand off our feet in the foot pool. They also had showers there if you wanted to use them. The men were all bored because there were no people around so we gabbed and joked with them for a bit. Then I went to the front desk to ask about the lemon grass tea we had got as our welcome drink yesterday. I wanted to order some because it was really good. Well, the woman at reception called someone and said that they would bring some up to our room! No charge! So this is 5-star service!

We relaxed some on the balcony with our tea and listened to the ocean. Then we got dressed for dinner. The staff were still intent on pulling out my chair. While we were waiting for our food to arrive the mosquitos came out in force. I asked for a mosquito coil, but they didn't have any for the restaurant (it is open air so it is normal to put a coil on the floor by the table in Thailand). So they rushed around and five minutes later they came over with a bottle of repellant for us to use. So this is 5-star service! It worked pretty well too!

We had spring rolls and coconut soup to start. Both of these were fabulous. Then we had a chicken stir fry and Phad Thai (Thai noodles). The chicken stir fry was good - but Hiroshi ate one of the chili peppers and ended up choking in the bathroom. Those suckers are hot! We didn't enjoy the Phad Thai because we were too full at that point to eat it! It had big pieces of seafood and large shrimp in it though, so would have been great had we still had enough room in our stomachs. So overall a yummy dinner, and there were floodlights illuminating the ocean so we had a great view. There was also an owl that swooped by occassionally which was cool. 5-star service in the middle of nature!

So after a very large dinner we rolled ourselves up to our room and discovered that someone had been in our room - to replace the water, refill the ice bucket, give us more clean towels (because we had used some of them when we had showered earlier), replace the glasses we had used for the lemon grass tea, and turn-down our bed and put a fragrant flower on our pillow! So this is 5-star service!