Five favourite pictures from Phuket

We are just back from a week away in Phuket, where we relaxed, sat by the pool and went for a few adventures. I have posted some pictures up on Picasa, http://picasaweb.google.com/ajmccarthynz but here are five favorites.

This is the view from a small lookout located in south of Phuket Island. These three beaches all look out towards the Indian Ocean and were the most badly affected by the Boxing Day Tsunami. We stayed near the middle of the three beaches called Kata. To the north is Karon Beach.

This picture is on the same run up to the lookout. I found five elephants exploring the side of the road so held the hand out for a picture. Pretty cool to see them in the wild just roaming around.

This is sunset picture from Kata Beach out towards the Indian Ocean. The sunsets have an amazing intensity and glow in Thailand, not sure of the exact reason but it makes for a great photo.
We left Phuket for the day for a boat cruise around some of the island hear Phuket. This is a picture from Maya Bay which is an on an island called Phi Phi Lay. We entered this bay through a small gap in the rocks. The bay was very touristy as is sort of famous as this is where a movie called The Beach staring Leonardo Di Capro was filmed in the 1990's.

This is a picture of the signs which now litter the Andaman Coast to Thailand. In every low lying area, signs now warn people of the Tsunami risk and guide people to the evacuation routes. Thailand has finally constructed an early warning system for any future Tsunami with buoys floating 1000km out in the ocean.

It was great to do a bit more travelling and to escape Singapore for a week. It was nice to come back to the city and the order of Singapore but it is great to know that within two hours we can visit many cool and different places throughout Asia. Our next plan is to see a bit of Malaysia with my parents in June, and then perhaps try Cambodia sometime in the future.

Our honeymoon

We arrived back from Thailand late last night. It felt good coming home. Singapore really is our home now. Our time in Phuket was amazing. How lucky am I that I arrived home from a fieldtrip to Malaysia to be told that I am being whisked away to a beach in Phuket for an entire week!! Life is great!!! Love you Mr McCarthy!!


One thing that Andrew and I love doing is cooking so of course we had to take part in a Thai cooking class. We signed ourselves up for a day long cooking experience. We were picked up at our hotel early in the morning having no idea what to expect. We drove for over an hour in the mini bus with a couple from Estonia of all places. It was well worth the drive. The Thai cooking school was built on a private beach where we were going to be spending the day cooking on the beach front looking out to sea. This place was paradise. The best thing was that there were no other people. Where we were staying in Kata beach it is full of tourists everywhere people, people and more people. Heaps of Australians. The hillbilly type Aussies.


Andrew was very competitive while we were cooking he wanted his dishes to be the very best. This is of course win win for me. “Yes Andrew that looks and tastes fantastic I can’t wait until you cook it for us as home”. (see what I mean) To be totally truthful he was the best in the class, he really did make the best tomato lotus garnish. ( I can hire him out for all of your dinner parties) We made 6 different dishes finishing with sticky rice with fresh mango. Yum!!


It really was a relaxing break away we read books, walked lots, ate out for every meal, swam and we even visited Phi Phi Island on a day boat trip. All this for probably the same amount that we would have spent in Singapore. Travel around Asia is so very cheap, we are trying to do our bit of spending to help the recession. We really are counting our blessings at the moment. We are not taking anything for granted.


On the last day of our dream honeymoon (I called it that because we may never get around to having a ‘real’ honeymoon) I got a head cold that is making my nose run non stop. There is nothing worse that having a cold when it is 35 degrees out. If that is my payment for a great trip then that is cool with me. Thank again Andrew!!!!!!