Phuket / Thailand

20/12/17 - 18/01/18

Now our last section of the journey began in Phuket. We spent a total of three weeks here to wind down. Phuket is actually the tourist hub of Thailand, but not for us. Anyone who travels to Thailand for the first time and chooses Phuket as their destination ends up in the place called Patong, which can be compared to Mallorca, or in Phuket Town. Once you have vacationed there, you would never come back to Thailand without even having a glimpse of the real Thailand. Of course, Phuket in general does not have the same charm as the other islands of Thailand or the north, because this island is simply too big. But still, we chose corners that were not affected by mass tourism and they were therefore beautiful.

We spent 10 nights in the far south of Phuket with my mom in a small house with a pool. The house was super modern with a kitchen, living area, two bedrooms, and a nice terrace, perfect for us. From there, we went to the famous Big Buddha, which stands on a huge mountain. Once you reached the top, you stood in front of about 50 stairs that led up to the Buddha. The view from up there was gigantic. It was unbelievably huge - truly overwhelming. The view over all of Phuket from up there was also amazing. Here, you could even recognize how much green there is.

We rented a scooter for the following days to explore various bays and beaches. Already on the second day, we were visited by a Swiss guy whom we had met on our Australia trip and spent the evening with him.

Christmas was like any other day for us. We got up, made ourselves a delicious omelette, bacon, and toast, went to the beach, and then in the evening, we looked for a nice Western restaurant to finally be able to eat pizza again. 😀 Afterwards, we played a little billiards and then fell into bed stuffed.

On the last day, we visited Phuket Town. Actually, it's a very dirty and crowded city. But here, there is a small district called 'Old Town', which is soooo cute. The houses are all built in the English style and are decorated in pastel colors. The cafes there are also very sweet with an incredible atmosphere! Here, you drink from cups like my great-grandma had!

When my mom went home on December 30th, we changed houses (200 sqm 😀) and our Australian girls moved in with us, as they came to visit us in Thailand for two weeks 😊

So now we were a larger group and had a really nice New Year's Eve on the beach together. It was probably the most beautiful New Year's Eve we had ever seen. At the entrance, you could buy lanterns and let them rise to the sky on the beach. So the sky was full of millions of lights, which was soooo beautiful! In addition, at 00:00 (in Germany it was only 18:00 😀), there was a gigantic fireworks display over the sea. With our Mickey Mouse blinking ears (they looked stupid, but it was just awesome), we had one of the most beautiful evenings. Actually, we wanted to party a little in Patong, but every street there was blocked because there were too many people and no taxi could take us there. So change of plans: we booked a party tuk-tuk, which was open at the back with huge speakers and lights, which drove us through the streets with mega loud music. I would almost say that we had more fun in this 'car' than we would have had in any club. It was soooo funny 😀

On January 4th, Markus' friend from Germany visited us for two weeks. So now we were 5 people for the last two weeks until we went home. Here, we changed houses again, this time in the north of Phuket. And let me tell you, it was unimaginable what kind of house it was. 250 sqm, 4 bathrooms, three bedrooms, rooftop terrace, pool, sauna, fitness... It was pure luxury. We cruised around with the scooters together, went to beautiful beaches...

Markus and Chrissi then took on the task of taking pictures with as many different animals as possible, which was totally funny 😀 And actually, quite a few exotic ones came together: a 2-meter-long iguana, a lemur, an elephant, a snake, monkeys,...

Finally, we took a day trip by boat to the Phi Phi Islands, the Monkey Beach, the Viking Cave, and two beautiful beaches. It was truly a dream. The water in Maya Bay was so blue and so clear that we couldn't stop being amazed. It was so incredibly beautiful!!!!!