Peadar travelled with us and planned to spend the afternoon with us until his flight to Melbourne later that evening. In the taxi to the apartment he discovered that his Jet Star flight was delayed by 16 hours(!), so he wound up staying the night.
Our apartment was one of about 50 oriented around a pool at Kamala Beach. We had a two-bedroom apartment on the ground floor with big comfortable beds, aircon, fans, a well-equipped kitchen, a TV with cable showing Premier League football and some English-language movies. The kids even had an ensuite. Absolute luxury! Plenty of room for one extra and the perfect place for us to relax for a couple of days.
We all went straight into the pool and spent a couple of hours there before wandering down a nearby street to find a very tasty meal courtesy of Jet Star.
Phuket is a big island, in fact it feels like being on the main land in many ways. While I don't feel like I got to know it much at all in the time we were there, it has the sense of a well-established beach side tourist destination that is confident in its place in the world. Kamala Beach is obviously somewhere expats live and seems to attract older travellers and families. Our apartment complex was on the main road about 500 metres from the beach. Kamala Beach and our apartment complex reminded us of our week or so in Cyprus staying at Tracey and Roy's lovely place. Only more Thai.
Kamala beach is large, with golden sand and roped off areas for swimming. It really is a lovely beach, but I think we have been spoilt by our recent stops, so we were comfortable spending most of our time by the pool. Eleanor and Leo were very happy with this arrangement. They quickly made friends with a couple of fun Swedish brothers aged 10 and 4, and spent hours playing with them in the pool.
The first full day we were there, Peadar left for the airport about lunchtime. We had an extremely slow start and barely left the apartment/pool except for lunch. Just what we all needed. Bliss!
Although, Adrian did pop out after the kids went to bed to see some kick boxing, which he first talked about when we visited Bangkok almost 10 years ago, but never quite got round to doing it. I had a minor stomach upset so was very happy to lie on the couch watching TV. (Adrian says the kickboxing ruled especially the Australian who entered the ring with a huge ego and left it needing stitches).
We'd considered taking the kids to Tiger Kingdom, where you can interact with tigers of almost any age. We knew that Eleanor and Leo would love it, but weren't sure about it ethically, so did a bit of research. Reviews on Trip Advisor were mixed, some saying it is the most amazing experience and others that they believed the tigers were drugged. In the end we found a post on www.onegreenplanet.org, that made up our minds. The tigers are caged 23 hours a day and beaten with bamboo sticks daily since birth, to encourage good behaviour. So that was a big NO for us.
Instead, we went to Soi Dog, a charity organisation established by a British couple who had moved to Phuket to retire about 12 years ago, but obviously didn't manage it. They take in sick, injured or mistreated dogs and cats, provide veterinary care, and socialise them. The centre is staffed largely by very enthusiastic and committed international volunteers, along with paid Burmese immigrants (who do the worst jobs).
They seek adoption for the animals once they have recovered, or provide them with a place to live out their days if they are not suitable for rehoming. About 300 dogs annually go to homes in the US, Canada and France, amongst other places. They vaccinate and sterilise every animal that passes through the centre, and offer these services free to local dog owners as it is often prohibitively expensive for the locals through vets. Soi Dog's work has lead to the eradication of rabies on the island and ensured that 80% of dogs on the island are now sterilised, which helps manage the population (80% is the tipping point from which populations should decline).
It was a very rewarding few hours hearing the stories and playing with the puppies and kittens. We met one puppy who had arrived with a horrible skin disease resulting in the loss of virtually all her fur. You'd never know it now.
The kids loved the experience! Eleanor has now decided that she and her friend Luciana should set up a refuge for cats and dogs. It won't be called Soi Dog apparently; she wants to decide on their own name for it together.
That afternoon we had our only swim at Kamala Beach, more time in the pool and a delicious meal of grilled meat at Grill Bill. The following day we were up and off to the airport to fly northwards to Chaing Mai.
'Our' pool
Soi Dog
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