Exploring some of the most beautiful beaches and waters in the world.

We had decided to end our Southeast Asia experience on the Southern Beaches and Islands of Thailand, a relaxing final week before heading back to the beaches of Belize. 🙂 We flew Thai Vietjet Air direct from Chiang Mai in the North to Phuket in the South.

We had arranged for a driver to transport us and our luggage directly to our first resort in Phuket. The driver met us in the main airport lobby and guided us to his new Toyota Van, which was quite a nice luxury.

Our first resort was the beachfront Four Points Sheraton Phuket Patong Resort, where we would stay for four days. Famous for its spectacular beaches and clear waters, awesome seafood, and, of course, “party Street”.

Arriving at our resort I was immediately inpressed by the. stunning beaches, pure white sand, deep deep deep stretches of it, an crystal clear tourquois waters. No trash, no sargassum, no problem.

  Our private lanai overlooking the beach.

 Every morning, these small scooters with a “sidecar” fruit, drink, and food cart attached would be set up on the beach sidewalk. We had a beer and “Pad Thai” set up across from our hotel daily. Cool.

I also was immediately aware that the majority of women on the beaches were on a “tight budget”, determined by the very minimum size bathing suits 🙂

     Maya Bay Beach, where Leo DiCaprio’s “The Beach” was filmed

  Your Taxi awaits 🙂

  Spicy Hot Thai Coconut Chicken and a ice cold Singh Ha ! Dat’s lunch 🙂

   Thai “Junks” are beautiful, I want 🙂

          Phuket Sunset

After four sweet days/nights at the Four Points, we again had private transportation to our next destination, AoNang, Krabi, and the AoNang Villas. Now, AoNang is very popular with international and local tourists. You have many boat adventure destinations here, from James Bond Island to many popular Island Resorts. I have to admit that many times we were swarmed by visitors exiting boats onto small beaches, and it seemed that everyone was a “professional photographer” :).

    Maya Bay was beautiful

Let me say this, if you log onto “Google Images” there are well over a million pictures taken of the iconic “James Bond Island” 🙂 And you can “photoshop” yourself into any one.

  Cocktails and dinner above the streets of AoNang

We did enjoy our boat trips and met fascinating people. I will say that overall, probably only experienced about 1 % of all tourists were Americans in Thailand. The majority were from China, Japan, Germany and Australia.

Now dats a beer 🙂

They warned us to “watch our heads”

Yup….Thialand beaches had them too.

 The famous “cave temple” on AoNang Beach. Celebrating the ???????

“Someone” really got into the “special brownies” 🙂

We also enjoyed walking the strip of shops and small bars/restaurants in AoNang. Ya just never knew what to expect “for sale” or for view ? 🙂

We booked a day on this “Junk”, visiting islands. One of our favorite tours.

  Onboard Beverages 🙂

  Relaxing on the “junk” which was anything but junky

 Very comfortable sailing

  Marsha is in water with others, swimming in Bi-luminescence water.

  Boat Captain had this shirt on….of course I bought one 🙂

We arranged for private transport from the AoNang Villas to our final destination in Thailand, The Tubbaak Resort, which proved to be, by far, the best Luxury Resort of our entire trip. From the moment we entered the “check-in” room, had a tour of the resort, and our suite, I realized we probably should have booked a longer stay there. Well… they did say at check-out….”Come back soon” 🙂

After a short 3 day’s at the Tubkaak Krabi Resort, we checked out and were again transported by private vehicle and driver to the Phuket International Airport. This was a three hour drive, and we got to see more of the countryside on the drive. There’s nothing like a luxury Mercedes Tour :). This was well worth the $300 U.S.

We caught our Business Class Flight from Phuket directly to Singapore, arriving at 6 PM, and checked into the Crown Place Changi Airport Hotel located at the airport. We were flying out the following day on Singapore Airlines to Los Angeles. Still, I was excited to explore Singapore Airport and the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel, where we had dinner reservations at the rooftop restaurant poolside.

Marina Bay has the world’s most prominent Rooftop Infinity Pool, along with multiple restaurants and bars. The roof is shaped like a ship, and the entire hotel is lit up at night, which is quite spectacular. Marsha and I enjoyed one of the most expensive dinners and bottles of wine I have ever had, but celebrating our anniversary over this dinner was quite worthwhile.

  The Restaurant at top of Marina Bay

Anniversary Dinner “on top of the world “, started with wine and sushi 🙂

  Singapore Airport has trees and green and flowers everywhere

 This is it, the tallest indoor waterfall 🙂

The Singapore Airport has been named “World’s Best Airport” for good reason, OMG! Multiple floors of shops, restaurants, services, and the world’s largest indoor waterfall. We were lucky to be there in November after they had decorated for Christmas.

  Have you ever been thrilled to board a long flight? We looked forward to it 🙂

We boarded our first-class seats on our Singapore Airlines 16-hour flight to LAX the following day. May I again say that even though they offer more “leg room” on the couch, there is no comparison to your expansive cubicle in the first class cabin, in which seats turn into flat beds? After all, did you hear me say 16 hours? “Sitting”?

We arrived and checked into the Airport Marriott for the night, for our Alaska Air flight back to Belize in the morning. Let me say that we slept well.

Arriving back home, we were greeted by much love.

  Awaiting Mommy and Daddy 🙂

So that was our adventure in another “Paradise” in the world. Another “bucket list item checked.” I would like to say that it’s great to love where you live, but there is so much to experience in the world, people, customs, ancient history, new history, new friends, food, and beverages, to name a few. We are blessed to have “survived” North America, living, working to live, and finally being able to retire in the paradise we built our home in, Belize. Many ask why we travel the world when we live where we are, a vacation destination unlike many. My answer is that we can, and we want to.

One of the final discussions I had with my Dad, he told me he only wished that I live to retire, and see the world, something he never got to do.

Dad…. We leave again in July for Scotland and Scandinavia 🙂

       We will always remember

Hope you enjoy,

Gary “The Pirate”.