Wife in Residence: May 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Friday, May 7, 2010

Did I tell you what happened in Phuket?

We have a two month stint in Phuket at a high-end luxury resort, darlings, Kate Moss and James Packer stay here and now so do we!
Lucky ducks that we are have been given a pool villa as well, so we are very spoilt and while I'm talking about ducks. When we walked in to the resort, after a long road trip from Si Kao to Mai Khao beach, we were greeting in part by several beautiful white ducks, big ones, all swimming around happily the lagoon right there in the resort foyer. It is a lovely touch!
We were very excited, both my artist in residence husband and I, we have stayed in some lovely resorts over the years but this one looked very promising. Shown into our pool villa by a very capable Thai 'greeting-host' who pointed out all of the features. These included our very own view of the lagoon thought quaint little windows made like the old fashion Thai-teak houses. There was an enormous marble bath sitting right in our swimming pool, sweety really, all ready of us with bright pink rose petals floating on the surface, very inviting! Now to get rid of our tour-guide.....heehee......not to be put off, she continued into our huge walkin robe and then into a big room where she explained at great length all of the features which included all the usual really darling....twin vanities, a shower, dressing area, w/c....when will she leave! and then, if that wasn't enough, into the outdoor area adjacent to the bathroom. Here she promptly turned on the outdoor shower, wetting us all. Then we stepped down into the sun-bed terrace where was a pretty little lanai, or outdoor room, clad in teak with a lovely king-size lounger, a couple of chairs and a big bar. The bar was very unusual in that it has a wine-fridge, temperature controlled and full of fine wines. These wines have big price-tags, mostly because all imported wine is expensive, sometimes up to 450 percent duty is added by the government and then you have service charges and VAT.

That should have put me off breaking the seal, but no, after my detox days I am right back into it!

Well, finally, she left us in peace......where is that wine fridge......but, no, the phone starts ringing....'Can Khun Christopher please join the GM for his cocktail party' (where KC has to help entertain), but not a bad gig! Lots of nice icy cold Chilean white wine and the view from the deck at the Sea.Fire.Salt Restaurant is spectacular especially with the firey summer sun setting into the Andaman Sea.

Had a fine time! Meet some nice people from China and enjoyed the ambiance, some minor problems with lights but nothing to spoil our cocktails. That over, it was time to wonder through the lsuh garden landscape and head for dinner.

We just sit down and bang. The power goes out. Don't worry they say. Everything is OK, what would you like for dinner, hey, can't read the menu no lights? A little bit later, I can smell smoke, Chris says it's the fog machine for the insect spraying....yeh, well it smells like plastic and wires. With the smoke came lots of shouting and running around....FIRE. Well it was an electrical fire and for safety sake, everyone was evacuated to the JW Marriott which just happens to be next door, good old US of A - always there when you need a helping hand!

We stayed there for four nights, very boring. No classes, no work. Not much of anything really as we waited for word of our next move. Do we go or do we stay. Finally Chris must have felt sorry for me and we broke out and had a lunch and few beers at the pub as well as a quick trip into Phuket, we're 25 minutes by car from the main action and the cost of taxis here is high, Bth1600 round trip.

Anyway, we are settling back into our pool villa, now, they changed villas on us and we are no longer a Lagoon view, but we are happy here in Villa 68 just floating around our pool. Today finally, a couple of Russian's signed up for a class, so all'good and this afternoon we are going over to the pub again, this time to watch the AFL and be part of the post-fire party. The pub's really great, good Aussie girl running it, Nicky and loads of atmosphere for a pub that's only 18 months old and owned by a billionaire!