{"id":5626,"date":"2025-02-11T20:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T20:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:52:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:52:44","slug":"1-leaving-the-cold-and-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5626","title":{"rendered":"1. LEAVING THE COLD AND THE WIND!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holidays should be such fun!\u00a0 As we get in the taxi for the station, we receive yet another request for information regarding the sale of Glenda’s mother’s house.\u00a0 The house sale was agreed in one hour, but that was in November and now in February, contracts still haven’t been exchanged.\u00a0 The house conveyancing operation in the UK needs to be streamlined – preferably to exclude solicitors from the activity until the last minute!<\/p>\n

Luckily, we had booked an early time for the taxi – and luckily he arrived another five minutes early – and luckily the train left seven minutes late.\u00a0 On the platform, I realised I didn’t have my phone.\u00a0 I’d left it in the taxi!!!\u00a0 A quick call to the taxi company, and one onward to our driver (who was two miles away by this time) and he high-tailed it back to the station.\u00a0 Arriving three minutes after the train should have left…<\/p>\n

The trip to London was a very quiet one.\u00a0 Barely a word spoken!\u00a0 But looks can kill, or so they say.\u00a0 Fortunately, I survived – just!<\/p>\n

At Reading, we waved to our granddaughter, Amelia – she works in a building overlooking the station.\u00a0 We were under the roof about here…<\/p>\n

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As we pulled out of the station.\u00a0 We waved.\u00a0 To be fair we couldn’t see Amelia, but she saw us waving our camera in torch-mode!<\/p>\n

Paddington to Hayes and Harlington by underground was a new experience.\u00a0 A third of the cost of the Heathrow express and only five minutes longer.\u00a0 The Courtyard by Marriott was really good.\u00a0 Good room.\u00a0 Great roof-top bar…<\/p>\n

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… and well organised shared taxi to Heathrow the next morning.<\/p>\n

Great breakfast in the lounge including cocktails!<\/p>\n

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At 7.00 am!<\/p>\n

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… and again at 10.50, just before takeoff.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Singapore.\u00a0 A “few” boats moored offshore waiting for their turn in port!<\/p>\n

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The connection in Changi was not good.\u00a0 Trailfinders wouldn’t book us on the earlier flight.\u00a0 Probably just as well as we would have had just 30 minutes to change terminal and get to the gate.\u00a0 But it did mean a five hour wait in the airport.\u00a0 Still, if you had to choose an airport in which to lose five hours, Changi would be high on the list.\u00a0 There’s a butterfly garden …<\/p>\n

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… and lots of waterfalls, ponds and orchids…<\/p>\n

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But five hours is still a long time.\u00a0 Then we arrived in Phuket just after 53 planes from all over.\u00a0 After an hour queuing at immigration …<\/p>\n

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… we were still an hour away from showing our passports and being finger-printed!\u00a0 Luckily our taxi had waited for us for our 90 minute hurtle to Khao Lak.\u00a0 And the trip was really worth it.\u00a0 The Sarojin resort is superb.<\/p>\n

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Fabulous, but the best part is that breakfast starts at 6.30 am and finishes at … 7.00 … pm!\u00a0 So no panic alarm calls.\u00a0 Breakfast can be lunch – or even an early supper!\u00a0 Don’t think we’ve ever had that before!\u00a0 Anywhere!<\/p>\n

While Glenda hits the spa for a massage (1 hour), I take a boat trip to go snorkeling in the Simolan islands (8 hours).\u00a0 I’ve never heard of them.\u00a0 A tiny cluster of 11 volcanic islands, some 40 or 50 miles offshore.\u00a0 Ninety minutes with 500 HP blasting away behind us …<\/p>\n

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… and we were swimming in lovely clear water close to the shore of the cunningly named “Island Number Four”.<\/p>\n

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We were later to visit Number Eight and, lastly, Ten which was a third of the way home.\u00a0 To be fair, all the islands do have their own names, but nobody seems to use them.\u00a0 So, 4, 8 & 10 it was!<\/p>\n

Lots of corals and fish including one small (thankfully) black-tipped reef shark and several moray eels.\u00a0 We found a “cleaning station” manned by a group of cleaner fish actively doing their job.\u00a0 A huge group of non-descript black fish were in a feeding frenzy on one coral outcrop.\u00a0 There were numerous sea cucumbers and starfish including loads of the coral-eating crown of thorns.<\/p>\n

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Not my photo , my phone isn’t waterproof!<\/p>\n

Our leader pointed out several sea snakes, but I can only claim to have seen one of them.\u00a0 A thin blue snake with black bands – possibly a yellow-lipped sea krait – winding it’s way among the coral.\u00a0 Super venomous apparently.\u00a0 \u00a0Not to be tangled with!<\/p>\n

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Also, clearly, not my photo!\u00a0 I didn’t get that close!<\/p>\n

Early on, between swimming stops, we were put ashore at an almost deserted beach on island 4.<\/p>\n

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Beautiful white sandy beach, backed by lush forest.\u00a0 We were there for an hour during which time the beach went from super-quiet to stunningly overcrowded as day boats arrived by the score from Phuket.\u00a0 Apparently 1,300, largely Oriental and Russian, visitors hit Island Four every day.\u00a0 And it used to be even worse.\u00a0 The daily limit has recently been reduced from 1,700.\u00a0 Definitely best to be there and away before the rush!<\/p>\n

Lunch was served on board by the crew.\u00a0 It included Rock Lobsters and massive prawns – none of which we had seen underwater.<\/p>\n

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A fabulous day.\u00a0 Now Glenda is trying to match my expenditure by having three massages a day!\u00a0 Every day!\u00a0 I bet that sentence gets edited out!\u00a0 It wasn’t\u00a0 but the editor would like it recorded that she only had two massages for a total of 90 minutes!<\/p>\n

The Sarojin resort is lovely.\u00a0 Peaceful.\u00a0 Serene.\u00a0 Relaxing by the pool.<\/p>\n

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The idea of all day breakfast with ordering as many things as you want combined with ready availability of “Holiday Juice” (AKA champagne) made for very happy days.\u00a0 Breakfast under the old spreading Ficus tree…<\/p>\n

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And all the staff are so happy and helpful.\u00a0 Although they all have unpronouncable names they also have simplified nicknames.\u00a0 These charming ladies are known as Ma Miew, Kwan and O.<\/p>\n

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The food in the restaurant was excellent,\u00a0 but very “Western orientated”.\u00a0 So we tried out some of the local beach restaurants for more local cuisine.\u00a0 The tempura prawns in highly-illuminated White Sands Restaurant, 10 m up the beach, were the best we have ever eaten.\u00a0 We went back for a second visit, just to make sure!<\/p>\n

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Our time at the resort was shared with chipmunks skittling around in the trees overhead …<\/p>\n

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… and with water monitors sulking in the little canals which ran around the site.\u00a0 One monitor, over a metre long, did some of its skulking under the footbridge leading to our room.\u00a0 One night in the dark, it really surprised Glenda by leaping out of hiding and thrashing off down the waterway.\u00a0 Exciting!<\/p>\n

One of the beach restaurants, De Coco was advertising some interesting products to go with our morning coffee…<\/p>\n

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Our final dinner on the beach in Thailand as the sun sets over this part of the adventure.<\/p>\n

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Next stop Singapore!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holidays should be such fun!\u00a0 As we get in the taxi for the station, we receive yet another request for information regarding the sale of Glenda’s mother’s house.\u00a0 The house sale was agreed in one hour, but that was in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thailand-and-australia-travels-in-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5669,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions\/5669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}