29 | March | 2015 | tonyandgro

We had a minibus transfer from the boat (Chalong Pier) about 20 minutes south to our hotel in Rawai Beach. Rawai is a relatively quiet resort by Phuket standards and a little less touristy. It has a lot of sea gypsies – more later.

Our hotel was part of a condominium complex right by the seafront. A bit of a strange place but a great room – or rather rooms – it was a small flat really.

Not much exciting happened in Rawai itself. We relaxed for the first day and Tony had two long board calls. He was still struggling with his ears but hoped they would recover of their own accord (he was wrong!)

The next day, we did a bit of tourism – to the Wat Chalong temple and to Phuket Old Town. A really nice day.

The temple was interesting. It had a really nice vibe with most people there being Thais – both tourists and locals. The architecture was lovely, although a tad garish, and the fact that most of the Buddha statues inside were made of plastic sort of took the edge of it.

It was, however, charming and peaceful (except for when they let off huge strings of firecrackers in a brick open fireplace / chimney thing). Almost certainly getting rid of bad thoughts and spirits!!

Then on to Phuket Old Town which was mostly centred around Thalong Street and had a lot of original Sino-Colonial architecture giving it a feel quite similar to Georgetown. It was still stupidly scorchio – the temperature for our entire time in Thailand is ranging from 35-37 degrees.

We had decided that we had to go to the Blue Elephant restaurant as we have memories of going to the one in Fulham back in the day. There was a time in the ’80s when it just seemed to be the the thing to do.

Tony remembers being there with the EMI Greece finance director the night before a budget presentation – Tony asked Panagiottis when he was going to be 40. The reply was “today”. What a sad way to spend your 40th – away from home and with your boss – and he hadn’t even mentioned it.

The Blue Elephant was lovely – wonderful decor, beautiful building and stunning food. All made even better by the bill, which was £20. They must have got it wrong but we weren’t minded to complain.