As you may have partly worked out by now, Phranang translates as "Holy Princess" - and of course, there are numerous stories and legends to go with the name. The so called Princess Story centres around Tham Phranang - the Princess Cave - and comes in several forms, depending on who you speak to. The staff at the Rayavadee will understandably avoid going into details regarding the most popular of these as some of the locals believe the resort to be responsible for bringing a curse down upon them. Phranang, so the legend says, was either the wife of a Sea Gypsy or an Indian princess named Sri Guladevi. Killed in a shipwreck, her ghost now haunts the cave which bears her name. According to the Indian princess version of the story, by far the most popular locally, Sri Galadevi called on powers gained through past lives to infer good luck on anyone who came to pay their respects. Over time, the cave became seen as a symbol of fertility due to its shape (use your imagination) and local fishermen began to carve wooden phalluses and place them within as offerings to the princess in the belief that this would allow them to return home at the end of the day with a bountiful catch. The beach onto which the cave opens was believed to be sacred, and the arrival of holiday companies building bungalows along it angered the princess. Backpackers would arrive on the Phranang peninsula and use the cave to camp in, throwing their empty crisp packets and fast food wrappers on the ground and even having sex with each other on the sand. This disrespect could not be tolerated. Then the larger holiday companies started to arrive, converting the beach from a budget destination to a high end resort, and on the night before the grand opening of the Rayavadee there was another disaster. Workers sheltering for the night in the cave let their camp fire get out of hand and all the elaborately carved wooden phalluses went up in flame - as far as the locals were concerned, the physical manifestation of hundreds of years of belief and worship had just been erased in five minutes. The princess, they said, would exact her revenge.

On the night of the grand opening of the Rayavadee, the very next day, the first boat load of guests was just arriving when a huge explosion lit up the sky, turning day into night even across the bay. People on distant beaches ran down to the shore to see what was happening - the treetops around Phranang appeared to have erupted into flame. The resort's generator had chosen that moment to blow up, and the guests all had to be turned around and shuttled back to wherever they had come from. Meanwhile, while the staff at the Rayavadee scratched their heads and tried to work out why the generator, which had been working fine until that moment, had suddenly blown up, local people across the province looked at each other, winked and said "The Princess has had her revenge!"

It amazes me, doing research for the 2012 update of this blog, just how much there is at the Rayavadee that we didn't get to see or do - either because of limited time or because we were too busy relaxing elsewhere. We certainly didn't spend any time browsing in the resort boutique, and I definitely don't remember there being a library. We did have to wait briefly in the lounge area when we arrived, and I remember it being a large luxurious looking chamber with plush looking seating and panoramic views of the Andaman sea, although it obviously didn't leave enough of an impression on us to actually use it during our stay or anything. In fact, the only time we ventured back down to the reception complex after arrival was to have dinner on the large wooden deck on our first evening as the sun was setting. We were really supposed to have gone to reception earlier and booked, but the waiter was about as helpful as he could possibly be and pulled out all the stops to find us a lovely table overlooking the sea so we could watch the sunset. The place wasn't exactly packed, which was what we were hoping anyway, and we got a lot of attention from the waiter who seemed to be under the impression that they would throw him to the sharks if we weren't absolutely satisfied in every way. You really can never fault Thai hospitality. Among our fellow diners on that first night was a quite ancient gentleman with an American accent who looked as though he was about ready to keel over at any moment. He was in the company of a particularly young and attractive looking blonde, and this was the cause of much debate that night as they were holding hands throughout the meal and were clearly on much better terms than that of a boss and secretary. Still, I suppose if you're going to get your sugar daddy to take you on holiday, the Rayavadee is definitely the place to go.

After dinner, we borrowed a copy of The Trueman Show from the resort video library and sat watching it in bed while I flicked through the documentation in the welcome pack. Much to my surprise, I discovered almost straight away that our holiday entitled us - free of charge I might add - to a personal waiter who would bring us our meals on the verandah of our pavilion whenever we wanted. No longer were we required to make our way to the restaurant every night or share our dining space with octogenarian playboys. Naturally, I wasted no time at all in requesting this superbly self-indulgent luxury, and we arrived home from swimming on our second night to find the table outside our front door laid with a tablecloth and covered in beautifully folded cloth napkins, wine glasses and a private dining menu. We both changed for dinner, even though we weren't going beyond our own front porch, and a quick call on the pavilion phone was enough to conjure up a Thai waiter who appeared from along the path carrying steaming dishes of delicious food, platters of mouth watering deserts and a bottle of wine. I have never felt quite so pampered in all my life. We sat, with only the sound of creatures in the surrounding forest and the gentle washing of the sea for company, and enjoyed a quiet romantic meal away from all the worries of the world. Our only companion was a dishevelled looking cat who would appear occasionally, sit at our feet and miaow softly until we passed it some scraps. I could've repeated the experience every day for the rest of my life, and I couldn't have asked for better company to experience it with. And I'm not talking about the cat.

The wildlife on the Phranang peninsula is certainly something worth mentioning here. Obviously, Thailand is well known for its monkeys - and there are no shortage of them living around the Rayavadee, stealing food from under peoples noses and running off into the trees with it at every possible opportunity. To be fair, thinking back, I can't recall seeing that many within the grounds of the resort itself - we never came out of our pavilion and found groups of them hanging around on the porch or anything. This was the complete opposite of the experience we had in Malaysia a few days later, but more of that later. During our stay at the Rayavadee, we mainly encountered monkeys when we were making our way along the pathway between Nammao and Phranang beaches - this path ran along the base of one of the giant tree covered mountains which flank the peninsula, and was undercut by fascinating small cave systems in which we discovered shallow pools and hidden dark passages which burrowed into the rock. At the beginning of the trail, there were almost always at least two monkeys hanging around looking at passers-by suspiciously - and if they weren't watching the tourists, they were hanging upside down from a tree by their tails actively beating each other up. Further along the path, a sort of rest stop had been created in the form of a bench under a wooden shelter, and it was almost impossible to sit down inside without hearing the constant thump of monkeys landing on the roof or throwing things at each other. Take anything which smelt even remotely like food out of your bag, and a curious little face would appear from over the edge of the roof and peer at you as though deciding what to do.

The other creature we came across during our stay was the resident monitor lizard. My first encounter with Mr Lizard was while checking out a strange noise in a bush during a casual stroll through the gardens with Eloise, at which point I was quite taken aback to find that I had disturbed something which looked at first glance as though it had escaped from Jurassic Park. Monitor lizards are actually very widespread throughout the east and of course Australia, where they are known as Goannas, and are becoming quite sought after as pets due to their apparent intelligence and individual personality - but I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing one quite so close before this point, so having it dart out of a bush at me was quite an experience. I was obviously of absolutely no interest to it, however, as the monitor took one look and wandered off in the direction of the pool. The resident lizard was easily around five to six feet in length, and would frighten the life out of anyone if it snuck up on you, but he was as friendly as anything and could usually be found nuzzling around the pool for food or startling small children on the beach.

We could easily have stayed at the Rayavadee for longer, but unfortunately we had much more to see and the three days we had already stayed had cut severely into the budget. Staying on the Phranang peninsula was easily one of the most incredible holiday experiences of my life and it was especially hard to watch the resort vanishing into the distance as we sped back towards the mainland on the back of a speedboat. But our next stop was Malaysia, and the Rayavadee certainly wasn't the last luxury resort I had booked us into on this trip...

About Simon and Burfords Travels:

Simon Burford is a UK based travel writer. He will be re-publishing his travel blogs, chapters from his books and other miscellaneous rantings on these pages over the coming weeks and months, and the entry on this page may not necessarily reflect todays date.