Our one week stay in Phuket marked both the start of 2018, and the end of our time with Troy's sister and family. Although we are sad and a bit lonely now that they are gone, we are so grateful that they came sooooo far to join us on our adventure over their holidays!

Let it be known that Phuket is...a lot bigger and busier than we thought it would be! Because of these two factors, we did not see a ton of the island, but we were quite content in our villa in the quiet(er) town of Rawai right down at the bottom of the island. On New Year's Eve we ventured into super touristy Patong Beach to join in with the big party, and this did not disappoint! We hung out on the beach with all the other revellers and watched dumbfounded as fireworks were lit off EVERYWHERE around us - on the beach, the street, in the water; it was slight madness and great fun. A dazzling display! Happy New Year to all!

The rest of our time in Phuket was mostly spent lazing by our pool, and Clare and Troy also managed to get to Nai Harn Beach which although lovely, was VERY busy. (Can't imagine why all these North Americans and Europeans would want to be in this steamy heat in January...) We perused some markets, and modern shopping malls, and marvelled at how Phuket seems much more like a junior version of Bangkok, than an island (without the public transportation system to make getting around manageable!)

Our one splurge over the week was a trip to Phang Nga Bay, up near the top of Phuket, to take a boat ride through the limestone cliffs, and see the "James Bond Island", featured in the movie, "The Man with the Golden Gun". The whole area was stunning, and looked quite similar to what we saw in Halong Bay, Vietnam. We were canoed around some of the sites by the guides from our tour, and finished off the trip by swimming from our boat docked out at sea several hundred metres to a secluded beach, which was refreshing and exhilarating!

We are almost reluctant to talk about how nice the weather is here in the south of Thailand because we have heard grumblings of what the weather is back in Toronto, and the rest of Canada right now. But the truth is that it is almost 40 C with the humidex every day, and in the evenings when the sun goes down it is still almost as hot, and Clare wants to cry every day over how grateful she is that she is missing a Canadian winter. We are mentally trying to send some sun and warmth home to everyone!