The story on the scramble to get the trip rescheduled had been covered earlier. But basically this trip came about after KH found this deal for a two bedroom villa in a resort in Phuket at 3 nights for USD499 only, with airport transfer, dining credits etc. Though of course it does comes with a catch - sign up as a couple staying within the same city, and attend a compulsory “seminar” during our stay. 

Stel was like “what are your chances of getting attached by October?” when she asked for my availability and since the chances are remote, we decided to just come up with a story that my (non-existent) girlfriend is busy with work and couldn’t join. And meanwhile the Brunei duo would pose as a couple. 

I mean there are plenty of holes in this story (like for instance we changed dates and my poor non-existent gf still can’t make it) and I am pretty sure they eventually saw through but I guess they weren’t too particular about it so long they get to have an audience for their pitch. Such was their priority that they were very accommodating of all our requests such as the change in dates though their TnC supposedly doesn’t allow for it (there’s a book by and stay by date which we eventually didn’t follow). But whatever works. 

So date change fiasco aside, we arrived in Phuket on 3 Nov, after transiting in KL. Actually i reached KL earlier at about 11am (though AA flight got delayed by an hour) and initial plan was to head out to KL to catch Val, but in the end Val came over instead coz Stel (who reached about an hour later) felt it was a bit rushed on her part to head out to city. While waiting for the duo I went to Maybank to finally update my nationality change, for which I was super unprepared for both in terms of the documents (had to dig around my email and fortunately managed to fish out the required docs) and Malay speaking skills LOL. 

Settled, met up with Stel and Val and spent the afternoon catching up while KH (who never cared much about arriving at airport early) headed out to town to eat with his friend. Gathered later on and off to Phuket we go! For our first real vacation in a while (Malaysia or Brunei doesn’t count). 

Hi Val!

A bit surreal, somehow. Phuket airport wasn’t very crowded, which made me wonder if tourist levels have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Streets were pretty empty too though that might be because we weren’t exactly in town and it was already past 7pm when we head out of the airport. Checked in, briefed on our entitlements and activities in the resort and…pics below. 

Debated a bit about dinner options but settled for the in house restaurant for dinner. Which I thought was a pretty good meal actually. 

Day 2 - first order of business was breakfast! Then headed back to our villa and pool, intention was to also check out the common pool with the water slides and all. There was also plans for gym, yoga class etc which all fell by the wayside hahaha. And this turned out to be our only pool time due to a combination of rain and other activities…and KH didn’t even make it to the pool in the end after being swamped by work throughout the trip. 

Went for our “seminar” in the afternoon. Going in we knew it was a sales pitch for membership via the power of google, so I think we really wanted get it over and done with in a short period of time, but I think we didn’t anticipate that it was a small group pitch i.e. one sales person attached to each group (we visualized it as a talk) so we ended up spending a lot more time then we intended, and probably at one point considered it even hahahah. But our heads came through in the end la so no harm done. Chief grouse was the fact that we were supposed to make a decision on the spot and there’s absolutely no room for negotiation, so that’s definitely a red flag. Oh well. 

Evening was spent on spa because this is a resort after all, though it’s an expensive one because this is a resort after all so we went for the cheapest one and that was after taking into account our spa discount vouchers too. Thought it was okay service though maybe would have expected a bit more with that price point but oh well this is a resort after all. 

Walked out to Turtle Village for dinner, ended up at this restaurant which was a bit of hit and miss (maybe more misses than hits) but what’s memorable or rather traumatic is the post dinner walk back to the spa place to catch a buggy to our villa. The tiny frogs jumping around which ended up with me getting stung/bitten/whatever it is by something which is probably not the frogs (but there’s nothing else around) on one of my toes, which bleed slightly and left me hobbling for the rest of the night with pain. Thought of the worst but fortunately the pain went away the next morning and didn’t affect me the rest of the trip. 

Speaking of the next morning, skipped breakfast and headed out to Phuket Old Town. Wasn’t in our agenda initially coz plan was just to nua in resort but Stel had errands to run so off we go. 

Agenda for the evening was fine dining at PRU@Trisara! Splurged a bit for this one Michelin star place, 久久一次嘛. Running a bit late coz we came back from Old Town late due to traffic jams, so had to rush a bit to get ready for dinner and the resort the restaurant was located in was a bit off grid I felt. Initial plan was to hang out at the beach there but a combination of rain and our lateness meant this didn’t materialize either (so we left Phuket without stepping foot on a beach). Anyway, pics to do the talking! 

Had good fun dissecting each course, and our ratings for the meal afterwards. Knocked off quite a fair bit of points for failing to deliver on their promise of having a surprise cake ready for the birthday boy - I asked once, KH himself very thick-skinnedly asked for one too (so it wasn’t really a surprise by then) and we waited for quite a while after our dessert course for it but it didn’t happen (a cake turned up for another table in the restaurant even). In the end had to go and remind them and they managed to whip up something (I guess on the fly) but I think that was an unforgivable blip on service for a one star restaurant.  

Day 3 - breakfast early and I had to leave for airport coz I couldn’t find a cheaper option for my rebooked ticket, oh well. The duo stayed on till the evening, and that’s about it for the trip! 

All in all a relaxing trip, I didn’t quite achieve what I wanted to do which was to plan for my next trip, the duo planned for things like catch up on Netflix and reading (pffftt really) but that didn’t quite happen either hahah. But of course it’s all about the company la. Would do this all over again in a heartbeat.