PHUKET, Thailand (5 Apr 2007) -- "Go Mali, go!" The excitement is evident on my two-year-old's face, as he perches atop Mali, the swaying Thai elephant. A real elephant ride! And that's after a day-long speedboat sojourn, unlimited pool play, and thrice-daily bouncing, breezy tuk-tuk trips. This holiday is a little boy's dream. It's pretty damn close to being a parent's dream, too – that the locals love kids is a given. The adoration is evident wherever we go, as doors are (literally) opened for our tiny, sandy-haired demi-god. Phuket wasn't my first family holiday destination of choice, marred in my mind by images of hard-partying Aussie yobbos and tsunami-torn beaches. But it's turned out to be just what we needed. Two years on from the Boxing Day tsunami, resorts are still being re-built by swarms of Burmese labourers, and the transplanted palm trees still rely on bamboo props to hold them up while they take root in the sand. But the locals say the tourism business is just about back to normal, and we certainly wanted for nothing. The yobbos, for their part, seem to prefer the nightlife on offer around hectic Patong – Phuket's very own slice of Bangkok by the sea – leaving we early risers to ourselves on beaches and in towns further afield. Thailand is the most friendly, clean and efficient Asian destination I've ever encountered, and while hardcore backpackers may scoff at the Western toilets and "farang" food on abundant offer, those little luxuries make it an easy trip with kids in tow. There's plenty on offer for big kids too. We enjoyed boating and snorkelling around the gorgeous Phi-Phi islands and the hour-long ride through a rubber plantation on graceful Mali, the 27-year-old elephant, was enjoyed as much by father as it was by son. The region is one of the world's great scuba diving destinations, and our travelling companions raved about the reef fish they'd encountered – a tough sell for divers trained in Australian waters. We watched happily from our oceanside deck chairs as brave-hearted souls para-sailed or raced jet skis on the calm Andaman Sea. Daily beachfront massages were more our style – a steal at just 300 Baht (about $NZ11) for an hour – topped off with a lazy bowl of noodles and Singha beer at the nearby lashed-bamboo beach cafe. And of course, there's always the shopping. The noisy, jostling, jumble of night markets at Patong offer an abundance of mostly designer rip-off clothes, shoes, luggage, sunglasses and watches, alongside a healthy dose of locally produced silkware, jewellery, and hand-crafted wooden souvenirs. Bargain basement illegal DVDs and CDs also seem to be on offer at every second shop, displayed in "secret" back rooms with a cursory nod to discretion. But the press of sweaty bargain-hunters and the crowd of beach umbrellas soon start to pall, and after a week exploring Phuket, we were ready to move on. Our small family of three hired a car and driver and motored north for a couple of hours, over the bridge to the mainland, where we stopped at Khao Lak in Phang Nga province. | | Female elephant Ningnong, 5, plays with tourists at a beach in Phuket. Khao Lak town is perched on the edge of a lush national park, and is a favourite launching pad for international diving enthusiasts keen to explore the area's famously diverse marine life around the Surin and Similan islands. Although it's a tourist centre, it's much quieter than Phuket, and we found our Australian accents stood out among the mostly European and Scandinavian crowd. Devastated by the tsunami, Khao Lak has taken longer to get back on its feet than its southerly island neighbour. The scars are still clear, one of the most obvious being the police patrol boat that's been turned into a tsunami memorial two kilometres inland, where the vessel came to rest after the wave. The resort scene is flourishing again. We stayed at the Ramada, a pad so new that some construction was continuing, and we passed plenty of building sites busily transforming into shopping complexes, dive centres and hotels. This is the place to come if you're after the convenience of a tourist-driven town with some great accommodation deals to go with it, but without the inconvenience of hoards of visitors. The beach was long, beautiful and tout-free, the town laid-back, the resort staff eager to please beyond measure. Perhaps it was the novelty of their new jobs, or maybe our little boy charmed them with his big blue eyes, but the resort staff happily obliged our every request, including an upgrade to a more comfortable room for my pregnant wife. Annoyances were all but non-existent – I just didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the German tourists who staked out the umbrella lounges closest to the sand from around 6am every day. The things you see when your toddler's awake from 5 o'clock. It was my first family holiday overseas, and the wonderful Thais did an amazing job of making all my fears vanish. My little boy summed it up best while he rode atop the luggage trolley to the airline check-in counter: "Happy in Thailand". SOURCE - StuffSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
