I Had Not Been To U-Tapao Airport For Some Time,

so it made a pleasant change to fly from there,

although an International airport the restaurant is quiet small,

Thai food for Diana, she had never been to Utapao before, club sandwich and chips for me,

another first for Diana, a turbo propeller aircraft rather than a jet engined one,

not so much room as on the 737's that we fly on to the Philippines,

goodbye Pattaya,

lunch was served,

which we did not expect as it was a short flight at just over an hour, nice box it came in too,

bright skies, so not to much turbulance,

then the cloud started to form, we bounced around a bit,

then our first sight of Phuket, as a speedboat leaves one of the islands,

then welcome to Phuket, the aircraft was less than half full, a map of Phuket,

Jeff and Da very kindly picked us up, so we made our way to Jungceylon in Patong,

it is a huge shopping complex,

some of it covered, with open air walkways between

and what did we see there? none other than illusionist Joe's ticket booth,

then to Jeff''s embroidery shop, NY Casual,

the goods and services on offer was absolutely staggering, there were thousands of embroidery designs to chose from , plus you could design your own patterns to be stitched on caps, shirts you name it, most impressive,

next we went sight seeing,

to Karon,

beautiful views across the bays, notice the size of the waves,

a front was moving in over the next couple of days,

great for surfing but swimming was out of the question,

Jeff bought a few goodies as we were stopped,

then back to Jeff's house, he had very kindly gotten a motorbike ready for us to travel around independently, taxis and tuk-tuks out here charge 600 baht minimum for trips,

next stop Rawai,

famous for two reasons, firstly it's shell craft stalls,

and secondly it's fresh from the sea produce, it was a bit late so we will call back in the day time,

for tonight we made a move to Mando Steak House,

a little ways along the coast,

a nicely stocked bar,

the wine glasses were huge,

we decided on this one from Eikendal Vineyards,

and very nice it was too,

two happy faces,

and two sad ones!

'Cheers!', from all of us,

steak for my main course,

chicken cordon bleu for Diana,

a glass of wine to go with the dessert,

ice cream for Da,

pie for Jeff,

and for Diana, nice flowers on the tables too,

I at first thought they were plastic, but no they were real,

after our meal back to Jeff and Da's house,

for a glass of champange,

or two,

'Cheers'

so the room was freezing when we returned,

so only one thing for it, sunggle down under the duvet, feet up, switch on the television and have a night cap, then off to bed.