Here's my continuation to our 3D2N trip to
Andara Resort in Phuket!
The first post can be found
HERE.
So in the previous update I stopped the blogpost at our visit to Kamala Beach, where
Andara has its own private beach lounge with a full functioning bar, shower & WIFI!
After lounging at the beach for a while, we came back to our suites to freshen up a little (especially the girls who got capsized by the banana boat) & get ready for lunch in the main city area!
I decided to go into the pool for a bit before a quick shower!
In the end... Alaric & I were the only ones who entered the pools at all for the whole trip O.O
Everyone else was always busy getting ready or doing something else!
Off to lunch! We walked around for ages looking for this restaurant Bryan was insisting on.
The girls got grumpy but we finally found it! The place is called No.1 Seafood & it's very big but the entrance is rather hidden. It's too difficult for me to describe where so if you happen to come across it then now you know it's safe to eat there! The food is pretty good!
I mean it when I say I really like Thai food, but I realise that in reality I just love these two or three main dishes... Probably doesn't exactly encapsulate "Thai food" per se!
I always order prawn tom yam soup (I prefer the sour over the spicy one) & the cashew nut chicken! And... yeah that's about it. These two dishes would make me a very happy girl!
And also...
MANGO STICKY RICE.
LOVE.
Ok that's also because in general I love mangoes (#3 on my list of most loved fruits)(I'm actually quite a fruit person) so I technically eat 70% mango & 30% rice... But it's still a nice change from mango on its own I suppose! Is there anywhere to get good mango sticky rice in Singapore by the way? :)
On the tuktuk back to the hotel after lunch!
Stupid face from the wind & ok I will never wear tube dresses again... my shoulders look too weird.
Pictures below taken while on the tuktuk! #obamanotbad
Awesome no? Managed to get such a clear shot!
My camera is the Panasonic Lumix G3!
Back at
Andara, where they brought us to one of their huge pool villas for a special cook-out dinner!
Their pool villas are huge! The one we went to isn't even the largest omg.
The villas are all fully equipped with a huge kitchen, multiple bathrooms (individual room ones as well as common ones near the pool/living room), seating areas, laundry areas and even a garage!
AND THIS IS THE POOL:
Gorgeous & huge infinity pool!
Living room!
This is the entrance to the master bedroom, which has its own private garden wtf O.O
THE BATHTUB. Which looks out into the sea!
Random seating area; as if not enough lol.
The little seating area is like... double the size of my bedroom here.
I am totally going to retire overseas & hopefully everyone can live on the same street! Fun!
One of the other smaller bedrooms, with a balcony looking out at the sea!
Courtyard?
All the other bedrooms are downstairs by the way!
On the entry level is the pool, living room, kitchen & master bedroom!
The
Andara staff setting up the cooking area for us!
Ok not really a cooking area... the REAL cooking was obviously not done by us.
*sigh of relief*
Hehe a little cocktail bar set-up!
Wendy checking out the pool!
Another villa, seen from our pool! This one has a much larger garden but doesn't have the view!
But this villa would probably be good for families with kids, so that they can play in the big garden & you don't have to worry about them being at the edge of pool/cliff.
The tom yam soup station! :D
And also pineapple rice, but I don't care about that lol.
Cheesie & Qiuting taking iPhone snaps!
This is the kitchen, where the professionals are making the real dinner haha.
Time to make these Thai popiah-like roll thingys! :D
Eekean's sipping on a martini in the background. Don't trust her with food O.O
Alaric in the pool!
It's cool how the water surface is practically opaque.
Qiuting getting a start on the tom yam soup:
Okay, she looks quite enthusiastic & keen in making it.
Maybe it will be edible.
EEYER I don't want to drink her soup already! Her attitude like this so chapalang one!
Leave it to the professionals!
Tom yam soup is actually quite simple to make!
If you have someone to prepare & set out all the ingredients for you that is...
And in order. Lol.
The final product!
Ok we are going to starve tonight then...
Ooh
Andara staff BBQ-ing food for us!
Quite fun to get a villa & organise a cookout one of the nights of your holiday!
Cheesie trying her hand at being a bartender!
The guy is like... "dafuq, can or not?" *maximum skepticism*
And Cheesie is like... "bitch please I'm a natural" #likeasir
The 3 guys busy talking guy stuff & ignoring the girls.
Eekean trying to make drinks too!
Actually after a while everyone wanted to make their own drinks lol.
Pool time!
Haha you can see my ugly frog crawl!
This part of the pool is pretty deep, only Qiuting & I could touch the bottom hahaha.
Hello from the pool!
The rest all went to stuff their faces with food first lol.
We technically came right from lunch to this villa O.O
But when you're on holiday you stock up on yummy food!
I love eating corn!
We also had tom yam soup of course, along with pineapple rice and some other Thai food! :D
Back to our suites after dinner:
Trying out someone's Harry Potter frames.
It was still quite early so we decided to head back into the town area to look for night shoping!
There's a street market area selling clothes, but most of the styles are quite ugly...
If you look hard you can still find stuff to buy (Alaric got a cute tshirt!) but Phuket isn't really a shopping place! For that there's still no comparison to good ol' Bangkok!
So anyway half the group decided to get a massage while the rest of decided to just walk around.
Pictures of some sights you'd never see in Singapore:
There's a girl (or tranny?) dancing around the pole!
Played Taboo that night!
Haha for both nights Qiuting & I were always on the winning team ^^
The rest owe us forfeits lor... they never did them!
DAY 3
The next morning we all got up much later because we were really tired so we just headed out to the nearby streets to eat! I found the food pretty good although it was a restaurant randomly picked.
The streets near our hotel are so pretty!
Very nicely decorated.
I bought these sunglasses 200 Baht I think!
Everyone said I looked damn stupid but they eventually admitted that it's cute (^_^)
LOL at Huiwen's hair behind me.
Some of the others decided to chill by the pool while we went to
Andara's spa!
Picking our massages at the spa!
Qiuting & I got the traditional Thai massage, Wendy got Swedish! Not sure about the rest.
I really like Thai massages compared to the rare ones I had in Singapore because I like how they help you stretch & crack your bones too rather than just kneading (which can be rather painful & unpleasant)!
THIS IS THE MASSAGE ROOM:
O.O
Bigger than my room again!
There's a small fountain at the back with a seating area!
Basin & toilet on the side.
The sound of trickling water was really relaxing!
The atmosphere of the room was really what made the whole massage so awesome.
Seriously. Damn shiok!
Impossible to not fall asleep!
Bryan said he was woken up by his own snoring hahaha.
Quick feet massage!
I really liked my massage! The masseuse will check with you what kind of intensity you want (I really hate painful massages even if they supposedly help to knead out the kinks in muscles... etc) as well as whether you have any areas to focus on and/or avoid during the massage.
I fell into such deep slumber that I think she had to poke me awake hahaha.
Lemongrass tea after the massage! I'm not very advetnurous in food consumption (beverages included, especially anything that's natural... like all the weird herbal brews... rather take my chances with that old Whatever canned drink) but they kept serving us this drink at the resort so I gave in & tried it.
Hahaha ok it's quite nice lah.
Sort of like chrysanthemum tea.
I finished my massage a little earlier than the rest so I went back to our suite to get into the pool!
Yes... I insisted on my sunglasses...
I've worn them once for ONE photo at home since I got back haha.
Just realised I have the same pose in the pictures below, with different backgrounds.
O.O
IT'S CUTE WHAT NO?
Packed up our bags & headed over to Silk Restaurant (the resort's main restaurant) for some good-bye snacks before leaving for the airport! It was terribly saddening to leave our lovely suite :(
GIVE ME BACK MY
ANDARA BED *sobs*
Yummy crab/prawn fritters!
Took some pictures of the exterior of Silk Restaurant, which overlooks the resort's main pool & the sea!
Fountain & bar in between the restaurant & the infinity pool.
Outdoor dining area.
The lovely hotel infinity pool!
And here's the last photo of the outside of Silk Restaurant!
A few years ago being sponsored a trip like this would not remotely have been on my mind as a possibility. Damn, back then (I first started my blog in 2005) a blog was just yet another random fad that was passing through! Most of my friends lost interest in blogging after 1 or 2 years.
I never actually had any real thoughts of closing my blog, strangely enough. I never got bored of it; it was a hobby, a habit, something pretty natural to do every few days. And wow, it's been a whopping 7 years since then! I hope it only gets better from here :) My blog is one of my most prized possessions, I never thought at any point that my blog would become such an intrinsic part of my life. It never even occurred to me how much it has been a part of my life the last few years till I type this now. Very glad I one day picked that loser-ish moniker sophielicious for my very first blog URL! :')
Thank you to everyone who followed me for any period of time & thank you to all the lovely people I met along the way! For this trip, thank you to
Wendy for making it possible in the first place!
Wendy is honestly a very generous person, she's the one on top but she always shares things with others!
The idea of one day having "blogging friends" was like... #dafuqisthat a few years ago.
But now bloggers are some of the people I talk to the most!
And finally of course many thanks to the generosity of
Andara & the very warm welcome by their friendly staff! Service staff are always what can really make or break any kind of experience! :x
I would highly recommend
Andara to all my friends, family & readers! They have many different types of accommodation (hotel rooms, suites, villas) to suit different budgets while providing a great experience & environment overall! They are also able to accommodate any kind of event you may have in mind (wedding, company functions...) at their villas or at their restaurant!
They are currently still running a STAY MORE, SAVE MORE promotion which would allow you to get 25% - 30% off your booking! The minimum is just 2 or 4 days! Our trip was 3D2N :)
Mention that you were referred from our blogs to get 50USD in Andara spa credits.
Go try the awesome massages we had!
(^_^)
