Browsing tag : Thailand
-
Revisiting My First Thailand Experience
Posted onThe Regent Cha Am is a four-star beach resort about 180 km southwest of Bangkok, Thailand. It has 442 guest rooms, a spa, several swimming pools, direct beach access, two restaurants and plenty of conference rooms, among other facilities. It’s also the first hotel I ever stayed at in Thailand, way back in December 1998. Over 22 years later, I returned for a long-weekend break by the beach.
By Ben Reeves
-
Playing the Tourist in Phuket – Part 3
Posted onWhen I last posted, an ungodly amount of time ago, I left the story of my long weekend being a tourist in Phuket on the drive back from a cruise around Phang Nga Bay. The minivan dropped my friend, Malinda, and I at my apartment at about 6 or 7pm. We decided to immediately go and look for something to eat.
By Ben Reeves
-
Playing the Tourist in Phuket – Part 2
Posted onMy weekend of looking at Phuket through the eyes of a tourist, instead of an expat, continued with a trip to one of the most famous and impressive parts of Thailand – Phang Nga Bay. This has been on my bucket list for much of the four years I’ve lived in Phuket for yet, just like the Big Buddha, it has taken me the better part of all four of those years to get around to it. If it’s always going to be there, what’s the rush?
By Ben Reeves
-
Playing the Tourist in Phuket – Part 1
Posted onDuring August, I had the opportunity to play the tourist and look around many of the key points of interest in Phuket. The reason was that a good friend of mine was visiting from Bangkok – Malinda. She was coming to celebrate my birthday with me, though she also wanted to do some surfing since Phuket is virtually the only part of the country with any descent waves.
By Ben Reeves
-
Phayun Beach Condo
Posted onMy Paradise Abandoned project returns, but in an unusual format. A couple of weekends ago, I flew up to the quiet Phayun Beach area of Rayong province, just south of Pattaya, Thailand. It was something of an odd variant of urbex, in so far as it bore a closer resemblance to urban warfare than urban exploring. I was there for an airsoft event.
By Ben Reeves
-
Why Being an Expat is Awesome
Posted onA lot of my recent posts have been rather negative about the expat life. Actually, a lot of my posts generally have quite a negative slant, but that’s an inevitable result of having been a journalist for a fair few years – you develop an innate cynicism which is hard to shift. Anyway, it occurred to me that one or two of my readers might be wondering why I would choose to live overseas if I apparently dislike it so much. The reason is simple: Expat life is awesome!
By Ben Reeves
-
#BeachDay: Ya Nui Beach
Posted onYa Nui Beach is one of the most popular bits of sand in Phuket, which is actually kind of incredible. Among nearly 40 beaches around the island, it is certainly not the most convenient. It’s not at all bad, which is why I chose it for my beach day last weekend, but it’s kind of an oddball for Phuket.
By Ben Reeves
-
The Slate Sunday Brunch
Posted onI’m not normally one for big Sunday Brunch events. I tend to be either too busy or too lazy, particularly as Sunday is usually my day for playing airsoft. I’ve tried several of the best brunches around Phuket in the course of my full-time work, but it’s not generally something I seek out in my leisure time. The Slate’s offering, I’m happy to admit, was well worth the sacrifice of my valuable free time.
By Ben Reeves
-
Remembering Why I Love Thai People – The Hard Way (Part 2)
Posted onWe return to the sorry story of the complete mess I made of a very simple journey, which we started in the last part. Having made the idiotic mistake of leaving my passport at home and not realising until I’d just arrived at the airport, I was now well behind schedule for the rest of my planned journey to Kanchanaburi for an airsoftevent. Last time, we concluded with a slightly bumpy landing at Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport. The story continues…
By Ben Reeves
-
Remembering Why I Love Thai People – The Hard Way (Part 1)
Posted onLast weekend, I quite comprehensively proved that even those who have been travelling practically professionally for the better part of a decade are still prone to making the most rookie of mistakes. One rather monumental error led to a sequence of progressively more stressful situations which were each made more bearable by the sheer charm of the Thai people I encountered along the way.
By Ben Reeves
