Kata Beach Studio, Phuket

We gave up on finding a place in Patong Beach, after hiking up the hillside in the heat and realizing how far the apartments are from the beach.  It is also too crowded and there are too many jet skis and motor boats on Patong Beach.  We have been there before in low season, but it is much crazier in peak season– with beach chairs 5 rows deep.

Instead, we found a nice studio apartment in Kata Beach for 1 month.  It is a smaller and quieter beach, which we much prefer.  We love the studio!  It is a bit pricey, since it is a luxury place, but still cheaper than what we would be paying back home.  And we got low season price, even though it is peak season right now! It is very new and clean, has a nice view off the patio, and there is a pool and bar on the roof.  And most important of all, there is free WiFi ;).  We are settling in, and so happy to get to relax.

We finally went swimming in the ocean today.  So calming and made us remember why we are here.

On Sunday we were stopped by a foreigner on a motor bike asking if we speak French.  We knew he was peddling something, but decided to respond to him anyway.  He had scratcher cards for the hotel “Absolute,” that was doing a promotion.  George won a t-shirt, and my card had 3 stars, which meant I would get one of the big prizes.  The catch was that we had to go to a presentation on a time-share sort of thing.  We didn’t have time on Sunday, so we made an appointment for this morning at 9am.  We got a free taxis ride to the hotel, breakfast, mango smoothies, a tour to another one of their hotels, and were supposed to get a boat ride, but didn’t have time.  We had to cut the sales pitch short to head back to our hotel to check out at noon and to move into our new place.  After listening to the deal, and being temped by it, we finally got to find out which prize I had won.  The special little box would reveal either: a) camera, b) laptop, c) holiday, d) cruise, or e) cash.  I got the holiday- one week stay in one of their hotels!  It was worth spending half a day at the presentation for.  Now we are planning to come back to Thailand after our SE Asia tour to stay at a hotel in Koh Samui for 7 nights for free! SAAWEEEET!!!!

Here are some photos of our studio!