Anna had wanted to stay at The Twin Palms Resort but since we planned the trip so last minute it was completely booked. We looked at the other resorts near by and decided to book a villa at The Surin. Arriving at the resort I couldn't have been happier. The resort was right on the beach with private access and the villa was nice. It was perfect for a quick girls weekend!
Quickly we unpacked and set out to get some lunch. It was a nice day so we opted to walk in to the center of town and just stop at anything that looked good along the way. Making our way down the main road we stumbled upon a quaint little restaurant that looked promising. Anna ordered a glass of cab sauv and I ordered a glass of sauv blanc - with how humid it was it felt good to drink a cold glass of wine! The food was delicious and Anna and I were very happy and very full!
After all that great food we had to walk some of it off! The main road ended and we looped around to the beach and wanted to explore what the beach front bars and shops had to offer. We walked by Catch, a beach front bar that is a part of the Twin Palms Resort and noted it to come back to. It looked like it would be a chill spot at night with good music. We stopped to next door for a quick drink and finally started to relax. I was determinded to have my long sought after Tom Yum martini and asked the bartender if he could make it for me. He politely nodded and when he set the drink in front of me, all I could do was smile. Anna was laughing at how happy I was and she knows that I had been waiting to return to Thailand to have this drink made properly. I took one big swig and it was all I could to to not spit it back out. This drink was AWFUL! It looked so right, but tasted so wrong. FAIL. Disgruntled by the taste of what I can only describe as rubbing alcohol with a chili and cucumber, I downed some water and set about ordering my usual - champagne. No messing this drink up :)
We headed back to the resort just in time to not get caught in a massive downpour! Thank goodness we had just reached the villa when the huge drops of rain started to shower down. Once inside we snacked on some fruit and started to research what we wanted to do that evening. I was fine with having a low key night since I was a bit exhausted from the long week I had just had. Anna was on the exact same page as I was. She found a restaurant called Opus One which looked like it had a very sleek interior and the menu had so many things that I wanted to try. Snatching up my phone I called to make a reservation and we were all set for 8pm!
Confusion is never a good look when the taxi driver delivers you to the restaurant that you made dinner reservations at. He didn't speak much English but was emphatic on the fact that this is the address that we gave him. It was a small parking lot with a few shops in a row and two more stories above. Anna spotted a sign that said Opus One up above so we paid and got out of the sedan. The taxi sped off along with our hopes of leaving in case we wanted to go elsewhere. We climbed up three flights of stairs and once we rounded the last corner we were facing big glass doors with dark wood paneling. As we stood there unsure if they were open, a women pushed the door open from the inside and greeted us warmly. She asked if we had a reservation, and once she knew the name it was under showed us to a table on the outside patio. The night wasn't too warm so it was lovely to be seated outside instead of indoors. She brought us menus and left us to discuss amongst ourselves. I perused the wine menu and Anna and I wanted different varietals (I, a cab franc and her a shiraz) so we opted to go by the glass instead of a bottle. We ordered our starters and mains and commented on how this turned out to be a nice surprise from when we first pulled up. The food, wine, and service was very good and I was very glad that we chose to have dinner here. The bar inside was pretty impressive - all dark wood and blood red paint with fiber optic lights illuminating it. Opus One is definitely a restaurant that I would return to.
Saturday morning I woke up early as I really wanted to work out in. It looked as if it was going to rain so a run on the beach was out of the question. The clouds were rolling past pretty quickly so I padded down to the main restaurant and ordered breakfast hoping they would burn off and I could run outside instead of on the tredmill. After finishing a light breakfast, I realized I didn't want to risk it and headed to the gym. The bright side was that I had a view of the beach to entertain me as I ran.
By the time I got done working out the clouds had passed and it was sunny! I spotted Anna on a sun lounger and headed over to her. I told her I was going to shower and change in to my bikini and come right back down. I was so excited to lay out and read in the sun! That is precisely what I did with a cocktail in hand for the next 2 hours with some ocean time inter-mixed :)
We had to leave the resort by 1pm because Anna had signed us up for a cooking class to learn how to properly cook Thai food. Although I love to cook, I have never attempted to cook Thai food - mainly because it seems daunting with all those spices. The Blue Elephant is a where our class was and it was about a 30 minute car ride out. The restaurant and cooking school is set in the old governor's mansion and it was a lovely setting for a Saturday afternoon of cooking. Upon arriving I started to not feel so well but thought that I was just hungry and told myself to push past it. Our cooking instructor was named Charles and he was a riot! He was so flamboyant and animated and this instantly helped me feel a bit better. We made 5 courses in total and at the end we got to sit down and enjoy our meal.
When we got to the restaurant it was surprisingly quiet. That was no indication on how great the food was. Everything that we ordered was so delish! I asked Anna if she was okay calling it an early night and she was totally fine with it.
When we got back to the villa both of us were in the mood for something sweet so we ordered desserts from the room service menu. I reverted to comfort food since I wasn't feeling 100% and ordered mint chocolate chip ice cream. It reminds me of being a little girl and eating it when I would stay home sick from school. Anna opted for a mango sticky rice. Soon after eating my ice cream I was fast asleep hoping for my fever to go far away!
Sunday morning I felt better but still not great. It was a beautiful day so I went for a run to try to sweat some of this sickness out and then began to pack (since we were leaving that night). After I was somewhat organized, I headed down to the beach to catch some sun. It was the perfect Sunday, lazing on the beach, ordering a light lunch, and reading.
Our flight to Singapore didn't leave Phuket until 10pm so we headed down to Catch to watch the sunset and have a quick snack before heading to the airport. Aside from me getting sick and the realization that I had a 6:30am flight to Hong Kong for work the next morning, it was a perfect, much needed, relaxing weekend away!
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