Thailand - Nai Harn Beach (Phuket)

Nai Harn Beach is located at the southern tip of Phuket’s west coast. It is a stunning bay, surrounded by the hills, and supposedly one of the best and most beautiful beaches on the south coast of Phuket. We learned about Nai Harn from one of the crewmembers from The Bachelor that we met in Ao Nong last November.

How did we get here? Short answer: Air Asia flight from Vientiane, Laos via Bangkok. 

We scheduled a driver from our hotel to take us to the airport. We got to the airport two hours early and had checked in online. Air Asia gave us a 'green' checkmark and said we were good to go straight to our gate with our e-boarding pass. Sweet! We didn't need to stress about our carry-ons being over 7 kg. So we went straight to security/immigration. We waited for over 30 minutes for them to show up for work. 0825 we finally get to show our e-boarding passes. "You need paper ticket. Need to check-in." But, but... Downstairs to the Air Asia counter and time is ticking. We didn't have time to move enough stuff from carry-on to our backpacks and ended up paying $127 to check our bags. 

Back upstairs to the lady who wouldn't take our e-boarding pass. Waved through and now there's a long line to get our passports stamped to get OUT of Laos. Tick, tick, tick... we just made it in time to board our flight. Whew! Once back in Thailand, everything was smooth as silk. Zipped through customs/immigration, got our luggage, a SIM card and our driver was there to meet us to take us to our hotel.

Sunrise before leaving Laos

First Flight to Bangkok 

Second Flight to Phuket 

Where did we stay? We stayed at the Nai Harn Gallery Hotel.  The hotel is located directly across from the Nai Harn Lake and less than a 1/4 mile from the beautiful Nai Harn Beach.  Our room was huge with a balcony overlooking the pool.  

What did we do? Pretty much nothing. We both needed some down time. We walked to the beach and took beach walks. We rented lounge chairs and umbrellas once and lounged at our pool. We had a nice infinity pool as well as a 'kid' pool that we really liked. We got our final fill of Thai food and Thai massages. OK... maybe and hopefully not our final. It was a great week! The big thing we did do was start our research and planning for our upcoming travels. As well as purchasing airline tickets, hotel reservations, etc. Oh... and who knew Nai Harn is a popular vacation desintation for Russians!?! We were some of the only English speaking people there.

Thai Massage

Nai Harn Beach

Kiddie Pool - perfect for Sharon

The Moon over Nai Harn Lake

Where did we eat? We really enjoyed the food and service at Unni's. Our favorite meal was from the mom and pop shop of Soi Ounwat. Our hotel breakfast was so so and we do enjoy having fresh fruit and fruit juice every morning. 

Unni's Iced Mocha

Unni's Elote

Unni's Burrito Bowl

Unni's Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl

The Corner Hut's Green Curry with Chicken

The Corner Hut's Stir Fried Basil with Chicken

Hotel - Scrambled eggs with avocado

El Greco's Chicken Pita Gyro

Avo's Kitchen & Wine's Tom Yum

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Mango Shake

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Fried Rice
with Shrimp

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Green Curry

Unni's Burrito with Fire Roasted
Salsa Roja 

Unni's Baja Fish Tacos

Hotel - Fruit Salad and Pineapple juice

M & M Pizzeria's 4 Formaggi Pizza
Cream, parmesan, Gorgonzola & taleggio

M & M Pizzeria's Chicken Scallopini
Lemon 🍋 Sauce

We are glad we checked out Phuket. Everything we read said it was very touristy and for the small area we visited we totally agree. We enjoyed our downtime but we both agree we liked Railay Beach better. When we return to Thailand in the future we will venture to more of the islands. 

"Keep Calm and Travel On"

Laos - Vientiane

Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos and is located on the banks of the Mekong, close to the Thai border. Actually, the Thai border is on the other side of the Mekong River. Vientiane was the administrative capital during French rule and, due to economic growth in recent times, is now the economic center of Laos. 

How did we get here? We had three options to travel from Vang Vieng to Vientiane: the train (which we were originally planning on riding), mini bus or private driver. We were assured by our hotel that the mini bus was the cheapest, best and fastest option. The train station was supposedly an hour tuk tuk ride to city center in Vientiane so we trusted some local knowledge. We didn't care about 'cheapest' but fastest appealed to us. Our mini bus was packed. Thirteen total plus the driver and everyone's luggage. The seats were so uncomfortable and the van had no suspension or at least it felt that way. The only saving grace was the new highway connecting V.V to Vientiane. The ride took about two hours and dropped us off right inside the city center. Luckily there were several tuk tuks waiting.

. L

Tuk tuk ride!

Where we stay? Eastin Hotel Vientane. It is a new hotel and we were offered a riverfront, balcony suite for half price because they were still going through a 'soft opening'. Calling the room a 'suite' was pretty generous considering it was just a small hotel room with small bathroom. The view of the Mekong River was nice as well as the Thai skyline. The pool and breakfast were nice.

What did we do? Nothing. After breakfast we went for our morning walk then lounged at the pool all day. We were about a 30 minute walk from the city center so pretty much just stayed local. It was nice to not reallly do anything.

Now we had to worry about cars parked on the sidewalk  

Where did we eat? There was a rooftop bar and restaurant, 360 Restaurant. We ate at the bar the first night because we did not have reservations. The next night was Valentine's Day and who knew it's a big event in Laos!?! We couldn't even get reservations on the rooftop so enjoyed a nice river front dinner instead. We were able to make reservations for our last night and had cold spaghetti with meat sauce and a bottle of wine. 

They had a real salad bar!

Salmon Steak

Kor Moo Yang Jim Jaew
Grilled Pork collar with spicy tamarind sauce

Met some fun people. Two ladies from Laos,
one guy (originally from Laos) who lives in North Carolina
and one guy from Ireland.
Rob didn't stand a chance in the drinking challenge.
Neither did the Irishman.

Valentine's Dinner plan B. Not sure of the last time we went out for a Valentine's Dinner. We always cooked a meal at home.

We thought we ordered shrimp 

Aftermath

Penne Bolognese 

Spaghetti Al'Arrabiata
Too spicy for Sharon

Overall, we would have been happy to have stayed in Luang Prabang for a month and skipped Vang Vieng and Vientiane. But you never know if you'll fall in love with somewhere unless experience it.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”