For the first trip of our 'Location Independent Pensioners' travels, David headed off on 8 January 2008 to Phuket via Singapore, with Gail following 5 days later. The reason for this was simply that we were using airmiles and we couldn't get flights on the same day. Having trawled around the internet for accommodation, we had reserved 3 weeks in the Phuket Garden Home - now always referred to as PGH - followed by several weeks in a bungalow in the hills called Baan Mai Koo.

On arrival at PGH, first impressions were good - small bungalow villas, 22 of them, arranged around a pool. The place was new and clean. The furniture was minimalist to the extent that I thought that someone had possibly stolen what had been in our bungalow. Not so; that was it - small living room with two wooden chairs and a tiny coffee table, drinks size fridge and a tv on top of the unit housing it. Bedroom had a reasonable bed, wardrobe and dresser, kitchen a microwave, sink and... nothing else, no pots, pans etc. However, the aircon was good and the pool wonderful. PGH also had the advantage of being cheap (THB 18k per month inc. electricity and wifi). A quick trip to Tesco (yes, that's right) solved most of the missing bits inexpensively and the place started to look like home.

Once Gail arrived, we took a trip to Baan Mai Koo to check it out and didn't like it at all - up a very steep hill that the ancient Suzuki Caribian (sic!) we'd rented really objected to, no a/c, pool or nearby amenities. A no-no given that the mob were coming from Hong Kong to visit. Fortunately, our place at PGH was not rented beyond our booking and we immediately rented it for the rest of the stay.

 

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Once we'd got our bearings in Phuket, the place really grew on us. It's a mixture of lovely beaches in quiet villages such as Nai Thon, and over-populated holiday beaches in crass, flesh pot beaches - Pathong being the worst. If the tourist spots are avoided - ok, they are all tourist spots really, but many are still very pleasant - then it's a sun-drenched paradise.

After a while, we started looking at real estate prices and they turned out to be very good, in the scheme of things. We found a very interesting project that was about to be finished - The Trees Residence - in Kamala, and another, the Zen Space project just above it that was about to be started. Both are low-rise condo projects set on a hillside about 1.5 km from Kamala beach. Bottom line, we have bought into Zen Space and come April 2010, we should have our sea view, two-bedroomed pied-à-terre, actually pied-à-1st floor, to return to for the winter months. Check out the website at zenspace-living.com ours is unit 124.

At Chinese New Year, which in 2008 was in early February, Zo, Lily and Phoebe came down from Hong Kong for the week to visit, staying in their own little bit of PGH. A great week with elephant rides, lots of swimming where Lily became truly aquatic, butterfly farm and of course the beaches.