For our first trip, David headed off on 8 January 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. 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.

(For an alternative version of our arrival in Phuket, click here)

q

q

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 this year 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.

Hong Kong

Later on in February, we took a one week trip up to Hong Kong, the first time for David in over three years, and the third time for Gail since we'd left in 2004. We took the scenic route - AirAsia from Phuket to Bangkok, then from Bangkok to Macau, followed by the jetfoil over to Hong Kong. We arrived on a chilly evening after dark, our ID cards having been declared museum pieces by the very friendly immigration guys. After ten minutes it seemed like we had never been away, and very much like coming home. Hong Kong really is like nowhere else and with our long history there, it was a great feeling to be back. We stayed in Shek O, which is a beach community on the south-east corner of HK Island. The first morning after arrival we were reminded of HK's mind-blowing efficiency, achieving several major things like ID card renewal, banking etc in a matter of hours. In Italy such things require allocating days of time, if not longer and often bureaucratic frustrations on the way - little documents you suddenly need that no one bothered to remind you about, etc.

The place is ever-changing - at present there is the major construction on the waterfront in Central with lots of reclamation and tunnel building, but that HK buzz remains the same. It was great to go back to the Yacht Club to be greeted by the Bistro staff - hello Mr and Mrs Clarke, haven't seen you for a while, have you been away? And of course the magic of Middle Island and rowing was brilliant. Fellow ex-rowing captain Martin Reynolds had organised a group of other ex-captains who came along for a Saturday afternoon jolly, some on the water. Naturally one or two lemonades were consumed.