Country Article / Postcards
Last Day in Paradise
Date: 03/30/2004
The Nai Harn resort I told you about last week (details below) offering 17% returns.
Dear Reader,
The great thing about the Nai Harn area of Phuket is…no tourists. You will find a couple of swish hotels here -- a Meridien and the German-owned Nai Harn Resort where we went to sample the buffet breakfast -- but these places certainly don't attract crowds of package tourists on tight budgets. (If you insist on going down-market, look to Patong, Kata and Karon). Locals -- both Thais and expats -- mostly have Nai Harn's white sand beach to themselves. And the sunsets here are incredible with fiery trails across the sky and the slow-burning sun dipping into the sea like a giant red Chinese lantern.
This is a quirky little area, with expats from all over, including the former NASA scientist who owns a restaurant, and a girl from California who runs the bagel shop. Along a road called Soi Naya, there are still paddy fields complete with buffalo. There are no high rises -- the only blip I can see on the landscape is a small development of homes with overly tall Thai-style roofs painted an odd shade of green. Locals call it Wat Farang -- Foreigner's Temple.
Steenie Harvey
Roving Travel Writer, International Living
P.S. The last day in a place always feel odd. After a couple more hours lounging on the beach, taking dips in the warm jade waters and enjoying a late lunch, it will be time to leave for the airport.
Drinking beers, scoffing spring rolls with plum sauce followed by garlic-and-lemon sizzled squid and a huge dish of tiger prawns, we mull over our time here. "What was it about Thailand that struck you most?" I ask Michael. "The diversity," he says. "Landscapes...people...food...it's like we've been in three different countries. And the industry of the people is amazing. If there really was such a thing as Free Trade, the west wouldn't stand a chance."
What did I enjoy most? Undoubtedly the sheer exoticism of northern Thailand -- the Buddhist temples, the architecture, the hill-tribes, the completely different way of life. At heart, I guess I'm just one of those unreconstructed drippy hippies. Good job I didn't go in the early 1970s. I'd probably have never left.
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