Cocktail hour was fun at the Racha, because who can say “no” to complimentary alcohol and drinks, and canapes?? Their staff also rock up for cocktail hour and chat with the guests, which is a nice touch. Plus, it’s held on the rooftop overlooking their eternity pool and the ocean.. which is GORGEOUS whilst watching the sunset.

I kinda could get used to this kinda lifestyle :P

The canapes spread

My man and I :)

This was cocktails and nibbles at their Lobby Bar, which we went to another evening

Relaxing and enjoying the view (we were facing the ocean)

Dinnertime was rather romantic on the island, since the restaurants go el fresco style and the weather is cool and the mood is subdued. There are surprisingly few guests dining during dinner too. I wonder where they go to.. or if they mostly have room service?? Well, it was pretty nice almost having the restaurants to ourselves :P

Their food throughout the restaurants in the Racha is impressive. Lovely presentation, good portions, and super-attentive staff. It was very nice having dinner dates too, since they are few and far between for us!

Candlelit dinner overlooking the eternity pool and ocean

Bread basket with assorted toppings

Amuse bouche of some sort of.. errr... meat thing? It was nice but not spectacular

The restaurants were all really dim, so the menus came with these clip-on lights. We found a better use for them.

Grilled scallops on herbed risotto, dill creme fraiche, parma ham crisp and salmon caviar. OMG THIS WAS SO GOOD I NEARLY FAINTED.

Rock lobster, scallop and tiger prawns with squid ink pasta, tossed in sun-dried tomato cream sauce and garnished with parmesan and flying fish roe. Crazily enough, this was ONE OF THE BEST PASTAS I'VE EVER HAD. So full of ingredients, rich with sauce, and ohhhh the flavour!!!!!!!!!!

Fried ravioli with pumpkin. This was nice but didn't blow us away.

BBQ chicken skewers on rice. Man this dish was gigantic!! Very tasty too :)

ADORABLE tree frog on the outside wall of our villa!!

When we were doing cocktail hour the day before, we were chatting to a guy that turned out to be the Managing Director of the resort. He was a very lovely guy that was also on the speedboat when we bid farewell to the Racha. And he was SUPER nice and drove us to Patong Beach on the mainland, since we had a couple of hours to kill before catching our flight.

I’m not a ‘car person’ but I was loving his new BMW (the 5-series, for those car buffs out there that actually know what that means). It smelled so good (you know, me and my obsession with sniffing leather) and gave us a smooth, quiet, fantastic drive among the frantic and mad traffic of Phuket city. It also meant we could refresh ourselves at the hotel there before our flight, as well as leave our bags there whilst we wandered the city, and have our transportation to the airport arranged. It really saved us a lot of effort!

Enjoying our ride :D

Wandering around the 3.5KM beach and side streets of Patong Beach was so much fun. The crazy busy streets spilling over with shopkeepers and tourists, about 294529 massage joints touting for  business as you walk past, and about twice as many lil cafes and restaurants ushering you in. It was a nice, bustling change to the idyllic life at the resort!

The tiny streets around Patong Beach

The hanging sign amused me ;)

It was meant to be a very-much-outdoors Babymoon, and yep, IT SURE WAS! We soaked in as much sun and fresh air as we possibly could.. and didn’t even get sunburnt, which I thought was quite impressive ;) We didn’t want a repeat of our Honeymoon @ the Maldives, when we got SO burnt we couldn’t quite move comfortably for most of the holiday – dohhh. So we did the slip, slop, slap of sunscreen constantly, and the result was lovely tanned skin with zero peeling. Wahey!!

I loved the hotel’s infinity pool, which overlooked the beach and ocean, and was really tranquil. It’s pretty lovely relaxing on the deckchairs and sipping chilled juices and cocktails. Plus the water was soooo warm!! I am a huge BABY when it comes to swimming – I simply can’t get in the water unless it’s almost to the temperature of bath water. Any cooler and I can’t get in past my waist, and do a whole lot of complaining the entire time ;)

But the water was beautiful and warm, and simply perfect for lolling around in to soak in the sun :)

Walking towards the above-ground infinity pool

Chris does his modelling shot :P

How I got my tan :D

Overlooking the ocean

A random pic, but I was in glee when I realised the water matched my nails ;)

The hotel's other pool, in 3 'layers'

Chris was rather amused with the visual effect of my head separated off my body ;)

A fabulous fruity concoction

We also decided to go hiking around the island. The lil map we had said that it was around “15 minutes” and boyyyyy is it NOT accurate!! We thought we’d be hiking 15mins there, and 15mins back. Turns out the total hike took around 1.5 hours. Along really tiny dirt ‘paths’ too, I might add. And in the dead-of-the-noon sun. Man, it was pretty epic.

At least we got to see 2 GORGEOUS beaches/ocean along the way, and got to swim and snorkel there! The water was super-clear, and we could see straight to the bottom. My only gripe was that the main snorkeling beach didn’t have much sand cos it was a rocky beach. I haaaate feeling rocks under my feet, especially in the water! I like perfect, soft sand and nothing else. I just get squeamish otherwise. So if I had known, I’d have brought along my ‘sea shoes’, those soft socks/shoes that you wear in the water so I can stand on the rocks and not get all squeamish.

The sign says "tsunami evacuation site"!

Gorgeous water views during our hike

A stop by Ter Bay for some incredible snorkeling

Hiking through the forest.... for 1.5 HOURS (?!?!)

At Siam Bay. GORGEOUS.

Soaking in the views

That's me, in a perfect turquoise ocean. I was happy :)

Met a water buffalo on the way home

Just a small food post during our Racha babymoon, cos I’m still going through my photos etc. What I LOVED about our little getaway was that the weather was spot-on perfect. Really warm and bright sunshine in the day, and cool at night. In fact, on the first day it rained overnight, and it was so nice hearing the pitter patter of rain outside.

Of course, I was rubbing my hands with glee just thinking about the hotel breakfast. I’m such a sucker for hotel breakfasts. I ADORE the buffet spread – I mean, all-you-can-eat when you’ve just rolled out of bed mere minutes ago? Bliss!! It just feels so indulgent, and screams HOLIDAY to me :D

The Racha did both Western style and Asian style breakfasts, to cater for all tastes. They have a customise-your-eggs station, and also a station that cooked fresh Belgium waffles that were divine. And can I just say that wandering down to the restaurant, sitting out in the open and watching and hearing the ocean, and chowing down on breakfast…. THIS IS LIFE. If only we could escape reality and live like this every day!

Where we ate breakfast

My Western-style breakfast

My Asian-style breakfast. Man that pineapple fried rice was AMAZING!

My dessert breakfast. The waffle was freakin' fantastic!

We had some random room service and pool-side service lunches, but I didn’t take pics of ‘em all.. I did remember to take this one though. It’s of a very lovely Thai-style fried rice, and spring rolls with gigantic prawns in them.

Room service lunch

One of our more interesting meals was at the backpackers motel, called Raya Resort or something along those lines. It was a very simple bamboo/wood hut built on stilts, on top of the beach. We were fascinated with it because it just looked so local and SO FUN!! I mean, fancy hotel food is always nice.. but nothing beats doing it casual/local style and soaking in the relaxed ambience.

It had very simple plastic tables and chairs, no-frills service, and food served on simple old plates. We were super excited at the thought of having really good local grub, in a very chill setting. However, the prices were pretty touristy! I guess what can we expect since it’s on a remote island, right? The prices actually were only slightly less than the hotel restaurants.

There were little huts on the beach, how cute are they?!

The place where we ate. Looks fascinating, right? We even had to walk on this rickety wooden plank/bridge thing (on the right of the pic) to get there!

They even had these GIANT lizards.. that roamed freely!

Refreshing fresh coconut

The food? The pad thai that we had was a total disaster!! It was weakly-fried noodles with no ‘flavour of the wok’, and reaaallllyyy not authentic at all :( Sad, because it came out very pretty looking, albeit super duper tiny for the price.

Pad thai

The Fried calamari, however, was a winner. Tiny little pieces of calamari deep fried to a golden crisp. I loved the seasoning/batter they used, which was very tasty and oh so addictive, especially when dipped in the sweet chill sauce. YUM!

Fried calamari

Well, we’re off on our Babymoon! We decided on The Racha, which came recommended by a girl friend that stayed there for her honeymoon, and another girl friend that went for her wedding anniversary. So we figure, we can’t go wrong if 2 separate parties have been there and loved it!

It’ll also be my first time apart from Hunter. The longest I’ve been separated from him is a couple of hours. Can we say SEPARATION ANXIETY?????? More on my part, I think ;) He’ll be staying with my parents whom he’s really familiar with, so it’s unlikely he’ll wig out. We’re lucky to have them around, as they’re the ONLY people here I’d trust with my son, because for sure he’ll go mental if he’s realised Chris and I have disappeared and there’s no one looking after him that he’s familiar with – he’s pretty clingy like that. Except, my poor parents have to deal with a young child 24/7 for a couple of days.. because I won’t get him back until Wed next week!

So that’s 4 whole nights separated from him.. I try not to think about it because it feels like my heart will fall out otherwise. I seriously don’t know how people have the courage and stamina manage to go away on extended holidays without their young babies (many of them way younger than Hunter is), and for holidays spanning a WEEK or more! Between the full-time breastfeeding and my desire to be around him 24/7 to make sure everything is going perfectly, it wasn’t til now that we can go away alone, and it’s only for a handful of days. I honestly don’t think my heart could’ve handled been apart from Hunter any earlier..

This also marks our FIRST holiday without baby. Man, the possibilities!!!! We’ll get to loll around doing nothing, and not have our entire lives revolve around Hunter. I won’t even know what to do with myself ;) It also marks our LAST holiday without baby(ies) for a very long time.. because there’s no way we can leave 2 young children with my parents whilst we take off – nor would we ever do something like that! So, from now on after this, it will be a family-of-four holiday for us :)

But, for now, it’ll be sun, surf, and beach for the next few days.. I CAN’T WAIT :D