xmas in thailand

well, today is the shortest day of the year, isnt it? we dont care, we spent this christmas in cape panwa, the southeastern part of the phuket island in south thailand, you know? well, lets turn my blog back to 2019, the last time e've been to one of our most favorite countries in the world. enjoy vie views at the former capital and in europe not too well known city of ayutthaya 🌞

... insights + pictures coming soon .....

any insights?

• unlike the buddhist north, south thailand has a huge muslim population 
• colors, colors, colors ..
• contrast between a clean + nice + friendly luxury hotel and heaps of trash in the streets + beaches + in the see .. .soooo sad, if you asked me
• massage, massage, massage ...
• huge difference between the low and high tide out there. we can swimm only during the high tide. we have a table with 'best time toi swim' in our room, so it is easy to plan our day
• food + drinks here are not that chaep as i would expect. especialy alcoholic beverages like beer is more expensive than in munich / germany in both, supermarkets and restaurants
• labor still quite cheap, so the massage + pedicure + tailor + laundry + other services still much cheaper than comparable services in germany ...
• it is better to exchange money (euros) in the many currency exchange booths than to exchange in banks or withdraw baht from ATMs ...
• our cape panwa hotel?
• a really beautiful, clean an nice place to be. huge seaside rooms and few luxury bungallows with own pools, beautiful arranged garden, a funny 100m tram line from the hotel down to the beach, enough sunbeds + sun umbrellas for all geusts at the beach (and probably also at the 2 pools), free of charge shuttle service to the panway bay down the hill to their sister hotel  'kantary' (it is approx 9 minutes walking distance)
• a private beach, which is cleaned every morning by 2 employees and during the day by me .. you will always find some plastic brought by the waves or left over by tourists
• the most guest are from GB, russia + germany, if you ask me. sometimes you also hear some french + italian speaking folks
• there is a former aristocratic house from approx 1910 directly at the beach, which looks like a museum and functions as a beautiful dining place in the evening. you have to make a reservation, the prices + offers are similar to the main breakfast + dinner restaurant 
• anything else? yes, we miss some thai temples here .... there is just a small chapel like tempel down the road between our hotel and the publich
•  panwa bay

more pictures LATER here.