Edward Carter's TRAVELS: Travels In Thailand

Phuket - Bunking (and de-bunking) on one of the most beautiful islands anywhere.

(A 13-minute read)

The Laguna Beach Resorts, Phuket, Thailand

I’m on the beach at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Beach, part of a complex of five resorts on what, 11 years ago, was a polluted marsh, bounded on the south by a long, lovely, crescent beach.

Looking south across the wakes of the ubiquitous jet scooters, I can make out the red-tiled, sweeping roofs of Amanpuri, the resort that in 1989 put both Adrian Zecha’s Aman Resorts and the entire island of Phuket on the map.

In the autumn of that year, I traveled 55,000 miles in 55 days to pick my favorites on all the routes plied by British Airways. They had asked me to write a guidebook for their first class sections and lounges around the world.

As the first traveler to write (quite different from a writer who travels, and much different from a “travel writer”) about Amanpuri and Phuket, my experiences also brought Edward Carter’s TRAVELS© into focus for discerning travelers worldwide who want to know where to go and what to avoid. An excerpt about Phuket, 1989:

“The island of Phuket (pronounced “pooKET”) is a counterpane of lush rubber plantations, swathes of bright green rice paddies, vast coconut-palm forests, deserted white beaches, turquoise translucent water, and rolling hills guardianed by pairs of caribou, barrels of monkeys, and flights of fancy. On top of it all, being in Thailand, visitors are cosseted by the most caring people in the universe.”

Today, in spite of non-stop development, Phuket seems only superficially changed. The palms are still standing, the beaches as white, and the beauty of it all still sends my soul soaring. Granted, security guards have replaced most of the buffalos, but the gentle innocence of the Thais remains steadfast.

Poon, my guide for ten days of bunking and debunking, drove me the back-way from the airport to the Laguna resorts. While the speed of our passage was determined by dump trucks of building materials, we meandered cool groves of rubber trees, and green glades of coconut palms. After twenty minutes of pure, deep country, we came upon carefully orchestrated landscaping that heralded serious resort development.

About ten years ago, Mr. Ping, a brilliant Singaporean business man, bought these stagnant marshes, polluted from years of tin mining operations, and flushed them clean to support five resorts. Poon booked me into The Sheraton Grande Laguna Beach (popular with Asians) because it enjoys the best section of the beach, but I could have chosen The Dusit Laguna (families), The Laguna Beach Resort (groups), The Allamanda (budget-conscious families) or The Banyan Tree (couples). The Banyan Tree is the only one of the five that might be considered competition for nearby Amanpuri that I still consider one of the few, near perfect places in the world.

Linked by shuttles of buses or gussied-up party-barges, guests from any of the five resorts can enjoy the facilities of each of the others, and put all charges on their room. Each has several restaurants and aquatic facilities, and there are fitness centers and shops to please all but the most discerning. (We are talking some 2000 rooms—not quite the same intimacy that the 40 ensure at Amanpuri (even including the 30 privately owned bungalows that can be rented by incoming guests that have been added since my visit.)

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Please email me your travel tales, "postcards," and questions. I'll publish the most interesting, appropriate or outrageous in Correspondence - All the best, Ted (short for Edward)