Travel / Phuket
Kata-tonic
PHOTOS / KIERAN NASH; BOATHOUSE PHUKET
Kieran Nash soaks up the luxury at Kata Beach, Phuket.
T
his time, there were no barbed wire-strewn snow cliffs to fall off. There were no mountainous walls of water threatening to smash me into sharp rocks. There were no dodgy amusement park rollercoasters to plunge me to my death. There wasn’t really much of anything I did in Phuket, and for once, this was just fine. Let me explain. Every time I go travelling, it’s with a mentality of “get amongst it!” So each new country provides a new opportunity to die, or at least be horribly maimed. People who go on holiday to a resort, only leaving the confines of five-star luxury to swim at the nearby beach, are usually targets of my scorn – why travel if all you’re going to do is stay in your hotel, eat, and laze
Below: The sun sets over the southern end of Kata Beach. Right: Surf’s up! Far right: The Boathouse Wine & Grill, and RE KA TA lifestyle club.
around at the beach? Well, as they say, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it – and now that I have, that snobbish attitude has magically disappeared. I was staying at Boathouse Phuket, a long-serving fixture of Kata Beach, about a twenty-minute motorbike ride south from tourist landmark Patong Beach. Boathouse has been around for more than 20 years, and last year underwent a renovation led by French designer Fredo Taffin, who fused classic architectural symmetry with modern chic to create a laid-back atmosphere which manages to ooze luxury at the same time. Walking in to Boathouse’s lobby, I could look right through the restaurant to the burnished turquoise of the Andaman Sea, looking more relaxing than a drip full of morphine. After a cold drink and a chat in the bar, I was shown to the
36 anza June 2012
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5/16/2012 4:36:37 PM