Back before things got so messy worldwide, I took a little trip to see my good friends Jeff and Tori and their wonderful family. Friends from Seoul, they left Korea with one kiddo and not four years later are now a family of five! Life has become quite a dance!
We chilled, caught a few sunsets, and even got a minute to watch Parasite (Go SoKo!). Tori, her mom, and I even popped down to Phuket Town for a little getaway.
I hadn’t heard a lot about Phuket Town before I arrived. I had chosen our hotel fairly last minute and figured it would be a nice change of pace to be able to walk and wonder in town.
The first thing I noticed was the facade of the buildings. The majority of the structures were two stories high, featuring a storefront on the ground level and a living space above.
The shutters, columns, and corrugated roofs seemed reminiscent of Hanoi to me, a fusion of Asian and European. Turns out, it’s an architectural style all it’s own called Sino-Portuguese.
As history goes, the Portuguese came to Phuket in the 1500s. Phuket became a booming trade capital, with tin as its major export. Rubber followed shortly thereafter. As they set up shop, the Portuguese hired Chinese workers to build their port town. The result was the style which is still present today, also known as Chinese Baroque.
Our hotel turned out to be the most beautiful gem of all. The Woo Gallery & Boutique Hotel makes it feel like you are sleeping in an art gallery. Essentially, we were, as the front of the building boasts an in-home museum full of trinkets collected by the owner’s father-in-law. The home has been in their family for three generations, with their ancestors coming from China to make their fortunes in the mining industry.
When the present owners took the space back from renters, they undertook a multi-year renovation from top to bottom. The female proprietor designed every aspect of the space herself, researching historic tiles, woods, and glass to bring to life the glorious vision you see today.
Collections of pottery and artifacts from far reaching cities like Penang, Singapore, Shanghai, and Delhi enrich the space, adding to it’s unique ambiance. We were lucky enough to have a private tour of the rooms and collections. All three of us left awestruck and inspired.
I spent the last few nights at a B&B run by a Finnish couple, close to Jeff & Tori’s place. Night swimming beneath the palm trees was magical and I tried to soak it in, knowing that this might be my last opportunity to travel for a while.
On my last night in town, Tori and the kids took me to a restaurant run by a friend of theirs called Artisan. Another gem, it was the perfect send-off from Thailand, capped off by time hanging out with Garvey under the lanterns. Thailand is truly a special place made infinitely more wonderful by dear friends.
Meg in Moscow 