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Eight owners have already moved in. One said, "We"ll be living here full time from July this year. We love the people, the climate, the scenery, the food and the sea. The Cape is very special: location, location and location, plus the architecture!" said the owner.
Another remarked, "It has been well worth the wait. It's everything we hoped for. The villa is fantastic. We plan to spend a lot of time here - with the views of the sea and islands, it's the perfect place to relax and chill out. I love watching the play of the light on the water and the sun reflecting off the islands." |
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Construction is also coming along well at The Bay, where three villas have been completed, with a further eight to be finished by year's end. Two owners have already moved in to villas at the top of the ridge, with their views of Phang Nga Bay in one direction and Sapam Bay in the other. They, too, have expressed their delight with their homes, and the bright, airy rooms that let the outside in and the inside out. |
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 Phuket's hotels and tourism industry in general are rushing to support a new drive to educate people worldwide in the joys of what used to be called the "low" season in Phuket - from May to October - but which everyone is now referring to as "Phuket Summer Season". The drive revolves around a rapidly growing website at www.summerinphuket. com which seeks to inform tourists about the season from April 30 to November 1.
The website notes that this is "a quiet time of the year but also a time that is often considered by old Phuket hands to be the best time of the year." The weather is cooler, the landscape is greener and lusher, "the beaches are quieter, hotels offer value deals and restaurants don't require bookings." Nick Anthony of Indigo Real Estate, the instigator of the campaign, sees it spreading mainly through viral marketing on the Internet and by word of mouth through networks of associates. Webcams are to be set up at various points on the island and around Phang Nga Bay, to show that when it's raining over |
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Patong, it can be sunny at Cape Yamu or Phi Phi, or vice versa - and that the showers are often over in a matter of minutes. Fifteen years ago, very few people came to the island during these months, and many hotels simply shut down for six months. But since that time, increasing appreciation for the splendours of Summer Season has resulted in a growing number of cognoscenti who prefer to come when others do not, and who enjoy the constant surprises of nature, along with the peace, the quiet and the slower pace of the island at this time. As a result, almost all hotels are now open year-round. Those with homes at The Cape and The Bay - on Phuke's beautiful east coast, the place to be these days - have a ringside seat for the best of the Summer Season's natural displays: shafts of sunlight racing across the water, the interplay of astonishingly blue skies with towering white thunderheads rising over the islands in the distance, the occasional short, sharp squalls that cool the day and leave the garden sparkling, lush and green, and sunsets far more spectacular than any you will see in the so-called "high" season. |
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 Looking for something to hang on the walls of your villa? "The Big Picture", an exhibition of superb photographs - all for sale - will open at the super-stylish Hung Fat's restaurant in Kalim on May 28, with an opening party from 6 to 9 pm.
Featuring a mixture of photos by children from the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation and its affiliate, the Coconut Club, along with amateurs and professional shooters, the exhibition aims to raise funds for the foundation. Set up after the 2004 tsunami by the late Tom McNamara of Baan Rim Pa fame, it now provides English-language education for hundreds of Phuket children. Campbell Kane director Peter Hamilton is chairman of the charity.
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Tickets for the opening, at B1,000 each, will include two glasses of wine and canapes by award-winning chef Aaron Hooper. The number of people admitted will be limited so, although tickets may be available at the door, anyone wishing to be sure of a place should book by emailing 