2017 Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip to Thailand: Arrivals Day / Angsana Laguna Phuket Resort

Hey there. As many of you know, I have just returned from the 2017 Stampin' Up! Incentive trip to Thailand. I thought you might like to see and hear some more about it. I'll have to do it in a series of posts (I'll combine a few days) so as not to break the internet with too many photos. Today I'm posting a look at the resort, and the excitement of day 1.

The Angsana Laguna Resort at Bangtao Beach Phuket was really beautiful! It was around a lagoon, but also backed onto the beach, but in a gated resort complex about 30 minutes north of Patong beach, and about the same distance drive from Phuket International airport. My husband, myself and 2 boys flew in a day early. We were given a beautiful pool room that had a direct entrance into the pool. Here is the amazing view from my room balcony  (we had a climb down ladder straight into the pool from our balcony). We appreciated this as the weather was hot and humid. Most days around 30 with high humidity as it was Monsoon season. The showers when they came were brief and not too bad (everyone just carried on) except for a particularly full on one while we were eating lunch at the pool bar Friday. We were moved under-cover but the water polo game continued! The beach was lovely, and had a massage tent and security guards (great security at the resort), but there must have been some dangerous under-tow in the water as they had the beach closed. I swam every day in the pool though, so don't let hearing it's monsoon season put you off visiting this beautiful resort in July.

 

The pool was amazing and had a swim up pool bar (20m to swim from my balcony to the pool bar and they even had Stampin' Up! trip logo cups)! The fruit smoothies were delicious! The pool wound itself right around the resort and it was so fun to float around and say hello to all the other demonstrators and Stampin' Up! staff (Stampin' Up! had booked out the entire resort). Every afternoon in the main pool, a staff member got a water polo game happening and this was a huge hit with my boys and husband too! We had a few showers of rain, bit no thunder around so most people just stay in the pool. It passes very quickly and it stays hot and humid.

 

The other thing I loved about the resort (well other than the food, spa and comfy lounges everywhere) was the beautiful foliage everywhere. You know how I love my plants! Such beautiful and unusual plants in every shade of green and many other shades! There were beautiful Frangipani plants and Gardenia too, but only a few flowers this time of year. It was a really serene setting to un-wind. Each night, fresh lemongrass oil was put in the oil burner in our room too. Those little touches made it so relaxing.

The resort was especially beautiful at dusk when the lights reflected off the water.

 

 

The food was AMAZING! I had the best green chicken curry of my entire life from room service, and my boys and husband loved the pizza at the poolside restaurant. 

It was exciting seeing the event start to come to life on the Sunday afternoon. Signage started appearing around the resort, Stampin' Up! trip logo cups in the pool bar, beautiful name tags on our doors and a delivery of a tropical fruit basket, with cute embellished tag and (luckily) a description of what each food was and how to eat it!

Back soon with day 2 and 3!

Claire