The View Rawada Phuket

The view part of The View is not a lie. It is situated on top of a hill that looks east over bay. It is high enough that the view is lovely, especially in the morning when the sun is rising -- or some evenings when the moon is rising. The infinity pool is picturesque, and the restaurant overlooks the whole thing. In the evening, there were dozens and dozens of large bats, like squadrons, that flew north directly overhead. The lowest ones were maybe thirty feet or so overhead. I asked my restaurant server whether they were birds or bats, and she said 'bird'. Whether it was a language barrier or her local zoological knowledge is lacking, I disbelieve her. They looked like bats. And they all came out at once at evening... But, I am American and I'm used to our bats that fly around like their drunk, diving left and right for mosquitos. This was some stately bat flying. The bats here eat fruit. So they don't need to fly crazily to chase insects. Honestly, the bats were my favorite part. If they were bats. One consequence of high location of The View and the general quality of Phuket roads, is that it is not very accessible. Lots of guests -- many looking like Russian mobsters with their moll girlfriends -- rented scooters, which is smart. The road up is not wide enough for two cars in many places, and it is quite steep in places. So once you've stared out at the view for several long moments, eventually you go, Now what? There is nothing walking distance. It's like a 45 minute walk past a couple refuse dumps to get to the water, and this part of Phuket doesn't have a nice beach. It is pretty central, though, so you can use Grab to get anywhere in south Phuket cheaply. It is close enough to Chalong Pier, from which depart daily an armada of scuba boats, that a dive shop picked me up and dropped me off for my day of diving. The restaurant is good and the staff was friendly. My only complaint, besides the servers not telling me I was looking at bats, is that there was no spa. Because it had 'resort' in the title, I thought I could get a massage.