My idea of a great 'doing life differently' day

It’s an early start for us as I'm taking you into Phuket Town. I'm very keen for you to see the monks walking barefoot around their neighbourhood streets collecting food from the locals and providing blessings. 'Tak baht' is the name of this daily Buddhist ritual.

In the distance I can see the monks slowly making their way towards us. This gives us plenty of time to select the perfect mix of food offerings. I pick chicken and rice boxes, sticky rice and coconut custard sweets wrapped in banana leaves and a yellow and red curry. You also get to pick your offerings.

We gather on the side of the road with the local Thais who are also waiting with their offerings. We take our shoes off as it’s important to always appear lower than an monk. It's all about respect. Thais will generally kneel in front of them but thankfully it’s not expected that we do that.

We stand in a line and the monk dressed in his distinctive saffron robes approaches. He has a large alms bowl and he removes the lid. One-by-one we place our food in the bowl. We all bow our heads, put our hands together in front of our face in what the Thais call a 'wai' and the monk chants a blessing for us all. This only lasts a minute or so and no words are exchanged with the monk. 'Making merit' through the giving of food enables the monks to survive, they don't cook. They take the food back to the temple and share it with the other monks. I love starting the day doing this.

The local fresh market is nearby and it's bustling at this time of the morning. The farmers all bring their freshly picked produce to the market in the wee hours. It's still very common for locals to shop daily at their local market. The variety and abundance of fruit and vegetables has us stopping often so I can explain many of the unusual offerings.

I've got so much I want to show you as a Thai fresh food market is a place I enjoy spending time at. There are huge mounds of curry paste that's sold by weight and fresh coconuts being split and their flesh ground out. This is then squeezed producing the most incredible creamy pure white milk.

The stall sellers have been up since about 3am stocking their shops and selling.There's fresh whole fish, chicken with every single part of the bird available for sale, pork but rarely beef. The noodle stalls sell white flat rice noodles, golden eggs noodles and bags of cooked sticky rice. Huge bags of uncooked rice of every variety is sold by weight. The place is crowded and smelly but it has a buzz about it that you only find in Asian markets.

We sit within the market and enjoy all sorts of breakfast treats I've picked up as we've walked around. I drink Thai cold tea 'cha yen' and there's plenty of hot or iced coffee you to choose from.

Into the back streets we wander as this is where the history of Phuket is best experienced. Most houses are still shop houses and the streets are narrow. The people who own them have their business on the ground floor and they live above. This area of Phuket has a fascinating history dating back to when the town was famous for tin mining and the Chinese flooded in looking to make their fortune. Their influence is still very evident today.

I show you the various styles of architecture that have evolved over many years and you can see the European influences. The striking vibrant colours these buildings are now painted amaze you.

Before we leave the area I want you to try the local noodles. As it’s now lunch time we pull up a plastic stool in what looks more like someones cluttered living room. Thankfully there's a fan close by as we're sitting in an open air room and it's stinking hot.

I order a variety of noodle dishes for you to try. Some with soup some without, some spicy some not. You chase these slippery noodles around your bowl with your chopsticks and once caught you slurp them up. The fresh vegetables and herbs that are sprinkled on top make them extra delicious. Icy cold tangy lemon tea is our drink.

There are so many options that could fill the afternoon but I settle on taking you to the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. Spending time with these majestic animals is always a delight particularly as we're able to watch them frolicking in the water. Once they've cooled off they slowly make their way towards us as we have a huge basket of bananas to feed them.

A refreshing swim at Kata Beach is much needed after a day out and about. The water temp is 27 and we're lucky tonight as the setting sun puts on a stunning show as it sinks below the horizon. Soon after the sun disappears the clouds turn candy pink and tangerine. We stay in the water until it's dark and reluctantly leave.

I offer to take you clubbing. We arrive at Bangla Road, Patong around 10pm and the place is heaving with tourists. It's a complete sensory overload for you until we step into my favourite dance club and find a table. The staff are attentive and the cocktail list gets a good work out by us. We dance and laugh and the people watching has us all captivated. The DJ knows how to get the crowd up on the dance floor and we don't need much encouraging. It's hard to believe it's 2am but that's what happens when time really doesn't matter. The street is busier now than it was at 10pm and we snake our way through the crowds towards the tuk-tuk taxi stand and home we go.

And that's a day of 'doing life differently' with me! Thanks for coming along.