We had found a place called "Home Kitchen" in our guidebook so after a long taxi ride to the other side of town, found ourselves in an open-air restaurant with reasonable prices and authentic Thai cuisine. It was some of the best Thai food that we had on the trip. Our taxi ride home was a bit of an adventure as we passed right through the middle of town where the large water fight for Songkran was going on. For the Thai New Year, the tradition is to have a city-wide water fight where everyone is armed with water guns and buckets. It gets a little crazy, and we couldnt even get into our hotel without being squirted by local kids. Traffic was at a standstill due to all the people trying to cross the streets and get home. We were a little worried that our taxi would run out of gas and that we would be caught in the middle of the festivities, but thankfully we made it out if the traffic jam and had enough gas to get back to the hotel.
Thursday morning our flight was leaving by 8:45 so we got to the airport to enjoy an American breakfast of Dunkin Donuts. Once we landed in Phuket we got a taxi for 550 baht to our amazing, beautiful resort right on the beach! We dropped our bags into the rooms, found some delicious food on the beach, then settled onto lawn chairs next to one of the many pools to bake for awhile in between sliding down the water slide and sitting in the water drinking fresh coconut water straight from the coconuts. It's quite refreshing! By mid-afternoon we needed a break from the sun so we explored a little more. The resort is right on the beach, but directly in front of it are several shacks containing food and souvenirs. We walked farther down the beach and found a place offering Thai massages so we jumped at the chance for another one. Big mistake. The quality of them compared to the ones from the massage school on Bangkok was quite a cut under. Added to the fact that they were massaging over sunburns and it did not make for a relaxing hour. Although we did get some laughs out of them arching our backs on their knees putting us up in the air like we were flying. Once it was over we met up with Christy who had stayed behind to do some work and found a restaurant with chairs and tables planted into the sand. We ordered some food and relaxed with the waves lapping at our feet, watching a beautiful sunset.
Friday morning we let ourselves sleep in and then enjoyed the free breakfast where they had a huge variety of yummy foods. There was a complete mix of American and Thai and of course delicious fruit! We were getting short on cash so headed into the lobby to catch a taxi. Once there we met the resort's personal elephant Meena! She is a little over 2 years old and eats 67 lbs of food a day but still a small elephant and far from full grown. She wrapped her trunk around our necks for a hug and kiss and when the trainer put a harmonica into the end of it, she blew into it and played music for awhile. She was quite good at it! Basically, she was so cute we wanted to play with her all day. She wanders around the resort all day with a bell around her neck and her keeper never far behind. She seemed to be a very happy elephant. The resort is owned by the same company that owns the surrounding 4 or 5 resorts so they have their own little shopping village with the one ATM that they will drive you to for free. Once we got our cash we browsed all the over-priced shops and found some pretty cool stuff. Some of you might get presents! Once back at the resort Amanda and Aubrey decided to do some batik painting. The shop had different designs outlined by wax on pieces of cloth. After you paint your piece, they treat it then boil it to removed the wax and you are left with the design. It takes a few hours to do and a full day to dry, but the pictures turn out amazing! It is kinda like painting with water colors but on fabric. While they did that, Char and Christy hung out on the beach and swam in the ocean. The ocean is almost bathwater warm but unfortunately, since they have had so much rain recently, there are left over tentacles from the jelly fish floating around and you can't swim without feeling tiny little stings the whole time. It is a bit bizarre. Once Amanda and Aubrey had finished their Batiks they met us on the beach for a late lunch, while at the same time bartering prices down on a dress for Aubrey and Christy at the shop right next to the restaurant. After that we bought some amazing art work from the local artist on the resort. We had it de-framed in the hopes that it would be easier to travel with but it is still in long large tubes that have ended up costing us quite a bit in gold for extra baggage fees.
We decided to continue to shop around and ended up at a travel booth where after talking down the price, we booked a boat trip for the next day. Then it was back to the pools to cool down and try to catch a few more rays of sunshine. Aubrey and Char headed to the beach for a few minutes while Amanda and Christy went to freshen up. Another elephant named Lily was walking down the beach with her owner on her back. She was 4 and a bit larger than Meena but just as playful and cute. Aubrey had fun getting more kisses, hugs and handshakes til it was time for Lily to continue on her way. We watched another beautiful sunset while playing in oceans breaking waves. After that it was time to rinse off and then have another good meal with our toes in the sand. We decided to try to turn in at this point as we had a early checkout so we could catch our bus to the boat trip.
Saturday morning we headed to the lobby to check out of the hotel and to check out luggage. Char and Christy had a quick breakfast while Amanda and Aubrey searched for the camera that had gotten placed in the wrong bag in the scramble. I think the bell hops thought we were crazy since we pretty much unpacked and repacked all of out bags in the lobby... After finding the camera we barely had time for a croissant before our van picked us up for the island excursion. After a short ride over we were thrilled to learn that fins were not included in our trip, so not wanting to snorkel without then we all forked over another 100 baht before getting on our boat. The boat trip we decided to take was to the islands of Krabi. We had a total of five stops at different islands. We were happy to see that there was plenty of drinks, pineapple, and cookies to snack on along the way. Our first stop was about an hour away on our speed boat to Hong Island. We had to stop there first because the tide rises and lowers 4 times a day and when it is low boats can't go through it because all that's left when the tide is low is sand. This was our white beach and snorkeling stop and we loved swimming and feeding fish in the pretty clear waters. Our next stop was at the Kai-Thab-Mo islands. Also with a beautiful white sandy beach and fun snorkeling. Our third stop was off the Kai Islands. This Island is what they call "chicken" island because it is shaped like a chicken. We however debated that it was a little more shaped like a camel but it was still a cool looking island either way :) Before heading to the beach of Koh Kia we anchored the boat and did deep water snorkeling. We were careful to watch the sea urchins as we swam around trying to take pictures of the fish. Taking pictures of fish with a underwater camera is more challenging than would would think, but we ended up with a few fun shots! Our fourth stop was at Rai Le Cove. we had a delicious lunch on the beach which was a mix of Thai dishes and fruit. We wandered around a bit looking at the shops and ended up sitting in the shade till it was time to head back to the boat. Our final stop for our trip was at Phra Nang Cave. The beach and water were not quite as nice as the rest of our stops but we were able to find some sand dollars in the water and soak up more rays on the beach. One cool thing about the Island is that it is where one of Thailand's main rock climbing competitions is held. There actually is a competition happening next week so we were able to watch a few climbers who were practicing. It looked like a lot of fun but I'm sure would be a very difficult climb. After reloading on the boat for the final time we ate some watermelon before heading to the deck for our return trip back to the dock. We had about an hour ride so we enjoyed the rush of the air on the way back. Feeling rather toasted at this point we were happy to arrive back at the hotel. We picked up Amanda and Aubrey's Batiks and then heading back to the beach for dinner. We had delicious Pineapple fried rice, pad Thai and of course mangos and sticky rice. Then it was time for a shower and back to the airport to head to Bangkok. The taxi was more expensive this time because the hotel has a "waiting" fee for the local drivers.... Pretty much they know you are stuck so they get to charge you more haha. Our flight arrived back into Bangkok and we didn't get settled into our hotel until around 11:30. We had to repack all of our bags and figure out what else we could carry on because we had been paying way too much for luggage and didn't want to continue with that trend. We got to bed after midnight and during the night char's phone rang twice so sleep was scarce. Once when it rang she thought it was the alarm and started getting ready for the day before she realized it was only 2:30 a.m. Haha. The real alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. and we scooted off to the airport, still mostly asleep. Once in Hanoi we checked our baggage into lockers and set off to the St. joseph's Cathedral near the old French quarters where we had stayed before. Christy had told us about a cafe near there called Joma Cafe where we would be able to have good food and wifi. We wanted to support it as they employ Hagar women, (women rescued by the organization Hagar that have been abused, etc and are given counseling and training to get back into the work world). We are sitting here now eating delicious croissants, soups and salad and catching you up on our trip. Love to you all!
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