Fall Break, 2010 -Phuket Thailand

Our school has a week off for Fall Break every October. It is the time many expats here will choose to travel within Japan or to other parts of Asia. This year we decided to take the kids to Phuket, Thailand.  Some of you may remember, Matt took me there for our anniversary in 2008 as a ploy to make me fall in love with Asia and move. Obviously his plan worked (although Japan is NOT Phuket).

We decided to make this a very low key, relaxing vacation as Matt has been working crazy hours and the kids were more than ready for a break from school. So instead of doing a bunch of tours we mainly just explored the areas we were staying and did small activities like Go-Karts, kayaking, swimming, shopping and lots of eating.

We split the trip up and stayed in two different areas. The first was Patong Beach. This area is known for being very busy and full of nightlife, shopping and different types of restaurants.

Looking down one of the shopping alleys in Patong.

Me and my beautiful daughter at dinner.

The kids loved playing in the pool.

Patong Beach

Ronald McDonald thanks us for eating his ice cream

Can you tell Chris enjoyed a burger at the Hard Rock?

Many of the restaurants in this area have fresh seafood for you to select for dinner.

The guys had a need for speed while the girls shopped.

Gas anyone?

You cannot visit Patong without making a stop at the banana pancake cart

After a few days in Patong we wanted someplace a bit quieter and relaxing so we moved on to the new Westin in Siray Bay. It is located about 10 minutes from Phuket Town so it was easy to go into town at night on the shuttle for dinner and some shopping. The area was absolutely stunning and very relaxing.

View from the lobby

My kids

Some beach soccer

Don't we make a cute couple?

Matt's great find

Our whole family loves Thai food.

Our family

The girls were off to explore

An afternoon treat

I treasure each one of these vacations, not because it is a great way to keep my golden color, but it has hit Matt and I hard how short of a time we have left with all our kids at home. They grow up so quickly and the memories and experiences we can have with them now are priceless. I hope when they are our age they can look back at our time as a family with a smile on their face.

You can see many more pictures here. 

Back to Thailand -- James Bond Island

Better late than never, right? I know you (all 5 of my blog readers) have been waiting on abated breath for me to work on some more Thailand entries. So here we go. Our tour of James Bond Island and Phang Nga Bay.

We took a speedboat out from some remote area of Phuket towards Phang Nga Bay. The tour we took to Phi Phi Islands was from this fancy gated community with yachts at the boat docks. The area this tour started from was so remote that the tour and fisherman were the only ones around and it was way out in the middle of no where. Okay I guess we weren't the only ones there. These guys (and about 15 more of their pals) were hanging out too.


As we headed towards the bay our tour guides fed us some awesome tiny bananas, blood oranges (I have never eaten one before) and fresh pineapple. I cannot stress enough how amazing the fruit was over there.

Our boat leaving the docks (and monkeys) behind.

Our ride took off into the middle of the sea and all around us were huge limestone formations, some uncovered and others covered in vegetation. Our first stop was to be at the "bat cave", but thankfully the tide was not at the right spot and we just stayed in the boat. I really was not looking forward to walking through a cave where Thailand bats lived.
Bat cave that you can actually walk through.

After we left the bat cave we headed towards Koh Hong. Here we were to unload onto a big boat stationed in the middle of the sea and get onto tiny sea kayaks.

I have to admit I was a bit freaked. Getting on a tiny kayak in the middle of the sea in Thailand, with who knows what living in the water, was a tad bit unnerving. They gave us a person to paddle and lead us so it really was pretty safe. We took this kayak into "hongs" (caves), through little paths in the water trees and into different rock openings.
Trees along our path in the kayak.

One hong opening was so small that you literally had to lay down flat in your kayak to get inside.
Us getting ready to go through the opening to get inside the rock formation. You can see the couple in front of us laying back to get inside.

Our paddle guy was camera happy. (As you will see with the many pictures of Matt and I on the kayak) But I have to say some of them turned out pretty good.
After we got back on our speedboat they took us to Koh Pannyi, a tiny Muslim fisherman village to eat lunch. The whole village is built on stilts over the water.


When we arrived at the restaurant the meal was already set out on the table. For a person who doesn't eat anything that isn't land bearing it was a bit of an eyeopener.
There was a dish of white rice (which I ate alot of), cooked fresh vegetables (which I also ate alot of), some mystery chicken plate, two whole fish (head and eyes included), some mystery egg dish and soup.

Matt's bowl of soup and yes he ate all of it. (Like the tentacles?)

Outside the restaurant we were able to walk around the docks. There even was a man taking pictures (for a fee of course) with a giant bird. We opted to not be clawed and just took pictures ourselves of the scenery.

After lunch we went to James Bond Island. Ko Tapu or Nail Island, found fame through the 1974 Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun", hence the name James Bond Island.
Matt and I at the top of the stairs on James Bond Island. The upside down rock behind us is a famous landmark.

This was probably one of Matt's favorite places of our whole trip. Not because of the movie (which you would never had known they filmed there if it wasn't for a small sign in at a promotional products gift table selling old copies of the movie) but because of the amazing limestone rocks and caves.


After I managed to drag Matt away from the caves we went back up the stone steps (not something easy when not wearing shoes) we went to a private island to soak up some rays. The tour guide was funny telling us that if we went anywhere past the boat or into the jungle that we would probably not make it back without seeing some sea urchin or deadly snake. Needless to say I just stayed on the sand.
After a very long day we went back to the boat dock where once again we were greeted by these little guys.

As always I have many more pictures from this part of our trip posted here. Matt got a bit carried away with the pictures of the limestones.

Up next? Patong Beach, Phuket and the nightlife.

Planes, planes and a resort

Finally, the long anticipated blog about Thailand. It will only be a peek into the trip, but it is a start.

We left our house April 4th at 5 am. From Raleigh we took a 2 hour flight to Chicago. After a 3.5 hour layover we boarded the plane set for Singapore, via a "small" stop in Hong Kong. I have never been on a 747 airplane so I was in awe watching the 400+ people board. I took a picture of our boarding sign, however I accidentally erased it when switching camera settings. (oops)

While we were not fortunate enough to be in business class and sit on the upper level, we were in a plus section so we had extra room compared to just a regular coach seat (not that really I slept any). Originally when we booked our tickets we were told that our tickets were direct to Singapore. We then found out that we had to stop for fuel in Hong Kong. Little did we know that meant we would have to deplane for 3 hours and switch gates.

Anyways, the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was 15.5 hours. The longest flight I have ever been on was 7 hours to Europe. This flight felt like eternity. Luckily we had 4 movies, 3 meals (one including a "noodle service") and free alcohol. It was so strange looking out the windows as it was always light out.

So finally we landed in Hong Kong where we deplaned, switched gates and wandered around for 3 hours. This was my "first meeting" with Asia. Here is a picture of the view outside the gate in Hong Kong.


I wish I had taken pictures of the food court. Hanging in some windows were whole fried/smoked ducks, parts of chickens and other mystery items. It was interesting to walk past each place just to see the different items. I decided to try a beef and broccoli in a mini-wok with some Chinese tea and it was very tasty. Two thumbs up to the Hong Kong food court (even with the hanging meat).

Back onto the plane we went for the 3.5 hour flight to Singapore. This is what Matt looks like after 24+ hours in the same pair of boxers (excuse the blurriness, I am a bit exhausted at this point).

We land in Singapore just before midnight, on Saturday, April 5. Our flight was set to leave at 7 am so we went and found the transit lounge to shower and refresh. We then wandered around the airport, drank some tea, ate some cheesecake and dozed. The Singapore airport is amazing. It is so clean and, well, sparkly.


So finally after a night in the airport (it was amazing how many people were hanging out there) we were off for a final 1.5 hour flight to Phuket, Thailand. If you add all that up it made 22.5 hours via plane and over 13 hours in airports. **yawn**

The Phuket airport is almost an hour via car from where we were staying and the main beaches. So we out into the humidity like I have never felt, got a driver (boy was it crazy with all the taxis, hired drivers, buses and people) and set off for the Hilton Resort at Karon Beach, our first hotel of the trip. I just took the drive in –– the people, the businesses, the vegetation, the landscaping. At one point I hit Matt and said "Did you see that! They were washing an elephant next to the road!" The driver just laughed. Here are just a few glimpses from the car.


Finally we went through a gated security (they took mirrors and went all around the car) to the welcome lobby of the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa. From there we loaded a tram to the main lobby. This place was huge and beautiful. The most amazing place I have ever stayed. We were told to sit down and the next thing we know a front desk person brought us cools towels with some floral scent to refresh our faces with and fresh juice. I was impressed with the service but as Matt explained to me this is the Thai culture. They do everything and anything to make sure you are happy. Their goal is to serve you. And throughout the whole vacation this was made evident.

After checking in we went to our room and once again I just had to drop my jaw. The room was huge, hardwood floors and the decorations were amazing. The bathroom had a soaker tub, a huge shower and a vanity section that was more than big enough for two people. Sort of what you would expect from a condo hotel, not a regular hotel. The room had fresh orchids and everyday they switched out fresh flowers. The towels were folded into animals. You could just see personal touches everywhere.


Our goal was to change and spend the day getting acquainted with the hotel and more importantly the pool. There were three pools so we chose the one next to the beach and with the least amount of kids.

We spent a few lazy hours by the pool, walked down the beach, took a nap and then wandered out for supper and to check out the area. We found a really good restaurant where I had a pork lo mein, a local beer and ice cream , DH had the same but with prawns, and our bill came to $6 US dollars. Then we retired for the night as we were spending the next day on a snorkeling and beach tour of the Phi Phi islands.

You can check out more pictures from our travel and of the Hilton Resort here. Stay tuned... next up is Phi Phi Islands.