Last weekend, we took our first trip since arriving in
Singapore. Fortunately, it was a much easier flight to prepare for (1.5 hours)
compared to our trip out here (19 hours). We visited Phuket, Thailand - a
beautiful island. We stayed at Le Meridien resort. This place was amazing and
we want to thank friends of ours (who shall remain nameless to avoid people
hunting you down for hotel bargains…but you know who you are) who helped us get
a great rate. The trip happened to coincide with my birthday – I couldn’t have asked
for a better way to spend my birthday than with my family in Thailand. Perfect.
After researching, we determined we wouldn’t need additional
vaccinations. Of course, the CDC will tell you to get everything to go
anywhere, but we didn’t want to subject ourselves to unnecessary shots. We’ll
likely need to load up for trips to Vietnam or mainland Thailand. It looks like
we’ll need Typhoid, Hep B and Japanese Encephalitis (pronounced “snuffleupagus").
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| Are you sure these are street legal? |
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| Smile...and pretend you're not scared |
As with much of Asia that I’ve seen, traffic is pretty
hectic. In Phuket, the preferred mode of transport is motorcycle/scooter and the preferred speed is fast. Also,
most of the taxis seem really unsafe. They are basically trucks where the back
is converted to a covered wagon. Also, a word of advice to anybody planning to
visit and use a taxi from the airport – put your head down and don’t stop
walking until you’re outside of the airport terminal by the road. Otherwise,
you’ll pay 2-3x as much as you should for a taxi because private companies try
to take advantage of you inside the terminal. And if you’re open to sharing a
ride, you can pay even less. Fortunately, our friends gave us this advice
before we got there.
As I mentioned, our hotel was amazing. We spent the first
day relaxing at the pool/private beach. Twice a day, they have an baby elephant (well, toddler - 2.5
years old) walk around the pool and beach. It was very cool and Avery loved it.
We took some good video of it. Hopefully, the link below will work. Also, the
hotel was even better than they probably realized. When we got back from dinner
on Saturday night (my birthday), there was a birthday cake waiting but it was
addressed to somebody else. They actually had no idea it was my birthday and
made a mistake in sending it to me. So I ate it.
We visited the town of Patong both nights we were in
Thailand. The area is full of activity – bars, restaurants, clubs. It was a
little overwhelming. You could pretty much just get dropped off anywhere and
you’ll find something. And we could tell when it was time to go home…when the ratio
of ladyboys to boys was more than 1. And if you wondering what they do during the
day, they served us at Dunkin Donuts at the airport on Sunday. Anyway, moving right along...
On Sunday, we went on a speed boat/snorkeling/beach tour of
Phi Phi Island. This is a group of Islands in Thailand that became famous
because it’s where the movie The Beach was filmed with that heartthrob Leonardo.
We were skeptical about an all-day trip with Avery, but she did great. So glad
we went. We did some snorkeling, saw some monkeys and did some diving. Avery
got in a quick nap (as did mommy and daddy) on the ride back. I'll let the pictures do the talking for this:
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| Hard to see, but there are fish all around me |
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| Monkeys!! |
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| Is there a more beautiful site? |
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| Is that Leonardo?! |
While Avery is pretty popular in Singapore, she was a celebrity
in Phuket. She got so much attention walking through the streets of Patong…to a
point of being a little uncomfortable with all of the cheek pinching. She also
got extra special treatment by the crew on our tour of Phi Phi Island. There
was one tourist on the beach that stopped taking pictures of his wife when he
saw Avery and started taking pictures of her instead. That guy is probably blogging right now "we saw beautiful islands, monkeys and blonde babies."
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| Taking a break from the paparazzi |
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