Phuket, Thailand

Sa-wat dee! That is hello in Thai!

Our trip to Phuket, Thailand was nothing short of paradise. Our 6 hour flight to Bangkok went by quickly with unlimited movies for Kaleigh and Ashlyn to watch on our Emirates flight. Then we had a 3 hour layover before our 1 hour flight to Phuket. We stayed at the Laguna Beach Resort and really had a terrific room with a fantastic view of the Andaman Sea and of the resort's water park. The girls had traditional Thai beds to sleep on, which are basically mattresses on a raised platform in a corner of the room. Their platform was surrounded by windows, behind which they liked to hide from us! Kaleigh and Ashlyn loved visiting with the resort's resident elephants - Anna and Sara. They would sneak them food from the breakfast buffet each morning (as did almost all of the kids!) and the elephants would happily take the pineapple, watermelon, and bananas from the girls. Sara the elephant is 2 years old and still has her "baby hair," which stands up about 4" all over her.
The Easter Bunny made a special visit to Kaleigh and Ashlyn while we were in Phuket. He left them baskets and eggs to hide. He couldn't hide them the night before due to a bad thunderstorm, so we got to hide them on Sunday morning. We met a very sweet expat family from New Jersey (now living in Kobe, Japan) and we decided to go elephant trekking together. Mike, Ilena, and Lauren went with us and their son Jacob stayed at the Laguna Beach's Kids' Club. Kaleigh and Lisa paired up on one elephant on our trek and Dwayne and Ashlyn shared another. We had to climb onto a platform to "board" the elephants and then we proceeded into a creek, up a steep hill, and into the rubber tree forest. Other than the sound of the elephants crunching the ground below, the forest was completely silent. At one point Lisa/Kaleigh's elephant "driver" - who basically sat on the elephant's head - pulled off a long piece of rubber from one of the trees. It was very sticky and looked like a long piece of raw bacon. At the end of our elephant trek, we were able to visit a nearby Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. Each gibbon had his or her own very sad story as to why they had ended up at the Center. Many had missing fingers or hands, or were impaired in some other way due to being kept illegally as pets and/or mistreated. Now they can live as naturally as possible in this Center. One night, Dwayne, Lisa, Mike, and Ilena went over to Patong Beach while all the kids stayed back at the resort with their babysitting service. The kids had a great time riding on a boat, participating in a magic show, and eating as much junk food as they could cram into their mouths. Our visit to Patong Beach was entertaining as well, but perhaps in a different way! We had dinner at a fantastic restaurant on the beach - our tables were literally in the sand. After dinner the four of us walked around and decided to take a closer look at one particular area. We noticed that every restaurant started to have "poles" out in front and maybe not all of the women were actually as they seemed! We had a lot of fun looking but walked through rather quickly! A quick trip to a 7-11 quenched our thirst and we headed back in a taxi to the Laguna area. Patong Beach and Laguna Beach are definitely two different worlds...both interesting in their own ways! The rest of the week was spent playing in the waterpark, shopping and bargaining with the local vendors on the beach, visiting Phuket's Butterfly garden, and then we took a trip to the FantaSea show on Wednesday night. It was a spectactular show with magic, dancing, acrobatics, fireworks, live animals, and oh yes...the dancing elephants. Kaleigh and Ashlyn especially loved getting to pose with a baby tiger before the show started and seeing the elephants. At the butterfly garden, we were able to literally immerse ourselves in butterflies! We saw leaf butterflies...butterflies whose wings resemble the leaves amongst which they live. Those were really amazing. When their wings were closed, you wouldn't notice them. Upon opening their wings, we were amazed to see such brilliant colors! Kaleigh and Ashlyn were treated to hair braiding down by the beach. At one time, Kaleigh had 5 different ladies working on her hair! Lisa also went down to the beach for a Thai massage. She came back looking very relaxed and was feeling pretty good after that!

We left Phuket feeling very relaxed and wanting more of Thailand. The people were so kind and really just wanted us to be happy. We hope to go back again one day!