DAY 2 (Tuesday 3/22)
As I was falling asleep last night I heard a lot of "jungle" noises that I anticipated would keep me up at night, but instead the deafening buzz of the cidadias, croaking frogs, and other foreign sounds lulled me to sleep like a rain storm. The kids and I got right on schedule for the most part. Austin rolled off of his bed in the middle of the night and came and snuggled between me and Taylor, and then they both didn't wake up until 7:30!
We quickly dresses, anxious to explore our home (as Austin like to call it). We walk slowly to breakfast trying to take everything in. We can still hear the cicadias buzzing. When they all get going it is as loud as a helicopter right next to you. I'm not sure the pattern to their noise making, but it comes and goes randomly through out the day and night.
The breakfast was so good. Especially after airplane food, which wasn't bad...for airplane food. I eagerly tried all of the local fruits, most I've never headr of before. Dragon fruit, rose apples, yellow plum, mini bananas, and others that I don't know the names of but look like oversized grapes with a thicker skin. I wasn't particularly fond of them except for the mini bananas and the dragon fruit which is white with little seeds that look like poppy seeds dotted through out. Tracy said at the hotel in Phuket their is a class for how to cut and eat the local fruits..I think I'll have to look into that. I check out the omlette station, grab some pineapple juice (my favorite!), can't pass up a slice of french toast and a silver dollar sized pancake. Oh and I MUST have a tiny banana muffin. There are tons more to choose from, but we will be here for a few more days. I have to save some for later!
After eating we headed off to the pool for our first whole day in Thailand. After a few hours of slashing about, we ordered ice cream! I wish I had snapped a picture, but I was more concerned with the vanilla vs. chocolate delema. They brought us out homemade ice cream in a smooth waffle bowl with a mint leaf on top. I decided on chocalte, I am a Peterson, and LOVED it. It is a very natural chocolate taste, a little bitter, straight from coco. Austin is kind enough to share a bite of his vanilla with me. It was to die for! The best vanilla I have ever tasted. I have to admit, I liked it better than the chocolate!
Later we headed down to the beach for some fun in the sand. We built a sand castle and then rinsed off in the 85-90 degree water. It is warm but still refreshing. Honestly, the perfect temperature. Austin's life vest had started to give him a rash on his cheeks and when we went in the water it burned. He then started referring to the ocean as "hot water". So we quickly got out and walked the 10 steps to our villa to wash off with regular water.
We walked down the beach for lunch and discovered these large cabanas under a huge trees right on the water. And to our delight...we can order lunch while lounging about! I got the best pesto I have ever had. The brought our food out to us complete with "breakfast in bed" trays.
After lunch and more swimming, we decide to go for an exploration walk through the jungle, but when the rain started, we settled for a golf cart ride up to the other pool. Did I say settled? Because view here is DEFINITELY second to nothing. I can't even begin to describe. I will have to post pictures, but even those can't capture all of the vivid colors and sharp contrasts. I have never thought a camera or my photography skills more incapable.
After checking everything out we ordered dinner to the room and headed back to shower and get in out pjs.
We ate while watching Kung Fu panda then headed off to bed!
DAY 3 (Wednesday 3/24)
We woke up around the same time today. I was really missing Josh. The internet in our room didn't work and we had to try and find someone to fix it for us. So I was only able to email at the office center. :-( Got the kids dressed and then headed to breakfast and Jeff went on a diving trip.
At breakfast there is a woman who works there and she absolutely LOVES Taylor and Austin. Actually just about everyone loves them. The culture here is so kid friendly. Everyone smiles, waves, and loves to play games with them. She comes over and talks to them, and brings them hot chocolate, so of course she is now the kids' favorite person as well :-) I tried some more yummy things like breakfast potatoes with mushrooms and bell peppers and Tracy showed me where to find chocolate filled crossants! My mom and I shared those every day when we were in Portugal, I was so excited to see them here! Obviously I had one, or maybe two!
We decided to do some more exploring so we took a walk through the "jungle" (a bridge/walkway that connects the pool area to the reception area) to the spa. I can't imagine a more beautiful or relaxing place to get a message. Each outdoor room has it's own mini garden and heated tub/spa. The surrounding grounds have a gentle waterfall, koi pond, and more greenery than I have ever seen. I'm almost on overload coming from Arizona to here. Good thing I had those few days in Northern California to act as a buffering zone.
After we finished exploring we head to the pool and of course got ice cream again! This time I ordered vanilla! Then down to the beach. While Austin took a nap. The internet was fixed now so I quickly called Josh via google talk and finally got to talk for a few minutes!
Taylor and I had a blast digging holes, building a castle, and then just floating in the ocean like a blob of seaweed.
We started to get pretty hungry and so we headed to the room just as Austin was waking up. We ordered lunch in and watched Cinderella III while we ate and let Austin wake up a little more. While the kiddos finished their movie me, Tracy, and Jeff packed up our stuff to switch rooms. We had two options for rooms here, a beach villa on the sand or a pool villa with its own pool, that is what I would normally call "on the beach" but by the standards here isn't close enough for that title. So the decision was made that we would split the time between the two! Great thinking! :-)
I was blown away AGAIN when I we got to our new villas. The two rooms are connected by a viranda with a couch, a huge bed sized lounge, a dining table, tv, pond with frogs, pool, 4 lounge chairs, and a stunning ocean view. And If I thought the outdoor shower was cool at the previous villa, this one has an outdoor bath as well! After getting settled in, we spent the remainder of the day swimming in our own private pool! Then we headed down to the beach to play some more and check out the stellar sunset. We spotted a little "hole in the beach" (there are no walls here, just sand and sky) restaurant to eat dinner, and I am so glad we did. The place is called "Same Same, But Different". I tried a coconut drink for the first time, it was just a coconut with a hole in the top and a straw. It wasn't my favorite, which suprised me because I LOVE coconut on just about anything, but it was still fun to order it and try it. Have to try everything atleast once right? The food here was great! My favorite was the Tai Pan Noodles and the Yellow Curry. SOO good! The kiddos started falling asleep at the table, so we headed back and then went to bed!
DAY 4 (Thursday 3/24)
Today we woke up to a dark sky. In the not so far distance we could see a storm rolling in! We headed to breakfast as quick as we could so that we could eat and get back before the rain hit us. We didn't quite make it and borrowed umbrellas to get back to our "house". We changed into our pajamas and curled up on the "bed" on the patio to watch some movies, since swimming was not an option due to the storm. After Cars and another movie (I can't remember what it was) the storm let up and we rushed to change and jump into the pool.
Tracy and Jeff went for massages and when they got back we ordered lunch and then took naps.
While the kids slept I updated my blog. When everyone woke up we headed down to the beach to play some more, watched the sunset, then came back for dinner on the patio. I ordered seafood fettacini which turned out to be more like a seafood suprise. Definitely not a good choice. Oh well. We fell asleep watching "Meet the Robinsons". Okay, I know what you're thinking...that is a lot of movies, aren't you in Thailand, yes, but due to the rain we had to, and also when else can you sit on a huge bed sized lounge chair, outside, listening to the ocean, watching the sunset, and watch a movie. Never.
I set my alarm for 2:30 am so I can talk to Josh 12:30pm his time. It is soooo good to be able to actually TALK to him and not have to email. I miss him SOOO much.
DAY 5 (Friday 3/25)
Wake up, breakfast, Jeff went on a diving trip, so me Tracy and the kids went for a walk down the beach. The kids collected handfulls fo shells (I love that its legal to do that here!) and we check out the bungalows and food places at the other end of the beach. Then we walk up and down the crazy cool dock once more, then I'm off to get my pedicure!
When Tracy and Jeff went to the spa they found out that there is a 500 baht credit to the spa for every adult in the group! A pedicure is 900 baht (about $27) and with 500 baht off, how can I resist! It was really nice to relax and have someone rub my feet. I chose a purply-pink shade of polish to match my bathing suits (yes I am a matchaholic, but lets not get into that now). I was a little embarrassed at the state of my feel pre-pedicure because I had the MOST calloused feet, even by my standards. I love running, but obviously hate blisters, so I leave my feet on the rough side. Plus I pretty much never wear shoes. I wont go into details but my pedicure did involve a tool that slightly resembled a gormet cheese shaver, which given my recent incedent I'm shocked I didn't cringe at the sight of it! But all was well and I now feet that are the smoothes they have ever been, probably ever!
I stopped by the gift shop on my way back and some local bug spray, I've been getting eaten alive and I figure the locals probably have a pretty good remedy for this seeing as how they deal with the little buggers everyday! I got back to the villa, talked to Josh, changed into my swim suit and read Confessions of a Shopoholic while Tracy and Taylor got pedicures and Austin took a nap. Everyone got back around the same time, so we headed down to the main pool and ordered some lunch.
Tracy and Jeff went to the Spa while the rest of us headed down for some beach fun! Austin overcame his aversion to the "hot water" now that his cheeks are all better. We walked out into the water and kept walking and walking and walking. It never got deep! Finally we stopped when the water was a little higher than my belly button because Austin was getting nervous about how far out we were. Taylor could still touch on his tippy toes and Austin had on his floaties, so we just bobed away and talked for a while. Then we decided to grab some "surf boards" and come back out. Austin sat up on his while his legs straight in front of him and loved every second of it, especially when the waves rolled under him! We came back to shore to build a sand castle and then rested on a bed/lounger on the sand.
When Tracy and Jeff met back up with us we headed up to the upper pool for our last sunset at on this island. The shuttle up was an interesting one. The cart filled up and more people were coming and so the driver asked if I would sit in the front. Without thinking I moved to the front (which is separated from the back of the car like a taxi would be) and then hmmmm...why didn't the people coming just sit in the front. Thats when he started asking if I'd been here before and that he had worked there for 3 years (with a huge smile!) I looked back behind me to see Tracy giggling a little bit. Then out of no where came the.. "So....you wedding?" Guys really are guys no matter where you are. "Yes, I'm married. My husband is in the US." Then he very nicely asked how long I had been married and then we reached our destination. That was probably the most akward car/cart rides of my life and probably the only time I've ever wished I wasn't in a bathingsuit with a towel wrapped around. (Josh, Morgan, and Nick....I think I found the prime canadate for Thai Josh, but I thought it would be rude to take a picture!) :-)
We got to the pool just minutes before sunset and we saw honestly the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen from the most perfect location ever. We all sat in these underwater bench-like seats at the edge of the infitiy pool on a cliff over the ocean. The pictures are amazing, but even those only capture a fraction of the beauty. I REALLY wish Josh was there with me.
We headed back to the room, put on our pjs, ate dinner on the patio and watch an encore of Kung Fu Panda. The kids fell asleep about 20 minutes into it so we all went to bed a little early.
I woke up around 5am, called Josh and now I'm updating the blog. I probably wont have time to finish uploading pictures before the kiddos wake up, so sorry, but you'll have to wait!
As I was falling asleep last night I heard a lot of "jungle" noises that I anticipated would keep me up at night, but instead the deafening buzz of the cidadias, croaking frogs, and other foreign sounds lulled me to sleep like a rain storm. The kids and I got right on schedule for the most part. Austin rolled off of his bed in the middle of the night and came and snuggled between me and Taylor, and then they both didn't wake up until 7:30!
We quickly dresses, anxious to explore our home (as Austin like to call it). We walk slowly to breakfast trying to take everything in. We can still hear the cicadias buzzing. When they all get going it is as loud as a helicopter right next to you. I'm not sure the pattern to their noise making, but it comes and goes randomly through out the day and night.
The breakfast was so good. Especially after airplane food, which wasn't bad...for airplane food. I eagerly tried all of the local fruits, most I've never headr of before. Dragon fruit, rose apples, yellow plum, mini bananas, and others that I don't know the names of but look like oversized grapes with a thicker skin. I wasn't particularly fond of them except for the mini bananas and the dragon fruit which is white with little seeds that look like poppy seeds dotted through out. Tracy said at the hotel in Phuket their is a class for how to cut and eat the local fruits..I think I'll have to look into that. I check out the omlette station, grab some pineapple juice (my favorite!), can't pass up a slice of french toast and a silver dollar sized pancake. Oh and I MUST have a tiny banana muffin. There are tons more to choose from, but we will be here for a few more days. I have to save some for later!
After eating we headed off to the pool for our first whole day in Thailand. After a few hours of slashing about, we ordered ice cream! I wish I had snapped a picture, but I was more concerned with the vanilla vs. chocolate delema. They brought us out homemade ice cream in a smooth waffle bowl with a mint leaf on top. I decided on chocalte, I am a Peterson, and LOVED it. It is a very natural chocolate taste, a little bitter, straight from coco. Austin is kind enough to share a bite of his vanilla with me. It was to die for! The best vanilla I have ever tasted. I have to admit, I liked it better than the chocolate!
Later we headed down to the beach for some fun in the sand. We built a sand castle and then rinsed off in the 85-90 degree water. It is warm but still refreshing. Honestly, the perfect temperature. Austin's life vest had started to give him a rash on his cheeks and when we went in the water it burned. He then started referring to the ocean as "hot water". So we quickly got out and walked the 10 steps to our villa to wash off with regular water.
We walked down the beach for lunch and discovered these large cabanas under a huge trees right on the water. And to our delight...we can order lunch while lounging about! I got the best pesto I have ever had. The brought our food out to us complete with "breakfast in bed" trays.
After lunch and more swimming, we decide to go for an exploration walk through the jungle, but when the rain started, we settled for a golf cart ride up to the other pool. Did I say settled? Because view here is DEFINITELY second to nothing. I can't even begin to describe. I will have to post pictures, but even those can't capture all of the vivid colors and sharp contrasts. I have never thought a camera or my photography skills more incapable.
After checking everything out we ordered dinner to the room and headed back to shower and get in out pjs.
We ate while watching Kung Fu panda then headed off to bed!
DAY 3 (Wednesday 3/24)
We woke up around the same time today. I was really missing Josh. The internet in our room didn't work and we had to try and find someone to fix it for us. So I was only able to email at the office center. :-( Got the kids dressed and then headed to breakfast and Jeff went on a diving trip.
At breakfast there is a woman who works there and she absolutely LOVES Taylor and Austin. Actually just about everyone loves them. The culture here is so kid friendly. Everyone smiles, waves, and loves to play games with them. She comes over and talks to them, and brings them hot chocolate, so of course she is now the kids' favorite person as well :-) I tried some more yummy things like breakfast potatoes with mushrooms and bell peppers and Tracy showed me where to find chocolate filled crossants! My mom and I shared those every day when we were in Portugal, I was so excited to see them here! Obviously I had one, or maybe two!
We decided to do some more exploring so we took a walk through the "jungle" (a bridge/walkway that connects the pool area to the reception area) to the spa. I can't imagine a more beautiful or relaxing place to get a message. Each outdoor room has it's own mini garden and heated tub/spa. The surrounding grounds have a gentle waterfall, koi pond, and more greenery than I have ever seen. I'm almost on overload coming from Arizona to here. Good thing I had those few days in Northern California to act as a buffering zone.
After we finished exploring we head to the pool and of course got ice cream again! This time I ordered vanilla! Then down to the beach. While Austin took a nap. The internet was fixed now so I quickly called Josh via google talk and finally got to talk for a few minutes!
Taylor and I had a blast digging holes, building a castle, and then just floating in the ocean like a blob of seaweed.
We started to get pretty hungry and so we headed to the room just as Austin was waking up. We ordered lunch in and watched Cinderella III while we ate and let Austin wake up a little more. While the kiddos finished their movie me, Tracy, and Jeff packed up our stuff to switch rooms. We had two options for rooms here, a beach villa on the sand or a pool villa with its own pool, that is what I would normally call "on the beach" but by the standards here isn't close enough for that title. So the decision was made that we would split the time between the two! Great thinking! :-)
I was blown away AGAIN when I we got to our new villas. The two rooms are connected by a viranda with a couch, a huge bed sized lounge, a dining table, tv, pond with frogs, pool, 4 lounge chairs, and a stunning ocean view. And If I thought the outdoor shower was cool at the previous villa, this one has an outdoor bath as well! After getting settled in, we spent the remainder of the day swimming in our own private pool! Then we headed down to the beach to play some more and check out the stellar sunset. We spotted a little "hole in the beach" (there are no walls here, just sand and sky) restaurant to eat dinner, and I am so glad we did. The place is called "Same Same, But Different". I tried a coconut drink for the first time, it was just a coconut with a hole in the top and a straw. It wasn't my favorite, which suprised me because I LOVE coconut on just about anything, but it was still fun to order it and try it. Have to try everything atleast once right? The food here was great! My favorite was the Tai Pan Noodles and the Yellow Curry. SOO good! The kiddos started falling asleep at the table, so we headed back and then went to bed!
DAY 4 (Thursday 3/24)
Today we woke up to a dark sky. In the not so far distance we could see a storm rolling in! We headed to breakfast as quick as we could so that we could eat and get back before the rain hit us. We didn't quite make it and borrowed umbrellas to get back to our "house". We changed into our pajamas and curled up on the "bed" on the patio to watch some movies, since swimming was not an option due to the storm. After Cars and another movie (I can't remember what it was) the storm let up and we rushed to change and jump into the pool.
Tracy and Jeff went for massages and when they got back we ordered lunch and then took naps.
While the kids slept I updated my blog. When everyone woke up we headed down to the beach to play some more, watched the sunset, then came back for dinner on the patio. I ordered seafood fettacini which turned out to be more like a seafood suprise. Definitely not a good choice. Oh well. We fell asleep watching "Meet the Robinsons". Okay, I know what you're thinking...that is a lot of movies, aren't you in Thailand, yes, but due to the rain we had to, and also when else can you sit on a huge bed sized lounge chair, outside, listening to the ocean, watching the sunset, and watch a movie. Never.
I set my alarm for 2:30 am so I can talk to Josh 12:30pm his time. It is soooo good to be able to actually TALK to him and not have to email. I miss him SOOO much.
DAY 5 (Friday 3/25)
Wake up, breakfast, Jeff went on a diving trip, so me Tracy and the kids went for a walk down the beach. The kids collected handfulls fo shells (I love that its legal to do that here!) and we check out the bungalows and food places at the other end of the beach. Then we walk up and down the crazy cool dock once more, then I'm off to get my pedicure!
When Tracy and Jeff went to the spa they found out that there is a 500 baht credit to the spa for every adult in the group! A pedicure is 900 baht (about $27) and with 500 baht off, how can I resist! It was really nice to relax and have someone rub my feet. I chose a purply-pink shade of polish to match my bathing suits (yes I am a matchaholic, but lets not get into that now). I was a little embarrassed at the state of my feel pre-pedicure because I had the MOST calloused feet, even by my standards. I love running, but obviously hate blisters, so I leave my feet on the rough side. Plus I pretty much never wear shoes. I wont go into details but my pedicure did involve a tool that slightly resembled a gormet cheese shaver, which given my recent incedent I'm shocked I didn't cringe at the sight of it! But all was well and I now feet that are the smoothes they have ever been, probably ever!
I stopped by the gift shop on my way back and some local bug spray, I've been getting eaten alive and I figure the locals probably have a pretty good remedy for this seeing as how they deal with the little buggers everyday! I got back to the villa, talked to Josh, changed into my swim suit and read Confessions of a Shopoholic while Tracy and Taylor got pedicures and Austin took a nap. Everyone got back around the same time, so we headed down to the main pool and ordered some lunch.
Tracy and Jeff went to the Spa while the rest of us headed down for some beach fun! Austin overcame his aversion to the "hot water" now that his cheeks are all better. We walked out into the water and kept walking and walking and walking. It never got deep! Finally we stopped when the water was a little higher than my belly button because Austin was getting nervous about how far out we were. Taylor could still touch on his tippy toes and Austin had on his floaties, so we just bobed away and talked for a while. Then we decided to grab some "surf boards" and come back out. Austin sat up on his while his legs straight in front of him and loved every second of it, especially when the waves rolled under him! We came back to shore to build a sand castle and then rested on a bed/lounger on the sand.
When Tracy and Jeff met back up with us we headed up to the upper pool for our last sunset at on this island. The shuttle up was an interesting one. The cart filled up and more people were coming and so the driver asked if I would sit in the front. Without thinking I moved to the front (which is separated from the back of the car like a taxi would be) and then hmmmm...why didn't the people coming just sit in the front. Thats when he started asking if I'd been here before and that he had worked there for 3 years (with a huge smile!) I looked back behind me to see Tracy giggling a little bit. Then out of no where came the.. "So....you wedding?" Guys really are guys no matter where you are. "Yes, I'm married. My husband is in the US." Then he very nicely asked how long I had been married and then we reached our destination. That was probably the most akward car/cart rides of my life and probably the only time I've ever wished I wasn't in a bathingsuit with a towel wrapped around. (Josh, Morgan, and Nick....I think I found the prime canadate for Thai Josh, but I thought it would be rude to take a picture!) :-)
We got to the pool just minutes before sunset and we saw honestly the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen from the most perfect location ever. We all sat in these underwater bench-like seats at the edge of the infitiy pool on a cliff over the ocean. The pictures are amazing, but even those only capture a fraction of the beauty. I REALLY wish Josh was there with me.
We headed back to the room, put on our pjs, ate dinner on the patio and watch an encore of Kung Fu Panda. The kids fell asleep about 20 minutes into it so we all went to bed a little early.
I woke up around 5am, called Josh and now I'm updating the blog. I probably wont have time to finish uploading pictures before the kiddos wake up, so sorry, but you'll have to wait!
1 comment:
Oh my gosh it all sounds like a dream! It kind of seems like what I picture the movie South Pacific would be like.
I can't wait to see the pictures!
I think that is so cool about talking to Josh on google talk. I don't really know what that is, but is sounds awesome.
What is the time difference between Thailand and here?
Love You!
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