Phuket, Thailand

First things first when we got to Thailand - we went and ate Thai food down at Patong Beach! Our driver took us straight from the airport to book our activities and then gave us the scoop on some of the best Thai restaurants. This food was AWESOME!

Tom Yam soup, phad thai, chicken with cashews and chilis, and shrimp with thai chilis:

Our first sunset in Thailand over Patong Beach:
amazing sunset ...
We didn't want to leave the beach ... forever:
This is walking down the Patong shopping area - TONS of bars, restaurants, He-Shes dressed in drag, people trying to get you to go to the "ping-pong" show, etc :)
This was also spotted in that vicinity ... hmmm ...
Tuk tuks were everywhere! This one was all pimped out with blue lights and loud music. Tuk tuks were cheap - so we used them a lot!
Most of the restaurants had their seafood on display so you could pick your dinner and then have them cook it however you wanted it:
Michael in front of the Patong shopping area:
Michael in a tuk tuk:
Our first morning we got up early and headed down to Patong Beach for some excellent people watching (old topless women, couples with matching thongs, leathery skin, etc). One of our drivers gave us some interesting info on the big Tsunami that hit here - see that big cruise ship? That is roughly where the water went out to before the big wave came. The tourists, evidently, went out to take pictures of the fish that were left behind while the locals started running for the hills. About 700 people died in this area when it hit.
It was gorgeous though ... and the waves coming in were pretty decent! Just look at that gorgeous white sand ... no coral, rocks or seaweed in sight!
After a few hours down at Patong, we came back to the resort beach which was even better (hard to imagine, but it was)! We LOVED LOVED LOVED our beach here. We even discussed flying back from the states to visit here in a few years ... it was THAT amazing.
We had to get our beach fix in the morning, because in the afternoon we went on a "jungle" outing. Our first stop was a mangrove kayak ride. Hmmm... we didn't read about this when we signed up for the tour so it was a surprise to us to have to walk across the "monkey" bridge and then get on an inflatable kayak to see some trees.

Here is Michael on the kayak in front of me. I made him get on first b/c I was pretty skeptical about this ...

It was in a very indigenous area - people's homes were surrounding the water:
Afterwards we went into a woman's home that she had transformed into a restaurant specifically for this tour. It was superb homemade Thai food!!
Her cat chased this around for a little while:
I couldn't stop smelling the small jasmine centerpieces - they were so fragrant that they filled the air all throughout the restaurant!
This is the monkey bridge I referred to earlier. Safe, huh.
After lunch we went to see elephants! Here I am with a baby elephant - he came right up to me to sniff me :)
so we bought some bananas to feed him - he looks happy when he eats:

I really enjoyed this part!
Then we went to the big elephants - this was our elephant cooling down before coming over to pick us up:
The sign before you get on says "do not let your guide get down or you forfeit all insurance coverage". Sooo... the first thing our (and every other) guide did once we got behind the trees was jump down to take our picture. Of course he did. There was no stopping him either - why would they want to pay out money for insurance? Oh yeah, it was a secret too b/c he wanted us to have "good memories" and if we were happy we could tip him. Thanks. I would have taken the guide staying on the elephant instead - thats why I paid $8 USD to have the photographer take our picture. Anywho - here we are on the big guy:
He also had the elephant walk down a steep slope without his assistance so he could use the rocks to climb back on. Scary stuff - all I could imagine was the elephant going mad and charging through the jungle. But he didn't. We were fine. It was fun :)

You could pay to feed this elephant bananas:
After the elephants we went to a monkey show - this one came and shook hands with everyone:
This one went grocery shopping:
... and rode a bicycle:
This one would dive underwater to fetch a watch:
We also stopped by a temple that was insanely busy. There was a gigantic festival going on throughout the grounds surrounding the temple.
The inside of the temple:
Me on the top of the temple:
Our last stop of the day was at the Big Buddha that is still under construction on top of a mountain. They were asking for donations to help finish it. You could buy a white marble tile to write on for about $5 USD.
You can see the individual tiles better here:
A view of Phuket City at dusk:
The next day we went out to the Phi Phi Islands! Here is me on the boat. No life vests - in the open ocean - on a speed boat :)
The first stop was Maya Beach - we were able to snorkel out in deep water before we went to the beach. I jumped in and immediately realized we were surrounded by little jellyfish (evidently they don't harm you unless you have sensitive skin) ... I got out.

Here is Michael snorkeling: Not sure if you can click on this one or not, but if you can enlarge it you will see a line of small dots in the lower left-hand corner - those are jellyfish! They attach to each other to create long chains. The water is about 10-15 feet deep here:
Michael after snorkeling:
Maya Beach! They filmed "The Beach" here with Leo:
Looking out from the beach:
It was SO beautiful!
Some of the closer locations came by these smaller boats:
This guy wasn't alive anymore - but he was huge!
These signs were posted everywhere in Phuket and the little surrounding islands:
Michael on Maya Beach:
A jellyfish that washed ashore:
Then we went to see Viking Cave. There are drawings in the caves from back in the day of vikings, hence the name. People. Actually. Live. There. Whoa. Hopefully this was high tide. From what we saw, the only access was by boat.
Michael in front of Viking Cave:
Next up - Monkey Island. They pulled the boat right up to the tree and the monkeys would grab stuff from you - bread, water bottles, cups of coke, etc. You could throw it to them too, if they were high in the tree, and they would catch it:
There were lots of baby monkeys:

We ate lunch at Phi Phi Don. I would highly recommend staying here vice Phuket (take a day-trip to Patong) b/c it is much less populated and really laid back. They also have all the little shops to go and barter in:
Our final stop was at an isolated island with 3-4 buildings on it. We rented little chairs and umbrellas and were able to relax for awhile with a pina colada (me) and mai tai (Michael):

Michael kicking back:
The most interesting part of the stop was the The He-She dancing on the bar (video at end of post):

This was our final sunset at Phuket. Michael went to go and play in the waves (I quickly joined him!):

The waves got HUGE!!! We went back out the next morning and they were even bigger! Some were a good 2-3 feet taller than me! I don't think I have ever had that much fun playing in the waves - b/c there was no coral or seaweed to get caught up in. Just amazing white sand.

Another superb sunset: I did get a Thai massage on our last day - and it was the best 2.5 hour massage ever (for only $55 USD)!!!

*****NOT KID FRIENDLY (unless you want a really uncomfortable conversation with your kiddo)*****

Video of He-She dancing:

Here is a video of me feeding the baby elephant:

That wraps up our last hurrah from Okinawa! We're PCS'ing to MCAS Miramar in July - WHOOP!! Less than 5 months and we'll be Cali-bound!