Phuket, Thailand

Obviously I am not a great blogger, it has been over a month since my last update! I promise I will try to do better, starting maybe next school year...

Mark travels a lot, and I constantly am looking for a trip that is feasible for me to tag along on. That has yet to happen, however, this month it worked out that we could meet in Phuket, Thailand. (Between trips to India and Bangkok, Thailand)

Geography lesson first: Phuket is approximately a 3 hour flight from Hong Kong. Phuket has gorgeous waters compliments of the Indian Ocean, but more specifically the Andaman Sea. It is the largest island in Thailand and is located south of the mainland. The climate is considered a "tropical monsoon" climate, or in our terms, always hot and humid. The summer monsoon season is May to October, with temperatures usually  around 32 degrees Celsius (think upper 80's to low 90's) . However, the overall general temperature is around 30-32, so there is not much difference of high temp's throughout the year. The low temps can be in the 70's to low 80's. Western beaches tend to have the better surfing waves...more on that later. For anyone wondering, the west coast of Phuket was the area hit by the 2004 tsunami.

Blown-up view of Phuket

Thailand

     

Saturday night sunset at Kata Beach

Cultural Lesson: From the research I have done and witnessed in Phuket, the influences are Buddist, Muslim, and Thai-Chinese (had to look that one up!). We noticed a lot of religious and "good-luck" offerings around our hotel and beach area. Locals offer flowers, fresh fruits, incense, and other tokens to their religious figures in hopes of good-luck, fortune, health, prayers, etc. I sort of equate it with the Catholic faith of lighting a candle in church.
     Thai is the official language of Thailand, however, there are many dialects and variations of the language spoken, I counted around 16 different ones listed. Many in the tourist industry speak English as well, at least on some level. 

The population is approximately 503,000, with the population of Thailand around 69 million.(data.worldbank.org, accessed May 15, 2013).

Now the specifics of our trip...

I had a long list of things and tourist destinations I wanted to check out, however, did we make it to many? Nope! Once we saw our hotel and pool, I just wanted to relax and enjoy the space and fresh air. (Plus, all of the tourist places where a solid 60 minute drive away,on a very windy road, so my desire to not get motion sick convinced us to stay local).

We headed to the beach to check the ocean out first. Let me tell you, the waves are incredible, they are 6-8 feet high and break within 5 yards of the sand. We have never seen anything like it. Not sure the size comes through that well on the pictures, but they are just amazing!

Mark loves diving through the waves and convinced me to join him. Well, I couldn't get out past the first 10 feet before I was caught in the undercurrent, with waves crashing on me every 30-45 seconds...I bounced off the sandy bottom, did multiple flips, lost my bikini top, had my bottoms full of sand, lost my pony-tail holder, and thought I was going to drown. The two women watching us had quite the indecent picture of me flipping through the water! However, the water was very warm and crystal clear, so I am sure it is absolutely wonderful to be in during the calmer months. Mark played in the waves for about 45 minutes while I worked on ridding myself of the 6 kg of sand that was packed onto and into my body before it was time to head to the calmer waters of our 5 different swimming pools.

For dinner, we decided to walk up the street to check things out. We found a local little place, had a Thai style dinner and drinks, then wondered back down towards our hotel. We then found a hidden gem that became a daily ritual. One of the things Thai people are famous for is "Thai-style" massages. We have many, many massage salons in Hong Kong, but I generally stick to the salon I know. However, my girlfriends are always talking about getting "footies" after a luncheon or night-out. This place we stumbled upon offered "footies" and traditional Thai-massage for very cheap prices. We decided to give it a try and we ended up back everyday! For those of you wondering, "Thai-style" is a very vigorous massage, that actually hurts at times. It is meant to do a deep stretching and twisting of the body. I tried it once, it was too intense for me, I stuck to the "footies". Mark had 2 full-bodies but liked the "footies" better as well. A "footie" is an hour-long foot massage, with a shoulder/head/neck rub thrown in as well. They are very relaxing, don't tickle at all, and I feel asleep with each one. Absolutely fabulous! Anyone that visits us here, I promise we will take you to get one!

The pre-soak before the "footie"

On Saturday and Sunday, we went into the local town for some exploration, eating, and shopping. We rode in taxis called tuk-tuk, which are open-air in the back and pretty fun. Some of them had neon party lights at night and huge boom-boxes blasting music! I could never find one of those to ride in, but next time, I will insist!

A tuk-tuk

We found an outdoor "learn to surf/wake board" bar and decided to give that a try. Mark did it on Saturday and Sunday. I had to wait until Sunday so I could go out and buy a shirt/shorts to cover my swimsuit (no need to flash everyone a 2nd time on the trip!) Basically the water is only about 2 inches deep and shoots out around 35 miles per hour. The instructors help you set-up and give you a rope to hold while you go back up the hill. After your 3rd attempt, the instructors shoot you up faster and with less of their help. The  hill is very padded, but when you fall, you are hitting with such force and at odd angles, it hurts like crazy sometimes. We paid for 1 hour, and I don't think we could have done it for much longer, it is very physical. Luckily the massage salon wasn't far away! We both ended up not being terrible by the time our time was up, but we weren't great either! It was a lot of fun though and we will totally do it again if we run across one of those machines. 

We took a lot of videos, but I can't get them to upload :(

Sunday, before my 1st ride. I was very nervous since I had seen Mark's falls on Saturday!  The guy behind me had never done it before either, however, he was a natural, so I didn't like him very much!

The rest of the time we spent hanging out at the hotel pool and beach. We had very intense thunderstorms Sunday morning and early afternoon, so that put a little damper on things. The best weather was on Monday, which of course was the day we flew out. Luckily, we booked later flights, so we could hang at the pool until 1pm. There are many great things to do and we will be bringing the kids back to experience a lot of it in a couple of years, when they are old enough to snorkel/kayak through the caves/and appreciate cultural stuff a little  more.