Sunday: We were scheduled to leave Sunday morning and gave
ourselves plenty of time to get to and navigate the airport, we thought. For some reason the subway seemed to move
slower that morning… Between a long subway ride and a VERY busy and large
airport we made it to our gate less than five minutes before boarding
started. Yeah I was a little
nervous! But after that everything went
smoothly. We had a layover in Bangkok
(not an impressive airport) and then headed to Phuket. Even from the plane we could tell that Phuket
was a gorgeous place. The islands and
the water just looked amazing. Since we
had done customs at Bangkok we were able to grab our suitcase and go once we
landed. Taking a taxi was
interesting. We have been in taxis and
friends’ cars in Korea so we know how the drivers on this side of the world can
do some crazy stuff. But in Thailand,
this two lane road we were own seemed barely wide enough to be a one lane
road. They also drive on the left side
with the driver’s side on the right.
Anyway, once we got to the resort we were greeted with a flower necklace
(I don’t know if they call them lei’s in Thailand), some ice tea, and a cold
face towel (which we came to love whenever the staff walked around offering
them). As we walked around the resort
that night we knew it was going to be an awesome place. Oh and our room was bigger than our whole
apartment too!
Monday: We spent the
whole day at the resort on Monday. We
enjoyed the international breakfast buffet, a lot, every morning. They had just about anything you could
imagine: waffles, French toast, pancakes, cereal, fruit, omelets, rice,
noodles, soup, breads, pastries. It was
delicious. We also met the baby elephant
that lives at the resort and she even gave Eric a kiss! We ended up seeing her a lot during the
week. She would just walk around with
her mahout, the elephant trainer, and let people take pictures with her or even
let little kids ride on her. We saw her
almost stick her trunk in a guy’s drink by the pool and when she was hot she
would turn on the shower by the pool with her trunk and take a bath. The rest of Monday we spent either sitting by
the pool or in the pool (one of three).
The staff continually brought cold water to anyone sitting by the pool
and you could order food or drinks to be brought to your lounge chair also.
Tuesday: On Tuesday
we got to go on a safari. We were picked
up from the resort and taken to an elephant camp. While we were here we got to learn several
different cultural things about Thailand.
We learned how to make Thai curry, coconut milk and oil, we tried Thai
tea and coffee, rode in a wooden cart pulled by a water buffalo, learned how to
tap a rubber tree and make rubber, and of course the highlight: riding on an
elephant. It was a bit of a bumpy ride
as the mahout led the elephant on a trail with many ups and downs. We saw some great views though from being up
so high. Some information we learned
about the mahouts, or elephant trainers:
In Thailand the mahouts are from a certain tribe of people that live in
northern Thailand where most of the elephants come from. The mahout stays with the same elephant, day
and night, for its entire life. When an
elephant camp wants to buy an elephant, the mahout comes with it to train it
and care for it. We also learned that
when an elephant gets old it’s teeth give out and it can no longer eat the 500
pounds of food it needs each day so it dies.
After we were done riding on our elephant we got to feed her too. It was a bit tricky when some of the other
elephants were close by trying to reach their trunks in our basket of
food! We also got to have a Thai lunch on a Chinese junk boat that went around Phagna Bay which is gorgeous!! We had dinner at a restaurant right outside
the resort where they had live music and found an ice cream shop with the most
delicious sundaes.
Wednesday: On
Wednesday we took a shuttle bus into Phuket Town to do some souvenir
shopping. When we got off the shuttle
bus a guy greeted us with a map to show us where some of the highlights
were. Then he told us he would drive us to
all of them and wait for us for about $6.00.
We quickly took him up on this offer.
He drove us to a few different shopping areas where we were able to pick
up some souvenirs. When we finished he
was waiting for us to drive us to the next place. We’re pretty sure the shopping areas paid him
to bring us there but it was much better than wandering around Phuket Town
ourselves! He also took us to a tailor
shop where Eric was able to bargain and get a pretty good deal on some custom
made button up shirts. Neither one of us
liked the pushy guy selling them but we were able to talk him into a good deal
so decided to give it a try. They even
delivered the shirts to our hotel room the next day and Eric was very happy
with them.
A Buddhist Temple we saw in Phuket Town
Thursday: Our last
day :( We enjoyed breakfast outside then spent our
last day relaxing by the beach, by the pool and in the pool one more time. This time we went to the pool with the swim
up bar/snack shack so we could try that out.
We got ice cream at the delicious ice cream place one more time and
watched the traditional fire lighting ceremony they do at sunset at the
resort.
Our view sitting on a lounge couch right after sunset
Friday: We had a very early flight Friday morning but the
resort was great about making sure a taxi was there early enough to take us to
the airport. We had a short layover in
Bangkok and also made a stop in Hong Kong on the way home, though we continued
on to Seoul on the same plane. We made
it home late Friday night.
We were super impressed (and surprised) at how well EVERYONE
spoke great English in Thailand.
Everyone from the flight attendants to the hotel staff to shop owners to
even the taxi drivers. It’s rare that we
find anyone willing to try much English with us in Korea where English
education has been huge for the last 20+ years (I guess that just means we get
more practice with our Korean!). It was
also very strange being at the resort and hearing an Asian family speaking English
with just each other. Of the English
speaking vacationers at the resort we heard very few with an American
accent. Nearly everyone else had either
a British or Australian accent.
The downside to having such an awesome vacation? Today we are feeling a bit depressed about
being back in Korea… We will be back in
our normal work routine on Monday which should help us get back to our regular
schedule and wait until we can plan something like this last week again. Yes there is already serious talk of going
back in December or March!
Be sure to check out our TONS of pictures on Shutterfly!
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