Thailand Spring Break!
I don't know whose idea it was, but for whatever reason Yokohama International School decided it was a good idea to give the kids two whole weeks off for Spring Break. We haven't exactly had a bad winter in Yokohama, but given the opportunity to get out of town, we wanted to go somewhere warm enough to be on a beach. Initially, we planned on staying in Japan for this; however, even in Okinawa, the temperatures wouldn't have been quite high enough to warrant ocean swimming. So, Elsa came up with the idea to head off to Thailand.
Our destination in Thailand was Phuket, which meant a two leg trip. First, we went from Tokyo to Bangkok - about a 7 hour flight. Then a short one-hour jaunt from Bangkok to Phuket. The kids were probably more excited for this part of the journey, as they had been looking forward to having 8 hours of playing on their Kindles. (Time strictly monitored otherwise.)
The resort we were staying at was a short 15-minute car ride from the airport. We arrived around 8pm local time, and there were torches lit all along the entranceway. I apologize for the lack of photos of this but imagine being escorted to the gates of Kings Landing by the Kings Guard and you’ll have an idea of what to expect.
There wasn't much to do the first night other than check in, give the kids a bath, and think about how we can illegally purchase alcohol since we arrived during a 24 hour period of prohibited alcohol sales due to a national election.
The next morning, we had to decide what to do with the day. The resort had a million options. You could start on the beach, or hit the pool, send the kids off to the kids club, get a massage, or many other things. When the kids heard there was a children's pool (one of three pools at the resort), the list of options went down to one. To the kids' pool!
In their defense, the kids' pool was pretty baller. There were three sections - one with water only to their knees, another with water to their chest level, and then a clear area where the kids knew the water would get too deep to touch and would need to swim. Oh, and there was an awesome slide! We even got mom to go on it once or twice! For parents, too, it was a great pool. From the lounge chairs along the pool, you can see everything (including the beach in the not so far distance). Waiters are standing by for food and drink orders, and there are a ton of jets running in the pool to help drain out the noise of kids playing - although, we must have had our timing right, as the resort seemed only at about 25% occupancy when we were there. It probably goes without saying, but we spent a ton of time here.
After the first day, we realized we had absolutely no "munchies" in our hotel "villa" (the place had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, livingroom, kitchenette, full-size washer/dryer - seriously larger than our apartment in Japan!) - so we decided to check out the little village outside the resort which had a few shops. There was a shuttle that runs every 15 minutes from our hotel to this village (aka "turtle cove"). We rode this shuttle a couple times and some of the shuttles were more...how do you say...not quite up to code? than others...
After we got done shopping, we headed back to the bus stop for our resort shuttle. At this bus stop, a resort employee was handing out fresh cocunuts for waiting guests.
Our major attraction to Thailand was to get away from the hustle and bustle and just relax. However, we did want to see at least some of the cool things Thailand has to offer, so Elsa booked a day trip for us to go out on a boat and see a variety of the islands surrounding Phuket.
We departed the main port around 9:15 AM and headed off for our first destination: some canoeing around some amazing rock formations in Phuket. This tour company had a great system - you took a speed boat out to the middle of the water where a crew with canoes would meet you. Each canoe had an expert rower in the back, so the tourists could just lounge and take in the sites. Oh man and what sites there were.
After a bit of canoeing, we returned the boat and headed off to a nearby island village Koh Panyi for a light lunch and some tourist trap shopping. The island village was really cool - over 2,000 people live there, and miraculously were not wiped out by the major hurricanes in Thailand the last few years. We wished we would have been able to walk more around it a bit more. Instead, we were corralled to stay in one area and were only there long enough to eat, use the bathroom, and buy a little wooden elephant that was probably made in China. (We did not buy said elephant.)
After lunch, we ventured to James Bond Island, or Phang Nga. In the Roger Moore James Bond film, 'The Man With The Golden Gun', he visits this island. You can refresh your memory via this Youtube video. As a person who loves Bond, this was pretty cool. And, if you're wondering, we looked everywhere for the solar death ray but I think it's off limits to tourists.
Back aboard the boat, we then headed for our second canoeing trip of the day. This time, it was through a cave in a rock formation that can only be canoed during low tide. At various points we had to lay down as to not get our heads scraped by overhead rock. It was pretty cool. We were grateful we had a an expert manning the canoe, as Elsa and I don't exactly have a great track record when it comes to canoes... Anyway, our guide told us that sometimes monkeys will jump on the canoes. Nobody really believed him until one of the other couples on our boat came back like this...
For our last stop, we went to a another small island, Rang Yai, with a beach where we could relax for an hour or so - swim, grab a drink from a beach bar, play in the sand, etc - before heading home for the day.
After the day trip, we had one final day to hang out, enjoy the pool, eat delicious Thai food and enjoy some more relaxing time in Thailand, so that’s exactly what we did!
