Phuket, Thailand - Part 2

Finally getting to Part 2!

After the first few days of swimming and boating, we decided to see a bit more of the island.  So, we started off with a guided tour...

Our starting point was at the Southern end of the island at a beautiful vista overlooking one of the many little beach spots.

Who doesn't love a good photo with a monkey?  I think only Reid was actually following moms instructions.  Good job first born!

We know how to throw him off his game, monkey butt to the head!

By show of hands, who can name this prominent and popular tourist spot?  Anyone?

One of the highlights ended up being a simple lunch of banana slices, smothered in chocolate, and nestled (yes, nestled) in a hot pancake / crepe.

Rowan checking out the dog.  After taking this photo, I realized there was an actual dog about 5 feet behind the scupture releiving himself.  Yes, really and yes, I missed it.  Oh well, we would find there would be more poop photo ops later in the day.

At the cashew factory, where we learned that cashews actually had a "cashew apple", which they make juice from.

Reid cupping some fruit to demonstrate scale.  They said that this tree is about half size (20 or 30 feet in diameter) because they kept it trimmed in front of the store.  I'm thinking these are both good wedding photos, complete with a few "nut" jokes sprinkled in.  Caption contest anyone?

Rowan's bid to change America to a constitutional monarchy.  He loved the king and was pointing out every photo he saw (in a normal city drive, there are photos every few hundred yards).  In my humble and admittedly narrow experience, Thailand has one of the world's great monarchies.  I think he has Sidneys' vote.

Showing how cashews are shelled and then processed.  We got to pick from 12 or more flavors to bring home.  We (OK I) ended up buying a carry-on full of stuff.

Rubber trees going on endlessly.

We stopped by a mansion on the island, where one of the "Young Indiana Jones" episodes was filmed in 1992.

Of course, one of the big draws for the boys in said mansion was to stare at the bathroom sign, drawn by one of the kids in the family.

We headed from there to a family farm where we immediately hopped onto the back of an ox cart for a ride.

Class, pure class.  I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure this "hey dad, look at this!" behavior is rooted in something Daddy Mac, or Granny Mac for that matter, taught him over the summer.  Definitely not my influence.

First step in making rubber, scrape off some of the bark and collect the sap.

At this point, I decided to count this as a school day.  Above the guide is showing us how they take the sap, add some chemicals and then roll it into mats for drying.

Question of the day:  Are coconuts a fruit, vegetable, or seed???  If you answered "legume", then I'm pretty sure you're wrong.

If you look closely, you'll see the monkey in the tree knawing on the coconut stems.

Rowan and Riley showing a "baby pineapple".

About medium sized now, still smaller than Ros cranium.

That night at dinner, one of the hotel staff was offering photo ops while dressed in traditional garb.  Kind of surprisingly, Rowan jumped at the chance.

Demonstrating via monkey how to properly greet someone.

Last full day in Phuket.  Yes, I took Ro to the hospital.  He woke up about 3am complaining of severe pain in his ear.  The Dr. took a look and said she thought he probably stuck something in there (like a finger after swimming for 3 days maybe?), but it wasn't infected.  Also, she figured things were swollen from allergies.  So, he and I got to spend the morning driving down and back.  Pineapple smoothy for our efforts, though!

Clearly needing some further treatment, I talked Ro into getting a massage on the beach.  150 baht (about $5) per hour!  The good news, his swim shirt's sunblocking feature obviously works VERY well...

OK, so apparently others in the family needed medical attention.

Last evening in Phuket.  Tomorrow, off to Chiang Mai and the mountains!

Phuket, Thailand - Part 1

Due to the timing of our flight, we started the holiday by driving to Shanghai on Friday afternoon.  Rowan started puking at about 2:30am.  Yes we were "those people" and headed out in the morning, undeterred.  He did well throughout the day, without incident after the late morning.  We arrived in Phuket in the late afternoon and headed out with Ro's new walkie talkies (Christmas present) to explore the grounds.  We were there with friends, who shall remain nameless in order to protect their identities.

This was the view from the hotel room.  Riley and Rowan slept in this little alcove.  Just on the other side of the trees was the Andaman Sea.

Rowan stayed in the room with mom while the other boys and I grabbed dinner with our friends.  Here's Ro settled in with a Jamie Oliver episode.  For some reason he started watching these cooking shows a month ago.  Strange.

A shot of one of the lagoons around the hotel.  We saw tons of wildlife from little lizards to snails to small (about 2 feet long) monitor lizards.

While swimming in the pool all day, we spotted this small guest and had to go over to check things out.

Dinner on night two was on the beach.  The food was great and you can see the view was even better.  To the left of Ro is a blowfish that I would guess could inflate to the size of a dodge ball.

Day two was a trip around Phi Phi island, where a Bond movie and the movie "The Beach" were filmed.  We stopped at about four of the islands.

Monkeys!  We got to throw bananas to them, but they were so aggressive that we didn't do it by hand.

Riley and I snorkeling in about 10 feet of water.  Riley spent about 3 hours in this position throughout the day.  Interesting discovery.

A hidden little town on one of the islands ended up being the site of lunch.

The limestone islands were spread all thoughout the area.

Looking like a 1982 Vidal Sassoon haircut book.  This is the fruit of spending the trips between islands on the very front of the boat.  Zohan would be proud.

Day 2 ended with a fire show at the hotel.  They do this nightly at the JW Marriott.  While not action packed, it was quite interesting and you can see the finale was pretty cool.

Day 3 - Cave exploring.  The limestone islands have tidal caves that run under them, opeing up into lagoons in some cases.

We boated around for a few hours, appreciating the beautiful formations formed by the water.

Mom and Riley "assuming the position".  Going through some of the caves was not for the feint of heart as they let air out of the canoes in order to clear the low ceilings.

On the other side of the caves were some massive and scenic lagoons that we paddled around.

Me and the other two.

One of the lagoons was full of mangrove trees.  The bottom was sandy, so we hopped out to play for a bit.

Back on the boat after dinner, we made kratongs.  These beautiful and ornate flower arrangements / boats are floated on the waterways of Thailand as an offering during the fall holiday, Loi Kratong.

Sunset on the water, enough said.