Matt and I spent this past weekend in Phuket, Thailand and it was nothing short of fabulous! :) After a quick 1.5 hour flight (one that was extremely terrifying due to severe turbulence) we made it safely [insert BIG sigh of relief] to Phuket on Friday night and checked into our hotel. Our room was so nice that Matt actually thought there must have been a mistake! Once I told him what the room actually cost, he breathed another sigh of relief and accepted the fact that you can live the "luxurious life" for a very low price when you're in Thailand :) Aside from an hour of pouring rain on Saturday morning, the weather the entire weekend was gorgeous - the skies were clear and the sun was shining! We spent the first day on an all day boat trip out to the Phi Phi Islands. We made lots of stops along the way: Bamboo Beach for some delicious banana cake and fruit, Phi Phi Don (one of the two main Phi Phi Islands) where we snorkeled over a beautiful reef surrounded by thousands of colorful fish (in fact, at one point there were so many fish around me I just wanted to get out of the water), Monkey Island (where there were dozens of monkeys...hence the name), and Pileh Lagoon (the prettiest place we've ever been to). For those of you who have seen the movie, The Beach, it was actually filmed at the Phi Phi Islands so we enjoyed seeing an area that we recognized from a movie. The one thing that we simply could not get over is how BLUE the water is. We've been to Mexico, the Caribbean and lived in Hawaii and yet the water in Thailand beat each of those places by FAR! I'm not even sure if the pictures below will do the water color justice, but you'll get the point. We spent our 2nd day lounging around the hotel in the morning. We enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast (I can't tell you how many belgian waffles I ate on this trip...its sort of embarrassing!), laid by the pool and got a good laugh from watching people do water aerobics and played with the hotel's baby elephant, Meena. SO STINKIN' CUTE! Speaking of elephants, we certainly got our fill of them! When I think of Thailand, I think of elephants...so it only made sense for us to go elephant trekking! We went on a little excursion where we rode an elephant through the woods and out to breath taking lookout points. Following the elephant trek, we enjoyed a private "young elephant" show, then met a smart little monkey and rode in a cart pulled by a water buffalo. I was told people do that in Vietnam so I felt like I was really in touch with my roots ;) When the excursion was over, we went back to the hotel for some more lounging. I laid on the beach while Matt got a one hour massage for 300 dollars! Wait, did I say dollars? I meant 300 Thailand Baht. And do you know what that equals in the US?!?! 9 DOLLARS. Crazy cheap! We stayed out on the beach until the sun was completely gone then enjoyed a fabulous meal before packing our bags to leave the next morning. We prayed for a smooth flight back and God blessed us with one. Not even one little bump or shake! We loved Phuket and can't wait to go back at least one more time before our time in Asia is over!
The open-air lobby of our hotel. We loved the colors!
Part of our room. You can see why Matt was a little worried :)
Our first stop of the day...Bamboo Beach. Look at that water! That's the boat we were on. Matt will probably roll his eyes that I'm posting this picture, but oh well :)
Phi Phi Don, the only inhabited island of all the Phi Phis!
Matt snorkeling outside Phi Phi Don. I had to get out of the water and escape the mass amounts of fish swimming around me :)
This is the beautiful stretch of beach that we ate lunch on
One of our tour guides feeding the monkeys at Monkey Beach
This is Pileh Lagoon - its almost completely enclosed by these huge, natural, limestone cliffs and it was totally breath taking! We would have stayed there all day if they let us. We also got our first look at "Nemo fish" up close! Those little orange and white fishies are too cute! (As cute as a fish can be anyway).
Matt admiring the beautiful Phuket sunset at the end of our first day.
YUM! The buffet was to die for!
Look! It's Thai Diet Coke! :)
After dinner, we explored the hotel grounds :)
Meena, the hotel's baby elephant - she knew so many tricks! Smart, little thing!
Ready to go elephant trekking!
Here's our ride!
Our "driver" :)
Check out this stunning lookout point!
Next was the Young Elephant Show. Matt volunteered to get a kiss from one of the elephants...
He's not sure about this...
...but its too late now!
I think he liked it!
Elephant feeding :)
This water buffalo took us for a little spin on his cart. He moved much faster than the elephant!
Local shops right outside the hotel
What do you know? I ran into another elephant! I love Thailand!
We bought some totally delicious roasted corn on the cob from a local on the beach. Perfectly buttered and salted...it was a fabulous afternoon snack!
Skies like this one remind me of how perfect God's many creations are!
Yet another beautiful sunset over a perfectly clear sky :)
WOW, what a good looking husband I have!!
At the end of the day, we finally cleaned ourselves up a bit and hung out around the hotel. What a fantastic weekend!!
