Beachin

"I got two tickets to paradise, won't you pack your bags we'll leave tonight." Eddie Money close, but change that to three tickets and you couldn't be more right.

We arrive in Phuket once it's dark. Bobo hides in the lobby so we don't have to pay for an additional person in our room. We wake up in the morning to the most beautiful pool with elephant fountains and drinks served inside a pineapple. There were two pools. The high class pool looked less fun than the oridinary people pool, but as mom so knowledgably noticed, "Kids sure do know how to have fun."

Christmas stocking stuffers!

We loved the stairs

Private "bubble pool" in elephant city

Drinks inside pineapples inside the pool

You walked past the ordinary pool, which was super cool as well, to cross the street and you're on the beach. The beach was huge and so pretty. There were tons of dudes trying to get you to buy everythjng from lounge chairs to whistles to hair braiding. The only thing we gave into buying were henna tattoos that we regretted before he even started. Oh well, 450 baht that will wash off in less than two weeks. Well spent.

The hotel had a delicious breakfast as usual. Anyone who says Holiday Inns aren't exceptional are crazy. They obviously haven't stayed at a Holiday Inn in Thailand. So anyway there was a lot of lounging by the pool and lounging by the beach and lounging by the pool and walking down the beach and eating and sleeping. 

We were festive at breakfast

The lounge life

Bobo and her sand man

Sweaty the Sandman you know instead of Frosty the Snowman

My beachin' face

Merry Christmas!

How did this postcard get into my blog?!

Multiply those chairs and umbrellas times a billion bajillion mamillion

After some morning lounging by the pool and breakfast we catch the ferry to go to Ko Phi Phi and get to our hotel at around 5:30. Just a little time layout for ya... Took an hour to drive to the place the ferry left, took two hours on the ferry, then a tractor drove us in a covered wagon type thing down the beach to the steps of our hotel. Rough life right?!

Riding on the ferry

Puppy dog Chuck

We love tractor rides

The long tail boats

Hey thanks for the complimentary arrival beverage

The Holiday Inn here is a bunch of bungalows. We find ours and walk down the whole side of the beach. We then eat dinner (we've started to eat American food because we felt like it okay!) and went back to our bungalow. I fell asleep at 8:30. At 10 o'clock they knock on the door and deliver a birthday cake because somehow the staff was convinced someone in our room was celebrating a birthday. So that was exciting!

The jungle path to our room

We woke up in the jungle, clearly.

A semi bad quality photo of the cake that was too good to not eat before we got a photo

We wake up and have breakfast, as usual. Then lounge by the beach for the next 3 hours. We foolishly didn't realize that we were getting severely sunburned. A sunburn that resulted in a heat rash for yours truly.

Then it's snorkeling time!! We hop on a long tail boat which kind of felt like the jungle cruise at Disneyland only you were actually going somewhere. We stop at a beautiful bay filled with monkeys. Heck no was I going onto that sand. There was even a sign that said "Beware Monkeys" which I thought, "Hey where was the warning in Lopburi?". We saw some neon fish and they swam so close to us we could touch them which was kind of scary. Mom and bobo saw a 3 foot long eel which they were raving about. At the time not only were my goggles fogging up, but I also had salt water in my left eye. I'm not even a snorkeling rookie so what a loser right?! At the second spot we got stung repeatedly by half dollar sized jelly fish, but we also got funny pictures. 

I'm writing this as we sit looking out at the beach waiting until 11:30 to take our water taxi to the ferry to go to Krabi. Keep ya updated.

Just another tequila sunrise or afternoon or something like that

Mr. Hermit Crab

The ocean was super warm and we were super happy

The 'wash off your sandy feet' station

There was a coconut shell ladle

The infinity pool we didn't find until an hour before we left

Hey look at my blog writing office

Sunday Funday!

Awesome breakfast again except even better because after watching the european dude next us order a cappuccino, we realized all coffee beverages were included! I got a latte and Bobo got a cappuccino. Then took a hundred pictures of milk mustaches and I laughed so hard I cried. Why did I laugh you wonder? Well I have had a runny nose for almost a month now and I couldn't feel whether it was my snot that was dripping or if it was the frothy milk. Turns out it was my snot.

Oh no we fell asleep halfway through the photo

Passed out in the lobby… Someone put sleeping pills in my breakfast

After I drank crack in my coffee

We got a taxi to the Catholic church that ended up being walking distance and we had to walk an additional 10 minutes because the driver didn't know where he was going. What I don't understand is a lot of the time taxis don't know where you want them to take you, yet their job is taking people places. Honestly if a tourist is trying to go somewhere, how off the beaten track could it be? The church was beautiful. An australian dude told us where the bathroom was in meters and we were like uh okay so just somewhere up ahead on the left? The funniest part though was that the priest was Australian and during his homily he said, "Christmas isn't just about some little baby!" Bobo and I started laughing so hard.
After church we walk back to the hotel which is faster than the taxi ride took. Now to get our nails done! We find this place that has enough room for 3 people for manicures and pedicures. We pick our color then go to the other room to the pedicure chairs. Then all of a sudden each of us have two girls to do our manicures and pedicures simultaneously and we feel like queens of the castle. I'm watching the chicks and I start thinking, "Wow these people are really sanitary, they keep spritzing my nails after every stage of the manicure and pedicure with rubbing alcohol or something. Wait a tick… thats Victoria's Secret body spray. This just got really weird." So at the end we had like 17 hundred gallons of body spray on our feet and hands, but pretty nails too.

Interesting "Please Note" at the nail salon

The protesters march by the nail salon while we are there and mom is seriously interested in the protesters. She asks every thai person details about it after I told her it's best not to because its a sore subject with them. So of course she asks the nail ladies and the conversation got awkward. Bobo and I starting joking that every time mom went to ask a thai person a question she would come back and say, "They didn't understand what I was saying so I asked about the protests."

If you want to meet some professional thai cooks well look no further than Bobo, mom and I. In other, more obvious, words we took a cooking class! Bobo and mom were freaking out because we had to walk down this long alley to get to the place. I was chilling though because I'm scared of nothin! Just kidding, I'm just used to the sketchiness that is Thailand. We learned to make 5 traditional thai dishes. Som Tom (papaya salad), Tom Yum (soup), Masaman Curry, Pad Thai, and mango sticky rice. It was the coolest experience. The chef guy was so funny and knew great english because he lived in America for a little while. Guys if you don't have lemon grass, kefir lime leaves and galangal ginger then don't even waste your time making thai food because its not thai food without those 3 key ingredients. Literally Mr. Oatmeal told us that like 7 times. So its official, no food is thai food without THE KEY INGREDIENTS! It was a super fun and yum time.

 

The sketchy alley way that slowly got even sketchier

Hey look at their aprons.

Its all about presentation

Cooking "thai style" AKA on the ground

Bobo is such a crazy

Oat (like oatmeal) the coolest chef dude ever

Tom Yum finished product

Hey look its the ingredients for Pad Thai on a tray

Tasted even better than it looks

Ms. China and some weird posers

Glamor shots with mango sticky rice and Ms. China