Thailand Blues

We were able to take a beautiful speed boat trip to several locations off of Phuket. If anyone is interested, it was through a company called Phuket Island Hopper. www.phuket-islandhopper.com and we took the Deluxe Plus Phi Phi Island Tour....AMAZING! We all had so much fun. Words cannot describe all of the beautiful blues and greens that were in the water, on the land and with the fish. One of the best things we did was to purchase the kids some snorkels at the airport before we arrived in Phuket. We got them some quality masks (the snorkel itself had some issues) and it made their experience so much more enriching because they were actually able to snorkle. The method we found the best was for me to hold the girls hands and for David to have Parker who could stick his head under periodically and also see the fish. The kids loved it. It was super scary for them at first, but soon I was checking to make sure they didn't have gills and fins.

I've been pondering the best way to describe what we saw and how fun and peaceful our experience was...simply breathtaking. As I look at the photos I realize that I must need a better camera. These photos don't come close enough to the reality of the beauty of Phuket/Phi Phi island area.

The first thing we did was snorkle in an area called Khai Islands visiting both Khai Nai and Khai Nui. This picture is the backside of one of them. It was beautiful and gave us the chance to figure out what we needed to do as a family to make the snorkeling thing work the next time.

Of course, it helped that there were refreshments and plenty of orange soda for Parker after drinking so much salt water that first time.

Then we were brought to a private beach on Yao Yai Island where we were able to take a freshwater shower and relax and have a pretty decent barbecue buffet. Not great...just decent.

I'm not sure at what point this happened...but they treaded a lot of water and their little bellies were kept pretty full with fruit and cookies and sodas.

We visited an island called Bamboo Island where we did a little relaxing and a little bit more snorkeling. This was the location where Parker lost it in the water. He would NOT stop crying and screaming and David had to head in with him. Finally, David was able to figure out what Parker was saying...he was telling him he had to use the bathroom and David could not convince him to just go in the water. David got the opportunity to teach Parker the natural way of standing and aiming at a poor innocent rock. I may or may not have gotten that on video. And I'm pretty sure that big boulder on the right side was victim to this usage...

The snorkeling crew.

This is monkey island...we weren't allowed to get off. Which, normally would be a disappointment, but we were pretty tired at this point of the trip and our kids were monkeyed out in Bali.

Viking Cave is a place revered by the local people...they collect the swift's nests and make Bird's Nest Soup. We kept seeing it on menus and it was pricey. I couldn't bring myself to eat a soup made of bird regurgitation. The spot was beautiful and had thousands of yellow and black striped fish in the water all around our boat.

We were able to see Pileh Cove and to navigate through its emerald waters and look at the interesting cliff edges as well as through Loh Samah to finally emerge and get off at Maya Bay. Oh, the sand here was like soft white powder. It was so beautiful and pillowy and it looked delicious - thought it wise to resist the urge to taste.

On our way back we stopped and watched the sunset. I snapped lots of pictures, but it was literally over in about 3 minutes. It was the shortest sunset I have ever witnessed. It was astunning and colorful end to a memorable day.