I'm going backwards on our trip so that when someone looks at the blog it will appear to be in order...as it is for people who keep up with the blog you are getting introduced to things backwards...sorry for that, but ultimately it will tell the whole story chronologically.
Bear with the madness.
I think that a lot of people think that Phuket starts with a hard F sound. And while that would be fun to be able to say without it being deemed a "dirty" word for some...it is really said with a P sound (forget the h...it's thai!) POOket. Poo - poo - poo - poo - ket...and that is exactly what we got to hear a few minutes everyday combined with lots of giggles and then reprimanding amongst the trio about how that is a bad "potty word"...I think all things considered our children picked up the less offensive derivative of "Phuket".
As I mentioned before, we flew from Bangkok to Phuket where we bought the children some snorkle gear of their own. This was worn the entire time we waited for our flight.
Some of David's co-workers who used to live in Thailand were full of all sorts of useless information. Samui? You don't want to take the family there! So, we didn't, but we could have, and I have to say, I think we would have had a great time. In fact, due to some of the things I'm about to mention I bet we would have had a better time. Another gem was "don't get your tickets ahead of time, just show up at the airport as there are always flights available." Well, sure! If you want to pay 3 times the price of getting them online...oh wait...and of being stressed out from the long lines. All turned out decent though as we were able to book a relatively (relative because internet costs were better) cheap flight with Bangkok Airways. Normally, I think that people prefer Air Asia because they are cheap and fly to lots of places so you can accrue points, but Bangkok Airways was just fine for a super short flight to Phuket.
We also booked our hotel room in Phuket kind of late. With the Red Shirt issues I was hoping that some of the hotels that were previously booked would become available...but no. After staying in Bangkok and Spain and Dubai in a Novotel...and having them be really nice, we thought we would be safe with the Novotel Panwa. NOT SO! It was an awful hotel. Don't ever ever ever stay there...had we just gone to Samui...
Oh sure, it looks pretty. It has a pretty pool and a nice little beach area. On Expedia, the rooms were going for $55 dollars each. With our Accor card, David called the hotel directly and they told us we could two rooms for $100 and then a 30% discount...we said...why not? It is so cheap and it looks decent. Upon arrival our pickup was an hour late and we had to pay for it...huh? We have to pay for our late pickup arranged by the hotel? It was still not too expensive. We checked in and found out that our beach view was on the 4th floor. That would have been fine if it weren't 40 C and NO ELEVATOR. The nights the kids were asleep before we got to the hotel were the most difficult on David. Nevertheless, we could deal with it for the $70 a night for 2 hotel rooms that were airconditioned (although they were also losing the battle against the heat!). The hotel restaurants were not air conditioned...but our room was and so roomservice was occasionally utilized. Also, they advertised a kids club with this extensive program. It is fiction. We kept going down and checking and it was always locked...like padlocked from the outside. We finally asked the front desk about it - as we were planning on letting them take classes and play games while we went scuba diving (a big point we checked for and needed.) They went and opened it up for us "special" and it was NASTY. It was a little room underneath the pool itself. It wreaked of urine. We told the kids to come out, but apparently their sense of smell wasn't as developed as ours. They begged to stay. The sand art was apparently beckoning strongly. So we let them, for one hour. When they came out of there...they too smelled bad. I also got some spa treatments...and to keep this site PG I won't detail the marks on the wall of my massage room or what I suspect they came from. I got one of their packages and it was nothing special. Barely tolerable actually. Anyway...enough of this negativity...just don't stay at the Novotel Panwa. Oh wait~I forgot the worst part of all...when we went to check out they charged us, not $100 for two rooms, but $100 for EACH room and refused to give us any discounts. So, we stayed the whole time because we knew it would be super cheap, and it turned out to be the same exact price as a super nice hotel in Phuket. How suckey is that??????? Ok...I know that the word suckey just bumped this particular blog entry up to a pg-13 rating...but still...to go up 4 flights? In 40 C weather? Carrying toddlers? No kids club? Able to get it cheaper on expedia....they ripped us a new hole. We were speechless. OH! And there is more...the internet was down...no hifi...so they told us that we could pay to get a cable modem...so we walked ALL the way down to be told that we couldn't even have that for our room...that instead we would have to go to the business center and purchase internet time and use their computers. At one point I went up and turned on one of the computers...waited for it to boot up...got logged in and then had to leave to go to the bathroom...because would there be a bathroom there? No! When I got back, someone had turned off the stupid computer again...so I had to reboot and wait all over again....in the heat. Ok...there are so many stories, like never getting our food orders right, etc. Breathe in....breathe out. We did the best we could to enjoy our "sea" view from the furthest possible distance away from the water.
On to more positive... on to more positive.
So, we got picked up to go see the Phuket Fantasea show. It was a little slice of disney meets cirque du soleil. It was fun.
We bought some massive popcorns...some of it fell and ended up being a meal for the koi fish below. Hope they weren't allergic.
The jelly fish was much cooler when she had the umbrella up and not tipped. She would raise it slightly and let it catch air and puff like a real jelly fish...I know that someday that little costuming trick will come in handy for someone. And the colored lights also caught the white and looked super cool.
This was the buffet building (all part of our price) not anything special. The best thing they served were these fried pork fingers. Yum. Maybe it wasn't that great for people who are used to pork, but we were a little thirsty for it. The chicken and coconut milk soup was also really good.
This is the building the show was in. We were required to check and leave all cameras so there are no pictures of the actual show...but it was really good. Honestly, and I'm totally critical of shows. The storyline was a little weak, but we had elephants and classic thai dances and fire and acrobatics from above and singing and shadow puppets. Purchase a fan though because it is tropically warm in there.
How adorable are these baby elephants! They kept hooking up their trunks, and they posed with their feet hitched up...the kids loved petting them. They were also part of the show later. As you can see though...my children were part of the show during this photo shoot. I think 20 people around the world are blogging about these white kids with the baby elephants. Our kids are always a spectacle.
We bought the expensive "gold" seats because we wanted to ensure ourselves excellent seats. If you go to see Fantasea take my advice and don't bother.
At the end they let down balloons for audience members and we didn't get any because of where we were sitting...which was an awful thing for Parker. He handled it pretty well for the most part and while I was busy collecting our cameras apparently he made a friend with a lady who gave hers to him. The power of a smile and sweetness...if only he understood that charm we might see it more!
The next day we wanted to just relax and not do too much. We made a reservation to eat at a restaurant named Baba. We got to town a little early, so we went to the nearby Phuket Aquarium. We arrived 45 minutes before closing time. They assured us we could go in and take our time. They immediately started turning the airconditioning off. It got so hot in the aquarium it was absolutely unbearable. I got some video, but no pictures...the heat was too much for both cameras. It was cooler outside taking these lame-o photos. I thought for sure a bunch of people would be having phuket aquarium boiled fish for dinner.
So, afterwards we got a taxi driver and he told us that the Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World would still be open...errr...you're sure? Positive? They won't start turning the air off on us? He assured us. When we got there it was only 15 minutes before closing and we had to beg them to let us in...at full price of course! And yes, they started turning lights off and locking things up.
But we got this picture...so I guess it was worth it.
It was pretty small and cute. Nothing too exciting - tarantulas, ants and cockroaches. But then we went to the butterfly section and my camera ran out of batteries. I got most on film. OH MY GOODNESS! There were some amazing butterflies. The most amazing area was the breeding room. Tons and tons. Gorgeous butterflies. Here is an example of one that I got. I cannot describe to you how many were in this room. I loved the big winged black and white lacey kind. It was like being in a fairyland...so magical. You must do this.
Finally, we were able to go to our dinner appointment at Baba Restaurant at the Sri Panwa. As we rode through the hotel/villa area to get to the restaurant I was super jealous and kicking myself for trying to be "cheap" as this place was phenomenal and turns out not to have been more than we ended up paying in the end anyway. sigh. We had to walk on stepping stones to get to our secluded dining room that was surrounded by water. It was so chic. I put a few of their pictures that I stole from there website here...shhh! Don't tell!
The seat on the bottom of this photo, left, is where we ate.
It was nighttime of course, but this is what it looks like during the day.
They provided us with a little spray bottle of mosquito repellant which smelled lemony. I ended up with it in my mouth a few times because the girls kept spraying it on like perfume and the breeze would pick it up and send it my way....it was pretty tasty!
The best part was the food. EVERYTHING we ordered was phenomenal. Such a pleasure to eat such gourmet food...it was thai fusion. Don't skip the Fried morning glory with shrimp salad or the yummy sushi or the fresh fish with exotic spice combinations. I had the grouper in honor of the huge groupers we had seen in the tank at the "aquarium" earlier in the day. It was tasty. Don't miss this restaurant if you can swing it...you'll pay a load, but it will be worth it. Everything was good.
And you get a great view of the ocean from a prime seat. By the way, no one fell in even though I anticipated a huge splash at any moment from the youngest of our travelling trio.
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