Day 14/15/16 - Northern Phuket

Day 14 - Travel day to Phuket

 

Today we had an afternoon flight from Bangkok to Phuket. We had to change our original flight as we were not scheduled to fly to Phuket for another two days. However, we came to Bangkok two days early (to avoid typhoon in a Vietnam) and we did not want to spend four in Bangkok as we preferred to explorer the beaches of Thailand vs the concrete cities. We were able to change our Bangkok Airlines flight for $18 per person! Why can't we have these change fees in the US?

 

Although we were eager to get to the beach, we chose the 2:30 flight. This gave us time to sleep in, workout (well Kristen as I feel like crap), eat a good breakfast, and avoid the traffic!

Our flight was only 1.5 hrs, but we still received a meal. My strategy of ordering vegetarian continues to pay off as the regular meal few ate. The one down side to ordering vegetarian, it seems you never get the sweet dessert, but fruit. Nothing against fruit, but airline fruit is not any good. I would rather eat the high fructose corn syrup cake. Why can't a "vegetarian" get the normal dessert? Kristen said that this has always been since she has ordered vegetarian.

 

Our arrival at the Renaissance on Mai Khao Beach was magnificent: welcome drink in the open aired reception area over looking a huge calm pond. We quickly unpacked the swimsuit to spend the afternoon at the pool, walking on the beach, and playing in the waves. The pictures highlight the beauty of the area.

 

We ate Thai food for dinner again overlooking the beautiful pool before calling it a night.

 

Day 15 - Renaissance Resort day in Phuket

 

We spent the day relaxing at the pool and playing in the waves. The beaches are very pretty. The tide changes every six hours so the waves crash pretty hard here. This makes for difficult walking on the incline of the sandy beach.

I got a traditional Thai Massage in the afternoon. I opted for the local massage right on the property line instead of Marriott high end priced spa. My hour massage was 400 Baht or about $14! Thai massages are different than the traditional relaxation massage in the US. Instead of rubbing through different muscles, Thai massages are about applying pressure to pressure points while holding the muscle in a certain position. Very different. I did enjoy the massage, but I would prefer a more traditional massage the second time around.

Sunset tonight was awesome. We had huge waves coming in and a beautiful sun. We took turns playing in them while the other tried to capture pictures. It was one of the most fun sunsets I've ever experienced. We literally took over a 100 pictures and it was difficult to reduce to a few to post! It was like the sun was shining right at us as there was a sparkle no matter where we stood in the sand.

 

We ate at the same Thai restaurant on the resort as it was delicious the night before. Tonight we got to eat outside where we sat on mats on a raised up floor making our legs ninety degrees and straight under the table. Very weird to eat this way and actually uncomfortable, but fun to at least try once. I tried Thai whiskey which is supposed to be much stronger than US whiskey. I didn't notice any difference in strength or taste.

We spent the remainder of the night planning our day trip to Phang Nga (pronounced Pang Na). We also booked one more night at the Renaissance as we enjoyed it that much.

Most of our trip thus far has been pre-planned. However, we didn't know what beaches or areas of Phuket we wanted to stay, so we didn't book anything after the first two nights. Luckily tripadvisor and hotels.com make it fairly easy to find good reviewed hotels and tour excursions.

 

Day 16 - Phang Nga

Most of the day trips to the area left early in the morning. However, one of the more highly regarded trips, John Gray Sea Kayaking, left at 1130. This was great as you can sleep in, eat breakfast, workout, and relax at the pool before starting the excursion.

This trip was amazing and I anticipate being the highlight of our Thailand experience. The staff picked us and two other couples up in a hardwood floored minivan where we were taken to the pier where many other tourists were. John Gray had two boats for the afternoon. We were welcomed on our boat with drinks and lunch and sat sail into Phang Nga.

The pictures are beautiful, but don't do the islands justice as they are not in 3D. We kayaked through the cave to the middle of the hung and had a blast taking in the beauty of the area. It was really cool to find out there were huge holes in these rock formations. As the water rises, they fill up making them accessible through cave openings. You have to time them just right to get in our out as the openings close when the water is the highest. It makes you feel like a true explorer when you kayak through them.

 

We meet many other travelers, some from the US. One girl from Washington was working for a charity in Pakistan. Holy cow, interesting to learn about her experience there. It is fun to learn about others travels.

 

I will let the pictures and their captions speak to the beauty we got to witness! We came out of our last cave and it down poured. A bit scary for about an hour as at one point lightening struck what seemed to be a few hundred yards from the ship. Luckily the winds were not high, so we just had to wait out the heavy rain. The crew on the ship were awesome and made it much better than it could have been.

We arrived a bit late at about 9:15. We finalized our plans for the next morning. Headed to Don Phi Phi island. Supposedly clear water only to be compared to the Maldives. We will see!

Click here for Phuket pictures

 

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