Family Vacation to Thailand Aug-Sep 2008

Where should I begin? Well, this is the first time that we have not traveled West to California on our vacation, and instead headed East and closer to the equator to the island of Phuket, Thailand. Thailand has become quite a popular destination for Scandinavians. We stayed at a fabulous family hotel in Bangtao Beach, in a quiet part of the island, which suited us perfectly. The hotel was practically empty due to it being low season, so we pretty much had our own pool and there was no fighting over the lounge chairs around the pool and no waiting for tables in restaurants, and also gave us the possibility to negotiate prices. We read ahead of time that prices for taxis, long-tail boats, outdoor markets, etc, were all negotiable, and they even expect you to negotiate with them. We ate all of our dinners with our feet in the sand, trying out the local cuisine, which was always DELICIOUS! We loved the food. (Memories of my dorm roommate from my first year of college came flashing back, as her parents own a Thai restaurant in Berkeley--she'd go home every weekend to visit, and would always bring back a giant 5 gallon bucket of Thai noodles.)


Anyway, I digress. The food was fabulous, and we loved dining at the local beachfront restaurants every night. We ate like kings every night, since it is SOOO cheap there. For example, most every night we had cocktails, appetizers, 4 dinners, bottle of wine, 2 drinks each for the kids, and then would share 3 desserts, and the bill was around $30-$40. So imagine the beauty of Hawaii, but waaay cheaper. And of course you can't get any cheaper than the outdoor markets they have everywhere, where they sell "original copies" of everything. We couldn't resist buying a Rolex watch while we were there....after all, it IS an original copy! And I am now sporting new Gucci sunglasses. :)


To break up our stay at the same hotel for 2 weeks, we decided to head off to the Phi Phi islands after hearing another Norwegian speaking so fondly of it. Instead of taking the speed boat or regular ferry boat one-day-herded-sheep-tour (where they ferry you towards the island, and then before you get there you offload to a snorkeling boat and snorkel together with 100 people and then get back on the ferry and head back), we decided to spend the night and enjoy the island a bit more. Phi Phi is made up of two islands: Phi Phi Leh and Phi Phi Don.

Here's a picture of Phi Phi Don, which as you see has gorgeous bays on both sides.








Phi Phi Don










Phi Phi Leh, the other island, is uninhabited, yet a very popular day-trip destination for snorklers and anyone who wants to see the beautiful location where the Leonardo Decaprio movie "The Beach" was filmed.

Here's a really cool aerial shot of Maya Bay.


On Phi Phi Don, We found a very nice bungalow hotel and rented a long-tail taxi boat both days, which were great and very cheap for our own private boat. We had our taxi driver/captain take us to all of the typical tourist sites, like Monkey Beach, Maya Bay, Losama Bay, and some other great places for snorkeling. My favorite memories from the whole trip are when all four of us were in the water together. I had figured that one of us would always have to sit in the boat with Justin, but he did so great with his water wings on, that he, too, was swimming with the fish. And when he got tired of treading water, he climbed on our backs and rode around up there--while we continued to snorkel with our heads in the water!

After a few days in Phi Phi, we returned to our hotel on the West coast of Phuket, in Bangtao Beach. We stayed at a great family hotel where they had a kids' club called "Miniland", and mascots that came to visit twice a day. Our hotel also had beachside massage tables, so we both jumped at that opportunity for $10 for an hour massage. We also used two days in Patong, a much larger coastal city about 30 minutes south, as well as Surin Beach, just 10 minutes away, for some swimming and playing in the sand, in order to change the scenery a bit.

There's was just so much to take in, it's hard to think of what else to say! So I guess we'll just "roll the tape!" Enjoy!

P.S. It's trivia time: A thousand virtual dollars (original copies, maybe?) goes to the first person who emails me with the correct answer: What movie is the first song in our Thailand video from? :)