Phuket tour

By Saturday we were finally all feeling much better (read: I didn't have to constantly wipe snot from Rowan's face and I didn't have a sinus headache). We booked a tour to hit all the highlights of the island. We decided to do a private tour so we could be on our own time schedule, and it was perfect! We were able to see SO much in just one day and our guide was awesome about answering questions, etc in the van and then letting us go to explore on our own whenever we got to each stop. They picked us up at the hotel and we drove along the coast by all the famous beaches and up to this lookout point. It was gorgeous and a fun perspective on the area. (Rowan slept through this pit stop, which was good since next stop was the elephants :)

 

Riding elephants was obviously high on our list of things to do while in Thailand. Elephants are one of Rowan's #1 favorite animals and he is excellent at making the noises they make (better than my elephant noise for sure :) He makes the noise every time he sees a picture of one, so I was so excited to take him here where he'd get to interact. Pulling into the parking lot, he saw this little guy and started making elephant sounds. We bought some bananas and sugar cane and fed this cute little guy!

The trainer told this elephant to kiss my face and he was seriously suctioned onto my cheek for awhile, it felt so weird! Here he is tickling my neck, Rowan's not sure what's going on :)

It's funny how fuzzy the baby elephants are too. Rowan noticed the hair on its head and touched his own hair. They have kind of the same do, just different colors.

And although you can't tell from his face here, Rowan absolutely LOVED the elephant ride! It was a fun feeling to be up and walking around on the top of an elephant~ We were also given necklaces and bracelets after our ride that are carved out of elephant teeth that have fallen out! We thought that was pretty cool, especially considering our "relationship" with dentistry and teeth :)

Next stop was Big Buddha. It was constructed over 10 years ago, but is technically still under constraction (they are working on the inside of it). Women cannot show their knees or shoulders so I brought a long skirt, but they also offer robes to clothe in while you walk around if needed. I couldn't believe how warm it was...made me realize why we don't sightsee in Okinawa in the summer!

This Buddha was enormous. And it was interesting to note that although there is only one Buddha, he looks different in every country. The Thai buddha is skinnier than many because that is what more Thai people are built like.

This is the Saturday Buddha...seemed like we needed a photo with him since that was the day we visited :)

Our next stop was Wat Chalong. It was a fun little area with several buildings. Rowan had a bit of a meltdown at this point for some reason. The tour was too much for him. He never wanted to get in the van when it was time to leave a stop, and then he didn't want to leave the van when we got to the next stop. So, since we were on vacation and we're awesoms parents, we bribed him with ice cream and it seemed to help a lot ;) Here he is enjoying his ice cream and again making elephant noises :)

We learned more about monks, and I was interested to learn that Thai Buddists are all encouraged to become monks for at least a few months in their late teens/early twenties, before getting married, to learn self discipline, how to take care of a family, etc. Couldn't help but find the similiarities between that and a mission that many members of the Mormon faith do at this same pivital time of life. I didn't realize that one could become a monk for only a short period of time. These 3 monks were well renowned and honored and had gold leafing all over them. These places are always so interesting because there were people there worshipping and praying at the same time that tourists are walking around taking pictures, etc.

The next building (which was air conditioned ;) had wax statues of the monks. These were amazing how detailed they were! They even had real hairs stuck into their head.

This next building was very ornate and fun to walk around. Rowan liked all the dragons.

And my favorite shot of this area...so pretty!

Next stop was the cashew factory.This little lady sits here all day long and shells cashews. It was amazing to see the cashew fruit (which they apparently make juice out of) and cashews in a form I've never seen them. I can appreciate a little bit better now why they are so expensive to buy. We got to sample all the different flavors and brought home garlic and honey ones. 

We were pretty hungry by this point and they had arranged lunch for us at this cute little local place (and since it was already about 2:30pm, we had the whole place to ourselves). He ordered ahead and the food was waiting for us when we got there! It was seriously SO delicious, I could eat all of it everyday. Rowan loved the rice and shrimp the best :) ...and of course the pineapple. Phuket pineapple is Grant's new favorite variety. It is a little harder in texture and not as sweet, so you feel like you could just eat it forever.

These groves of rubber trees are found EVERYWHERE in Phuket. They were pretty fun to drive by beacuse of the perfect rows they are planted in. It takes at least 7 years for rubber trees to become big enough to start scraping for rubber, so in the meantime, people plant pineapple plants between the rows to make some money while their rubber trees grow.

And then we got to see how the tree is milked. They make one small scrape on the side (usually done at night so less is lost in evaporation) and this rubber milk will pour into the cup (and give an entire cup full!) It was crazy to see how fast it poured out. They just do one scrape per day on each tree.

And then they mix it with water and acid, run it through a hand cranked press, and all of a sudden you have rubber! Thailand produces 35% of the world's rubber (most of which is used for car tires).

This stop also had an area where they showed how the monkeys were trained to pick the coconuts. It was such a brilliant idea because this guy was FAST! He raced to the top of the tree, would bite the top of the coconut stem and then use his feet to kick it quickly to the ground. Much faster than having to climb the tree and do it yourself.

And then we got to reward him for a job well done :)

We were pretty tired by the end of the day. We had a fantastic time seeing so many things, but were also anxious to get back and relax for awhile! We packed up our bags and left them in our room when we left in the morning, knowing that we were switching rooms to our more luxurious room that day. They agreed to move all of our stuff for us since we would be gone for checkout/in, which was so nice. So, when we got back to the hotel, we were walked to our new room (which was on the first floor-which we thought was odd since it was supposed to be 3rd floor). On the way over, the attendant explained that we had been even further upgraded because that room was not booked for the next 3 days that we were there for! How amazing :) I'd dreamt of staying in this room when we looked online but couldn't justify spending the money....so it was pretty dang amazing to get the opportunity to stay here at a reduced cost!

And what did we decide to do the rest of the evening?! Order room service and swim in our private pool! "Is this real life?" I was feeling ridiculously spoiled....

Watching the sunset from our cute little backyard with an ocean view. We talked about how amazing it would be to have this as our real backyard :) We celebrated the beginning of my third trimester sitting by the pool enjoying each other's company.

...and of course...Rowan loved the turtles. He made up a turtle noise which is the cutest thing ever. Along with elephant noises, turtles were the next most heard noise out of that kid's mouth all week :)

Despite starting out being sick, this was turning out to be a pretty fantastic vacation.