Phuket - Resort Life :-)

It felt a little embarrassing to have lived in Thailand for over a year without going to Phuket, one of the top tourist destinations, but we solved that in style during Vivian's fall break this past week.  We've been enjoying the Centara hotels so much, that we decided to try the Centara Grand on the Karon beach.  We were not disappointed.  The resort was huge, with lots of stuff for kids and adults to do, and the stretch of beach it was on was absolutely beautiful.

The reception area was at one end of the resort, and it was small but nice.

The girls were mostly impressed by the one wall that had a waterfall feature.

Elena was a little too impressed, so Young kept a tight hold of her while I was getting us checked in.

We asked Young to come with us on this vacation partially because we're becoming completely spoiled, but also because we really wanted to do a boat tour, which is one of the best things to do in the area, and the tour we wanted to do didn't allow children under three, so Elena stayed at the resort with Young while we went out on the boat.

The hotel was pretty full, so in order to get something big enough for all of us, we upgraded to a private villa, something we've never done before.  While it was a nice experiment, I don't think we'll do it again.  The villa itself was lovely.

It was perched on the hill which gave it a nice view, but you had to go up two hills and a whole bunch of stairs to get there.

After surviving the climb, the first thing we did was put on our bathing suits and hop in the villa's infinity pool.

Elena only lasted a little while, but Jeff and Vivian had a lot of fun with underwater photography.

The big draw of the resort though was its beautiful private beach.

We brought our sand toys with us, but Vivian went straight into the waves and repeatedly giggled and squealed as she got smacked and washed up on the beach. 

The sun was setting, so we just enjoyed the view and let Vivian play with her "wave friends".

She was in heaven.

Once it started getting dark, we finally pulled her out and took her back to the villa to try and get all the sand off of her.  Once she was all washed up, we put on a movie for her and Elena, left them in Young's care with room service on the way, and then Jeff and I went out to dinner.

We wandered around for a while, appreciating some of the resort's cute touches, like flower petal happy faces.

We had also checked out the club for afternoon snacks earlier.

Since we stayed on the beach for sunset, we missed the evening free flow cocktail hour at the club.  We weren't too upset about it though; the sunset was beautiful.  Since it was late and our meal schedule for the day was a bit off from traveling anyway, we decided to just go up to the bar area and have some evening drinks and snacks.  It was great, because we sat on a comfy sofa where we could hear the waves and just relax.

The next day was our boat tour, which was fantastic.  As we were finishing up the day, Vivian said to me, "Mommy, you should do one blog for when we got to the hotel, and one blog for the boat trip, because we did SO much today."  I agree with her, so I'll do a separate entry for the boat trip.

Saturday, we had a full day at the resort.  Vivian, our new wave addict, wanted to go right to the beach, so Jeff took that on, while I took Elena to the baby pool area which she really liked.  It was shallow enough for her to walk around in, so she walked, splashed, giggled, walked some more, splashed and giggled some more, and basically had a great time.  After a while I asked her if she wanted to go see Daddy and Vivi at the big water.  She was cool with that, so off we went.  Once we got to the sand she put her arms up and made little panicked noises, so I picked her up and carried her down to the waves.  She was not so sure about them.  She seemed okay with the wet sand, but as the waves came up close to her feet, she kept saying, "Oh no, water! Oh no!"  She was NOT happy when the water went over her feet, even though it was very gentle, and she started saying, "All done water!  All done!"  Jeff and I shrugged, and I took her back to the pool.  She was freaked out about pools in the beginning too, so I'm sure she'll be jumping in the waves soon.

Vivian and Jeff took a break from the beach eventually, so that they could go down all the water slides and float along the lazy river.  I took Elena back to the room and to Young for a nap.  When I came back from that, I found Jeff and Vivian back in the waves.  Since it was almost lunch time, we decided Vivian needed a water break, and Jeff took her up to get changed for lunch.  We had lunch at the restaurant on the beach.  It had big awnings, so that way we could enjoy the view, but still have some shade.

After lunch, we went to the kids club where Vivian made friends with some Australian kids and decided she wanted to play there for the afternoon.  Since she'd been outside for most of the past few days, we decided that sounded like a good plan.  Elena and Young also ended up at the kids club, so Jeff and I went to find some seats on the beach to relax and enjoy the buy one get one free happy hour.  Our plan hit a slight snag when it started to rain.  We were under a sun umbrella, and we had actual umbrellas with us, so we waited it out for a while, but it kept going, and we weren't sure how long it would take the sun umbrella to get saturated and start dripping down on us, so we went to look for a drier spot.  We ended up finding a nice covered porch area with fans on the top beams.  We had a breeze, and we could watch the rain falling on the pool area in front of us.

It ended up being a great spot, so we thanked the rain for the change of venue.  

For dinner that night, we tried the buffet special.  Each night is a different theme.  Saturday's was all you can eat steak for about $35 per adult and kids eat free with two paying adults.  Plus, you could get free flow wine for another $17 per person.  It was a perfectly nice Chilean red, so we went for that.  They kept our wine glasses full the way attentive wait staff in the States keep your water glasses full, so by the time we got to dessert and Vivian asked if she could serve herself vanilla ice cream from the buffet "ice cream truck" and watch a movie on her iPad, we said sure, everything is wonderful, you go ahead and have fun.

She got a chance to work off her ice cream though, because some of the staff from the kids' club came into the restaurant and rounded up the kids for a dance lesson/performance.  They kept them busy and dancing for about twenty minutes while we finished up dinner. 

By the time the dancing was done, Vivian was ready to go back to the room and go to bed.  Thank you kids' club staff!

The next morning after breakfast, we took one last walk around the property.

Elena chased a dragonfly,

and the rest of us enjoyed the view.

We are so grateful for all the fabulous experiences living in Thailand has afforded us.

A Downtown Kind of Weekend

I ended up spending most of this past weekend downtown.  I went down on Saturday with Vivian for a birthday celebration at the Funarium, and then I went back on Sunday with Jeff for our Columbus Day staycation.

It was a rough week with Elena, since she had a fever and then a really runny nose, so a child-free night on the town was definitely the light at the end of the tunnel for me.  Elena was fever free by Friday, but still super fussy.  She was good on Saturday for Jeff though when Vivian and I went downtown.  Thank goodness we were riding in a car with a driver.  I have a better mental map of downtown Bangkok than I did when I was at the Funarium a year ago, but after we got off the main road, there were several turns, and then the Funarium was down this little street.  I don't think I could have gotten there and then gotten out again without getting seriously lost.  Vivian had a great time with her friends, so I'm glad she got to go again, since I don't think it's a trip we'll be making on our own any time soon.

Sunday was a much easier drive.  Jeff and I had reservations at the Royal Orchid Sheraton, which is right on the river.  It wasn't too far off the highway, and, after our valet parking faux pas last staycation, I double checked that this hotel actually had valet.  They did :-)  We splurged for a club room, which was worth it, since it put us up high with great views.  Jeff always has fun getting pictures of the city.  This is a panorama looking back at the city from the river.

We watched the sunset from the club room where they were serving complimentary drinks and food.  Jeff took a good picture out across the river,

but he couldn't resist tinkering with it to make it "even cooler."

Before our sunset happy hour, we had walked to the River City shopping center, which is right next to the Sheraton.

It was a complete deja vu weekend, because this is where I came when my mom was here last year, and we were waiting for our dinner cruise.  Jeff and I had decided not to book a river cruise this time, since it's still the rainy season, and, as you can see from the clouds in the pictures, rain is always a possibility.  Instead, we decided to walk around and see what dinner options were available on land, both inside and outside.

River City is mostly an antiques and fine arts shopping mall, but we did make one purchase.  The hotel had told us that Jeff had to wear long pants at the club happy hour, and, of course, all he had was shorts.  The lady at the reception desk tried to be helpful and said that they had a pair of pants they could lend him.  She then proceeded to pull out some grungy old gym pants.  Obviously our definition of smart casual and the hotel's definition of smart casual didn't quite mesh.  We tried our best to decline politely without making our shock obvious.  Luckily, River City had a store that sold eco-friendly cotton clothes, and Jeff found what were essentially off-white pajama pants, but, if you didn't look too closely, they could also be casual khakis.  Problem solved!  We had a good laugh about how comfy yet proper he was all night.

We checked out restaurants in the River City complex, and then wandered around the hotel, which had some really nice decorative touches.

and some fun signage.

The weather looked like it was going to hold, so we decided on the hotel's Italian restaurant.  It had seating outside, and we got 20% off there.  It ended up being a great choice, because we were sitting outside as all the dinner cruises were pulling in to pick up their passengers.  Several also sailed by as we were eating, so we got to compare them all and listen to the crazy assortment of songs that were being broadcast.

We finished with a yummy dessert sampler.

The next morning we tried to sleep in, even though Vivian sent me a text message with Young's phone saying she didn't feel well and didn't want to go to school.  I had to call in a neighbor for reinforcement, but we got her to school in the end.  

During our wanderings the day before, we had found a bakery.

They actually had some good stuff, so we got a pain au chocolat to console Vivian with.  

Even though our morning was a bit disrupted by her dramatics, we still got to have a fun night on the town and sleep in until a decadent 8:30am.  We can't wait for our next night downtown.

Snake Farm

Vivian has two days off of school for parent teacher conferences, so we teamed up with some other moms and kids for a fun outing to the Thai Red Cross Snake Farm.  The Red Cross part is that it's a major place for creating anti-venoms.  With extra funding, they've also created a zoo/museum combo that's really well done.  My one friend wanted to make sure she knew what the poisonous snakes looked like, and my other friend used to work at a zoo with reptiles, so it was a great team for a snake trip.  The kids are all about the same age and get along really well too, so it worked out perfectly.

The first part of the Snake Farm is outside, with the snakes inside glass enclosures.

As we walked farther in, the snakes were in pits which you could look at from above or through glass.  None of those were the dangerous kind, but the kids still felt the need to goof around a little.

Then we went inside, where there were more snakes and more information.  The first floor had lots of snakes behind glass.  Our favorite was one that was molting, and so it was moving all around its box trying to scrape off its skin.  You can see a chunk of the skin on the rock next to the tree.

Not only did the snake move around, but it seemed like it kept looking at the kids.

We took a break from our snake friend to go to the venom extraction show.  There was an auditorium in the middle of the first floor.  The demonstration was behind glass, which was reassuring.

The snakes are in the stack of plastic containers on the right.  They would take them out one at a time by putting the metal rod in where the snake could get onto it.  Then they would use a long piece of plastic to pin the snake down, so that they could grab it behind the head.  The set up on the right of the table is a camera, and there was a big screen above the room they were working in, so that you could see the fangs up close.  They also brought the snakes up to the glass, so that you could see how they got the venom out.

It was actually really interesting.  After the show, we went back to say hi to our snake friend one more time, and then we went upstairs to the second part of the museum.  The first thing that caught our attention were the dead snakes in glass jars.

Then the kids found a little room about the mythology of snakes.  You could push a button for the narration.  Different pictures on the wall lit up when the narrator was talking about different myths.  It was low tech, but cool.  The kids got into it.

They also had lots of displays about snake bones and snake skin.  The Burmese Python skin was so long, they had to fold it up to get it to fit in the case.

By the time we were done with the second floor, everyone was ready for lunch, so we went down a block and across the street to Roadhouse Barbecue for lunch.  They had kid friendly food (hamburger, hot dog, wings), and the grown ups found some yummy options too.  Our timing was perfect, because the skies opened up while we were at lunch, and we could watch the rain through the restaurant window instead of being caught in it.  The rain finished a little before we finished our lunch, and then we walked back to the Snake Farm for the afternoon snake show.

This was outside, and we could get up close and personal with the snakes.  There's a highly poisonous green viper at the end of the stick that guy is holding.

They also brought out cobras who danced and hissed.

I know these guys are professionals, but it seemed like they were taunting the snakes to get them to strike.  It was nerve wracking! 

This snake is highly poisonous.  At least the guy carrying him was keeping a close eye on the snake's mouth.

This one is slightly less poisonous.

At the end of the show, they brought out a huge Burmese Python (not poisonous), and offered to let us pose for pictures with it.  The kids were all for it, and even the moms got brave and went for it.

While I would never have said that visiting a snake farm was at the top of my list of things to do, it ended up being a really great day with lots of learning and a little adventure.

Great Long Weekend in Pattaya

Vivian had two days off of school this past week for an "activity free weekend."  We decided to take advantage of the time to do a family trip to the beach.  We've tried the close beach towns to the east and the west, and found that Pattaya was easier to get to.  There's a resort there called Centara Grand Mirage that has family suites for a reasonable price and a bunch of extra water park features in its pool area, so we decided that was where we would go.

Even though Vivian had a four day weekend, we thought that two nights away was plenty, and we planned to leave on Friday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday the monsoon season let loose and there was rain almost all day.  It was easing off by Thursday, but there was a lot of flooding.  We had friends going to the same resort on Thursday, and they said that some of the roads were flooded when they headed down Thursday afternoon.  The resort was still open, but all the extra water had damaged one of their pumps, and so all the special water features were closed.

We decided not to let the weather deter us, packed some cards and games to keep busy in case the rain didn't let up, and got on the road bright and early Friday morning.  We knew our room probably wouldn't be ready, but we also knew that if we left too late on a Friday, we would spend half our weekend in traffic, so we were on the road before eight.  It turned out to be a good call.  There was a bit of traffic, but not too much, and we made it there in under two hours.  It still looked a little gray, but the lost world jungle theme was definitely cool.

The overcast weather actually kept it cooler and less crowded.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was ready, and we could go there immediately.  It was great to be able to get settled in and get changed right away.  The room had a living room area with a table and chairs, a little kitchenette, and a big bedroom and bathroom, but the best part was a little space with a bunk bed and two sliding doors that made walls to close it off to the living area.  Vivian loved it.  She also wasted no time making herself at home at the kiddie pool.

There were several different connected pools, and one had a "cliff" to jump off of.  Vivian and her buddy quickly discovered the cliff and proceeded to take flying leaps off of it.

There were a couple sand areas next to the pool which was nice since the actual sand at the beach is full of junk and not really a place you want your kids to play.  We invested a few dollars in some sand toys, and the girls played happily.

Elena spent some time at the pool with us each morning, but she's not really a big fan of the water, and I didn't want her to spend too much time in the sun.  Our solution was to ask Young to come with us, and take Elena to the kids club after pool time.  Elena really enjoyed the kids club.

We made Vivian take a pool break during the hottest part of the day, so she got into the fun at the kids club too.  She went the camouflage route, wearing her rainbow dress to hide in the rainbow balls.

Young also helped by staying in the room with Elena during nap time, so that Jeff and I could take Vivi out for lunch with a view.

There were a couple places where you could walk from the hotel onto the beach proper.

Vivian was intrigued by the orange and white floating barriers, especially when she saw several people walking out onto them.  The storms earlier in the week had tossed them all around, but by Saturday, they were connected into three sides of a square, and Vivian was determined to walk all the way around.  Jeff agreed to go with her, but thought they should wait until the evening when it wasn't as hot.  Vivian kept checking to see if it was "evening" yet, and eventually she and her buddy set out with the dads, while the moms stayed on the beach. We watched their little silhouettes carefully walking the circuit.

Thankfully, they all made it around without falling off, and I had them do triumphant poses to celebrate.

Vivian took a moment to issue a proclamation from one of the balconies on the way back up to the room.

The food at the hotel was alright, but nothing exceptional.  Luckily, they had fried rice, which Elena ate for most meals.

Since Young is a superhero, she watched all four kids one night, so that the four adults could have a kid free dinner.  The food was fine, but the best part was being able to have an uninterrupted conversation.  

On Sunday we got up early to take one more dip in the pool.

At nine, some of the slides, part of the lazy river, and the splash pad opened up for the first time that weekend, so we took some time to try them all out.

It was a great finish to a great weekend.  I'm almost glad that everything wasn't open the whole weekend, because Vivian was so exhausted after just an hour of play that she fell asleep in the car on the way home.  We came to the unanimous family decision that this was our best beach trip yet, and we will definitely go there again.

Fun with Mom

My mom's visits are usually pretty low-key.  She's been to Thailand several times, so she doesn't need to do the sight-seeing thing.  She's happy hanging out with us, and just making our days more fun.  For example, she came with me to Vivian's swimming lesson, but afterwards, instead of a regular snack, Mom upgraded Vivi to ice cream.

Mom really wanted to do some souvenir shopping, so I decided to take her to a place we haven't tried yet, but that sounded like it had what she was looking for, Asiatique.  It's basically a bunch of market stalls and restaurants on the river.  You can get there by boat, but it's also pretty easy to get there off the highway, and there's plenty of parking, so on Sunday (aka, low traffic day) Mom and I gave it a try.  

We actually managed to get there without getting lost!  Even though it's technically farther away than Chatuchak, it took us less time and was easier, since there was minimal driving off the highway.  We found several of the things my mom was looking for at the stands outside of Asiatique proper.  It turned out to be the right place to shop, because we found a beautiful dress for Vivi for 150 baht, and they had the same dress inside for 250 baht.  We also found the perfect gift for Jeff.  His Thai beer of choice is Chang Classic, and this seemed like a great keepsake for our time here.

We also found my mom some elephant pants and a shirt that says "Same, Same" on the front, and "But different" on the back.  "Same, Same" is a very typical expression in Thailand, but same is sometimes a bit different, so it's a fun shirt.  Luckily, we fueled up for shopping and had dinner with a view.

It was nice for sunset, and the whole place looked pretty once it was lit up as a true night market.  I think it would be a fun place to bring guests who want a tourist experience.

Since we hadn't done enough shopping on Sunday, we joined up with some people who were going to the Jim Thompson outlet on Monday.  This is a good place to go if you want fabric.  They have several floors with rooms full of fabric.

I'm thinking it might be a good place to get some nice fabric for curtains for our "real" house, since it will be time for an updated look whenever we get back to living in Virginia.  In addition to the fabric, there's a floor with bags in lots of different sizes.  I got a little one to put jewelry in when we travel.

The final floor had household merchandise, so pillow cases, tablecloths, things like that.  Mom got a few things there.  We weren't sure if we were going to find anything we wanted, but it ended up being a very successful shopping trip.

Tuesday was Mom's last day here, so my friend and I took her out to the Blue Sky cafe for a final lunch with crazy big smoothies.

It was really sad to say goodbye to her early Wednesday morning, but I'm focusing on the fact that she'll be back soon, and she'll bring the rest of the gang with her next time.