Phuket

In a very spontaneous move, we traveled to Phuket, Thailand recently. We thought about it on Wednesday, bought tickets on Thursday, and left on Saturday.

Phuket is an island off the coast of Thailand, about two hours NW of Singapore.

Beautiful sunset from the airplane window, looking over southern Malaysia.

We stayed three nights on the west coast of the island. It was the type of resort I don't particularly like, but it was good to get away from work and the heat of Singapore. It seems ironic that we had to visit a tropical island to escape anywhere. However, we were greeted by a constant cool ocean breeze at our hotel that we never feel here. Calling the breeze cool is very generous. It's not like we needed a jacket. However, it was refreshing. This is still the rainy season in Phuket, so there were fewer guests than normal. This is nice for getting seats at a restaurant or a chair next to the pool, but it limits one's people-watching, which is one of my holiday hobbies. The other downside is that there was no snorkeling. Phuket has wonderful snorkeling nearby in the dry season. Maybe we'll return some day, although I would prefer to visit about 50 new places before going back. It so vastly pales in comparison to beaches in places like Grand Cayman, San Sebastian, Santa Monica, and Hawai'i that I'm not too excited to go back.

Strong winds at the beach. Evidence of erosion here, and the roots of several trees are clearly exposed and vulnerable, which will likely lead to more erosion.

Unfortunately, the strong winds and rough currents meant no swimming on the beach. So, we walked around the resort grounds (six hotels all together in one large piece of land), read books by the pool, and ate some good (not great) food.

Nice pool, but almost no guests.

One highlight was seeing the resort elephants. They are both young, around four. As you can imagine, they are very popular with the kids. Thankfully, they don't get climbed all over all day. Each hotel has a set time when the elephants will arrive, and they stay for about 30 minutes at each before walking to the next hotel.

Kissing Hisako (hoping for some bananas as thanks)

About the attention you'd expect from any rare large animal in public. It reminds me of the attention maiko get in Kyoto.

After four days, we returned home. We've only been here three months and we've already traveled to two countries (and Thailand was a new one for both of us). I don't know if we already have island fever, or if we're still settling in and excited about the opportunities around us.

Where should we go next?