Can we go back to Phuket pleeeeaaase?!

We're back now. Our first break from the blog was due to Thailand being big and strong and quite in control of what I can and can't do on the internet. The second break was due to our last-minute vacation to Kamala Beach, Phuket. All I can say is it was amazing. HA! You really think that's all I can say? My mouth begins to run...

After talking on the phone with another mommy friend here in Bangkok, Kamala Beach Estate sounded like the place. We booked Wed. morning and left Thursday night. It's low season, so rates are cheap and rooms are available. The flight to Phuket was only an hour and 20 min., but that seems like an eternity when it's past your kid's bedtime and your patience is sitting quietly in Bangkok's airport where you left it. Once Pat even said to Sawyer, "Mommy forgot her patience." If that's not a good enough reason to take a magic marker to your husband's laptop screen and blame it on your baby, then go find me a better one. I'll elaborate on patience another time, right now I'm fired up and... Anyway, after clearing the seat next to us and doing his best impression of a drunk gorilla in a mosh pit, Sawyer fell asleep. Like, THREE MINUTES before we landed!!! The seatbelt sign dinged and everyone stood up. I looked around wondering where the heck that loud brat was on the airplane. Couldn't have been my baby, he was sleeping, of course.

A happy Thai man from the resort greeted us with a sign and drove us in a big van to our resort. It was dark, around 9:30, and so pretty much all we saw were cute bars and dives with Christmas lights. The road got steeper and we wound through some hills before arriving at our sleepy resort. A guard gave us the key and told us to check in in the morning. We walked by the pool, all lit up. Then through a pathway between lots of villas. I could hear waves crashing and as we got to our door, I asked the guard, "Ocean view?" He nodded and pointed to the black between our villa and another...and that's where that sound of waves was coming from so I didn't argue. Our place was a 2-bedroom villa. Fully equipped kitchen, big living room, DVD player, books on local places, lots of windows, a huge patio with 2 chaise lounges and a table and chairs. The place looked beautiful. We put Sawyer to bed in the pack and play we'd arranged to have in one of the bedrooms and then went to the patio. I could see trees and said, "Looks like we might have an obstructed view, seems like a lot of trees."

The next morning we woke up and looked out of the back windows. Guess I was wrong about the view. Sawyer kept pointing out the sliding glass doors at the water and saying, "Uh oh." I think he thought God spilled his sippy cup. We had breakfast at Rockfish, the restaurant that is pretty much on the same grounds as the villas. Again, the view was unbelievable. The theme for this vacation was, "I can't believe how cheap this was." We ended up eating at Rockfish for most of the meals. They deliver, and I don't call it room service because they don't jack up the prices or charge a delivery fee. And their prices were reasonable to begin with. We ordered pizza from a place down the street. Amazingly, it wasn't the typical "Thai-ified" pizza and it came in 15 min. Sawyer slept great the whole time. We were in the pool every single day and went to our private beach every day, too. That beach ended up good for shell collecting and rock walking. When it was low tide, you notice that the whole shore is nothing but rock and it was fun seeing how far out you could walk knowing that hours later you'd be in the water. Many times we'd watch out of our windows at locals with little nets walking the rocks. I'm not sure what they were catching. We could also watch longtail boats zip by on their way to do some fishing.

Kamala Beach itself was a short walk south of our place. We walked to the beach a couple times. Sawyer was nervous the first time Pat walked him out into the waves but after a minute he would watch a small wave approach and then squeal when it hit him. He was so much fun because he was really excited just to be there. He didn't totally understand the shovel and pail thing, but had fun with them nonetheless. For the most part, the beach was pretty quiet and there were more locals than anything else. We had breakfast at a coffee shop on the beach one day. The restaurant across the street was playing Jack Johnson and that is Sawyer's favorite music. The lady who served us was working alone and we watched her cook everything up and chop our fresh fruit. One day walking back from dinner on the beach, we saw a big burly white guy sitting out on his porch with a beer. He was wearing a tiara. He didn't look like he thought it was funny so I didn't laugh. That's what made it funny.

It was really hard to leave this place. Not just because we had such a nice time on our first real vacation as a family, but because it seems we lucked out so much with this resort. Also, the beach was so quiet and laid back and untouristy. How could any place we stay in the future live up to our little villa? That's why I'm plotting a way to go back. Family - come visit us so we have a reason to go back!!! Once we got home, we found something out that we didn't know while staying in Kamala. It was the hardest-hit beach of all Phuket during the tsunami. I thought about all those kids we saw at the big school right on the beach. The girls who came up and gave Sawyer peace signs were probably around when it happened, though probably not at the school. I'll include two pictures of the Buddhist temple that's near the bridge between our hotel and the main part of the beach. The picture on the right is the same temple during the tsunami. The beach businesses, temple, and school have been rebuilt thanks to donations and even an Australian home makeover show.








After the novel I just wrote, here's a quick note. That rhymes! Like dimes! (that was for Debbie) After having Fox News shoved down my throat by the American Forces Network (since "Armed" is now considered un-PC?), I've come up with a brilliant idea. The people who hang out under bridges and don't contribute to society at all, all the teenagers dragging their feet through the malls full of angst, telemarketers...here's how we can save them. Let's make them body language experts! We can all gain some insight learning exactly what it meant when McCain's right eye blinked a little slower than his left and finally learn Obama's real intentions after analyzing which direction his ears are pointed! It's a win-win! I'm gonna throw up!