Spring Break 2011 in Phuket, Thailand

For Spring Break 2011, we took a 6-day trip to Phuket, Thailand. Our trip started VERY early...we had a 7:30am flight on Saturday morning (April 23rd), so we were up and leaving for the airport at 4:45am. The boys were great about it, wide awake and ready for our flight. We flew on Thai Airways - they really do know how to treat passengers well on a flight! They had a kid-friendly breakfast for the boys (pancakes, sausage, fruit, juice), and Mark and I enjoyed a more traditional asian breakfast fare of rice and chicken, fruit, and juice.

Our flight went through Bangkok, but it was a short layover so we didn't even see much of the airport. One more quick hop, and we landed in Phuket around 1:30. Our hotel, the J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa, was spectacular! We were greeted with an orchid lei for each of us...they boys weren't so thrilled, so they thought Mom should have all of them.

Day #1: Saturday
The first day was mostly spent travelling to Phuket, followed by spending time on the beach of the Andaman Sea, jumping in the waves and being washed up on shore like beached whales.




We also checked out one of the 3 pools at the resort. There was one that was more kid-friendly, including a short waterslide, sprinkler poles, bubble jets, and concrete turtles to climb on. The boys liked it since it was a bit shallower than the rest of the pool so they could dive for rocks on the bottom of the pool. There was an overflow trench around the whole pool filled with smooth rocks...perfect for diving!

Alex climbing up to the slide, checking out the spitting fish...
Down goes Derek...
Taking a break on a concrete turtle...
Alex catching some rays...

Day #2: Easter Sunday
Alex and Mark spent so long down on the beach on Saturday, they both got a pretty serious sunburn. We went to the store at the resort and found these cool "bucket hats" for the boys to help with sun protection on their faces and necks.

Alex taking a break from the sun to read his Harry Potter book...
Derek staying cool in the pool with his bucket hat and goggles...
Staying cool...
Derek enjoying the slide...
Cooling in the pool.

Because it was Easter Sunday, the resort had set up some games for the kids to play in the courtyard right outside our room. The prizes were every kids' favorite...candy! The boys got to pop balloons with darts, knock down cans with a tennis ball, spin a wheel for candy. After all the games were done, they served kid-friendly snacks -- chicken nuggets, fries, pizza, fish sticks, fresh fruit, pop, and ice cream sundaes. The boys enjoyed the games and the snacks.

Enjoying our snack in the courtyard...
Checking out the reflecting pool after Easter dinner.

Day #3: Monday
It was a gorgeous day to enjoy the sun, with a high of around 94 degrees. We spent most of the day being lazy by the pool, playing some ping-pong, having a few snacks at the Siam Cafe, and enjoying a relaxing vacation. Of course, they had yummy strawberry slushies that we enjoyed to keep us cool and hydrated...


A little "visitor" that tried to sneak some snacks from us...

For dinner, we checked out the Japanese restaurant at the resort. We opted for teppanyaki instead of sushi, since Shannon's the only one that will eat that. The food was amazing...starting with a salad and soup, followed by your choice of vegetable (we chose spinach with garlic and a mushroom medley...SO good!), then your entree (steak, chicken, shrimp), fried rice, and fruit to end the meal. Sorry Genji's, but this meal blows you out of the water!
Alex demonstrates his improving chopsticks skill...
Derek is still working on his, opting for the rigged version to make his meal a little easier to eat...
Mark pretends to eat a Lego egg...
The boys posing with one of the statues at the resort..not sure, but we think it's a dragon/elephant.
Heading back to the room after dinner...full and happy!

Day #4: Tuesday
We decided to take a day excursion into Phuket Town to do a bit of sight seeing and touristy-type shopping. After about a 45-minute ride, we arrived in the heart of downtown. We connected with a nice tour guide/taxi driver, who recommended a few sight-seeing stops and a bit of shopping. We first visited a Buddhist temple. There were monks in attendance, but it's not typically acceptable to take their photographs...some believe that photos take away part of their soul. We did get some wonderful photos of a small Buddhist shrine...and a larger temple, though we were told that this was small in comparison to the temples in Bangkok.
A small Buddhist shrine...
The boys sitting in the Buddhist temple...
The outside of the temple...very elaborate and beautiful.
Words of wisdom that were displayed within the temple.

The boys liked the "clock tower" in the middle of Phuket Town. It served as a good landmark to figure out where you were in the town.
The Phuket Town clock tower...

Day #5: Wednesday
Derek and I took a break from hanging in the sun to take a free class on how to fold towel animals. We learned to fold an elephant, crab, 3 birds in a nest, turtle, and 2 kissing swans.

Derek rolling his 3 birds in their nest...

Derek with his turtle...

2 kissing swans...

3 birds in a nest...

An elephant with floppy ears and a long trunk...

A sand crab...

Derek and Shannon pose with all their towel creations.

Day #6: Thursday
Today, we took an excursion to the Siam Safari to ride elephants. It was AMAZING! We opted to do a tour that allowed us to see a demonstration by three young elephants (ages 3, 7, and 9), followed by a 45-minute ride on the paths on the mountain. We got to feed and get pictures with the young elephants. They enjoyed the watermelon, small bananas, pineapple, and leaves that we fed them...though Alex didn't want to feed them, touch them or get too close that he'd smell like them. One of the young elephants, named Hutchu (like the sound of a sneeze), would "paint" pictures with his trunk. We watched him paint one, and ended up buying one from the gift shop before we left.

Hutchu painting a picture...
All of us with two of the young elephants...
Derek and Mark on their elephant, Bho-so...
Alex and Shannon on their elephant, Tang-mo...
A family picture with Tang-mo. He was 46 years old!

After getting back from the Siam Safari, we took advantage of one last day to enjoy the beach and the pools. We found that the 3rd pool had a swim-up bar where you could enjoy a beverage with a waterfall showering down around you. The boys thought this was very cool and kept wanting to "chill" at the bar.
Derek, Mark, and Alex at the bar...

Also, every day at noon, there was a bucket with popsicles for the kids to cool off with. To be honest, the parents enjoyed them as much as the kids -- they were really tasty and a great way to cool off while lying in the sun!



One last stint down at the beach to jump in some waves. Alex started out sitting on the beach since he didn't want to get sunburned any more...but he gradually worked his way down and into the waves. They were too tempting to pass up.

A view down the beach...
The view was spectacular! Because the resort was one of the only ones north of the airport, the beach was pristine and very secluded. If you went down early enough in the morning, it was possible to be the ONLY one on the beach for as far as you could see.
Heading back after dinner at the Steakhouse...YUM!

While we were in Thailand, we were amused, and a bit afraid, by some of the cultural differences...
We saw the "sidecar" used for everything from carrying passengers or groceries to cooking and serving meals beside the road...very innovative!
We saw this everywhere..."public transportation" that included piling as many people in the back of a pickup as possible. I doubt there's seatbelts back there!

The boys also got a kick out of seeing three different types of lizards around the resort:
We saw these on the walls and ceiling EVERYWHERE!
This little guy visited us at the pool, crawling under the chairs. We found him resting on a rock on the path by our room.

Thailand was spectacular! The people are so beautiful and hospitable - they really do understand quality service, and we felt pampered the whole week. The Phuket area was so lush with greenery and beautiful flowers. Overall, we had a fabulous vacation in Phuket, and we may have to go back for a second visit before our tour here in China is over!

Shanghai Flower Port...

One of the guys that works with Mark mentioned that there was a flower park out by the Pudong International Airport that we should check out. It was quite an adventure to find it...Mr. Yao, our driver, hadn't heard of it so we all found it together after a few wrong turns.

We weren't prepared for 100's of acres of tulips in every color imaginable. I think there were at least 600 different varieties of tulips throughout the park. There were a couple of areas with windmills to make it look like Holland, a beautiful waterfall with tunnels behind it for the boys to explore, a few gazebos for photo ops (lots of wedding parties go there for their pictures as we saw at least 2 that day), and millions of gorgeous flowers to look at, photograph, and smell.

Here's a few pics of us tiptoeing through the tulips...

The dissection...

As part of Derek's class study on invertebrates, they got the chance to do a hands-on study of one invertebrate...the SQUID, complete with dissection! The kids were paired up with a friend to minimize the number of squids used (as well as help if one of the kids wouldn't touch the squid). Derek and his friend Gavin named their squid Squiddy...a very Derek-like name.

They started by learning about some of the parts of the squid:


The fins are at the top, the body is called the mantle, they have 2 long tentacles and 6 legs (not 8 tentacles), and they actually have a beak like a bird that they use to bite their prey.


Derek and Gavin study their squid...from a distance. Gavin was anxious to get his hands on it, but Derek wasn't so sure he wanted to smell like them. I don't blame him -- I ended up lending a hand (or two) and smelled like them for 2 days!


The spot right there was where the beak was, plus the brain is in that tiny white pouch. The brain sizes varied, but most were about the size of a small marble.


Not for the weak stomached people...this is Squiddy with all his insides exposed. There really isn't much to them. The black pouch through the middle is the ink sac. They also have a stiff piece of "bone" called a quill behind that pouch that we were able to remove so the boys could write with the quill and ink from their squid.

Derek and Gavin took turns getting ink on the quill so they could write their names. Not much ink in ours...maybe he/she got scared being caught and squirted whomever was getting it.


Derek showing off Squiddy's beak. The kids were allowed to take their beak with them to show parents IF they washed it off. Yeah, that's just what we needed in our house...a smelly squid beak! It quickly disappeared and was never to be seen/heard from again!

I find it amazing all of the hands-on learning that they do at Concordia. Though the squid dissection is not a common thing -- one teacher doesn't mind doing it, so she volunteers every year -- they do a lot of learning-by-doing instead of just learning-by-reading. Alex's class learned about rocks, minerals, and crystals by growing crystals in their classroom. They also went on a field trip to the Shanghai Geological Museum to see samples of quartz, calcite, fluorite, etc. so they could read some facts about them, sketch an example of one they saw at the museum, and take pictures.