Thailand-Island Hopping!

We woke up in Thailand to a beautiful day and the previous night was puke-free so we are on the upward climb to health & ready for a great day exploring Thailand.

We met our tour guide for the day, also named Matt (insert the creepy dolls singing "It's a Small World Afterall") because although he's lived in Hawaii and now been in Thailand for over 10 years - where'd the boy come from....APPLE VALLEY, MINNESOTA!?  Aiiii-oooo!  The coolest cats on the PLANET come from Minnesota, doooon't ya knooooow!?!?

Minnesota Matt and his boating crew, consisting of the boat captain, himself and 3 additional deck hands along with a boat full of probably 15 people including our family - set off for an awesome day at sea!  MN Matt asked if anyone gets motion sickness and advised us that taking a "pill" now is the way to go b/c once you start to get sick - The pill will do you NO good.  With last nights events still fresh in my mind - There was no way that we weren't ALL taking that little yellow pill.  Something to combat nauseousness?!  We're in!!

Ocean Bound!  YEEHAW!!

Lovin' Their View at the FRONT of the boat!

Rachel finding her "Happy Place" in Daddy's arms b/c the big waves were making her really nervous.

Our first stop!

Amazingly gorgeous & warm water!

Getting ready to land on "The Beach"...no really!  As in the beach where they filmed "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio!

At "The Beach"

Pretty View

One Little Monkey Climbing Up the Tree

Ready to do some exploring

The Fab Four

Mushroom Island (Not really...I just named it that!)

The Fam

This is where we saw NEMO (actually several) swimming around in the anemones! 

One last shot of The Beach

Collecting children & clothes.  Time to board our boat.

Out to sea again

Lots of time, effort & money used to protect these bird nests as they bring in BIG $$! 

We were not allowed to enter these caves.  We just looked at them from the boat.  MN Matt as well as wikipedia provided some really interesting facts about these nests.  They are made from the saliva of a little bird called a Swift (kind of like a Swallow).  The nests are harvested primarily for making a Chinese delicacy appropriately called, "Bird Nest Soup."  When the nests are dissolved in water they take on a jell-o type consistency that's used to make the soup.  Hong Kong & the USA are the largest importers of these nests.  The edible nests are some of the most expensive animal products consumed by humans!  In Hong Kong, a bowl of this soup will cost you anywhere from $30-$100 USD!  The nests themselves can fetch up to $50,000 USD a kilo!  (You can see why they go to great lengths to keep these birds happy and NESTING!) 

While we were on the boat we were all offered a small glass of bird nest juice!  I don't know that it's worth $50,000 a kilo but it wasn't bad.  A bit like a runny gelatin with some little chunky 'seedy' looking things floating in it!?  I think I would put it in the "No Big Whoop" category.

After the "Bird's Nest Caves" we headed over to a section of Phi Phi Don commonly referred to as Monkey Beach because there are tunz of monkeys that roam the beach hoping for their next tourist handout.  MN Matt warned us to hold onto cameras, sunglasses, hats (you name it) because the monkeys are known for coming and snatching things.  Especially sparkly shiny things (good thing I left all my lia sophia bling back at the hotel!  Hahaha)  His advice, "If they want something - Best to just let them have it!"  :/  The deck hands were passing out bananas to anyone in our group that wanted to feed the monkeys. 

Tourists feeding the monkeys

Yummy-Yummy!

He also mentioned that we would stop here prior to lunch because as they day goes on and more and more tourists have stopped on the island - The more spontaneous the monkeys become.  Why!?  Tourists not only feed the monkeys bananas but apparently some people think it's funny to feed the monkeys soda and beer and by the afternoon you might encounter a beach full of monkeys hopped up on caffeine and drunk as a skunk!  SO!  We were stopping by the beach nice and early in the day. 

Coke is It!!

MN Matt also warned us that the monkeys really don't like children so just keep an eye on them.  This part of the story gets a little foggy as the events that are about to unfold all happened SOOOOOO quickly.  So!  Rachel heeds MN Matt's warning about the monkeys not liking children and decides she will not be getting off the boat at all.  Fine.  Not a problem.  Toting no food and absolutely nothing sparkly to attract the curiosity of a beach full of "George's" - Erica, Michael, David and I exit the boat.  Matt is about 3 people behind me.  No sooner did David have his little feet on that beach than a monkey started to eyeball him. I swear it was like that monkey scanned our group of people, chose David as the "weakest link" and it was ON!!!  "Oh yeah?!  You lookin' at me?  You wanna go?  This is MY beach - You Little Brat.  I'll show you who's King of THIS Jungle!!" and BAMHEYYYY" trying to distract the monkey but not close enough to "really" do anything. 

Meanwhile cue the Superman theme song b/c like a hero swooping down from the sky - DADDY flew to the rescue!  He appeared out of nowhere (unfortunately no speedo or cape) BUT he did punt that monkey into next week and saved David from the bite of the century.  Now we are trying to shuffle David back on the boat to assess the "damage".  As we are asking him, "What hurts?  Where'd he get you?!"  Between sniffles he's saying something about his foot.... his head.  We determined that his head might have been hurting b/c Daddy  aka  Clark Kent might have accidentally kicked David while booting the monkey?!  Oops.  Sorry Buddy!  If you know David - You know he's one tough but banged up cookie.  It was basically impossible to determine what was a new cut/scratch from an old one. 

MN Matt assured us he didn't see anything on David that he thought resembled a monkey bite & so we all decided we would finish the island tour; however, Matt and I both were still very nervous about everything that just happened & we both agreed that the first thing we would do when we got back to shore was to call the International SOS for some medical advice.

Lunch Time

During the 2004 tsunami many of these buildings and businesses were destroyed.  Since then, they have done a lot of repairing and reconstruction.  We were able to anchor the boat and enjoy an amazing lunch.  The meal consisted of all sorts of "local" treats.  Our favourites were the coconut chicken soup & the fresh fish!  DELISH!  I'm pretty sure we broke the "30 minute" rule after eating because we were right back in the water swimming & snorkeling after lunch.



The kids favourite thing we did was JUMPING OFF THE BOAT!  They would have stayed and done this ALL day but when you've got other people on the tour with you - Well, you've got to keep everyone happy not just The Fab Four!

How ridiculous is the SEA WATER?!  Doesn't it look like a swimming pool?! It's soooo blue!!!

Swimming back to the boat so they can JUMP
off AGAIN!!

Time to snorkel!

Matt, Michael & the girls got to go snorkeling
 in one of these caves!

David got tired of snorkeling so he was feeding the fish!

At one of our earlier snorkeling stops we discovered that monkeys aren't the only ones that like bananas..The fish did too!  If you held a banana in your hand while you were snorkeling the fish would literally come and eat it from your hand!  It felt soooo crazy!  David didn't like that too much and his little legs got tired of swimming and snorkeling so he LOVED feeding the fish the bananas from the side of the boat.





There are beautiful rock formations EVERYWHERE!

Camel Rock!! 
 (Do you see it?!  It really does look like a camel!)

David fell asleep on the boat trip back.

Can't say that I blamed him for being tired!  Within the last 24 hours he probably puked no less than a dozen times, was attacked by a monkey, swam with the fishies, won the Cannonball Competition and by the end of the day - He was "cuttin' logs" as my Grandpa used to say!

When we got back to shore they had arranged for a minibus to drive us to where we would get a taxi back to our hotel.  We drove in the little bus down the pier and we all had one thing on our minds - BATHROOM BREAK!  After an hour long bumpy boat ride all of our bladders were beggin' for mercy!  In my haste to exit the bus I somehow managed to miss ALL of the steps and as I fell, I slid down the steps on my DERRIERE!  YOUCH!!!  I don't know which hurt more my posterior or my pride?!  As I collected myself and brushed off my booty....we all made a beeline for the bathroom!  Come to find out upon entry of the lavatory facilities - if we hadn't been with MN Matt and crew - The public restroom facility would have charged us if we wanted toilet paper.  Apparently, that was part of our tour fees and so not only did we get to relieve ourselves but we got FREE toilet paper too!  :0)  "WOOT-WOOT!  I got free toilet tissue in the LOO!  How about you!?!?!" 



Meanwhile, back at the hotel pool while the kids were splashing around - Matt started making phone calls regarding the monkey encounter earlier in the day.  Long story short, we felt the most sound and logical advice came from our pediatrician back in the US.  We were quite certain we could rule out any form of a bite from the monkey but the doctor's bigger concern was whether Matt or David might have been scratched in the tussle.  With tourists constantly feeding the monkeys on the beach the pediatrician was concerned about whether the monkey would have had saliva on his hands?  (Which of course we wouldn't be able to determine for sure?!)  If the saliva is passed onto a human through a cut or a scratch - You could get rabies!  Once we learned that there was no harm in Matt and David getting the immunizations we decided we wouldn't sit around waiting to see if either one of them started foaming at the mouth and so!  Matt and David started and completed 2 in a series of 5 shots while we were in Thailand.  (They just finished the final shot this week here in Bangalore!  CRAZINESS!)  

If I was in Massachusetts right now - I'd be wearing boots and a scarf!  I'm totally okay with a SWIMSUIT instead...for this year anyway!

This man was getting a Thai-Massage next to the pool...
We couldn't help but laugh at the old man that decided to get out his camera and photograph the man getting the massage!

Suction Power...Fascinating!  Isn't it Mikey!?

Survival of the Fittest

Rachel enjoying a more "adult" moment hanging by the pool reading instead of splashing around with her siblings.  (MY BABY!  She's getting so big!)

 Jack Frost is nipping at my TOES instead of

my NOSE this year! 

Before leaving for Phuket I decided to get a few snowflakes & a snowman painted on my toes since I knew there wouldn't be any REAL snow flying!  I was feelin' festive with or without the flakes :0)

That concludes our first FULL day in Phuket!  Never a dull moment - More fun to come!  xoxox  Love to All!