Sunday, March 5 – Wednesday, March 8
We thought Phuket was a peninsula because we didn’t look super close at the map. Phuket is actually Thailand’s largest island! For this leg of the trip we paid to upgrade our room so we stayed at a villa with a private pool and we’re SO glad we chose to do that. The property at Anatara in Phuket is so beautiful and it was really nice to have a private outdoor space to relax in.
Day 1 in Phuket we visited the Phi Phi islands. Which is apparently the most popular destination in Phuket. It included a choppy boat ride where we got soaked in the back of the boat (thank goodness the water was warm!), visited a beautiful island (the iconic photo spot), boat ride to another island for snorkeling, another island for lunch, and another island to lay out on the beach. We of course did not do that last one, we found shade and hid from the sun like Oregonians do. It was crazy to see how many boats were going to the same stops. Every island that we went to there was a traffic jam of boats getting to the shore. It is understandable that the trip is so popular because the islands are beautiful.
Day 2 we did something called a starlight sea kayaking tour. This included a leisurely boat ride to a beautiful island that has a lagoon inside of it. You have to paddle in an inflatable kayak through a cave to get to the lagoon. The cave is really low so it can only be accessed at low tide and when people lay down in the boat to get through the narrow passage. We stopped and kayaked in three different places. All beautiful and all relaxing. They served both lunch and dinner on the boat and the food was delicious! This was by far our favorite excursion in Thailand. Before our last kayak location, the guides showed us how to decorate flower pieces that are used in the annual Thai Loy Krathong celebration. You use a slice of banana plant stock and pin flowers into it, add candles, in-scents, coins, and then you make a wish, light the candles, and set it in the river. In our situation we lit the candles, made a wish, and let it float in the ocean for a bit then blew out the candles and brought the flowers back on board so we didn’t litter in the ocean.
The most magical part of this experience was when we were in the water at night and we got to see plankton light up. You can splash your hand in the water and the plankton’s bioluminescence activates. It’s like fire flies in the water. Our guide hit his paddle on the top of the water and the entire splash would light up. I tried to video it but it didn’t show up on the video. I hope our memories can remember it forever!
3rd day in Phuket was a travel day but we didn’t have to leave for the airport until 6 pm so we had planned to have an easy day. Lucas got sick and threw up the night before day 3 so he slept the whole day. I stayed with him for the morning, stocked up on snacks at the local grocery store for our long flight home, got lunch with friends, came back and packed up our suitcases, went swimming in our pool, showered, and got a facial because we had resort credit left over. Lucas kept apologizing for being sick and making it so we couldn’t go anywhere but I had a perfect day! I just wished that Lucas would have felt better so he could have relaxed with me.
The middle photo looks like it was taken during the day but it was actually taken at night with a full moon that was so bright it lit up the sky.
