More busy days in Phuket

Monday - This picture is of Jessie and Harry jumping into the pool where we are staying and is taken from the verandah of the room we're in.

In the morning we went to Little Kata beach (Kata Noi) which is one bay south of main Kata Beach where we are staying.

We had a swim and the waves were crashing down... we had great fun... but got smashed a few times.

On the way to Little Kata, Mum got us lost but luckily we ended up at a great viewpoint looking back over the two Kata Beaches and Karon Beach.  This is the view in the photo below, beautiful picture isn't it. The first bay is Kata Noi and the second one is where we are staying at Kata.  The big building is at Karon Beach.  You could check out where they are in your atlas or on Google Earth.

 A man had two very large sea eagles and one of them perched on Sophie's arm... gee it was heavy... but Mum didn't want to get a photo because she felt sorry that the birds weren't free flying around.

In the afternoon we went to the Aquarium and saw some cool tropical fish but the aquarium was a bit small and Harry was disappointed because there were no sharks, dolphins or whales.  Hopefully we'll see some if we go snorkelling on Ko Phi Phi.

Tuesday

Mum hired a guide today who could speak English and Thai and he came with us in our car to Kamala Beach which is north of where we are staying and was the worst hit when the tsunami struck in 2004.

Mum and Mor (the guide) spoke to business people such as people who give massages and who hire out seats on the beaches etc to find out how they were affected by the tsunami.  One lady had lost her 3 year old son.  We also went to a temple that had been hit by the tsunami and learnt that the wave had come up to the roof of the temple... when we looked up we could see that this was way, way over our heads.

Check out our photo to see how high the wave would have been.  It also wiped out the local school and they've had to rebuild it in stone instead of wood.

Mor also took us up the highest hill in Phuket to the Big Buddha statue and it was huge... about 30 metres high. It also had great panoramic views over Phuket Town and the surrounding islands and coastline.

At night we went into Phuket Town and our guide took us to a place where the locals eat and we had more delicious Thai food.

Ka Kite Ano.

Kata Beach

Our first full day in Thailand - cool, but hot, oh so very very hot!

Highlights

• A swim before breakfast at Kata beach, our first time ever in the Indian Ocean!  The water was surprisingly warm and the waves were fun to play.  The sand was really white and there were hotels dotting the hills surrounding the bay.  There were hundreds of deck chairs laid out on the beach but you have to pay to use them.
• Great food!  Harry, Jess and Sophie had fruit smoothies and spring rolls for breakfast. "we may never eat weetbix again".  Dad had chilli chicken and vegies (for brekkie?!) which Jessie liked too - Dad reckons he's not eating any western-style meals while we're here - we'll keep you posted, especially as he has a chippie addiction!
• Quotes on highlights:
• "Doing flips into the pool" - Harry
• "The beach is the warmest I've ever been to!" - Jessie
• "The beach and the pool" - Sophie

What Dad reckons

• I'm not normally a beach person (Waitarere or Himatangi)... much to my wife's dismay... but these beaches are fantastic and if you bring me to these beaches I'm converted.
• Thai food rocks... I can't wait for my next meal, delicious and a bargain.
• Thank goodness for doing some research on where to stay before we came over.  We ventured to Patong Beach today and it is just over run like being in the middle of a big dirty, noisey city.  Kata Beach where we are is much more peaceful and laid back.  Although, even quiet over here is like Palmy on a very busy day.
• What a fantastic experience this is seeing such a different way of life... I can cope with long air plane travel to get to places like this and sample the sights, sounds and smells of the World.

Lowlights
Ok friends in NZ, we can't say it's all great.  Here's a few things that haven't been so fab:

• The heat!!!  Yes we know we've been craving sunshine, but this photo of a dog sprawled out on the footpath taken at 9am on our way to the beach shows exactly how exhausted we felt!

• Going to 3 different shopping malls and not finding many bargains - we'll stick to the markets and little stalls near the beach from now on.
• The busy streets and crazy traffic.  We saw 2 car crashes within 5 minutes of each other!

What we learned today

• 'Papomka' is how to say thank you if you are female. 'Papomkop' if you are male.  Well that is what they sound like to us anyway.
• That even though rambutans look strange (they are red with soft spikes), they have a delicious soft white fruit inside that is quite nice.
• That Thai people working in the little shops on the way to the beach - selling clothes, shoes, tatoos, braiding, massages etc - are very friendly to foreigners!  But it is a bit awkward when they come up to you all the time asking 'where are you from, what is your name' etc. 
• Photo below Harry asks "Dad, can I please get an Arsenal tatoo"?

A long, long, journey

Well we didn't leave Auckland until 2.30am so that was a pretty late night for all of us!  The first half of the flight was great as we loved the games, movies, and kid's meals.  We also got some sleep.  But the novelty wore off after about 6 hours and that wasn't even half way to Phuket! We flew over the mountainous, jungle covered island of Borneo and landed for a short time in Brunei.  The cool thing they have here is the rare Proboscis monkey....weird nose aye?!

Next stop was Bangkok where is was 33 degrees celcius!  It was a huge airport with 7 levels each one of them packed with people.  Jess and Sophie loved going up and down the escalators and travelators all over the airport.  Finally we boarded our last flight to the island of Phuket and when we made it to our hotel the first thing we did, at about 6pm Thai time (we're 5 hrs behind NZ) we jumped into the pool!


We had dinner at a great little open air restaurant across the busy road - noodles (yum!) with chicken and vegies for 40 baht (about $2).  Harry also had a tooth with his dinner...he somehow lost his first baby tooth and didn't even notice until after he'd finished eating!  We think the tooth fairy will have a hard time finding that one!

What Dad reckons

• I will never get used to those airplane seats in economy class... I don't know which is worse for getting a sore butt... cycling or airplane seats on a long journey.
• Thank goodness for tv screens in the back of seats for relieving boredom and keeping 7 year old boys occupied.

Bon Voyage !

Friday 24 September  8:30pm, after celebrating Oma's 50 years in New Zealand with fish and chips and chocolate cake, we check into Palmerston North airport ready to begin our Thailand adventure!

We're off to Thailand!

The Auckram family are looking forward to going to Thailand on Friday. We will be spending about two weeks in Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Khao Lak, then another two weeks in Chiang Mai.

We are looking forward to:

• Elephants
• Beaches
• Pools
• Cooking Classes
• Treking to see Hill Tribes
• Watching movies and playing games on the plane

We hope you will regularly check up on our blog and our recent adventures
Happy Reading!

How we will communicate in Thai.

Sawatdee khrap = Hello, Hi, good morning, gidday, good afternoon!

Sabai Dee Mai? (Sabai Dee Reu) = How are you?

Sabai Dee = I am fine

Pom = I (male)

Chan (Di-chan) = I (female)

Khun Cheu Arai = What is your name?

Pom/Chan cheu = My name is ....

Khun maa jak tee nai? = Where do you come from?

Cool things in Thailand

Things we want to see!