Paul & Libby’s World of Travel

Busy day, not a lot of sleep last night, and an early check-out tomorrow. Sooo… you’ll have to wait another 12-24 hours to read about our exciting Day #10.

Stay tuned…

Shortly after finishing my Day #9 post, Libby emerged from the bedroom with complaints of a fever. She’d started suffering from cold symptoms earlier on Sunday. Not good. An hour or so after returning to bed, she emerged again with Emerson, who also now had a fever. Even less good.

After getting the girls sorted out, I went to bed around 1:30am. For whatever reason, I started reading about visiting Australia and discovered that Australia requires an entry visa that ISN’T available on arrival! So, if the impending arrival of the plague weren’t enough, this certainly seemed to portend the demise of our happy expedition. I shot out of bed to explore our options and assumed the best case scenario would be wasting the better part of a day in Singapore while I expedited our visas through the Australian consulate office.

This is what happens during travel. Plans get disrupted. Weather turns bad. People get sick. Luggage is lost. But, these things also have a way of working themselves out too. The sunshine returns. People start to feel better. The luggage is returned. And, even if those things don’t happen, you make it work anyway.

Fortunately, the sun came out for us. It turns out Australia allows citizen of certain countries (including the United States) to procure their visa immediately online. Thus 60 minutes and dollars later, I had our visas procured and was back in bed by 3:00. We awoke at 6:30 for our private tour of the island, and Libby and Emerson were both feeling fine and fever free. Situation: normal.

Our tour left at 8:00 — just the three of us, a guide, and a driver. We drove south along the west coast through Patong and Kata Beach to Karon Viewpoint. We then drove on to a place offering elephant rides (which are very popular in Phuket for tourists – like mini golf in Florida). Libby and Emerson went together on a male elephant. I rode on the back of a female one. The journey was fairly short (10-15 minutes), but it was a mildly thrilling, unique experience.

Western coastline of Phuket

Libby and Emerson riding an elephant

After the elephants, we went see “The Big Buddha” (which is Thailand’s largest Buddha statue, though it’s still under construction), (an impressive Buddhist temple complex), a cashew plantation/factory (yummy), and a jewelry shop (which subsidizes the cost of our driver… I’d rather have just paid the difference as the tour was only $120 for the three of us). We then drove on to Phuket Town that has fabulous British colonial style inspired architecture and visited Chinpracha House.

Grand Pagoda @ Wat Chalong

We returned to the Marriott around 3pm after which evidence of the “rainy season” finally arrived. Fortunately, our pool was partially covered, enabling us to have outdoor fun. The remainder of the day was spent relaxing and getting ready for our morning flight to Singapore.

One other big highlight today: Emerson started reading in earnest today. We’d construct sentences for her, such as “we ride in a big black car,” and she’d read them back to us. It was an interesting thing to witness. You could see that it just sort of ‘clicked’ for her: individual words became sentences, a set of words that comprised a complete thought or idea.

Today’s plan was to relax and enjoy the resort. We woke up to blue skies and started the day with breakfast and coffee at the Coffee Club in Turtle Village. After getting back from the coffee shop, we met the resort’s baby elephant on the way to the pool. That’s right. A baby elephant. I don’t know what the animal rights folks say about such things, but I know little kids love baby elephants! So, Emerson fed the elephant, took a picture with her, and sat on her back.

Emerson sitting on the elephant at the Marriott Mai Khao Beach Resort

After the elephant, Emerson played in the kid’s pool and made friends with kids from other countries. It was interesting to watch her interact with the other children. In particular, she befriended a couple of older Australian girls, Sophia and Jessica, who were very welcoming to her. I found two things particularly fascinating: 1) Emerson is quite happy to play the part of band leader (“I have an idea,” “you do ,” etc.) even with older kids, and 2) the way in which kids—as complete strangers—can make fast friends and demonstrate kindness to each other (as the Australian girls did in considering Emerson’s limitations as a younger, preschooler—helping her to do things with them and agreeing to avoid other activities that were beyond her capacity). Good stuff.

We returned to our villa and spent time in our private pool and having lunch. After lunch, we headed over to the JW Marriott and MVC Phuket Beach Resort (Marriott has a number of related properties within a short jaunt of each other here) to visit the beach again. Indeed, we’d almost stayed at the JW (which would have been great too), but this resort was a much better deal for a villa with a private pool. Here are a few snapshots from the beach (no swimming—red flags up again— due to high surf):

Mai Khao Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Libby and Emerson on Mai Khao Beach

And, here are a few pictures of our villa:

Living Room

Dining Room and Kitchen

Master Suite

Villa Pool

We spent the late afternoon in our pool, ordered in dinner, and did some laundry. Emerson and I also walked to the near market for a few supplies—Emerson said she likes to “go on adbentures with Daddy” (she’s still working on the “v” I certain words… though, I miss hearing of her desire to watch “bideos” on the iPhone).

Tomorrow, we’re off to explore the island via a private tour that I’ve arranged.