Phuket - Part 1

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Left Shanghai on Friday afternoon and of course saw teachers we knew from school at the Pudong Airport. Almost everyone we talked to in the last few weeks mentioned their escape plans. Shanghai in the summer is not too popular. Most teachers and expat families with one non-working spouse leave town. Usually the working spouse comes back to Shanghai while the rest of the family takes advantage of school break and leaves Shanghai for 5-6 weeks. Though we plan to be in Shanghai most of the summer, we did dash out of town the day after school got out. We were off to the airport for a vacation, but we are going to be back in Shanghai for the torturous weather soon enough.

We left Shanghai and flew to Phuket, Thailand by way of Bangkok. We left at about 5:30pm and arrived in Phuket at 12:00am local time. The kids were exhausted, and I was thrilled to find our names on a sign as we exited the customs/baggage area. In a last minute attempt at organization, I emailed the hotel and asked about transportation from the airport. They arranged for one of their cars to meet us, and also had a hotel representative holding the sign. We were at the hotel a short 20 minutes later. The drive was pleasant but we couldn’t see much of the area in the darkness.

Our first of three hotels on this trip, the Indigo Pearl, was pretty spectacular. The lobby is elevated and open-air. There are huge, soft couches with pillows, and the décor is all tied to the theme of a tin mining town (Phuket’s history). The theme is represented throughout the resort with art, sculpture, and it’s carried through to the silverware with wrench handles. The restaurant where we ate a fabulous buffet breakfast each morning is called the Tin Mine. The rooms were also thematically decorated. We stayed in a Pearl Suite, a great choice for our family of four. We had a king sized bed, a rollaway for Nathan and Emily slept in her “princess bed” which was 2 very comfy chairs pushed together. She loved it and slept like the royal princess she is.

The hotel has 3 pools but we stuck to our favorite. It had lots of alcoves and a waterfall and plenty of shallow water for Emily. I brought inflatable pool toys with us after being gouged enough times at other hotel gift shops. It also saved us a trip to the cheap strip of stalls on the beach where we could have procured similar blow up items.

The resort is huge and has a lot of great signs that mostly helped us keep from getting lost. Many of the paths are not straight and thus the signs often pointed one way and the paths went another. The grounds of the property are lush with greenery and we saw lizards and frogs throughout our stay.
While the pool and beach were Nathan’s favorite activities, Emily was thrilled to go to the Kids Club and she went and went and went. The 3 days we were there, she was the only one in the Club when she went. That was great for her—she made a zillion arts and crafts creations and had one on one attention from the women working at the Club. Emily would wake up and ask to go to the Kids Club before we had even started our day. We dragged her out of there each day to come to the pool and play with us.
After spending our first full day lounging and relaxing, we were ready for an activity. There are some key things I heard we must do while in Phuket. The elephant trek was on the list. As it turns out, while I booked the trek for the kids, Mark and I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to people traveling to Phuket without kids. In fact, our tour was just our family of 4 and one other couple from the UK.

We booked our tour through the hotel with Siam Safari. This company was recommended by the hotel and was also highly rated on online travel sites. I wanted to be sure we went someplace with a reputation for treating the elephants well. We started out at the hotel and were driven by van to Siam Safari’s meeting point. Then we transferred to a jeep and rode up the mountain to where the elephants were located. Our driver was a little crazy and when he tried to park, he rolled backwards and rammed us into a dirt wall. Unfortunately, Nathan was sitting on an end and his arm got hurt with the impact. The driver laughed but the tour guide apologized and checked with Nathan to make sure he was okay. Guess who still got a tip? Not the driver.

After that bit of drama, we spent a few minutes hearing a lecture about the Elephants we were going to ride. We learned they were Asian Elephants, that there are about 40,000 in the world and about 4,000 in Thailand. According to our guide, since the Asian elephants are endangered, the center we visited raises babies in captivity. The handlers, called “ mahouts “ are the elephants trainers from birth. We could see the relationship between the mahout and the elephant is very strong. The trainers carry these hooks attached to poles. I was nervous when I saw them and thought they were going to use them to control the elephants by poking them. This is what they do, but according to the guide, the elephants’ skin is thick and so the hook is not meant to hurt, but to guide the elephants. For my ride, the trainer used the stick to hit trees and spoke commands to the elephant to direct him. It was a wobbly ride. Makes me wonder how a camel ride compares. A lot of bud-ump, bud-ump, bud-ump and not so much trot-trot-trot.
Emily and I were on one Elephant and the boys went on another. We had a few photo opportunities and the trainers/drivers took our pictures with our cameras for us. They also maneuvered us so we were able to be photographed with all four of us in the shot. The paths were narrow and I was a little nervous as we turned and backed up and went sideways atop the giant elephant. It was fine, though. These guys were pros. We saw a lot of elephant business being tended to. The peeing sounded and looked like a rain shower and we were glad to be up high when the elephants dropped elephant sized poops throughout the ride.

During the ride, our driver pointed out rubber trees (another of Phuket's natural resources), spider webs, giant spiders on the spider webs, and other interesting natural wonders. At one point, he guided the elephant to a tree and reached down and scooped up this small lizard. He dangled it by its tail for a second and then after showing us the lizard’s cute face, he popped the lizard into his mouth! We screamed and squealed and reacted just as I’m sure the driver hoped we would. Then he finally removed the poor lizard and set it free again.

After the trek, we watched a cute and short show with the younger elephants. They danced, they played the harmonica (one note only, which is not unlike my whistling—just ask Mark). They also gave the audience members kisses, and even Nathan, the boy who refuses to be kissed, let the elephant plant one on him. Mark did not play along. He had to stay back and take photos. Right. Had to. Emily got a kiss on her arm, and Nathan and were smooched on the face. It felt just like a vacuum cleaner. Lots of suction. One of the elephants painted. It was hilarious. The trainer gave the elephant a brush dipped in a color and the elephant would paint on a canvas up and down and up and down. The trainer would switch the colors to mix it up and make the paintings more exciting (I suppose). Not surprisingly, they sold the paintings. We managed to avoid that keepsake.

After heading back to the hotel, we went straight to dinner, for fear of losing some of our party to sleep if we stopped to rest. We dined at the Black Ginger restaurant at the hotel and it was fantastic. The restaurant is Thai but they also have a kids menu. Win-win. Mark and I had a wonderful set Thai menu for 2 while the kids feasted on quesadillas and spaghetti with meatballs. There is nothing more relaxing than eating the local food we like while the kids enjoy their western favorites. In Shanghai it’s usually one or the other. Not a lot of authentic Chinese places with authentic and tasty western food.
We loved our time at the Indigo Pearl, but after 3 nights, we were ready to move on to our next spot. The staff was attentive and warm, and we enjoyed chatting with a few other guests. But for the most part the place was very quiet and subdued. I was looking forward to a place where the kids could yell and splash without feeling compelled to shush them.

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Photos

The Kids Club
E's home away from home

Comments

[Linda]

questions
From the picture the Kidz Club looks cheery but what made it such a draw? Would the Arts and Crafts materials attract all kids (Thai, Chinese, etc) or were they oriented toward Western-world kids? Or is there even a difference? Really curious. Did you visit any tin mines in Phuket? What is there to see? The fact that the hotel picked up the mining theme makes me wonder. Any guesses as to why the guide would pretend to eat a lizard? Probably standard fare for 9-year-old boys, right? Did Nathan like it? (I'm guessing they misjudged him.) So where are Mark's photos of the smooching elephants?

[soooze]

answers
The clubs are a draw for Emily for the arts and crafts. We didn't see many other kids at the first one, but the second one had a lot of 4-7 yr old girls from all over the world playing together. Mark did not participate in the elephant kissing activity. He opted out. The lizard in mouth was just for entertainment--that happened on the girls' elephant so Nathan and Mark were able to see it, but Emily and I were the ones with the good view. My video of it is all screams (mostly mine). The tin mining is from Phuket's past. We haven't heard about any old mines, though there might be some.