Jocelyn and I spent 3.5 days in Phuket, 2.5 of which I was battling a particularly nasty head cold generously donated to me by my very own sister. Sisterly love right there, folks. Dayquil and Nyquil became my best friends, and I discovered decongestant nasal spray! I come from a family that values Toughing It Out and other dubious virtues and had never known of its existence, but now I shall conquer every future cold with more dignity and fewer tissues. Thank you, big pharma.
That was really just a long detour to say: we were lame in Phuket, partially because of my debilitating head cold. We spent most of our time on the beach or by the pool, which I had planned with the utmost care to be as nice-but-cheap as possible. This I accomplished by booking a very nice hotel for 2 nights, but really spending 3 days there. We arrived in Phuket at 7am and went straight to the resort; a check-in this early was impossible, I was told with some highly raised eyebrows, but we could hang out by the pool in the meantime. And hang out we did.
We spent 2 nights in this resort, and for our last night moved to a dirt-cheap hostel down the street, but after checkout we spent several more hours at the pool and beach. He he. This satisfied the cheapskate part of my personality.
In spite of the nice time by the water, the highlight of our time in Phuket was a sea kayaking tour. We woke early our first morning and waited in the lobby for one of the nameless gray vans so common in Thailand to call our name. Our driver finally arrived (20 minutes late) and drove us north to Phang Nga Bay. Our driver appeared more interested in switching between Spice Girls songs, sending cat GIFs to his girlfriend, and stopping at hotels where he didn't need to pick anyone up than actually driving, but we finally made it.
We packed into a small boat with about 50 other tourists and headed out to sea; for the next 8 hours, we would be cruising between sea caves and stopping for kayaking and swimming. The sea caves were magical; they had tiny openings only available for a few hours each day (otherwise either marooned or flooded by the tide), and they led to internal arenas open to the sky but surrounded by walls on all 4 sides. Kayaking through these caves often required lying down in the kayak and watching cave walls pass inches from our nose. I've always wanted a smaller nose, but shaved by cave walls is not exactly how I envisioned it occurring.
Below: Sea cave stalactites - canoeing - the tiny opening we kayaked through - piranha rock (last pic, do you see it??)
Jocelyn and I were paired with a very sassy and entertaining guide nicknamed Oopsy (we were unable to discover either his real name of the mistakes which earned him this nickname despite repeated prodding). He poked fun at our big noses ( "take care your nose," uttered every time we entered a cave, is a phrase I'll never forget), and told us silly things ("the snakes in the water don't bite Thai people"--"YOU touch the mudskipper, they don't like Thai people"), and informed us that 2 weeks in Thailand would make us full-fledged Thai citizens. He was thoroughly entertaining.
Our last stop on the cruise was to make floating candles \offerings traditionally made in November to honor the water god. Oopsy helped us with ours --well, really he just made one himself, and would only occasionally let us help with easy tasks ( "fold this," " nail this, " etc). The result was a quite lovely, probably due to the limitations of our involvement, and we paddled back into a cave to light it in fire and set it free....temporarily. We had to bring it back afterwards since the nails we used weren't biodegradable.
On the way out, we saw bioluminescence! The waters in the cave were filled with the bioluminescent plankton; we swirled our hands and paddles in the water and were rewarded with sparkles and glimmers of light. It was beautiful --but sadly, impossible to photograph.
After our adventures in Phuket, we headed to Chiang Mai....
That was really just a long detour to say: we were lame in Phuket, partially because of my debilitating head cold. We spent most of our time on the beach or by the pool, which I had planned with the utmost care to be as nice-but-cheap as possible. This I accomplished by booking a very nice hotel for 2 nights, but really spending 3 days there. We arrived in Phuket at 7am and went straight to the resort; a check-in this early was impossible, I was told with some highly raised eyebrows, but we could hang out by the pool in the meantime. And hang out we did.
We spent 2 nights in this resort, and for our last night moved to a dirt-cheap hostel down the street, but after checkout we spent several more hours at the pool and beach. He he. This satisfied the cheapskate part of my personality.
In spite of the nice time by the water, the highlight of our time in Phuket was a sea kayaking tour. We woke early our first morning and waited in the lobby for one of the nameless gray vans so common in Thailand to call our name. Our driver finally arrived (20 minutes late) and drove us north to Phang Nga Bay. Our driver appeared more interested in switching between Spice Girls songs, sending cat GIFs to his girlfriend, and stopping at hotels where he didn't need to pick anyone up than actually driving, but we finally made it.
We packed into a small boat with about 50 other tourists and headed out to sea; for the next 8 hours, we would be cruising between sea caves and stopping for kayaking and swimming. The sea caves were magical; they had tiny openings only available for a few hours each day (otherwise either marooned or flooded by the tide), and they led to internal arenas open to the sky but surrounded by walls on all 4 sides. Kayaking through these caves often required lying down in the kayak and watching cave walls pass inches from our nose. I've always wanted a smaller nose, but shaved by cave walls is not exactly how I envisioned it occurring.
Below: Sea cave stalactites - canoeing - the tiny opening we kayaked through - piranha rock (last pic, do you see it??)
Our last stop on the cruise was to make floating candles \offerings traditionally made in November to honor the water god. Oopsy helped us with ours --well, really he just made one himself, and would only occasionally let us help with easy tasks ( "fold this," " nail this, " etc). The result was a quite lovely, probably due to the limitations of our involvement, and we paddled back into a cave to light it in fire and set it free....temporarily. We had to bring it back afterwards since the nails we used weren't biodegradable.
On the way out, we saw bioluminescence! The waters in the cave were filled with the bioluminescent plankton; we swirled our hands and paddles in the water and were rewarded with sparkles and glimmers of light. It was beautiful --but sadly, impossible to photograph.
After our adventures in Phuket, we headed to Chiang Mai....
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