Phuket

A fellowship in the States has made it their goal to serve people who are serving overseas by providing a free marriage retreat/vacation for them.  This year it was SE Asia's turn, and we were able to go!  We went to Phuket, Thailand and had a ton of fun.  It was a good time to be together and have FUN together.  It was also a great time to visit with friends who live in other parts of SE Asia, whom we rarely get to see.  I was amazed by how beautiful the area of Phuket was, and how well it was built up after the tsunami.  The water was a lovely blue-green that I thought only existed in Photoshop!  And the whole area was a lot cleaner than Indonesia, and the traffic was more orderly/less dangerous.  So it was a nice break from what we're used to.  Plus the food was amazing!

I should also mention that I just finally saw Kelly's blog post that she made on my behalf!  She's a funny kid.  The bad part is her post was much funnier and more interesting than mine.  Maybe I'll have to start delegating the blog updating to her!!

 

They filmed part of "The Beach" at this beach, it was beautiful.

 

I'm not sure if this salon worker was male or female... I hadn't intended to get a pedicure but he/she looked really desperate, and my feet were looking pretty gnarly.  So I thought, "Hmmm, maybe a manly person like this one will give a good foot massage."  I was wrong, he/she did not massage my foot at all, and definitely painted toes like a man.  There was also a lot of facial hair involved, but I know a lot of girls with extra facial hair, so I'm withholding judgement...

 

Everybody rides an elephant in Thailand, so this was our turn.  I got to sit on the neck!  It was cool but itchy :)

 

The view from the elephant was amazing, and the ride through the jungle was really relaxing.  Jeremy was bored, but I liked looking at the butterflies.  I think he was expecting monkeys or something, but butterflies were the main source of entertainment.  They were beautiful!

 

My favorite picture from the trip...underwater cameras are so fun!

 

Creepy monkey at monkey beach.  We stayed in the boat and threw bananas to the monkeys on the shore and in the water.  They jumped in the water to grab the bananas then ran back to the rocks.  They were having some kind of turf war while we were there, and this guy was resting after attacking the other gang.

 

It's made of styrofoam, but we thought Matt might get a kick out of it :)

 

Jeremy bought some fish food and brought it in the water, causing a frenzy right in front of our faces!  After a few minutes he got bored with the frenzy and left me in the swarm of fish.  I was freaking out a little, because it was a LOT of fish, but I managed to escape with only minor psychological trauma.

 

We saw a black tipped reef shark.  Do you see it in this photo?  Look close!

 

There it is- this is an enlargement of the photo above.  It actually was only about four or five feet in front of me, but the camera was in wide angle mode so it looks further away.  Like a dummy, I was thinking, "Hey, shark, I should get a better photo" and swimming toward it when I saw another big-eyed couple swimming away calmly.  The I realized, "You dummy, don't swim toward a shark..." So I left too.  The guide was amazed that we saw a shark, and didn't believe me until I showed him the picture.  Then he said, "That so amazing! You very rucky see shaaahhk heeya, you very rucky!!" And from that point on, any time he saw me he said, "Ohhhh so RUCKY!!" It was pretty entertaining.  On our trip home we met a guy from Kansas City (our home town) who was not feeling so rucky- he was bitten by a shark while he was out snorkeling!  Then he kicked the coral trying to get away and injured his other leg.  We met him in the airport where he was downing valium and big cans of beer before the flight, so I'm not sure how truthful his story was.  Anyway, I'm glad I didn't get eaten while I was taking a photo :)