The kids get a week vacation in early November because of the Hindu holiday of Diwali - which is even bigger than Christmas is for Christians. There are lots of celebrations and fireworks and general craziness in India during Diwali. We did manage to attend a Diwali party pre-vacation. A neighbor of ours, the same woman who took such good care of Mikey when he was sick in September, hosted a Diwali party at her house and was gracious enough to invite our family. There was lots of good food, many lights - both candle lights and string lights - and great people. It was very similar to a party that we would attend in the states with the exception that most people were dressed in formal Indian attire of saris and other Indian garments. Lots of fun!
But given that we do not have too many opportunities to travel with the kids in school we chose to spend the week of Diwali outside of India - I think it was a good choice because the ear-splitting firecrackers that were constant during day one of Diwali were enough to drive me crazy. I can't imagine a week of that! And, we have a list of many, many Asian locations we hope to visit and very few school vacations in which to visit them. So, first school vacation, first trip outside of the country...Phuket, Thailand! I had heard of Phuket long ago (mostly because I always thought it was pronounced with a "f" sound instead of a "p" sound and thought that anyplace named Fuk-It would be a good place to take a vacation). I learned the correct pronunciation of "poo-ket" and more about the gorgeous nation during the devastating Christmas Tsunami of 2008. Phuket was hard hit along with many other southeast Asian areas and the name became seared in the memory of many people.
The country has apparently healed very well in the past 5 years. I could not see any indication of the destruction caused such a short time ago. Phuket is beautiful and the people are truly welcoming. We stayed in a Villa on the Western coast between Kata Beach and Kata Noi Beach. We got our first taste of the area during our first excursion to the Hunaman zip lines. These are crazy high zip lines through the rain forest of Phuket. Jameson was not too interested in soaring on a skinny line hundreds of feet in the air so he an I went for a short hike and listened to the screams of the people flying around above us. But Kyle and Mikey and our friends the Hess' all spent an hour or so flying through the air and loving it! Mike's refrain for the rest of the week - copying the other mom in the group - "Are you sure we are strapped in?"
The next day was the day that Mike was most looking forward to - the Gibbon Monkey rescue. Apparently many people in Thailand steal Gibbons from the forests and then charge tourists to take a picture with the Gibbon. It is a way for the individual to make a decent living off of foreigners - but it is highly illegal because the animals are taken from their natural environment and live in horrible conditions and are then either killed or sent back into the woods without any hope of survival. The rest of us were a little disappointed in the rescue because the area was very small and there wasn't much to see, but Mike was in his glory. He loves Monkeys and is now considering becoming a Monkey Vet - not sure there is a call for that, but who knows! He even adopted a mating pair of Gibbons that the rescue groups hope will form a family so they can be released back into the wild.
Here is the proud adopter with his certificate of adoption.
Our next trip was supposed to be to a safari where we would go on a raft safari and then ride on elephants. I was really looking forward to this but when we woke up Tuesday morning Mike had a fever and a sore throat so I made the mom call and told him that he and I would stay at the villa while everyone else went on the trip. It was the right call. The poor kid was sick most of the day. But, Kyle and Jameson had a blast! They both got to ride on and pet the elephants and Jameson got to feed them!
The remainder of the week was very relaxing with a day by the pool and a catamaran sail off the coast of Phuket to do some snorkeling and swimming. The waters off of Phuket are the clearest blue I have ever seen in the ocean and it is so refreshing to jump into an ocean that is warmer than the 65 degrees that Hampton beach reaches at the height of summer :) Jameson loved snorkeling and Mikey loved the swimming, but even more than all of that Jameson loved climbing into the dinghy and trying to convince us that he should ride there for the trip home...we didn't let him. Lord knows he would fall out and end up on the shore of some deserted island!
All in all it was a great trip and I hope to get back here some day. We do plan to go to Bangkok next year so we may have to journey south a bit to say hi to Phuket again! How can you not want to visit a place that looks like this every night:
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