After Christmas dinner we set operation surprise Austin and Aileen in motion. With our personal driver we left for the airport around 11:30 pm in order to be there by 12:50. Of course there was no traffic so we got there early...and their flight was delayed for about 45 minuets. Finally they landed and we surprised them with matching Chang beer tanks and Santa hats. With that we were off on the next leg of the trip.
We started our A&A Thailand adventure the next day with a visit to Wat Chalong. The most popular temple in Phuket where a splinter of the Buddha's bone are held.
Then it was off to the Big Buddha on a hill overlooking all of Phuket. We gave in and bought one of the marble squares that will be placed inside the statue. We had fun going back and forth and painstakingly deciding what to write on this important piece of marble! (We ended with our names and "Happy 2016"). The views from the Buddha are incredible and we spent a long time enjoying the scenery.
The famous Big Buddha in Phuket
Aileen was craving some elephant interaction so we dropped by an elephant trek so she could feed one of the babies. Unfortunately none of these elephant treks were rated very good so we didn't commit to anything other than feeding. Next was a quick stop at a cashew factory where we all had our fill of every flavor of cashew they had to offer. We were able to learn about how each cashew nut is opened and separated.
Then we were off to Tunk Ka restaurant for a early dinner. Roy and I loved it so much the night before that we wanted A&A to have the same experience. We had a great time chatting, eating and taking in some more unbelievable views. After eating we wandered over to the look out point and then to play on the swings hanging from trees. We all became incredibly excited when we realized there were monkeys everywhere around us! This was our first wild monkey sighting in Thailand and there were tons of them.
Everyone's new favorite thing? Food served in fruit!
After a fun early dinner we grabbed a taxi down to a local mall. We had a lot of fun looking around and comparing prices of electronics and stores like the Gap (turns out the prices are pretty much the same). After wandering around the mall for a while we took another taxi back to our hotel to get ready for the night. There are a lot of markets that people talk about in the Phuket area but we happened to be there on a weekend. I had read that the Phuket weekend market was one of the best so we went with that one as opposed to the normal Phuket night market. We had a blast zig zagging through all the stalls that were there, and there were a lot. Most of the stalls were small storage units that we saw close up with a single slam of the door at the end of the night. We browse for various knick-knacks, sunglass and shirts. This is where Aileen and I found the greatest tank tops that ever existed. Aileen and I were admiring said tank top when the sales women gave us a winning sales speech that later became our favorite quote. "It's cute. It's silly. It's comfortable. It's Banana Cat!" SOLD! We wore those shirts of cats in bananas multiple times after we bought them and I've continued wearing it even after Roy and I left Thailand.
Even though we wore these Banana Cat shirts so often this is the only picture I could find of both of us in them...(It's actually from the very next day) Photo cred to Austin!
After we got our matching tank tops the boys were easily convinced that they needed matching "Same Same" tanks. The full phrase "Same Same but Different" is one that you will hear often in Thailand and we loved how it applies to everything. We began to run from stall to stall searching for two "Same Same" tanks in similar colors. The stalls were closing all around us as we searched everywhere for these two tanks. Unfortunately we didn't find them with the limited time we had left at the market. We wandered out into the street to catch a taxi back to our hotel nearby. Little did we know that this would prove to be almost impossible! We waited and waited but the drivers were more interested in taking tourists to Patong beach (the popular party beach an hour away). Finally we decided to start walking back which turned into an even longer ordeal. We were all exhausted and close to our breaking points when a tuk tuk finally pulled up. We immediately went home and all passed out. It was such a busy day full of exciting adventures and it was only Day 1! We are so happy that our Austin and Aileen made it out here to share all these memories with us. Stay tuned for more adventure!
