Phuket - February 19, 2018

It's early morning in the west but it's already early evening here in Southeast Asia. Today was our last full day on this journey. Tomorrow is travel day. We don't leave Phuket tomorrow until 5:30 pm so we have arranged with the hotel to stay here until 2:30 pm. We will pack, spend a couple of hours by the pool, and then say goodbye. Thirty-eight hours later including a 9 hour layover in Istanbul (sheesh!!!), we will arrive in Atlanta about 8 pm on February 21. Boy, I think we are going to be sick.

We relaxed today . . . that is after we went to the fitness center, had breakfast and then walked about a mile into the little beach village of Kata. It's a resort town and very little more. It has tons of restaurants, bars, 7-11's, mini-markets and lots of taxi's and souvenir shops. The road to the village from our hotel is downhill all the way. There is a narrow lane that is striped off for pedestrians but cars also park alongside so sometimes we had to walk in the road and watch for traffic. When we needed to cross the road, we'd wait for traffic to subside a bit . . . it never completely clears . . . then we go and yell, "run like hell!" We looked like chickens crossing the road!! Hee-hee!

We were on a mission today to try to spend the last of our Thai Baht. Roughly, 30 baht equals one US dollar. We found something we both like for Tessa and picked up the requisite fridge magnet for Phuket. As can be imagined, I have lots of magnets from all over the world. I don't buy just any magnet. It has to be unique, unbreakable and it must carry the name of the location where it was purchased. The one we bought today is wooden and is in the shape of Thailand, it says Phuket and it's mounted on a blue background that resembles the beautiful ocean here. I know this little item will bring back memories of this beautiful place many, many times.

We also bought a green coconut. It's the first we have had on this whole trip. Boy, young coconuts are nice!! The coconut is well-chilled and the sellers use a machete to trim the top into a point and to cut off a cap. You drink the coconut milk with a straw and then use a plastic spoon to scrape the soft coconut flesh from the shell. Outrageously delicious! But let me tell you, if you have genes like mine, that coconut milk and using coconut oil on a daily level will raise your bad LDL cholestral numbers like crazy. Although I love him, do not believe all that Dr. Oz has to say.

After we made our purchases and took some photos, we had to march ourselves back to the hotel, back up that long, steep hill. This part of Thailand is not flat. I employed the distraction method I always use when there are many steps we have to climb or big hills to trek. I count. I count 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8! I seem to go into a trance counting and before you know it, we were at the top; out of breath and hotter than blue blazes. My darling pack mule with his backpack loaded with our purchases was at my side. He made it too. A walk like this is good for the soul; it's good for strong bones and it's good for cleansing the pores too.

We spent the rest of the day listening to our books and lounging on the most gorgeous tropical terrace you ever saw overlooking the bay. We nibbled on pineapple slices and longan fruit. Occasionally a pool server brought us a glass of ice water with lime or a small glass of juice - today's juice variety was rose apple. Yesterday's was passion fruit on ice slivers.

But then we saw the sunset!!!!

Well, we are feeling sad; but we are feeling happy too, to be going home. We have so many things on our list that we must do and things we want to do once we get home. We are already thinking about our next trip. It could be Tibet or Japan. It could be Jerusalem or Tahiti. We just don't know yet. What are your suggestions?? I would truy like to know.

We won't be home for long. We already have plans for multiple trips to California and of course, we plan to spend time at our house in PCB. Then in June, Cody and Tessa are going with us on a cruise to Alaska. I usually do not blog on cruises since WIFI is so hard to find but I might write about this one because I think Alaska is going to be a completely unique experience for us. And to see it alongside our animal-loving girls, Tessa and Cody, will be something very special I am sure.

Until the next time, phonetically speaking in Thai, Sa-Wad-Dee Ka!