Kata Beach, Phuket for Christmas

After our scuba diving adventure, we were ready for some much deserved RnR. We headed down the coast towards Kata Beach, which is a more family friendly beach south of Patong on the peninsula of Phuket. The town was perfect for us, just big enough to offer a variety of stuff to do, but not too big to not feel like a quant beachy town. The beach and surrounding area was gorgeous as well. There were a TON of Russians also vacationing there, and they, for some reason, don't feel the need for age or size appropriate swim wear, nor sunscreen. I've never seen so many overweight men in speedos frying themselves to a crisp. But hey, to each their own. We mostly spent the days either at the pool, at the beach, or sipping cocktails. Marvelous. 

We were lucky enough to find a fabulous condo that we rented out for a few days. The original picture was actually the view from our roof, which included an infinity pool! Heaven!

We spent ALOT of time up there. 

We also celebrated Christmas here. Mostly the presents consisted of airplane alcohol bottles, courtesy of brilliant Karen. Exactly what we needed!

Another great part of this segment of the trip was that one of our best friends, Andrew, joined us for Christmas. It was so great to be surrounded by family and friends whom we love so much, even when you're half way around the world in Thailand. 

One of the best parts of Thailand is the cheap massages. They only cost $8 for a whole hour! Needless to say, we enjoyed a few of them. 

We also went out for a few nice dinners, including on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

After Christmas dinner, Drew, myself, and Andrew headed to the beach to light a wishing lantern. This is definitely not the most environmentally friendly thing I've done this year, but it was a beautiful memory. Essentially, you buy a lantern from one of the half dozen people selling them on the beach. You light the candle inside and make a wish. Then, you hold the lantern close to the ground as the hot air begins to build up inside. Eventually there is enough hot air to lift the paper lantern off the ground, so you let go and watch your wish float towards the heavens. I actually think what I wished for is coming true as we speak!

Andrew, thankfully, made sure Drew and I stayed up at least past 10pm every night. This included visiting a few of the local bars, where board games, pool, etc were very popular. 

On our last night in Phuket, we moved to another villa close to the airport. There, we had a seafood BBQ which was incredibly delicious, thanks to Brian's Master Chef skills. Dinner included fish, shrimp, squid, crabs, and chicken kebabs!

Thanks again Andrew for joining us on this segment of our trip! It was a blast having you there, and we're so glad we got to spend it with you!

Scuba Diving in Thailand

Last year for Christmas, Brian, Karen, Drew and I went to the Philippines and learned to scuba dive. This year we decided to take it up a notch by going on a liveaboard scuba diving boat for 4 days, 4 nights. We chose the Deep Andaman Queen, based upon lots of good reviews, price, location etc. The boat was large enough for about 21 divers, 5 dive masters, and 8 crew. We left from Koh Lak, north of Phuket, and went out into the Andaman Sea, to dive sites like the Similan Islands, Richeleu Rock, and more. The diving was amazing. Perhaps not quite as vivid of coral colors as what we saw in the Philippines, but still loads of fish, cuttle fish, eels, and more. We did 14 dives in 4 days, so it was a ton of diving! 

This was our cabin, where all four of us stayed. It was actually way larger than I imagined. Honestly, we were so tired at the end of every day, the beds could have been carved from rock, and we still would have slept soundly. But, they were actually very comfy. The cabin was located in the front of the ship, so we did get the brunt of the tossing and turning. Luckily, I had a super strength motion sickness patch that worked really well, for the most part. Let's just say, without it, I wouldn't have been doing any diving, just feeding fishes.

There was an eating area filled with picnic tables that was at the back of the boat. This area below was the only place indoors that was out of the wind other than our cabin. So, if we ever needed to warm up, or we wanted to play cards, we'd go here. We'd also get briefed for every dive here.

This was a lovely sun deck where we'd warm up in the sun, or take an afternoon snooze, of which there were plenty.

This was the diving area. Apparently it is one of the best designed diving platforms on a liveaboard boat. Lots of space to bumble about and lots of room to line up and jump in. The best part was the Thai crew. While they didn't really speak English, they could always anticipate what you needed. They would help you in and out of your gear, help you climb out of the water, catch you if you were about to topple over, anything and everything.

This was our first evening on the boat. Overnight we'd drive 4 hours to the Similans, and then we'd wake up at 6pm to start our 4 dives a day routine. Wake up. Dive. Breakfast. Dive. Lunch. Nap. Dive. Afternoon snack. Nap. Dive. Dinner. Bed. It was amazing how exhausted you were after so much diving. Scuba diving isn't necessarily challenging athletically, but apparently breathing compressed air wears you out. 

This was some of our crew, in the blue shirts. This was the only time I ever saw the cook on the entire trip. 

This is after all of the fun on our drive back to the pier. This trip was great in a lot of ways. Not only did we get to do some amazing diving and got to bond alot as a family in all of the downtime, but I conquered a few fears as well. We got to do a night dive, which I was pretty nervous about in the beginning. But, once we were down there, everything seemed easy. Due to good visibility, we could see each other's flashlights in the water really well, so you weren't totally disoriented as I was expecting.  There was even some current, causing you to have to look ahead constantly to make sure you didn't bump into anything, and even that was ok. Drew, or course, wasn't allowed to wander far from my side, but I felt way more comfortable than I was expecting. 

Brian bought a GoPro camera specifically for this trip, so we got some cool footage of some of our dives. I put the best stuff together into a 7-min video. Click on the link to watch!

Scuba Diving in Thailand

The Big Buddha

The day we drove my parents to the airport, Drew and I took a small detour on our way home to go see the Tian Tan Big Buddha. The airport and the Big Buddha are actually right next to each other, so it was a good time to go. The Big Buddha is one of those touristy things that lots of people see while in Hong Kong. For some reason, Drew and I have never gotten around to it with any of our visitors. Since we knew it was something we'd have to do at some point, we decided to go on our own. 

The first part of the Big Buddha experience is to take a 25-min cable car ride from the town of Tung Chung to the village of Ngong Ping. The cable car ride is quite lovely, as you get to see lots of hidden parts of Lantau Island: valleys, sea sides, etc. There is a hiking trail that follows under the cable car route, but it takes hours and is supposed to be quite difficult. 

At one point, the cable car crosses this large expanse of water, which is pretty amazing given how far the car has to go before it hits the next supporting pile-on. Also, the airport itself is actually on another island attached to Lantau Island. Those bridges there is what connects the two. The airport is on the left, Lantau Island and Tung Chung town are on the right. 

They are currently building a massive bridge/tunnel system from the Hong Kong Airport to Macau. Here, you can see them building the pile-on supports out into the ocean, heading towards a tiny island that's hard to see. The whole link will span 50 km, with the largest bridge segment being 29.6 km long. It's supposed to cost about 10.7 billion dollars (USD) and is said to be finished by 2016. From the look of this picture though, that doesn't really seem possible. Who knows. A project of this size is staggering though.

Our first glimpse of the Big Buddha!

As soon as you get off the cable car, you have to walk through this lame tourist village filled with souvenir stores and restaurants. After leaving the tourist village, you get to the real village where people live, and graze their cows, obviously. Not sure I'd touch the bull if I were you, sweetie. I've had my fair share of bulls for awhile.

The Big Buddha was built in 1993, 4 years before Hong Kong was given back to China. It is one of the more sacred Buddhist spots in Hong Kong.

The setting of the place is one of it's best features. The tall mountains of Lantau Island surround you on one side, the sea on the other.

There is a viewing platform which gives a good view of the Buddha. It is circular, and in the very center is spot that everyone wanted to stand on directly and pray to the Buddha. There was a line of people waiting to do this. Why that spot is better than any other, I'm not sure.

The Po Lin Monastery is also nearby. The monastery was founded in 1906, and is beautifully decorated. Unfortunately alot of the indoor halls we weren't allowed to take photos of, so most are just of the outside of the buildings.

The detail on Chinese temples will always amaze me. The painting is always so bright, and every square inch of stone is carved.

This was the hall of 10,000 Buddhas, which I snuck a photo of. So much gold leafing! 

To get to the Buddha, you have to climb up about 200 steps. It would be an easier climb if people didn't stop to take photos so often and you didn't bump into the back of them. Oops.

The Buddha's view.

Goodbye Big Buddha.

Funny enough, as we were riding the cable car back down the hill, we saw our parents' exact plane taxing to the runway. We know that's theirs, as there weren't any other United flights leaving at that time. Bye Mom and Dad!