May holiday is Labor Day week in China. The Szatkowski family is moving back to America. Therefore, we organized a three family beach holiday to Phuket. The Szatkowski family (Betty, Jimmer, Samantha & Jack) and the Humes family (Mary, John, Kelly & Erin). We were going back to the JW Marriott to enjoy the pool, the beach and the fun of good friends.
Once we arrived, the girls was ready to hit the pool.
A pool with a slide is all the kids need for a week of fun. They couldn’t wait to hit the pool every day. The parents enjoyed “poorman margaritas” pool side.
Boys and the beach – Jim and John gave boogie riding “a go” one afternoon.
Kid’s club is free for children 4 and older. The last time we were at the JW Marriott, I had to sit in kid’s club with Eleri. Since Eleri’s birthday is in August and she likes to celebrate with her current classmates, we pick a weekend that is open. This year it was a weekend in April before this holiday. Therefore, when the staff asked Elle how old she was, she would say 4 with a big smile as she had her party. Therefore, she must be 4 and we didn’t tell her any different.
Enjoying a little down time after a long day of fun in the sun.
I only take my camera down to the pool a couple times during the week. I try to get enough pool and slide pictures during my quick photo sessions. A few more slide fun photos.
Cannon ball!!
The swim-up bar is a favorite. The adults would sneak over for some quite fun while the kids where in Kids Club. On this afternoon, we took the kids for ice cream at the swim-up bar. Everyone had a blast.
We went off resort for a beach dinner. We had beautiful weather, excellent food and great friends to share the experience.
The fire lighting ceremony occurs about every other night. We always mange to miss it, but were able to catch the ceremony towards the end of our trip.
Hair is always done on the last day of our holiday. This way the girls have the fun hair to enjoy. The hair and braids can be washed for about a week.
When we beach in Phuket, we like to stop over in Bangkok – one can’t be this close to Bangkok and miss the weekend market. The Humes stopped for the weekend in Bangkok. The Szatkowski went back to Shanghai.
The Lyon family decided to spend an extra day in Bangkok to do a few of the temples. We haven’t done the temples since our first trip to Bangkok in 2003.
Our first stop was the Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It is the oldest and largest Buddhist temple in Bangkok. Wat Pho is the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. Even prior to the temple’s founding, the site was a center of education for traditional Thai medicine and statues were created showing yoga positions.
The most famous Buddha of this temple is the Reclining Buddha, the largest Buddha image in Thailand. The Reclining Buddha is 46 meters long (150ft) and 15 meters high (49ft).
The temple has monk bowls to drop coins for an offering. It is fun to fill each monk bowl with a coin.
We enjoyed walking around the grounds of the temple. The girls had fun taking their photos with the various statues.
We had grand plans to see two temples today, but after this one, the girls were done. We enjoyed some quite time before going to dinner at our favorite place, The Blue Elephant. It is a cooking school with very tasty Thai food.