Phuket !

   "Wow". That's all that seemed to come out of my mouth last week when I was in Phuket. As soon as I completed my four-day RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp, we went to my apartment in Bangkok and left at 3am for our flight. So, I got up at 2:20am, after being EXHAUSTED at camp, and headed out. We got to the airport and went to security first. My host brother forgot to remind me about the liquid policy, (I completely forgot too) so I had to throw away a big Colgate toothpaste and an unused neutrogena spray sunscreen from the US :) :) rip. After we finished going through security, I got Mcdonalds and sat down at our gate. Once they called our flight, we got on the transfer bus thing to take us to the plane. I watched Netflix on the flight the entire time, so it went by quickly. Once we landed, we got our rental car and started toward our resort. We stopped to eat along the way and got back on the road when we were finished. There are rubber tree farms/plantations everywhere (I don't know if that's the right term but fields of where they grow trees that produce rubber). I had never seen that before, so it was really fascinating to see ! The mountains were absolutely stunning, and Thailand itself is just so green and natural. As we were going up a mountain, we began to see the BEAUTIFUL beaches. It took my breath away. Again, all I could say was "wow". I was so eager to get to the beaches I could hardly wait. We finally pulled over to a beach to see if it was accessible, but it was just for that particular resort. We kept moving to find another beach that was accessible to the public. Once we found one, I hurriedly got my camera and put my beach flip flops on. As I walked down, all I could say was "wow". . .breathtaking. We took pictures, put our feet in the water, sat on the sand, and just relaxed. We were taking it all in and enjoying this time together at such an astonishing beach. We later got back on the road and drove through many towns. We stopped for lunch and took a picture by a huge mural on the side of a building of the late king. After walking around a bit, we went back to the car so we could go to a temple nearby. It was quite the tourist attraction. There was this large thing (I have no idea what to call it but I'll post a picture of it) that was for the Chinese gods (Thais also believe in this I believe) that is used for letting the gods hear you, and it's loud for their honor and for worship. I had never seen one before, but essentially a person puts something in it that sounds like really loud firecrackers going off that lasts about 20 seconds at a time. He continued to do it around six times for the like 30-45 minutes I was there. It seemed to be a ritual they do frequently. After my parents went to pay respects, we left. When we got to the resort I legit thought it was a joke. I was thinking in my head "okay they have to be kidding this is too nice". . . They weren't kidding. WOW it was so dang nice. I felt like I didn't belong there because it was so insanely fancy hahaha. It had the most beautiful view, valet parking, a welcoming and kind staff, it just had it all. The suite was gorgeous, and there was a private pool and a place to lay out and relax in the back. I swam for about an hour with my brother, and it was just so peaceful. After hanging out for a while, we got dinner, walked on the beach to watch the sunset, and went to bed.    The next day, we got up and left for lunch around 11am. This day was seafood day, but since I don't like seafood, they got me an omelet with rice and fried rice. Since it's the rainy season in Thailand currently, it will randomly torrential downpour for like 20 minutes and then completely clear up like nothing happened. Thankfully it happened when we were eating, and it cleared up when we left for the next stop. Next, we went to an aquarium 20 minutes or so away. It was so interesting! I don't particularly agree with aquariums and zoos etc, but it was really interesting to see such exotic creatures. There were enormous crabs and shrimp, fish that swam upside down, huge eels, seahorses, all kinds of fascinating aquatic creatures. Once we made our rounds, we headed toward a viewing tower. This was probably the highlight of the day for sure. There were lots and lots and lots and lots of stairs, but it was so so worth it ! You could walk around it 360 degrees and see an amazing view from every direction. I will post lots of photos ! It was about to rain, (we could see the storm in front of us and could tell it was moving our direction) so we had to go. We saw like seven Europeans with really cool tattoos on the way down from the tower ! As we approached the car, it was about to start raining. We hurriedly got in the car and left just as it started to rain. So to get to the view tower, we drove a windy road up the mountain. It was so green everywhere and just so beautiful. On the way down, it was raining for a while, but it was just as pretty. I just appreciate the greenery everywhere here so so much. It's absolutely beautiful ! Later on, we got dinner and headed back to the resort to see the gorgeous sunset over the ocean. It is spectacular. . .like wow wow wow wow God is incredible. Ending my day with this reminder of how brilliant and amazing God is, is something I realized I need to remind myself of more often.    Phi Phi Island day !!!!! Woooooo !! Getting up early was worth every second of this amazing day. . .WOW. We got up at about 6, got dressed, ate, and headed to the lobby to be picked up by the van to take us to the boat (looks like a yacht and the size of one but it's considered a cruise boat). We were picked up and taken to the boat not too far from our resort. It was a pretty decent sized boat, but I'm not very good at estimating how many it sat. . . maybe a few hundred? Anyways, there were people everywhere. We got to our seats and looked out the window to see the dock filled with boats of all sizes. After waiting about 30 minutes, the boat began to move. Woo ! We couldn't go onto the top deck until about 9:30, but that was only 20 minutes away. Once they said it was clear for us to go, we headed up to the top to see the views. People were everywhere, taking pictures, smiling, and just enjoying their time with family and friends. My family and I stayed up there for a while and then returned to our seats. Several people were knocked out in their seats to the soothing rocking of the boat, and others were enjoying the views from the deck above. As we finally approached the islands, we quickly went back up to the deck to capture the beauty with our cameras and phones. I wanted to take it all in, so once I took a some pictures, I just enjoyed the moments. When we arrived to the island, some of us got on another boat to go to snorkeling while others stayed on the boat until we were finished. We headed to the BEAUTIFUL water we would later snorkel in, and it blew me away. It was such an incredible experience. The fish were such vibrant colors ! We snorkeled for almost an hour before stopping on the island for lunch. It was amazing, but it was sooo crowded with tourists. We only had about an hour and a half on the beach, so we ate and briefly walked on the beach before returning to the boat. When we returned to the boat and sat down I realized how dang sunburnt I was hahaha. I only put sunscreen on my face, (lowkey because I was too lazy to put it on everywhere else) so my arms were bright red. It was FREEZING in the boat on the way there and back, but on the way back I had wet clothes on because of my swimsuit. . .great time ha haha ha. I was freezing my butt off ! We finally got to the dock after the hour and a half-ish ride. I was exhausted ! We got on the van and started toward the resort. We had to change into dry clean clothes, so we went over to the spa place to do so. We had already checked out that morning, so we hung out at the spa area for a few hours in cozy chairs and sofas. The plane didn't leave until 10:05pm, which later changed to 11:20pm.. grrr. I just wanted to be in my bed hahaha. It was finally time to leave, so we said goodbye to the beautiful resort (ha I miss it) and left. We stopped to eat dinner and finally made our way to the airport. After returning our rental car, we went in to the airport. After going through security and whatever else, we went back outside to get a taxi. It was about 1:30am at the time. Finally arriving to the apartment around 2am, we all got out and wanted nothing more than to just go to sleep. I got to my apartment, showered, and passed out.    I'm so grateful I was able to go on such an amazing trip with my host family. My parents didn't have a plan for the trip, and honestly, I think that was the best part. It was spontaneous plans every day, and turned out to be so much fun. My appreciation for Thailand has grown because of this incredible trip. Hope you enjoyed reading ! (Not super exciting to read I know but I'll post pictures don't worry) -Kal