From Bangkok to Phuket; how to travel here? There are a few ways, a night bus, a night train, or to fly. We chose to fly as it was the shortest time wise and wasn’t a lot more expensive then the train for the four of us as we would require a first class car for us with the girls. When you arrive at the Phuket airport you will find yourself far from the main part of town you would like to be in. Arriving late, we got a hotel right near the airport. Dos’s House is a simple five minute walk from the airport. It is basically brand new and the owner is so wonderful. He went out of his way to walk us to find something to eat after we arrived. Unfortunately everything was closed and we had to pick up food from 7/11. We purchased some cup-a-soups along with some microwavable sandwiches and chips and water.

Tyson ended up being awake all night with Bexley as she was sick, throwing up from whatever she ate that the rest of us somehow didn’t. This made for an incredibly tough travel morning for her.

Once morning arrived the hotel owner kindly offered to drive us back to the airport so we could catch the shuttle bus onward. We ended up missing the bus by minutes and he insisted on chasing the bus down for us. Once safely on the bus (100 Baht per person, kids free) we could relax a little, while still hoping Bexley was feeling okay. We made it to our next hotel, The Black Pearl in the Patong Beach area, but were too early to check in so left our bags at the front desk and went in search of breakfast. We had a tour booked for early afternoon and were hoping Bexley would be feeling up to going. As she enjoyed waffles and a fruit smoothie by the beach we felt confident about our tour plans for the day. Returning to the hotel we were able to check into our room before catching the private shuttle that was waiting for us en route to Bukit Elephant Park.

We were on the fence about visiting any elephant sanctuaries as we just didn’t know how these animals are really treated in captivity. I had seen someone else talk about this one, so after a bit of research we agreed it sounded like a good opportunity to take the girls. This park doesn’t believe in riding of the elephants or bathing with them. All of their elephants are rescues from logging camps, shows or other activities. Each elephant now has its own professional mahout to care for it. The park borders the Klong Kata reservoir with its huge land parcel with natural forests and ponds where the elephants have access to roam free and bathe daily. There are acres of greenery which is plentiful for the elephants to explore and feel like they are in the wild. The full tour we chose was approximately two hours. We arrived and watched a short video explaining the park and how it operates before they brought the elephants to us for our first interaction where we fed them bananas. They then directed the elephants out into the park as we followed, getting to observe them in their natural habitat. We were able to get a few photos near them while they ate, then continued on to see the others.

Next, we watched them march down into the water and bathe before returning to dry land and give themselves a dust bath to keep both the flies and sun from bothering them. After a few more encounters with different elephants in various settings we arrived at one of the more tame girls. We were able to have an up-close and hands on approach with her while she enjoyed a light snack of bamboo shoots. These are such amazingly beautiful animals and it was a truly moving experience.

Following this, we proceeded in smaller groups to the final staging area where we made rice balls (rice, banana, and watermelon) and fed them to an elephant. The girls and Tyson weren’t overly excited about this so yours truly had to volunteer. I’m not going to lie, it was a bit scary when your whole hand goes inside an elephant’s mouth. But looking back, it was a very unique opportunity. After wandering back to the entrance we were greeted with a cool refreshing face towel to clean up from the two hours of scorching dry heat; a very nice added touch. Overall we were incredibly impressed with Bukit Elephant Park and would recommend it if you are wanting to get in an elephant experience while in Thailand.

Back at Patong Beach area we spent the rest of our time at the main beach. We rented chairs for 100 Baht each which included an umbrella and table. For us this is an inexpensive way to be able to stay at the beach for an extended period with our kids. The sun was tremendously hot beating down so the shade really helped. We did bring our own food and drinks to help keep down the cost of the day, but there are people that come around where you can order from their restaurant but the prices are quite inflated.

Our second day at Patong Beach was a simple one. We enjoyed breakfast around 9:30 at the lunch spot from the day before then quickly stepped across the street to get our toes into the soft sand once again. We found some green umbrellas with lounge chairs and table that charged us 200 Baht for the full day until sunset. That is exactly what we did, relaxed in the chairs, read our books, swam in the ocean and played in the sand. Lunch and dinners could be purchased from the local servers that frequently stopped buy but with no commitment to them we chose to cut our costs nearly in half and go pick something up ourselves and bring in back to the beach. The afternoon sun was getting too much so we returned to our rooms with ice cream to enjoy the cool air conditioning and regroup for the evening.

Dinner was street stall food while sitting in the sand as the sun went down on another day.

After spending just two nights in the busy Patong area with its combination of seemingly one week and three month holiday goers, it was just not the right feel for us. I am sure there are other parts of this large and diverse island that would suit us better but that will have to be searched out at some other time. Our main goal was to get our feet wet and have a visit with the elephants and this stop did that perfectly.

We found it quite challenging to find breakfast around here. Nothing seemed to open that early and we had a 9:00 am shuttle to catch to take us to our next destination. If you could find a hotel with breakfast included it would be a huge bonus. We were able to eventually track one down which thankfully had really quick service. After a couple American breakfasts and some delicious pancakes we strolled back to our hotel to meet our shuttle that took us to the ferry pier for our next leg of our journey.

Before Phuket was BANGKOK

Then we moved on to KOH PHI PHI