Nolan and I have slowly fallen in love with Thailand for months now. The food hooked us quickly, but the people, culture, and beauty of every place we have been has truly left us speechless. But, sometimes it is hard to be in such an amazing place when you can't share it with all of the people you love. Of course, Nolan and I can share in it every day, but I have been longing for my family to come and fall in love with it just as much as I have.
I was deep in these musings while walking around Hua Hin (pre- food poisoning of course) when I received a text from my little sister Paige, asking if it is possible to internationally travel to Thailand without quarantine. This was in mid-June, and I knew that Thailand had a scheme coming up for exactly this purpose. Phuket, the island that Nolan and I had visited early in our adventure here, was working on vaccinating 70% of their local residents so that vaccinated international tourists could enter the island without quarantine starting July 1st. So, I texted Paige all of the details, and she quickly responded that if we could figure out all of the logistics, she would be in for a little pre-college adventure!
I immediately started googling everything that I could about how to enter under the Phuket Sandbox. The list of requirements was long, from pre-booked covid tests, to insurance forms, and specifically booked hotels, and a Certificate of Entry from the Thai Consulate, it was not an easy task. On top of everything, the Sandbox scheme wasn't approved until June 30th, meaning the consulate could not begin issuing said Certificate of Entry (an absolutely essential document) until then. But after many calls back and forth trying to plan this trip, Paige boarded her flight to Singapore on July 2nd, to arrive on July 4th.
Nolan and I were ecstatic that we would be seeing Paige so soon, and absolutely could not sit still in our Bangkok apartment knowing that she was already flying to Asia to come see us. Our flight didn't leave until the morning of July 4th, so we decided to use on our energy to head to one of our favorite weekend markets to buy us three matching tie dye bucket hats to surprise Paige with upon her arrival.
As the morning on July 4th finally came around, we packed up the rest of our bags, and headed to the airport. The flight to Phuket is short, just about an hour, but I couldn't stop wiggling in my seat knowing how soon I'd be able to see my sister again. When our flight landed, we knew that we would be landing about an hour before Paige, so we sat around, awaiting the text that she had arrived. Now, this is where everything started to get exciting.
When we knew her flight had landed, we started searching for the international terminal of the airport. We followed some signs, talked to some confused security guards, and walked up and down a parking garage looking for the arrivals. It was very hard to find, almost as if we weren't supposed to find it.
Well it turns out, that was exactly the case. We were not supposed to find it. Apparently international arrivals had to go straight to their hotel until the COVID test that they took at the airport came back negative. What all of this means is that after months away from my sister, and after she flew across the world to come see me, I wouldn't be able to see her until as late as the next day. The people standing at the arrivals gate said that it would be okay if we said hello, as long as we didn't touch her, which was arguably harder than just not seeing her at all. After she had taken the COVID test (which was apparently so aggressive that it drew blood), we said a teary eyed hello before sending her off into a van to the hotel. We found our own taxi and followed the van all the way in.
Luckily for us, the hotel staff had gotten a different memo than the people at the airport. If we wanted to stay together, all we had to do was quarantine in the room with her until her test came back negative. We had a congratulatory hug, before heading to our room in the beautiful Marriott Merlin Beach Resort.
Our room was absolutely gorgeous, with an amazing beach front balcony and view. Since we weren't allowed to leave the room, we had plenty of time to order room service and catch up on everything we had missed since we had been apart. It was so amazing to see my little sister again and be with family, and I was honestly grateful for being able to spend some uninterrupted time with her, without all of the coming distractions of island life.
And many distractions there were.
Motorbikes
Early into the planning of our trip, we knew that we would need to rent motorbikes for the entire time we were in Phuket. After our first trip to the island, we had had our first taste into the excitement and freedom of motorbikes. Since Paige was only going to be exploring Phuket, we knew that we would need to show her everything that we could. So, we rented two motorbikes. Nolan rented a bigger bike that could easily fit him and Paige as they zoomed around the island. Since it was my first time on a motorbike, I decided to rent a slightly smaller one that might be a little easier to
handle. After our first day riding around, I became increasingly confident on the bike, and we were able to explore the entire island over the course of the week. We explored Patong, Karon, and Kata, the main three beaches in Phuket. We rode over the hill into Phuket Town a few times. We even zoomed up to the Big Buddha, which is exactly what it sounds like: a huge Buddha statue sitting on top of a hill, with fantastic views of the Southern portion of the island. With Nolan and I driving, and Paige navigating as a passenger on Nolan's bike, we could go anywhere we wanted to, and see everything we wanted to see, which is exactly what we did.
Beach Time
Upon Paige's arrival, she was most excited to work on her tan while sitting pool side and beach side. We spent much of her first day basking in the sun by the pool, until the sun decided to say goodbye for basically the rest of the trip. It is Monsoon Season over here in Thailand, and we can confidently tell you that the week Paige spent here lived up to the name. There was almost a constant cloud cover starting day two, with passing storms full of wind, rain, and even sporadic thunder and lightening. After a few days of waiting around for the storm to pass, we decided to take our motorbikes to the beach, regardless of the weather. That was the mindset at least, until we were about halfway there and we were hit with a torrential downpour of rain. We quickly realized that it was time to turn around and head back towards our hotel. However, the rain came so hard so quickly that we soon realized that we needed to get off the roads fast. We found an abandoned street food market where we parked the bikes and waited out the worst of the storm, before Nolan bravely shuttled us to a nearby coffee shop.
When periodic patches of blue sky would peak through, we would sometimes head down to the pool to try and capture some of it, but our time there usually ended in an all out sprint back to the hotel as yet another storm came through.
All of our other go's at a beach day went similarly, so as we neared the end of the trip, we decided that drinks by the beach would be an okay substitute. We took a taxi down to Kata beach to one of Nolan and I's favorite restaurants, that boasted some buy one get one free cocktails. After a few rounds, we decided that if we wanted to make it into the ocean, now was our chance. We charged towards the beach, until a local lifeguard charged back with equal ferocity saying that we were absolutely not allowed to swim there. We politely turned around, and asked our cab driver to take us to the other end of Kata beach, and we charged into the ocean yet again, this time too quick for any local lifeguards to see.
We dove through the warm waves, laughing and enjoying the moment despite the heavy rain. While hiding under the street food market during the first torrential downpour, Paige had said that the weather just added character to our trip. I couldn't help but agree.
The Elephants
Just like every other tourist entering Thailand for the first time, Paige knew that she needed to see the elephants. Nolan and I knew exactly the place: The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. I gave an in depth description of this amazing place on our first trip to Phuket, so if you'd like to hear about everything that happens there, click below.
The experience we had with Paige there was magical. Even more elephants came than the first time, and having her there made it all the more fun. We even got into a mud war with the Mahouts, where everyone ended up completely covered in mud, when it was really just made for the elephants.
Hanuman World
After our elephant adventure, we tried to figure out another rain permitting activity that we could do on the island, which was when Nolan found Hanuman World: a zip lining adventure park. We quickly booked our tickets and headed up on the motorbikes. Just as we arrived, another huge storm came in, and this one decided to stick around for a while. At first we were hesitant, and not wanting to get absolutely drenched before zip lining, we all pulled on our rain jackets. But after the quick safety briefing, we realized that, maybe just sending it without our rain jackets may be the best move.
And let me tell you, zip lining through the rain forest, in the rain, is one of the most magical experiences I've ever had. We were nervous that the rain was going to ruin the experience, but I believe that it made it all the better. There were 16 zip lines that got progressively longer as we went and being up in the trees with the trickling rain made them all go by way too fast. At the end of the course we realized that we hadn't just signed up for zip lining. We had also signed up for something called the Roller.
Unsure as to what it was, we were geared up in another harness and sent back up the hill to the Roller. From the gear and safety instructions, it was clear that what we were about to do might be a little more intense than the zip lines, but nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced.
The Roller was a great name because it is the closest thing I can think of to what it was. Imagine going on a roller coaster in the rainforest, with turns and banks around trees, and all of that. Except, instead of being strapped into a car, you are in a harness with a helmet on. It was a straight minute of chaos. We were thrown around trees, and whipped around turns. I know that it is usually a good thing to wear a helmet during activities like this, but I have never been more grateful for one than when I was on that Roller. At times, it felt like my head was going to slam into the track. It was awesome.
The Food
And last, but certainly not least, we have to talk about the food. Paige's goal upon arrival was to
eat as much Pad Thai as possible, along with any other Thai food that I could get her to try without telling her what it was. Luckily for us, our resort had an incredible breakfast that ended up being Paige's favorite meal of the day. We had lots of pork soup, dumplings, Pad Kra Pao, and noodles each and every morning. Along with our amazing breakfast, she had curry, roti, milk tea, and even some street food pancakes, along with her almost daily fresh coconut. Now, I'm not sure she loved Thai food quite as much as I do, but thats probably pretty hard to do, and she did love it a lot.
Overall, Paige's trip to Thailand was fantastic. I loved showing her everything that I have to love here. I loved being able to show off this amazing country to someone who could go home and tell the rest of my family about it. And most of all, I loved being able to create memories with my sister that neither of us would ever forget. Traveling the world and experiencing new cultures is one of my passions, and I love being able to share it with everyone through this blog. But I know that my favorite experiences will be sharing it, in person, with the people that I love. Seeing it through Paige's eyes filled me even more with love and gratitude for her and for here. And, I got to give her one last hug before she moved into college. And I will forever be grateful for that.
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