on a scale of one to perfect...

If we’ve learned one thing on this trip so far, it’s that if we have the chance to do something cool it’s always better to go out and do it no matter how tired we are. This lesson was once again re-enforced to us when we decided to go to see a show called “Phuket Fantasea” . The entire experience is billed as a “cultural theme park” and this it was. After taking a 45 minute cab ride we were dropped off at the Fantasea location which was a cross between the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, Ringling Brother’s Circus and the Orange County Fair. There were carnival games, street vendors, crazy stores with oversized things to take pictures with, a Wild Animal Exhibition including very sleepy Tigers, a chance to ride on elephants – which we passed on because it was too cheesy and we had the authentic experience already -- and the largest “International” Buffet room we’ve ever seen. Dinner was included with our tickets, Lindsey was happy to see Sushi and Josh ate too much Curry.

The show itself was about an hour and fifteen minutes long and consisted of a Magic show, crazy acrobats flying from the ceiling, traditional Thai dancing and fighting and a love scene which we thought would be boring but then in the middle of the song a bunch of roosters and then later goats took turns running across the stage in unison and it was amazing. The coolest part was the final number that consisted of at least 20 elephants dancing on the stage at the same time. Poor elephants, but great entertainment. Also, it should be noted that the people whose job it was too pick up the elephant shit while they were performing did an excellent job – however there was some elephant pee on the stage during the current call -- we couldn’t help but worrying for the safety of the cast.

The next morning we left our second hotel in Phuket and headed to our third and final destination: the JW Marriot Resort and Spa.
On a scale of one to perfect the JW Marriot would be somewhere above perfect. After three weeks of semi roughing it we were thrilled at the site of a kingsize bed and bathtub. The hotel itself was gorgeous and breathtaking. There were three pools (we only made it two) that overlooked the beach, rivaling and perhaps surpassing the luxury and awesomeness of any hotel we’ve ever stayed at. (Sorry Kea Lani) The coolest feature had to be the fact that there were two pet elephants that hung out through out the day with the guests. Dumbo, aged 2 is the baby elephant and Yum Yum is 6 and a newer addition to the resort. Not only could we feed the elephants and take pictures with them but we even had the rare opportunity to ride them IN THE OCEAN! One of the all time highlights of our trip so far – we know China will be pretty cool but we don’t see ourselves getting the chance to ride panda’s in the ocean. . .

The food at the JW Marriot was pricey, but amazing. Not only did Yosh get to eat at a Steak House but there was a 24 hour deli that had Bagels and Cream Cheese. There was some romance involved on the resort. On our last night in Thailand we arranged to have a romantic dinner for two in a hut on the beach overlooking the beautiful ocean and incredible sunset. Not only were our surroundings phenomenal but our four course menu entitled Passionately Grilled was superb with such favorites as grilled prawns with papaya, grilled Salmon over salad and a trio of grilled lamb chops, lobster and chicken. Potentially the best part was the fresh fruit plate for dessert – note: even though Josh was worried, during our 48 hours at the resort we gave up our strict “no raw fruits or vegetables or anything that could have touched water and not been cooked fully policy” since Lindsey figured it was too nice of hotel not to purify the contaminated Thai water. This even resulted in us being allowed to drink a pitcher of ice blended margaritas… with ice! Ahhh never underestimate how important ice is…

So our last night in Thailand couldn’t have been more wonderful… and it pretty much summed up how we’ve felt about our entire three weeks: we’ll never forget this vacation and we’ve had an absolute blast…. Anndd the best part is we’re only halfway done with our trip.
The first three weeks have just flown by… but we’ve done so much in such a short time that it’s rather exhausting to look back on it all – and we have over 700 pictures to prove it.
We’ve ridden planes, trains, buses, taxis, bicycles, jet skis, songtaews, tuk tuks, go carts, bamboo rafts and, of course, elephants – both in and out of the ocean… despite any bug bites or missteps along the way we've really been able to soak up the culture and open our eyes to whole new part of the world. There have certainly been moments of crabbiness or frustration but mostly there's been fun and there's been laughter and there's been a lot of amazing moments to write home about... which is all we could really ever ask for -- and more. So now that we’ve sweated our way through the beautiful country of Thailand and we are ready to head off to China…

(truth be told: we’ve already spent four nights in Beijing and are heading off to Xi’an tomorrow… the cliff notes version of our time here is that we’ve visited the forbidden city, ti’annmen square, the summer palace, the temple of heaven and the place where the Olympic games will be held in August. We’ve climbed the great wall – which was spectacular – and we saw an incredible kung fu show… also, we’ve almost already exhausted our ability to eat any more Chinese food – which might be problematic in the very near future… but mostly we’ve just been having a great time and laughing our way through this awesome and puzzling country – there will be much more in-depth blog posts to follow… but we’ve just been having too much fun to sit and write it all down… )

Glad the Dodgers won their opener… go blue!!

-- Lindsey and Josh