We have to start this blog with heartstrings frayed for our wonderful daughter Meg.  A busted hand (courtesy of a lay out playing Ultimate) and surgery to repair it, are not scheduled stops on the college train, especially when her parents are gallivanting across the globe.  Meg, you are the bright, funny, kind, courageous, gracious, and beautiful daughter every parent dreams of.  This too shall pass.  And tidal waves of gratitude for our village of family and friends who jumped in to support Meg, especially Kathy and Brock for the enormous care package that arrived in Meg’s dorm right after her surgery.

We decided to heed the wisdom of our elders.  Specifically, we noted a comment from Margaret McClatchey that – in her delightful, yet impossible-to-ignore way — “suggested” we find the relaxation part of a vacation.  I think two pictures tell you all you need to know about whether we followed her advice.

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After twenty five-days of what I might aptly describe as, at times, near delirious wonder, we have landed in Phuket, Thailand.  Until yesterday, I thought Phuket was a small resort town on the beach.  It is actually a rather large island hanging precariously off the mainland and surrounded by the Andaman Sea, part of the Indian Ocean. 

Our resort is on the southern tip.  The beach here is a huge tidal flat.  At low tide it is possible, if you don’t mind squishy brown mud/sand, to walk a full kilometer out to the drop off, the shipping lane that carves its way between us and one of the many islands dotting the sea around us.  I woke early this morning and snapped this picture of the sunrise at low tide.  Within an hour or two, the sea will return and lap against the beach.

Our first night here, we taxied to a neighboring beach and walked along a small rural road to find a restaurant our guide recommended.  Mahatsamut, a local, relatively undiscovered restaurant, is one of the great places in the world to sip a Long Island iced tea and watch the sun melt away.  It was here that Margaret’s wisdom sunk in (along with the Long Island iced teas).

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We opted out of doing anything taxing the next morning, choosing to spend the day beside the pool, reading, swimming and walking on the beach.  One sad note: we have to figure out how to stop using plastic.  Strewn all along this otherwise pristine and glorious beach, hung up in the trees and littering the high tide mark, were plastic bottles and scraps of plastic bags.  There really is no justifiable reason why in the United States we should purchase water in a plastic bottle.  

In the afternoon, we drove to the north of the island, a long drive given the traffic, and boarded a traditional wooden long boat.  Think “canoe” on massive steroids, with an outboard motor.  With our guide (Jeff) and Captain, we spent the next six hours boating through wonderland.

We made three stops. The first was to take a small, rubber kayak through a cave at the waterline, a cave that “closes” with high tide, into an inner lagoon surrounded by the massive cliffs of the island interior.  Even our guide gasped when we unexpectedly saw a family of Macaque monkeys flitting among the trees dangling from the cliffs about 75 feet overhead.

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Our second stop was not really a stop so much as a drive by.  Here is the part of our blog you have been waiting for, the trivia contest. Who out there (all 8 million fans) can identify the movie featuring this famous island?  Hint: think Sean Connery and vodka martinis, shaken, not stirred.

We made our final stop a little before sunset so that we could swim before having a magnificent Thai dinner on our private boat.  Now, I want those of you who know Melissa to imagine her in glorious, cool, but not cold water, in the middle of a place she has never been, the sun magically setting behind the islands and spectacular food waiting the moment she climbs back on board the boat.  This, my dear family and friends, is what contentment (not to mention beauty) look like.

The island is from the 1958 James Bond movie, Dr. No.  Enjoy the gallery below of the scenery on our boat trip.  Yes, the sun really was that orange.

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Finally, we are acutely aware of how fortunate we are to take this trip.  Our bodies pump with gratitude.  Mostly, however, the sublime beauty we encounter fills us with love for all of you.  Thank you especially to the elders that brought us into this incredible world.  Jack, Carol, Mom, we love you, and, Mom, like you, Dad would have loved this place!