Baby-free getaway to phuket thailand.

Plane ride from Singapore. Beautiful islands!

As I'm writing this blog post, we are flying above dozens of the most tropical and beautiful islands, that until now, I had only seen in photos. AJ and I just got back from a weekend in Phuket (pronounced "poo-ket"), where we stayed at the Radisson Blu Plaza Resort Panwa Beach. Every second of this trip was magical and we had the chance to visit a place I had only dreamed about seeing in person. We even flew over Koh Phi Phi Island, where the film "The Beach" was filmed. Unreal!

Yes please!

Our ride waiting for us at the Phuket airport.

This was waiting for us in our room. Loved the sweet rice!

Our resort was on Panwa Beach in Phuket, Thailand, which is about a 45 minute drive from the Phuket Airport. We left Linna at our home in Singapore with my parents (they are visiting for a week), because we needed some "couple time". I have had Linna 24-hours a day, 7 days a week with no help, and while I love every minute, every parent needs and deserves a break. My parents were more than happy to spend a couple days alone with Linna in Singapore!

Woman making food on the side of the road in Thailand.

Thai babies at a daycare in Phuket. So cute.

The drive to our resort gave us a lot to look at. We had a driver from the Radisson pick us up, because my husband had read horror stories of tourists being "taken advantage of" in Thailand while trying to find a taxi on their own. On the way to our resort, we noticed that almost every "local" drives a motor-bike. I was SHOCKED at the number of babies and children that were passengers on these small motor-bikes, WITHOUT wearing helmets OR being strapped in! So scary. I tried to get a photo of this, but they zipped by us so fast.

Bubble baths in the pool at our resort.

When we arrived at our resort, we were taken back with the graciousness and hospitality of the staff. These people were constantly greeting us with the traditional Thai "head bow". Whatever we needed, they would get it for us... and quickly! The views of the beach and pool from our room were spectacular. I loved watching the sun rise over the water in the morning. I'm so jealous of all the people that live in Phuket that get to see these views every morning!

Chinese Herbal Soup. Very good!

SO much food!

Pad Thai in Thailand!

The pools, lounge area, and the water were breath-taking! I don't think I've ever seen water so clear and blue. One afternoon, AJ and I decided to take a kayak out on the water. Those things are a lot of work! We didn't see any "sea creatures", but being out on the water was very relaxing! In the morning, the water recedes about 150 meters, and then comes back to the shore line in the early afternoon. This makes it so fun to walk out on the sand (where the water would normally be), and find crabs, starfish, and hermit crabs in the early morning. The crabs were too difficult to catch (man those things can book it), but I did get to hold a few starfish.

Since this was our first time being away from Linna after being in Singapore for a month and a half, we decided to "live it up" in Phuket. I got a facial and the most relaxing massage at the Talay Spa at our resort! My massage therapist actually got on the table and over my body to do my massage:) I've never had that happen back home in Minnesota. I loved it because she could put all of her weight into my aching muscles, and it felt AMAZING! She also used these hot herbal compresses all over my body, and they literally melted away any stiff muscle in my body (trust me, I had a lot of those). This massage was unlike any massage I've ever experienced.

We also ate A LOT! Every morning we had a breakfast buffet, where we tried dishes like Chinese Herbal Soup, curried vegetables, and many other delicious breakfast foods. AJ loved their cheesy sauteed spinach, and I couldn't get enough of the chocolate croissants and salad bar. They had kid-friendly food, as well as dishes to satisfy any palate. One evening, we had dinner at Azur, which looks over the beach at our resort. We ate sea bass that was coated in a sea-salt crust, and baked/steamed, then cut open right on front of us! AJ was a huge fan, and I think Linna would have loved that dish too. We also ate river prawns, rock lobster, calamari, and Pad Thai! There was so much food... and LOTS of drinks by the pool too:)

View from our room.

Since we were only in Phuket from Friday to Sunday, we didn't venture outside our resort much. We did go check out the shops across the street, and even ran into a daycare with two of the cutest Thai babies. Those babies made both AJ and I miss Linna:( We did get to see the outside of a Buddhist Temple in Phuket, as well as many road-side food carts and shops on our drive to and from the resort. I wish we had more time to go out and explore, especially when our resort offered complimentary transportation in and out of the city.

Look how far the water recedes. That's a fisherman
out on the water. I wonder what he was catching.

All the prices in Phuket are in baht (their currency). Currently it's about 30 baht to 1 USD. It's kind of scary to get a bar bill that is almost 1000 baht:) For a higher-end resort in Phuket, we expected the prices of things to be much higher than they were. Our room at Radisson Blu was just a over 100 USD per night. You can't beat that, and we were very happy with how far our dollar went at the Radisson Blu in Phuket!

After a nice, relaxing weekend in Phuket, we are both so excited to be home with our baby!