The Big Trip - Part 1

The past two weeks have been dreamlike for us. After talking about it for years, we finally took advantage of Tony's exotic work destinations and created a vacation. Thailand bound. 

Tony was already in Asia, so Ian, Dave Mak, and I started the adventure together. Ian and I spent the night before our flight at Auntie Kate's and Uncle Paul's because the flight was too early to get to the airport by train. We had such a fun night and Ian absolutely loved Uncle Paul's sweet potato soup.

On the way to the airport, Ian had a messy little breakfast.

Our first flight was to Detroit. Smooth and uneventful for the little man. So far so good. We had a long layover in Detroit which left Ian a little squirrely. He didn't take a nap at all in the day and got a little nutty. See for yourself.... crazy face.

Detroit had a fun fountain to keep him entertained (and wet.) Down one change of clothes. Bummer. 

Even though he didn't take a nap, we could tell little man was tired. Here he is playing with his trucks,  head nestled in his blankets. 

Flight #2 didn't start off so hot. We foolishly didn't check our tickets to confirm that we actually were in the seats we purchased. As we were getting on the plane we discovered that we had been bumped from our seats which were together and all placed in B seats. Way to go, Delta. Put a 2-year-old between strangers for a 15+ hour flight. And the flight attendants wouldn't help us - said we needed to fix it ourselves. Deep breath. Shake it off. This is still going to be a good flight. (Positive mental attitude on this one...) Somebody took pity and took one of our middle seats so Ian and I were together. Dave was right in front of us which kept Ian entertained because he could peek between the seats. 

After the initial Delta SNAFU, the rest of the flight was smooth as silk. Ian's biggest meltdown (and I hesitate to even call it that) was when we first got into our seats. He recognized the TV screen and started crying for "Birdies, Birdies!" (translation - Rio: the bird movie that he watched on a previous flight.) But we couldn't start any movies until up in the air, so it took some convincing that yes, we will check to see if Birdies is still available, but we have to wait for now.

The sleep situation couldn't have been more perfect. He slept for about 5 or 6 hours of the flight which tuned him up well for the time adjustment. 

We got into Hong Kong about 9:00pm, so checked right into our hotel and crashed. Amazingly, Ian crashed too. My worry was that he was going to be wide awake since it was really 8:00am at home. He slept through the night and by 6ish the next morning he was rearin' to go. I honestly expected a sleepless night from him (and therefore us).

He had a ton of fun playing in the crack between the two beds.

We got up and moving. Our next flight wasn't until 8:00pm, so we had the day to explore. To Ian's great excitement, we got to ride on a "double decker bus." 

We stayed on Lantau Island (the island that the airport is on) and began our adventure to see the Big Buddha. Thanks to Ian, we had quite an early start but learned that the cable car to get up the mountain didn't open until 10:00am. We went to a nearby courtyard and got some Chinese pastries. Yum. Ian was a little helper and threw all our garbage away for us. He loves it when I ask him to help out like that.

Because we had about an hour before the cable car started up, we hiked around a nearby park. It was lush and dense. A real treasure in the hubbub of the city. 

We could choose a regular cable car or a glass bottomed one. We did the glass bottom and were so happy for that. Not only were the lines to the glass bottomed cable cars shorter, but the view was outstanding. A little freaky. But outstanding.

The destination - Big Buddha. 

Dave and I were both a bit disappointed on the commercial-ness of the Big Buddha. Ian wasn't. The place was filled with these bubble machines. I don't quite know the connection between Buddha and bubbles... whatever the reason, Ian was thrilled and did all sorts of bubble chasing. 

Ianism: We were in Starbucks (because of course Buddha should have a Starbucks nearby) and struck up a conversation with a woman wearing a Rock 'n Roll marathon jacket. Whenever we said "rock 'n roll", Ian said Madonna. I'm not sure where he made that connection, but it was consistent.

The highlight of the Buddha expedition (for the adults) was getting away from the crowds and bubbles. There was a great hiking trail down the mountain. It was such a peaceful time.

After our hike and a tasty dim sum lunch, we loaded back up into the cable car.

Ianism - On our ride back down the mountain, Ian pointed to a woman in the car with us and said, "Scary. Scary. Scary." over and over. She gave us a funny look and I had to explain that the skulls and crossbones on her shirt were scary to him. That got a good laugh from everyone.

The Hong Kong airport is one that isn't kidding when they say you need to show up 2-3 hours ahead of time. We were about 3 hours early for our flight so that we could eat dinner in the airport. Even with that big time buffer, we had to rush through dinner to make the flight. But we made it and were Phuket bound! Another easy flight with the little man. We got in and settled around midnight or so. Long day, but so much fun!

Day 1 in Phuket - Tony still had another day of work, so the three of us hit the pools.

Ian absolutely loved the kiddie pool. It was a perfect depth for him to "bim" (still working on those s's). 

To say this hotel was outstanding is an understatement. Not only was it breathtaking and filled with amazing service, but it was so, so kid friendly. Example - all Ian's food and drinks were free. They were also really conscious of dietary restrictions, so they had a good gluten free selection (including GF burgers). 

Day 1 in Phuket was utterly relaxing. 

Day 2 was a bit more adventuresome. 

We went to James Bond Island. That meant a lot to the menfolk in the group. To me, not so much. I did enjoy the beauty of the trip though.

It was a very touristy excursion, but even with that we saw such amazing sights. Part of the day involved a canoe ride around the rock formations. When we signed up we thought we would be doing the canoeing, but hey... it's not so bad being paddled around.

Ian really got into having to lie back when we went through tunnels. 

I'm ready to go back.

Needless to say, Ian was quite a novelty to the Thailanders. Perhaps the ridiculously blonde hair? This was one of the guys working on the boat that really had a fun time playing with little man. They played "cars crash." And every time we got on or off the boat he wanted to help carry Ian. 

After James Bond Island and the canoeing, we stopped at a place in the middle of the water for lunch. This began Ian's white rice meal plan. He couldn't get enough - and ate nothing else.

The hotel had a Kids Zone. It's for kids over 4. Parents can drop them off and have a kid-free day. They saw us playing in the pool and invited us (well, Ian) in to play. He had a blast and made great friends with the ladies running the show there.

More "bimming", but this was at a different pool with an official swim up bar. We ordered pizza, hung in the pool, had drinks. Talk about paradise.

Even Ian got a special drink. Thailand is full of fresh, fresh food. All the juice is fresh squeezed and as tasty as it gets. This drink is 1/2 passion fruit, 1/2 soda water. He loved it and fully took advantage of the pool bar. He would swim up, take a drink, and go back to swimming.

We did a couple adventures outside of the hotel and the sights out the car window were so foreign to all of us. Ian was quite intrigued. I liked seeing his interest in the sights. 

And here we are... back in the kiddie pool.

And here Ian is... eating more white rice.

This is so characteristic of how the trip was for Ian - an object of admiration by the locals. We got of the res for a more authentic dinner. Ian was done with his rice and wandering around a bit and the waitresses nabbed him to hang out with them. This was early on in the trip and he was still tolerant of others. By the end of the trip he had enough touching, kissing, and patting by strangers. When someone would try to get his attention, he would bury his head in my legs and say, "no!" At this point though, he just followed along in his frozen sort of way. 

Stay tuned for part 2...