Phuket

Life has been busy. It's just one thing after another until you feel the days all merge into one. K's been travelling a lot, so much so that Arya and I sometimes forget whether he is in town or still travelling. She had vacations and so it was hard to keep her occupied and keep up with all the late night telecons and volunteer work and social butterfly stuff (I feel more like a social sloth at this moment)
It was summer and a vacation had to be taken so we flew off to Phuket. Now we can say "Been there, done that" We spent two glorious days on Patong Beach and one day souvenir shopping, checking out local attractions and basically doing nothing. Arya was in love with our hotel, the Holiday Inn. She spent a substantial part of our 3 day vacation in the Swimming Pool - she especially loved the wave pool.
One consistent strain for every vacation is that Arya embarks on a new place and has to find the souvenir shop to buy gifts for all her friends. Now this was a fine quality (meant to be encouraged) when we went on a 3 week vacation to Europe or a 2 week vacation to San Diego, with ample opportunity. Plus you can really understand the fact that she is missing her friends when you have been away for weeks, or that she wants to tell them - "I thought of you when I was away"
But in Phuket, and with the 3 precious days that we had, I wasn't willing to go up and about and look for the perfect gifts for all her friends when the sun, the sand and the sea was just beckoning.
However, Arya got her way as usual. She bought some colorful wooden frogs for them. It is really very sweet of her to think of her friends all the time. Without any expectations too. None of her friends actually reciprocate in kind, hehe!
The other highlight of our trip was Phuket Fantasea...I should call it a lowlight actually. This was touted as Phuket's answer to Disneyland and seemingly had everything that Disneyland did except Mickey Mouse. However, when we landed up there (after having paid Disneyland prices for entry) we realised that we had been had. The thrilling adventure rides and games were nothing but "ring toss" or "shoot the balloons", the oodles of shopping was nothing but overpriced souvenirs and really glitzy and garish jewellery shops. Oh, did I say overpriced already? And then there was the "Biggest Buffet in the World" What did you expect? Oh no, it was not the largest array of dishes that you have ever seen. By biggest they meant seating capacity. 4000 people can be accomodated in that hall. Imagine 4000 people waiting in line for a dismal spread.
Everything that could be charged for as "extra" was. This is what I hate about developing nations, everyone wants to make a fast buck. Leaves a really bad taste.
Now, we were hoping that the grand finale to the evening would make the whole episode worth it (and we wouldn't feel like complete fools) But alas! They made us leave our phones and cameras at a security desk, only so that if you wanted pics with the animals inside you'd have to buy them. The show itself was more glitz and garish costumes. The animals came on stage and went off. Any roadside circus in India has better animal performances or acrobatics. Anyway, saving grace was that Arya enjoyed herself. As we were trudging out, secretly trying to take our minds off the fact that we had just been duped, we saw some baby elephants waiting to be fed. Of course Arya wanted to feed them and of course, they were charging 200 baht for it. So we said - Fine...and bought bananas and sugarcane (which would actually cost about 20 baht at best) for the pleasure of feeding the elephants and Kushal was trying to take her picture when the mahouts generously asked us to pose with her - Whole family picture they said and took not one but two pictures. Just as I was about to say Thank You, they said - 100 baht...please give elephant. Sheesh!
Now of course it was not all bad. I definitely needed a break and I got it. We all emerged happy and refreshed. But I will obviously recommend that you avoid Phuket Fantasea if you ever land up there.