A Rough Start

Our first full day in Phuket was less than ideal. My morning started at 4:00am with severe stomach issues.

Jeremy said that is why I shouldn’t eat insects! But the kids were fine, and James ate at least 5-6 times that I did.

Maybe it was the fact that I had been brushing both my teeth and my retainer with tap water – I switched to bottled water for the rest of the trip.

Or it could have been the fact that I had been eating the rind of my dragon fruit. Starbucks’ mango dragon fruit drink at home is bright pink, so I assumed that they used the bright pink rind to make it that color, but a friend told me that some dragon fruit have a white interior, while others have a purple interior. They tricked me. As it turns out, some people say that it can be used for medicinal purposes, while others say that it is poisonous!

Another possibility is that maybe I had some bad seafood, or uncooked fruit or veggies that were washed in bad tap water.

Who knows what the source was, but I quickly became very dehydrated. Always remember that when you are traveling in another country, your stomach is unlikely to be used to the local foods and environment, so this type of day is always a possibility.

Breakfast

The hotel breakfast turned out to be a platter of toast and fruit with a choice of eggs, omelets, yogurt, or banana pancakes topped with chocolate or honey. The toast was perfect for the condition of my stomach, although coffee and pineapple juice were an unwise decision.

Beach Time for the Boys

We were planning to go down to the beach, but I wasn’t feeling up to it, so Jeremy decided to take the boys down on his own while I downed my trusty Imodium and rehydration tablets, and spent some time recuperating from my traumatic morning.

The boys had a great time! Jeremy rented an umbrella and two chairs for 200THB, about $7USD.

The water was super nice and the boys had a great time, although they apparently didn’t follow Jeremy’s directions about reapplying sunscreen and both came back with sunburns.

A Walk to Kata Beach

After resting a bit, John wanted to look into surf lessons for the following day, but Jeremy was having trouble getting in touch with them via phone or email, so they decided to walk to Kata Beach and check things out.

Unfortunately, the waves were no bigger there than on Karon Beach and they decided that it wouldn’t be fun. If cheap surf lessons are your thing, Bali, Indonesia, is a better bet. John was a bit sad that he wouldn’t get to do one of his favorite activities, but sometimes things don’t work out the way you expected. Travel is like that.

Dinner

They returned via taxi and I was feeling a lot better, so we enjoyed the sunset by the pool, then decided to walk and get some dinner.

Unfortunately, I started feeling sick again, and we settled for a restaurant that was less than ideal. The food took forever and wasn’t as tasty as it could have been, but at least everyone was fed. With the way I was feeling, we decided to end the night early and take a taxi back to the hotel.

Keep reading our travel blog for more beach destinations around the world and more adventures in Asia!

Here are some more blog posts from this trip to Thailand: