After two big excursion days in a row we were ready for a slower pace today. We started off with some pool and workout time.
We decided to check out the Bang Wan Waterfall that was only 10 minutes from our condo. The area is pretty sketchy and the lower waterfall isn’t much to look at because of the water pipes and retention ponds at the bottom…
But, on the other side of the road there is a narrow paved pathway that goes uphill and leads to a much prettier waterfall. Just watch out for spiders (funnel spiders and giant golden orb weavers). The older girls didn’t want to go on the side path closer to the falls because they were worried about the spiders. Superman made sure the way was clear with a big stick in front of him.
After the waterfall we drove to Patong and found a market to wander around. Randomly with a Chinese temple in the parking lot.
This market looks like more of a local supplier for the small restaurants – crazy to see meat, vegetables and fruits sold like this.
We found a new fruit to try- Salak Palm (also known as Snake Fruit). Kind of like a really squishy kiwi-grape. Not bad, but not great either. We also bought some mangosteens and a juicy mango to eat later.
We walked down the street and got so lucky!! A lady was sitting outside of her shop holding a teeny tiny little monkey! She let us pet it and told us it’s teeth are too small to hurt when it gets grumpy and bites. It’s a goldfinger tamarin from South America. So cute!! Not going to lie, we looked up the rules for owning a monkey in Utah. So sad that it’s illegal. Five minutes later when we passed back down the street the lady and monkey were gone. Lucky!!
We took a little walk on Patong Beach – it’s a long crescent moon stretch of sand with calm water, but super crowded with beach chairs & umbrellas, vendors walking up and down the beach selling their wares, wave runners coming in and out directly through the swimming zone, and paragliders taking off and landing on the beach right where we were walking (seriously did not understand the guy yelling in Thai because we didn’t see the paraglider overhead that we had just seen far out over the water- luckily we backed out of the way in time before they landed on our heads.) A little too crowded and crazy for us!
We did stop at a shop across the street and NixiRay found a Messi jersey. In Chiang Mai everything was so cheap we didn’t see the need to barter at all with the shopkeepers. In Phuket all of the prices are inflated and bartering is encouraged… Some shopkeepers are nicer about it than others. This guy was downright rude. We started walking away figuring there would be another one somewhere else. He didn’t want to lose the sale, so he finally gave us the reasonable price we were offering. Of course, we didn’t really want to buy from him anymore because he was so grumpy, but we did anyway.
The next shop had elephant pants in kid sizes and we’ve been looking for some for Spud. For reference, adult size elephant pants are $100 baht EVERYWHERE else (about $5 US). This shop wanted $300 for Spud’s size. I walked away after the lady said I would never find some for that low. Three stalls down the alley we bought some for Spud for $100 and the guy was THRILLED to have a sale. Don’t be afraid to walk away — there will be other shops with the same items and they will love having customers and give you a fair price.
We surprised the kids with tickets to Fantasea tonight, a Thai cultural experience. Superman watched a bunch of YouTube videos comparing a few options for similar nearby attractions, and the consensus was that Fantasea delivers more of a WOW factor, better food, and a great show. The venue is incredibly well themed and enormous.
Lots of fun things to see here:
I think the buffet restaurant, included in the entrance fee, could seat a thousand people at a time.
The food was plentiful and there were enough options to find food that everyone liked – Littlest Girl was happiest with plain noodles sprinkled with some parmesan. Spud was willing to try everything even though he didn’t love it. I had some papaya that was excellent– normally I don’t love papaya. There were also plenty of disgusting foods for these Western taste buds. Haha.
Thai desserts are really funny. They had a bowl filled with liquid green stuff and cubes of coconut jelly. A bowl next to it was full of ice cubes. We figured out that you take a scoop of each to cool off what was supposed to be jello but it was sickly sweet. A lot of their other desserts are jelly as well and just not that great. The Western-style desserts (i.e. cakes) don’t taste right and are pretty dry. They did have some chocolate mint truffles that were pretty yummy. The best dessert is always the trays of watermelon and pineapple slices. We should do that more often at home instead of overloading the sugar.
After dinner we walked around the venue some more. We were very surprised that every single thing to do was an extra charge– a few carnival type games, photos with animals, and lots of shopping. I guess we expected that there would be some included features besides the dinner and main show. The shops and game buildings were fun to wander through.
Some of the shops had the most ridiculous mannequins that made us laugh so hard. Literally crying.
There were also employees in costume walking around and we took photos with a few. Littlest girl loved the fancy dresses and jewelry.
We found some fun in a toy shop:
And of course there were elephants giving rides. Most of Thailand has stopped allowing elephant riding because it is considered inhumane. This place had big signs everywhere promising that they only are ridden for short lengths of time and no hooks or whips are used. The elephant saddles (is that what the seats are called?) are placed over layers of padding. The elephants looked happy to me and got lots of treats from people walking by. The rides were quite pricey though – $1200 baht for 2 riders at a time. We pet them and watched instead.
We did get to see a “Bonus Show” on a small stage which was very well done- several dance numbers done in fancy costumes. My favorite were the big dragon ribbons.
Finally we went into the Palace of the Elephants and had to surrender our phones because no photography is allowed (and apparently enough people were caught cheating that they now take all phones and cameras away and lock them up for the show). There were programs available in different languages that explain the premise of the story that was being presented… Without that synopsis, I don’t think we would have gotten it at all.
We were really happy that the first scene was done in Thai and English, but then they never spoke again and it was a very cultural fairy tale with (as far as we could tell) giant plot holes that made it impossible for us Americans to follow. Something about a prince and his magic elephant but they were turned to stone until the world could find peace, but then they weren’t stone and helped the world find peace and the prince fell in love with a girl and there was a battle between two armies in slow motion but then the magic elephant turned into stone again and disappeared at the end. Mixed in with some AMAZING acrobats in neon body suits lit by blacklight hanging from the ceiling on trapezes with bungee cables, stunning costumes and cultural dancing, farm animals running across the stage including a chicken that fell off the stage and had to be rescued with a net before the rainstorm started in the next scene, and INCREDIBLE trained elephants. Oh yeah, and some really silly magic tricks by Thai clowns trying to trick us into believing that the lady they sawed in half was actually just an audience member (had to explain to the little kids that she was really part of the act not a random person).
Overall we really did love the show, but I guess it wasn’t the incredible WOW factor that we were anticipating. It did give us a good look at ancient Thai customs, dress, and dancing. And the elephants were really cool!! So overall it was a win.
