There is only one small branch of our church in all of Southern Thailand. We were lucky that it was only 45 minutes away from our condo. We were also lucky that when a box truck hit our rental car on the way to church that we only clipped mirrors and no visible damage was done. We were 5 minutes late to church though because we had to stop and figure that out… And we were grateful we could just wave away the other driver – he didn’t speak any English and it would have been so hard to exchange insurance information and deal with all of that. And then of course finding parking on the street when we actually found the little building.
The chapel was full but people moved around to make room for us which was so nice. We sang the hymns in a mixture of languages. The branch had given out all of their headsets for translating and had missionaries sitting near the front with a microphone ready to translate, but they must have realized how many English-speaking visitors they had becuase instead of using the headsets they had someone stand next to the speakers and translate for everyone. That man was so talented – really incredible how fast he was able to translate even as the speakers would start talking again before he finished the last sentence. (Definitely did better than Google translate – see below for how it translated Heavenly Father to Buddha. Ugh)
After Sacrament meeting all of us visitors went outside knowing that the rest of the meetings would be in Thai. That’s when we all realized that the branch had maybe 10 people and the rest were visitors. There was 1 woman in Relief Society. Tons of missionaries here too– they have a lot of work to do! And we found out that they bike everywhere. Pray for the missionaries to be safe on the roads!
It was fun to chat with all of the other visitors for a minute outside and see where everyone was from – Utah, Idaho, and Australia! We realized that we had seen one of the families at our condo earlier this morning – we might get together with them later this week if we have a free day.
We decided to visit a beach on that side of Phuket so we looked on Google for one nearby and saw gorgeous pictures of Rawai Beach – a small half moon beach with a pier on one side and some boats moored in turquoise water. Looked like a great spot to eat breakfast finally (we stopped at a fruit market and grocery store on the way) and spend the afternoon. See how lovely it is on Google:
The area of Rawai beach is super crowded – we ended up driving several blocks away before we found a parking spot, then we walked back… And that’s when we found out that Google lied. The photos online must have been completely doctored. Imagine decrepit boats moored with algae covered ropes strung up the beach and anchored with trash, garbage everywhere, concrete blocks and falling down houses lining the beach, and the saddest looking shelters that you realize people are living in.
We saw a few families playing at the far side of the beach. We had worked so hard to get here, so we thought maybe we could stay and play or at least eat breakfast before leaving… We walked down there and discovered it was just as trash covered as the rest of it and smelled filthy. We turned to go, but Littlest had HAD it and was hangry, poor thing, and didn’t want to walk and eat at the same time. A donut and a banana later and she was ready to go too. I don’t blame her- it was almost 2pm at that point and she had only had a little snack before church. Not a great eating day for sure.
We got off the beach and walked through some shops while Superman got the car for us, then we found another beach online and crossed our fingers that it would be better.
Thankfully the next beach was only 10 minutes away and was much much better. Cleaner, touristy but not too crowded, clean water. Ya Nui Beach for the win.
We spent the afternoon playing in the waves and sand, and Nixi Ray & Superman rented a kayak for an hour and explored the offshore island and saw thousands of fish in schools.
We explored some rocks and tidepools and enjoyed the gorgeous water and sky.
On the way back to our condo we found a restaurant – the menu was in Thai, Russian, & French, but they had pizza and hamburgers! Tasted so good after weeks of unfamiliar Thai foods and cheap American knock-off fast food.
FYI for future travelers- If you want delicious Thai food for super cheap ($60 Baht for a big meal), visit Chiang Mai. If you want some options but not as cheap ($120 Baht average), visit Bangkok. If you want tons of food options but more expensive ($220-300 Baht per meal), visit Phuket.
The girls were talking about shopping and Nixi Ray mentioned that she wants a banana bag. Miss A immediately pops in saying “This is the Sky Brigade coming to remind you of America.” It’s true, not everything here would be usable in America even though it’s cute in Thailand.
