Holiday Season 2016 – Thailand, Beach, and Family

We couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend our holiday season this year. Ok, so it was a little weird not having any snow and not hearing Christmas music everywhere, but we had awesome weather, we had the beach and to make it even more special, my parents flew the crazy distance and spent two weeks with us!

We spent four days in Pattaya, Thailand. We had a great time and enjoyed it but I wouldn’t recommend it as a destination if you have young kids. We stayed at the Mercure Resort and the kid’s pool was pretty sweet. Kasm had a blast and us adults even got to monkey around and play some volleyball – I totally sucked at it and may have even hurt my shoulder a little! Ahhh getting old is not fun!

It was REALLY hot in Pattaya but that didn’t stop us from getting out and exploring a little bit.

Our first outing was to the Sanctuary of Truth. It is a ginormous wooden structure that covers more than 3200 square meters of land. It is stunning and there are thousands of carvings and I’m sure we took close to a thousand photos while visiting it, but here are just a few 🙂

 

 

The next day we visited the “Big Buddha”. It was another impressive site, but boy oh boy, was it ever scorching hot out! We had planned on walking part of the way but that plan changed rather quickly and we opted to take a taxi.

Our last outing in Pattaya was  Mini Siam. We weren’t sure what to expect of this place. I was half expecting it to be pretty cheesy but it did not disappoint and was pretty impressive seeing the world’s greatest structures in miniature!

The heat was really making us crave a beach so it was time to head to an island! We took a private taxi service from Pattaya to Ko Chang. I had booked our resort months in advance and really had no idea what to expect. The pictures looked great but you just never know! Few days before our departure, I did what I always do, READ REVIEWS!

Ok, so maybe I shouldn’t have done that. There were a lot of great reviews but also some not-so-great ones, which started to stress me out a bit. All that stress washed away when I saw our resort. Our rooms were practically on the beach! We just had to go out the back stairs and Viola! we were on a gorgeous sandy beach.

We spent a relaxing week swimming in the warm waters, chillin’ on the beach, taking the occasional short walk and best of all being with family. Bruce, Kasm and I are incredibly fortunate to be taking this journey around the world for a year and to have family meet us half way around the world and share in that joy, makes it even more special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for making the second half of our Thailand trip so special!