In early November, we headed to Phuket for a week, during the Hajj break. This is when Muslims from around the world journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam. With all these travellers coming in, we thought we might as well get out :)
We met many of these pilgrims in the Bahrain airport while we were waiting for our flight, and they, I assume, were waiting for connections to Jeddah. I tried to sneakily take some photos of their traditional Hajj dress, which involved lots of draped white blankets.
In Phuket we went on an amazing tour to the Ban Pae National Park. We made the short hike up to Ban Pae Waterfall, where we climbed on the rocks and swam in the water.
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| A crab at the base of the waterfall |
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| Rob and Jack by the waterfall |
At the base of the waterfall lies the Gibbon Rescue Project. This is an organization that rescues and rehabilitates gibbons, which are often mistreated in Thailand by being used in monkey shows and to pose for photos with tourists. After rehabilitation, they are released into the wild, but some of the gibbons have never learned to make attachments and will never survive in the wild so they have giant cages to play in.
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| One of the rescued gibbons |
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| My favorite flower, orchids |
We also took a trip to the Phuket Zoo and several beaches. Some of the highlights are below.
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| Just in case the monkeys looked tasty... |
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| The highlight for Rob |
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| We also had the opportunity to go kayaking. |
As we were walking down the dock to the kayaks, Jack was getting pretty tired and hungry and hot. I gave him a bag of mini breadsticks that I had been saving just for a time like this, when he would need a pick-me-up. Soon we saw some adorable monkeys sitting around. As we walked, one monkey jumped up on one side of the dock and made some adorable noises, so we all looked (a distraction). Just then, the alpha male monkey, the gang leader, jumped up from the other side and stole Jack's breadsticks right out of his hands! The bag broke open and breadsticks flew everywhere. About ten other monkeys appeared and there was a mad race for the snacks. Needless to say, Jack had a meltdown, but Rob thought it was hysterical.
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| The gang |
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| The leader, the one that Jack is still having nightmares about! |
Soon we are off to Sri Lanka for the Christmas break, and will of course follow up with more pictures! My parents are visiting in February, Rob is leading two student trips, and his parents should be coming in May. I'm sure that will keep us busy and make time fly until we see you again. Merry Christmas everyone!
