Thailand Journey: Phuket Part 2 Jan 1-2

Monday Jan 1st: Game Time



The alarm rang and the day had come for me to tell my story. A short swim in the ridiculously nice pool relaxed me followed by breakfast and the surprising news of the bombings in the exact place we had been in Bangkok just days before. This didn’t rattle me though. I put my game face on performed in the clutch with a homerun speech that hopefully inspired all and that will put a few bucks in the C Different bank account.



From that point on the pressure was off and so we took the opportunity and hit one of the other pools. This one was called the Eternity Pool and I could definitely sit by this one forever. This pool had a wet bar in pool, lotus flowers floating in pots and walls that had been transformed into waterfalls. These were the perfect conditions to bake in the blazing hot sun and enjoy more service from the ridiculously nice Thai people.
In the afternoon, we checked another item off our “to do” list and headed deep into the jungle to an elephant training center to take a ride on one of the massive beasts.


The elephant we rode who’s name I can not pronounce thundered down the beaten path taking stops at her leisure to snag some leaves with her trunk. The elephant trainer tried to keep her on task but you can’t stop a 1,500lb beast. Upon returning, we took a basket full of food and fed the hungry thing. With her trunk she snatched whole bananas, sugar cane sticks and watermelon from our hands. She was a human garbage disposal. We later found out the thing eats over 120lbs of food a day. I wish I could do that!

We returned to the JW for one last hurrah. There was a white party to close out the YPO conference. This party was held at the last remaining pool and when we got there it was like something straight from the Barbie Dream edition set. There were these white stages with corner posts rising from each corner and white sheets draped to connect each corner. Then of course there was like a 10 course meal to follow.


The night was capped off by launching white fire lanterns filled with our 2007 hopes and wishes into the nigh sky. This Thai tradition nearly became a disaster as some of them began heading for the trees. Evidently, these little devices can become quite the problem for planes and they told us that the airport was temporarily delaying flights just so we could observe this Northern Thailand tradition. These claims were a little extreme but for the JW I wouldn’t put it out of the question.


Tuesday Jan 2nd: Back to Reality
4am wake up and off to the airport. Liz and I had our own double decker bus to run around and play in. It was one of the longest days of my life, capped off by driving straight to class upon arrival at the Seattle airport.