Thailand and Singapore Trip: Kamala Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Last weekend we got back from our epic trip to Thailand and Singapore!  We went with three other families and it was unbelievable!!!  All except for the flight that is . . .  We caught a military hop down to Singapore, but just two hours into the 7.5 hour flight, Clara was hit with a nasty stomach bug!  She threw up probably 20-30 times and also had diarrhea.  It was a disaster.  Then, a couple hours after she started throwing up, Will had a case of really bad diarrhea as well that exploded all over him!  It was such a nightmare.  I cleaned Will up as best I could in the tiny airplane bathroom (we had to throw away his underwear and I tried my best to rinse his pants out in the sink.  Then we put a diaper on him and put his wet, stinky pants back on--poor kid!  We just weren't prepared with an extra set of clothes for either Will or Clara, but from now on, you'd better bet we will be!  Regardless of how old they are!!!  The entire remainder of the flight, Peter and I were alternating between holding Bennett and cleaning up Clara's vomit/rushing the kids to the bathroom.  I honestly thought the flight would never end.  But, as bad as it all was, our flying situation was actually the best case scenario.  Since we were on a charted military flight, it only had about 20 passengers, so we had plenty of room around us.  And, the two flight attendants were extremely nice and helpful.  They supplied us with plenty of garbage bags and cleaning supplies so that we were able to keep everything relatively clean.  We actually had the same two flight attendants on our return trip, and I was happy to hear that neither of them got sick after that awful flight!  I wish could say the same for our friends though; one of the little girls from another family on the plane with us got what our kids had, but she had it the whole time we were in Thailand :(  Poor thing.  

Once we arrived in Singapore, we rushed to the international airport from the base to buy tickets and catch a flight to Thailand (we only had 2 hours before the last flight was leaving).  Clara had stopped throwing up (for a little while at least), so we were just going to try and get on the plane and get to Thailand so that she could recuperate there.  However, that just wasn't to be.  As we were standing in line to buy our tickets, Bennett, who I was carrying in our Ergo baby carrier, all of a sudden threw up all over himself and me.  Like, he completely drenched us both.  Covered in puke, I looked at Peter and told him, "I cannot get on a plane right now."  He was already digging through our suitcase finding me some clothes to change into, and he said, "You CAN.  Just get cleaned up."  To which my response was, "Okay, let me rephrase that.  I WILL NOT get on a plane right now."  So, Peter was disappointed, but he seceded and Bennett and I got changed and cleaned up in a bathroom and then we went and got ourselves a hotel room for the night.  We ended up spending more money than we would've liked, but for the sake of convenience.  We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, which is connected to the Singapore airport.  It is a very nice hotel and, after all is said and done, even though we missed a day in Thailand, I'm glad we stayed there.  Bennett threw up two more times over the next couple of hours (which is when we would've been on the plane), and Clara threw up again in the morning.  The kids were also able to get more sleep than they would have had we continued on.  So, it ended up being good, but was a bummer that we lost money and time in Thailand.  Oh well!

We finally got to Phuket on Friday afternoon and we were ready for some relaxation!  Clara got progressively better over the next two days, and both Bennett and Will got better right away.  Everyone was ready for some fun!

We stayed at the Swissotel in Phuket (which was fine, but we wouldn't stay there again . . . ), which was right on Kamala Beach.  While we didn't love our hotel experience, we did love the location, which was easy to get places and was only a few minutes from the beach.  We only spent a couple of days on the beach, but I had so many pictures that I thought I'd better make it its own post :)  So, after that massive introduction to our crazy journey, here are some photos of us living it up at the beach!

The kids could have seriously spent all day everyday just playing in the sand.  They made tons of little sand castles and "goop", as Will called it, which was just wet, goopy sand.  And, they were in absolute heaven playing with their friends!

Clara tried boogie boarding for the first time . . . and pretty much hated it!  But she caught a great wave!!!  Her face in this picture cracks me up!

Will came leaps and bounds in his embracing the ocean during this trip!  He overcame his fears (or at least dealt with them) and played in the water, and he rode tons of waves on the boogie board.  He was awesome out there!

Stay tuned for the rest of our adventures in Thailand . . .