A Joyful, Merry and Bright Christmas in Phuket

We are so lucky to be in Hong Kong where a family trip to Phuket for Christmas is considered quite routine!  Under 4 hours and a direct flight, pinch me, we are almost back to the heady days where the entire world was our traveling oyster.  We went for 8 nights and 9 days and were blessed with great weather.  The resort wasn't as luxe as we normally opt for, but the kids' enjoyment was definitely 10 out of 10.

Airport! Lounge, headphones, window seats.  Check.

Checking out the hotel upon arrival: pool, kids club, gingerbread and Christmas decor!  

Reef walk at low tide, we saw so many sea cucumbers and fish!  Lola and I snorkeled once at high tide - she was so brave!  By the end of that time we could go hand in hand.

The pools were really big and we enjoyed all of them immensely: water slide, sprinklers, fountains, shallow and deep sides, a tunnel connecting two pools, an adult swim up bar, and a long lazy river.

Kids club and rec areas were pretty cool also.

There was the beach right outside our room, and tons of activities every day.

Ice cream!  Glo party!  Football tournament!  A playground on the beach.

We went offsite one day, to see friends from Hong Kong.  We went mini golfing and then to their villa on Point Yamu.  It was so fun but the traffic in Phuket is horrendous.  We came back to an epic party with Muay Thai fighting directly outside our hotel balconies.

Kids made pizzas and sea glass jewelry/keychains as some of the activities.  We ate more ice cream.

The kids probably went down this slide 600 times.  Each.

My parents joined us for a couple of days (after their long cruise in Singapore and around SE Asia) over Christmas and we opened presents in the hotel room.  I got something REALLY beautiful, a Van Cleef necklace and earrings set.  My parents gave us all really cool clothes from Indonesia.  The favorite of the kids' toys was probably the walkie talkie set.  The resort did a carnival with a huge bouncy castle and slides, and we enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve dinner with live music. 

Before we knew it, it was time to return home!

An Action-Packed Run-Up to Christmas

The weeks leading up to Christmas were crazy, so I didn't manage to post as much as I wanted!  We had so many weekend activities, full of birthday parties and get togethers, as every one tried to squeeze in their activities before holidays. 

After Lola's birthday party on December 1, the next weekend was no different.  Lola performed with her classmates at the Christmas Fair.  The boys were absolutely enraptured by it.

Then the kids went to the big bouncy slide and enjoyed throwing themselves down that a couple of times.

We then headed to a slime birthday party

followed by wandering around IFC and watching the airport express (the boys could probably do this for hours) and then dinner at the American Club town club. 

Lola has all these pictures because she had Sidney, the class pet gorilla, for the weekend and she kept asking me to take pictures of them together for the journal entries she had to prepare.

That was a busy Saturday.  On Sunday we took it easy with only one birthday party, which was at a surprisingly cool club out in Kowloon Tong, where we rarely ever go. 

During the week following, the boys had their assessment at SIS,  we promised them ice cream as a reward afterwards, because they were so brave.  Michael dropped them off and bid them farewell when they went in and he said they were so cute, holding hands for courage.

After that, was the weekend of my trip to HCMC.  While I was gone, Michael held down the fort well and took the kids to the Ballroom Bees ball, where Lola performed with her dance group and did an amazing job:

Then it was really just the run up to Phuket - finishing school, all the last classes, a parent teacher conference at the boys' school, some final playdates of 2023:

We squeezed in a trip to the theater to catch Madagascar, the Musical, which was mixed / fell pretty flat overall, but the kids still enjoyed the experience which, I consoled myself, is still the point at the end of the day:

then took some fancy pictures at the American Club on Sunday night 

before we were packing and flying out on Monday morning bright and early!

My 40th and A Trip to HCMC

Ahhhhh 40 years old last month!  I can't believe a decade has passed since I turned 30 (also a milestone that took place in Hong Kong, man I have lived here for a long time now). And I can't even remember how I celebrated my 20th. 

I had a few celebrations this year, including a nice birthday hotpot dinner at home with the kids on the actual day, and a pretty rare and wonderful trip to Ho Chi Minh with my best girl friends in HK.  I deeply appreciated their taking the time out of their hectic, busy, demanding lives to dedicate a weekend to hanging out together.  We ate a ton, went shopping, drank so many coffees, and got massaged, all of my favorite things. 

Three of us flew together from HK, and one other came from Singapore.  In a stroke of luck, all 3 of us got complimentary upgrades to business.  We stayed at the Park Hyatt Saigon, which was lovely and provided us with a refreshing welcome drink.

The streets of HCMC and Vietnam generally are so fun!  I have missed the energy and the complete mix of old and new.  Also, so many scooters!  Street shots:

We ate endless amounts of food and drank so many coconuts:

This was our go to place, Ngan; we went twice and ordered an ungodly amount of food:

My birthday dinner at Hoa Tuc right near our hotel, with stuffed snails, hearts of palm salad, deep fried soft shell crab and assorted desserts:

We also took some group shots in our beautiful hotel and out and about town:

I went clubbing for the first time since... I don't even remember ?!

During the rest of the trip, we also went to the market, which was as byzantine, chaotic and overwhelming as you would expect:

And checked out the super cool coffee building - an entire building dedicated to cafes:

We got matching friendship bracelets (fittingly for our age, with gold and diamonds rather than beads and macrame!) which turned out brilliantly. 

I now have a stack!  I love it. The rose gold Cartier bracelet was a completely unexpected present from Michael, on our Singapore trip.  

We then enjoyed a nice spa massage down a leafy lane in a historic villa:

Followed by more eating:

On our last day, we had breakfast together before the group split.  I impressed everyone with my multiple fruit plates.  Admittedly I can eat pounds of fruit in one sitting, and drink copious amounts of fresh coconuts...much like a chimpanzee.

My friend and I went to the War Remnants Museum, which was educational and interesting, but left us both feeling very heavy and dark.  It is unfortunate that even in 2023 we have not learned how to spare our young and innocent from the brutality and trauma of war.

We finished the trip with some more wanderings about town

and ticked off one of the last items on our sweet tooth wish list, chendol:

before we headed to the airport, enjoyed some quick foot massages, and headed home.  I am so grateful I got to take this trip with my hollaback girls!