Sheikh'n It With The Shenkirs: Thailand

I have a lot of blogs posts to catch up on! We just got back from an amazing trip to Thailand ( I never thought I would say that!). It's hard to explain, but when you are cooped up over here in Saudi, living on a compound you can really feel closed in to the outside world. Most expats travel to escape. It was a really nice week long break for us and the kids to see a very interesting country.

We took the afternoon flight out of Dammam flying Qatar Airways to Doha. We were lucky to just happen to be on the same flight as our neighbors! It was great because the girls had other people to play with and we were able to visit. The layover in Doha was 5 hours which gave us plenty of time to get dinner and let the kids play. It is a great airport to have a layover in.

Layla was so great with Claire on the plane--they watched the ipad and colored!

This was the last time Claire would be in an airplane bassinet. She was way too big for it! The flight attendant made us take her out =( while she was sleeping!

We found a Krispy Kreme at the Bangkok airport!

Josh was very excited to have his first taste of beer in awhile!

The flight from Doha to Bangkok is only 6.5 hours which wasn't bad considering we are used to 16 hour flights. We landed in Bangkok only to board another domestic flight to Phuket. It was so great landing in Phuket because I could tell we would be on "island time" the entire week!

Our resort was only a 20 minute drive from the airport and it was pretty amazing for the kids. We let the girls nap while we unpacked! There is only a 4 hour time change from Saudi to Thailand--so it wasn't hard for the girls to adjust.

Elise's favorite part was this awesome slide!

I think one of our favorite days was going to the Siam Safari in Phuket. We got to get really close to the elephants and feed and ride them. The girls absolutely loved it. Claire even fell asleep on the elephant ride!

That night we also went out to the Phuket weekend market. We had a lot fun experiencing the Thailand culture. The main mode of transportation here are motorcycles. They even have motorcycle taxis!

We had an equally awesome trip to Phi Phi islands. There were two other families from our compound that just happened to go to Thailand at the same time, so we decided to all go together. The kids had such a good time on the boat and we got to see some beautiful islands.

Our favorite was monkey beach. It is really a beach full of monkeys!!

This island is called chicken island.

These little huts were amazing! They are offering a half hour massage for 10 dollars!!

The hotel even had Mickey Mouse silverware!

A fire show at the hotel

Elise watching a movie at the pool

Happy Birthday, Claire!! I took this the morning of her second birthday, after a rough night in the hotel!

We spent two nights in Bangkok with some friends. We had a lot of fun exploring the city, but overall didn't think it was a very child friendly city and it was really dirty!

A little chocolate elephant at the hotel