Island girls on beaches of powdered coral - Trip to Thailand, part 1

We came back home yesterday from a two week long trip to Thailand, as guests of my sister-in-law's family, who were incredibly generous and hospitable and nice, and took care of us so well (in fact I doubt I will ever receive such royal treatment again). 

So what did we do there?

We ate 30 kilos of mangosteen.. my favorite fruit! My husband loves them too, and when Indiana finally tried some, she loved them as well. Queen of fruits, it really is!

We made new friends...
Above, our James Bond-uesque driver escorting us back to our van. This guy looked like he would save the day by throwing a weapon concealed as a shoe at the bad guys.

Below, Indiana's friend at one of the places we stayed at. These girls really hit it off!

We took a boat to the small islands around Phuket, snorkeled and swam in the crystal clear waters and played in the white, powdery sand.

 We visited Monkey Island...

A couple of dozen random  people took photos of Indiana during the trip, and wanted to take pictures posing with her. It was funny.. and then I realized it's pretty much what we also do, take pictures of ourselves with cute exotic things, like monkeys and elephants! ;)

We ate some more fresh fruit...

And saw much beauty..

We visited a  rooftop lounge with an eternity pool and a 360 degree sunset view.. my dad wanted to treat us to some champagne and he was allowed to, except that when he asked for the check he was told that someone had already paid it. So that really happens, huh?

And to tie this all into minimalism, above is our suitcase. We did take two half full suitcases (the second one smaller than this) but the other one stayed in Bangkok while we traveled to Kanchanaburi and Phuket. It had our shoes, jackets and some other things we didn't need to lug around Thailand with us. We also had two regular sized back bags for day trips. Although I must say that having one suitcase for three people does not really work for me, as my husband manages to turn everything upside down looking for a single thing, and it annoys me because I like to keep my things neatly organized. Then I had to look for my things in a jumble of three people's stuff! And I was the one packing it up each time we moved locations. So I'd rather we each had our own bag or suitcase. It may seem simpler to just have one shared suitcase, but I'm afraid it wasn't for me. But this whole suitcase just for my stuff would have been way too much space. 

My wardrobe for the trip consisted of the three pairs of pants, three dresses and a few tops. I bought a few pieces of clothes before our trip, as I did not want to embarrass my hosts and my summer wardrobe was truly pitiful :) I chose modest knee length dresses with short sleeves and some pretty tops, all of which can be worn for more than just the summer season.We had some laundry done during the trip so I could re-wear my favorite clothes  (and have clean underwear!). Indiana actually needed even less clothes than us, because she doesn't sweat like adults and she wore most of her clothes multiple times -as is probably evident in the pictures as well. Sometimes she would swim in her dress and then just let it dry in the sun.. and then fall asleep on the way home from dinner, and we'd carry her to bed and she'd sleep in the dress, wake up next day and continue wearing it and swimming in it - and dare I say it- sleep another night in it... (and then I'd have to fight her to get her to change into something else!). But what could be more simple? She was free and happy in her soaked sandy dress :D

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Part two coming soon with more of my favorite things! I hope you are doing well. I'm still amazed at my returned health, and so thankful that this trip wasn't ruined by sickness, which I was quite worried about before.