Phuket Adventures Day 2: Water

I have 3 water babies. They love the water without reserve. The easiest holidays are the ones where they have unencumbered access to the pool or any sort of water.

When we decided to come to Phuket, the accompanying grandparents were interested in taking them to various tourist attractions. We vetoed it because we thought they were too young to appreciate anything touristy and it would take away precious water time.

We were right about how precious water time was for them. When we checked in, we were asked if we wanted to upgrade our villa to one with a pool for USD$50 per night. The part of me pretending to be frugal balked at the cost. The other part of me wanted the most fun vacation for JED and since we didn't really need to pay for the room, USD$50 a night didn't sound all that bad.

It didn't take us long to realise that it was the best $150 spent. JED were cooperative because they knew that the reward behind their cooperation was pool time. And they never had a pool outside their door.

The grandparents were worried that it would be dangerous, having a pool that wasn't gated, especially with 3 very precocious children. Thankfully, verbal warnings about the danger of being the pool unsupervised sufficed. Even Muffin knew that he couldn't be in the pool unless we were around. Of course, to be on the safe side, we would send out our little constable Evan to police him. We can pretty much trust Evan to holler if Muffin as much as sticks a toe into the water. It is also a bit less scary for us because the older two are water safe and while formal swim strokes look like crap on them, they know how to get to the edge where there is a ledge that they can stand on.

Poor Jordan, however, arrived in Phuket with a massive cough and a stuffed nose. She wasn't allowed into the pool that is partially sheltered (read: filled with freezing water). To make up for it, she had her own huge bath tub with the works, bubbles, salts and the coolest invention ever, bubble bath paint. The only condition upon her acceptance of such a poor alternative to the pool was that she had to wear a swim suit into the tub; otherwise it would be bathing. Not swimming.

Wild horses however wouldn't have been able to keep them away from the other pools in the compound. So, today being our first full day here, we water hopped. We went from the beach, to the kids' pool complete with a water slide, the adult pool with jacuzzi jets then to our pool to entice them back into the villa and finally our tub, to entice them back into the house.

This was a great albeit slow way of getting them back. Not to be tried if there is a plane to catch. But definitely tantrum proof. By the time they were stuck in the tub for 10 minutes, they had had enough of water and with pruned up extremities begging to come up.

 

We allowed Jordan in today. And miraculously, the cough seemed to have cleared very significantly after her various swims. The little mermaid relished every moment she had in the water and came up with tan lines that made her look like she was in a training squad for swimming. 

Tomorrow will be more of today but I'm not complaining. They are happy, they are easy to manage, they have ravenous appetities and they go down quickly at the end of the day, all swimmed and sunned out.

When we asked them what they wanted to do tomorrow, their response was, what they did today. Weather permitting, we might let them stay out longer than today.

Tomorrow, we talk about sand. 

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