Dear Peanut

Dear Peanut,

We're finally back from our short Penang-Taiping (Malaysia) trip. We've been busy with touristy stuff, so let me tell you about this particular walk SC and I had back in Phuket, Thailand earlier this June 2017.

SC has a fascination with animals, and not the ones you can even pet. He likes elephants, lions, tigers, monkeys and more. So when we went to Thailand, we made sure he'd get to ride an elephant. Naturally, I exerted a lot of effort just to make fun of his entire experience.

I wanted to ride the elephant too. Everyone told me it's safe, but I didn't want to risk anything. What if I fall? I'm carrying you. I don't want to put myself in any situation that would harm both of us, so I passed on the chance. We'd get our chance to ride elephants in Thailand again.

But you know what I did instead? I watched a snake show and an elephant show on my own!

I was the only audience in the "private" snake show at the Phuket Safari. Okay, that sounds wrong, hahaha, but really, two snake trainers put on a show with a python and a killer cobra. They even asked me if I want to touch the snakes, I said hell no. I was so scared because there were like 5 snakes in that small tent and 3 humans. Technically, 4 humans but you're still a fetus. I wanted to ask them to open the damn door so I could bolt anytime! I was so scared they finished the entire show in just 10 minutes. What a sissy tourist, they probably thought.

Then the elephant show. I was supposed to be the only audience (again) because they had to replace the elephant ride for the "pregnant tourist" but 2 other tourists ended up watching and then SC followed after his activity.

The baby elephant show was fun but again, I was so scared because the elephant was right there, right in front of me, dancing and kicking soccer balls. It even kissed me on my right ear (more like blew air into my ears) and the video showed me screaming the whole time it was happening.

The following day, SC and I walked to the beach. It was 4-kilometer walk and we did it twice (back and forth from the beach to the hotel). Walking is a good exercise for pregnant women but there are those who believe that it's also bad (usually grandparents) because it's tiring. Well, it is tiring, but we make sure I'm well hydrated and we take breaks.

But it was rainy day in Phuket. We had to wait for the heavy rain to stop and we walked 4 kilometers while it's drizzling. We spent an hour or so at the beach. It was cold but the waters were, amazingly, not that cold.

But the waves are big (but not too big that you can surf), so I stayed close to the shore. I make sure I don't "face" the waves. I turn my back so the waves would hit my back instead of my stomach. Paranoid, yes.

And then we got rained down. Correction, we got sandblasted!

The winds became so strong that fixed beach umbrellas looked like they would be pulled out of their posts. People started screaming because the wind started blowing sand in one direction and it hurt when the small particles hit you. Like sandblasting.

Then the heavy rain followed. We were soaked, even the towels we bought to the beach. We looked for a restaurant we can stay at until the rain passes. Good thing this restaurant-bar along Beach Road has an outdoor sitting designed for dripping wet patrons who come straight from the beach.

We had late lunch there. I had our money stashed inside my sports bra top but we had to pat them dry before we paid our bill. The tom yum soup we ordered was amazing! SC normally doesn't like tom yum but this one he liked very much.

On our walk back to the hotel, we were talking na pasaway akong patient. If we tell Dr.AZ every thing we did in Thailand, baka pagalitan nya ako. Marami akong ginawa na normally iniiwasan ng mga buntis, hahaha.

Ganito pala yung feeling ng mga nanay, lagi nilang inuuna yung safety and health ng mga anak nila. And to think, hindi ka pa lumalabas nyan a.

xoxo,

Dear Peanut,

So today was your first plane ride...while still inside my tummy. It was the first time I rode an airplane while pregnant. We were so cautious that we asked Dr.AZ if the X-ray machines are safe. She also assured us that most airlines have a 7-month pregnant policy but still, we asked for a doctor's approval letter, hehe.

We flew to Phuket, Thailand for a 7-day holiday. We decided to settle for Phuket instead of Bangkok. I guess we're tired of highly urbanized cities. I remember when we flew to Tokyo last year for a week-long vacation, even if we really enjoyed Tokyo, it was so tiring! And besides, we wanted to just lounge around at the beach.

Photo taken at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA 1) before we boarded our plane.

First time we flew via Malindo Air.

We were very satisfied with the Malindo Air experience and customer service.

Our first time in Phuket, Thailand!

The flight was supposed to be an hour-long but we arrived ahead of schedule. After a quick lunch at the airport food court (so expensive, lah, gaddemit, p*tang*na!) we took a shuttle that will take us to our hotel along Nanai Road in Patong Beach, Phuket.