Sailing the Turkish Seas

Kyle and I had an amazing opportunity for an adventure somewhat outside of our usual realm.  I came across a company that does sailing trips off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea.  One of their trips just happened to line up with Kyle's days off, and as an added bonus, it was also during our eighth wedding anniversary!  We decided to go for it!

The company we sailed with is a Dutch company called Flaka Cruising, and we had such a great experience with them!  Our week long sailing trip began in Bodrum, Turkey.  We flew into Bodrum the evening before we set sail.  Bodrum is a beautiful little town that definitely had a Greek Isle feel to it.  We stayed at the Su Hotel, a very charming little place that we wished we could have enjoyed for longer!  We spent that evening and the next morning checking out the pretty little harbor town.  

The Su Hotel

These talismans are seen everywhere, thought to protect against the evil eye.

We were welcomed on our ship, the Musandira II, with a great spread of snacks.  We were greeted and briefed by the owners before taking off.  There were seven passengers on board, including the two of us.  There were also three crew members that took great care of us, treating us like we were something special.  The other passengers were all Dutch (which makes sense since Flaka is a Dutch company).  They were all extremely friendly, and a lot of fun to be with! 

Welcome aboard!

Our ship was absolutely beautiful and very well maintained.  The cabin was very small, but every single nook and cranny was used wisely.  Each cabin even had it's own bathroom.  There was hot water when the generator was running, and also when the engine was running.  We all learned quickly how to time our showers!  

One thing we didn't expect was such amazing food!  The kitchen is so tiny, it's unbelievable that they can feed so many people three full meals a day!  Every morning we had a full spread for breakfast; yogurt, fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cold cuts, bread, jams, cheese and eggs.  We would have a lighter lunch and a full and fabulous dinner, and both were different every single day.

A lovely breakfast

Lunch; I loved the fresh dill in the salad!

Happy hour!

Dinner

This is how you grill on a sailboat!

We would spend our days relaxing on sunbeds on the front of the ship, reading, talking, playing games (Uno was our favorite!) and enjoying the gorgeous scenery.  When the ship was anchored we could go for a swim in the gorgeous blue waters.  Believe it or not, I only swam once.  In May, the water is still really cold!!  Our Dutch friends also taught us some funny words and sayings from their language.  Kyle and I still use a couple of sayings they taught us!

Captain Mustafa and his ship

One evening we were anchored by some random ruins...pretty amazing!

After breakfast one morning, we went to shore to go for a little hike.  After being on a boat for a few days, it feels really weird to be back on land!  We also visited a bazaar, or market, in a little town just off of the coast.  Other bazaars we've seen in Turkey were in Istanbul and rather touristy, so it was really neat to see a real market where real people do their real shopping.  Unfortunately, we can't seem to locate the real pictures from the bazaar, but there are a couple of iPhone pics.

We walked by a little farm, definitely in the middle of nowhere!

We had a little bit of bad weather while we were out.  Luckily, none of our days were complete washouts.  It was really neat to see a couple of storms from the water, and none of them were close enough to be really scary.  The one evening with the most rain happened to be May 12th, our anniversary!  The crew surprised us with a really delicious cake.  It was so nice!

Our daily itinerary was not set in stone, it was dictated by the wind and weather.  It's hard to imagine crossing the ocean hundreds of years ago by sail boat, with very few tools to help with navigation. We had a couple of afternoons with really strong winds, and the ship was really listing to one side. No one on the ship got sea sick, but Kyle's swim trunks (which were hanging out to dry) flew off into the sea!

Here are a couple of videos taken when the waters were a little bit rough, followed by a few more of Kyle's beautiful pictures.

We spent our last evening ported back in Bodrum.  We went out with the owners of the sailing company to a really nice tapas bar and enjoyed their stories of sailing through dangerous waters in the middle east and southeast Asia.

Once we were back on land, it took a couple of days to get rid of our sea legs.  We would randomly feel like were rocking back and forth for quite a while once we got home.  We really enjoyed our sailing experience, and would highly recommend it to those who enjoy relaxing in the sun and being on the water.  We were very lucky to have had such nice, fun people as our shipmates.  It made our time on the ship very memorable.  We would love to do another sailing trip, maybe around the Greek Islands? 

Phuket, Thailand

A couple of months ago Kyle had some time off that we absolutely couldn't pass up.  Our friends had recently taken an amazing trip to Thailand, so it was an easy choice for us!  It was the dead of winter, so a relaxing beach vacation sounded absolutely perfect!  We pretty much did the exact same things that our friends did, which made planning easy for me!

We flew out of Frankfurt on a HUGE double decker Airbus 380.  It was so big, it didn't even feel like we were on a plane!  Our original flight path was over the Ukraine, so we were a bit relieved when we saw on the map that the pilot flew a bit south instead.  It was night when we flew over the border between India and Pakistan, so we could see a loooong lit wall on the border separating the two countries.  (They're not exactly what you would call friendly neighbors.)  We had a quick layover in Bangkok before we reached our final destination, Phuket.

We arrived in the morning, and were lucky to be checked into our room early.  The hotel, the Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa, was so nice and exactly what we were hoping for!  The gardens were beautiful, as was the infinity pool!  Everyone that worked there (and the Thai people in general) were incredibly friendly and welcoming. The hotel is located on Mai Khao beach, which is a protected nature area, so it was nice and secluded away from the hustle and bustle.  The hotel had several restaurants with a variety of foods, which was nice since we were pretty far away from everything else.  I loved the breakfast!  They had every type of breakfast food imaginable including the English breakfast, fresh made-to-order smoothies, Asian food (fried rice with breakfast was definitely a first for me), American breakfast food, etc.  My favorite were the miniature pancakes with banana and caramel sauce and coconut.  Delish!  One evening they held a beach barbecue, which was a lot of fun!

Our first couple of days we spent getting over our jet lag and relaxing by the beach.  There was a Thai massage place set up on the beach right by our hotel that Kyle took advantage of more than I did.  Kyle went several times throughout the trip, but I only did it once.  I'm not used to massages that hurt!  I don't need people yanking on my toes and cracking my back to help me relax!

Our breakfast spot!

The casual beach/pool bar and grill

The Thai restaurant

Mai Khao Beach

On our third day in Thailand we took a speed boat tour of the Phi Phi Islands.  (Unfortunately it's pronounced "Pee pee.")  The tour was with a great company called Phuket Sail Tours.  Our day started very early in the morning, which is a good thing since we beat the crowds to many of our stops.  We saw gorgeous views of the turquoise waters and interesting rock formations on our way to our snorkeling, swimming and beach stops.

Our first stop was the island where they filmed the movie "The Beach," starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  The beach isn't so secluded anymore!

"The Beach" beach

Our first snorkeling stop of the day was in a spot called Shark Bay.  (Really makes you wanna get in the water, right?)  I actually did see a small shark, but nobody else saw it so I don't know if they believe me!  We saw many beautiful, brightly colored fish and sea life.  Our friends were nice enough to lend us their Go Pro, so Kyle got some cool photos and video while we were snorkeling!

We stopped in a neat little cove for swimming and came across a monkey!  We actually saw him eating a banana, which I got a huge kick out of!

Hard to believe the water color is natural and not pool water!

The picture below shows a cave where they collect the nests of swallows.  They use the nests to make a soup or a drink which they believe is very good for you.  That's a delicacy that I decided I could do without!

We made another stop by an island where we saw a lot of monkeys!  We stayed on the boat while we looked at the monkeys since they can sometimes be aggressive.

Our last stop of the day was a gorgeous beach and swimming stop.   I couldn't get enough of that beautiful view!

We spent half of the following day with a private tour guide to see some of the cultural sites of Phuket.  Our guide, Jo, was so much fun and very knowledgeable!  (The first thing she said when she saw us is, "You're really white!"  Uh, thanks?) We saw a couple of Buddhist temples, the huge Buddha and Phuket old town.  We also had some extremely delicious (and so cheap!) local cuisine.

Wat Chalong

View of the big Buddha from the temple

It was a very hot day, so luckily we were able to drive most of the way up to the big Buddha.  (They say in Thailand that the weather is either hot, hotter or hottest.)  Construction on the Buddha is actually still not quite complete.  There were gorgeous views from the top!  There were a lot of bells hanging around the Buddha, which people write on and then hang up to send up continuous prayers when the wind blows and rings them.

I had to wear the snazzy skirt to be proper at the religious site. 

Phuket old town

This power line was one of the safer ones we saw!

Visiting a Chinese Buddhist temple

The next day we had another full day speed boat tour with the same company as our Phi Phi Island tour.  We toured the Phang Nga Bay, and saw a wide variety of interesting sites, not to mention the breathtaking bay views!

Our first stop of the day was for snorkeling, and we found Nemo!

The small beach and cave in the picture below show where native sea gypsies sometimes live.  It would have been interesting to see them there, but on the other hand I would have felt pretty awkward staring at them!

We took a nice, relaxing spot on a truly secluded beach.  It felt like Gilligan's Island!

We took a little canoe ride through a mangrove forest.  The rowing was left to the professionals, so we were able to sit back and enjoy unique scenery.

That's quite a claw there, Mr. Crab!

We stopped for lunch at an amazing village called Ko Panyi.  It's a Muslim fishing village built on stilts over the water, so it looks like it's floating.  It has a very small population of only 360 families.  They actually have a very good soccer team that was started by young boys that played soccer on a floating field that they made out of found wood.  The town does have electricity from a generator, but it turns off at 10 pm!  We had a great lunch, and took a really interesting walk around the town.

It was low tide when we visited, which is why you don't see water in the picture below!  In the mud we saw tons of crabs and mudskippers (walking fish), which was pretty cool!

The primary school room

Back on the boat, we rode by a few more cool sites.  Below are some ancient cave paintings.  We also drove by what is now called James Bond Island.  It's where they filmed part of The Man with a Golden Gun.  (We didn't stop there since the only thing to do is buy tacky souvenirs!)

Ancient cave paintings

James Bond Island

Our last stop of the day was pretty cool.  We waded through knee deep water through a cave into a beautiful enclosed lagoon area.  We saw tons of mudskippers and brightly colored fiddler crabs.  (Fiddler crabs are pretty fun to watch.  They have one over-sized claw that they wave around to attract the attention of the lady crabs.) We didn't know how deep the water was that we would be wading through, so Kyle didn't bring his camera to get pics.

We spent our last couple of days in Thailand relaxing at our hotel by the beach.  Kyle enjoyed taking pictures of birds and critters that we're not used to seeing every day.  We definitely enjoyed drinking our Mai Thais in Thailand as well!  One evening, there was a wedding on the beach at our hotel.  The couple getting married rented an elephant for the wedding!  That's not something that you see all of the time!

It was a long 12+ hour flight back to Frankfurt.  Once we got back to Frankfurt, we had about a two hour drive back to Stuttgart.  (That was very rough on Kyle who was driving!  I tried to stay awake, but just couldn't fight it!)  However, the long travel time was well worth it!

Kyle and I had such a wonderful time in Thailand.  It was the perfect mix of relaxation and sightseeing.  I would love to go back to visit Bangkok and other parts of Thailand.  Being there also made me want to visit more of Asia.  It's funny how the more you travel, rather than checking places off of your list, the list grows longer instead!  I highly recommend a visit to Thailand!