I stepped on a Sea Urchin

So this past week was marvelous because... drum roll please... MY FAMILY CAME TO THAILAND!

(Traditional longtail on Bamboo Island)

When the Blacks unite, there's no telling what kind of shenanigans we will get in to and by golly we did lots of cool things and had a ton of fun!

I met them at the airport after what seemed like the longest plane de-boarding process I've ever experienced and took them to our amazing hotel. We stayed at the Surin Beach Double Tree resort and it was a perfect location to magnify relaxation and soak up some rays! We spent a lot of time at the pool and the beach and they went home with nice tans and I came home with a pound of sand in my bag.

(Best pool by far!)

We went on two day tours. The first was to Phangna Bay where we went sea kayaking, visited a floating village, and visited the infamous James Bond Island where "The Man With the Golden Gun" Bond movie was filmed. It was a super touristic day, but it was nice to see another part of Thailand. The second tour, and my favorite, was the Phi Phi Islands. We went to both of the islands and stopped to snorkel and swim at various locations. The coral was stunning and the water was so blue and so clear! I loved going to the islands and thought Phi Phi was beautiful! We also stopped at Maya Bay, where "The Beach" movie with Leo DiCaprio was filmed and it didn't quite look the same, but it was very neat to see. The sand was so soft and felt like the Moon Sand stuff you always see infomercials about! Both the norther and southern islands off of Phuket are neat to see and it was well worth going on the tours!

(Super tourists ready for adventure!)

Of course we stopped by Patong so they could get the nightlife experience, and we rented motorbikes to get around on our own schedule!

We went to the Tonsai and Bang Prae Waterfalls and stopped at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project to see the gibbons and the great work the project is doing to rehabilitate and reintroduce these monkeys back into the wild. This day was a "Josh day" since he thinks nature is pretty neat! ;)

My dad, brother and I also went and did some zip lining one day. We went to the interior of the island with a company called Flying Hanuman and went on a thrilling course! There were 28 platforms, 15 zip lines (one of which could've counted as 4 it was so long!), 2 abseils or repelling areas, lots of stair and sky bridges and enough adrenaline inducing activities to keep me going for weeks! Overall, this was a very enjoyable experience and was by far one of the highlights of the trip!

(What amazing snorkeling!)

On the last day, I took Momma for a spa day as an early birthday present! We went to the Oasis Secret Garden Spa and were pampered for FOUR hours! It was so nice (and a bit awkward) and we emerged like fresh butterflies from our cocoons of sweat and sunburns! We got a traditional Thai Oil massage, a Coffee body scrub, Lavender body wrap (which was literally being wrapped in a giant plastic bag and was slightly claustrophobic), a Thai facial and a stint in a steam room and cold bath! It was so nice to be pampered and it was such a fun experience to share with my amazing Mom!

Later, the bro and I got tattoos! We got the hah taew sak yant and were subsequently blessed with good luck and fortune and told some rules to live by (like not spitting in the toilet!). We went to @Ink Tattoo Design and tattooed by Mit, a renowned tattoo artist in Phuket with multiple shops. Lucky Lucky!

(Surin Beach looks pretty good on my parents!)

As always, when the Black get together, we ate lots of food, bickered a bit, and had a super time with each other! After not seeing my family for 5 months, it was great to be surrounded by something familiar and to soak up enough love to get me through my last month of solo travel here in Thailand.

I have one more week here in Satun, and then I am off on my own adventure! I will be going to Koh Tao, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, and various other places here and there. Sadly because my school semester went soooooooo long and because I am ready to get home, I will not have the time, nor the money to go to other places in Southeast Asia, but that's ok with me. I will sufficiently have worked my way through Thailand and couldn't have asked for a better way to fully experience a country like this.

Now, it's just time to burn some daylight and finish out the final days of school and then I'll be back to post about my final adventures! Until next time my friends!

(Be sure to stop by Facebook to check out my other photos from this adventure!)