Blonde Kimchi: A Pre-Christmas Escape to Thailand

Before Christmas, our little branch of the Kim clan decided to get away together to somewhere warmer and more spacious than our new city, this Manhattan-on-steroids, Hong Kong. And, luckily for us, the beaches of Thailand are not too far away.

When you think of Thailand, you might think of tiny boats touring gorgeous and famous islands, or of riding elephants or snorkeling or scuba diving. Of eating pad thai and panang curry from tiny, authentic restaurants. I've seen such things in friends' pictures of visits to Thailand.

Joe and I love adventure travel. We've each had a taste in our single lives and in our life together, like when we backpacked through Mexico. So we never in a million years imagined we'd vacation in such an adventurous destination with the express intent of never leaving our resort. But with a food-allergic 2.5-year old, a major baby bump and some killer, unpredictable hip pain, that is precisely what we did.

Our many major life transitions this year meant that peaceful time for the three of us to enjoy each other (with a beach and pool available) was the perfect choice for us.

And what a resort it was. The JW Marriott Khao Lak was a fantastic place to plant ourselves. A lagoon pool wove all around the resort,

including right past our room's back door, so we could literally swim from our room to the beach.

The staff went above and beyond to ensure Luca had safe food to eat. The executive chef or one of his top sous chefs would bring out meals prepared in the central kitchen to whichever resort restaurant we'd chosen for the evening, or even to the pool bar or our room, if we preferred. I'll admit it was disorienting to have top chefs in charge of meals for our toddler, but we were grateful, and Luca loved that he got to eat food that wasn't leftovers I'd brought in a Thermos.

Below are some more pictures of our fantastic, resort-bound vacation filled with beach fun, pool fun, early nights out and time feeding watermelon rinds and bananas to a visiting elephant.

It's a life-phase. Perhaps next time we're in Thailand, we'll be scuba diving and touring James Bond Island. Or perhaps we'll go back to the JW and just relax and enjoy the fresh young coconuts just hacked open and accompanied by a straw and spoon, or returned to the shell ice-blended with a little sugar. Yum.

Oh! Before the pictures, here's a glimpse of Luca's joy in the hours and hours of swimming. He is fearless, and kept jumping in without telling us, so we taught him to yell an announcement of his intentions, to which he added his own little script. His love of being underwater increased after we bought him goggles in the dive shop. His reaction after the first dive with goggles was priceless: "My eyes are better!!"