[DAY 2] Family Holiday In Thailand: Toddler Tantrums, Eating Insects, And Phuket Weekend Market

After a full day of travelling and good night’s sleep, we spent our second day in Phuket (kinda not really) exploring.

Click here for our 4D3N family-friendly itinerary of Phuket. This is DAY TWO:

0900 hours 1030 hours	The Windmill Phuket Hotel Yanui Beach	Breakfast Jalan-jalan, 260m walk from hotel
1200 hours 1300 hours 1700 hours	The Windmill Phuket Hotel	Lunch in hotel Nap, rest, recharge Get ready, get cab to Phuket Town (tell the driver it’s Thalang Road)
1800 hours	Phuket Weekend Market	Jalan-jalan, cari makan
2100 hours	The Windmill Phuket Hotel	Rest, recharge, sleep

Waking up bright and early

Phuket is one hour behind Malaysian time. The kids always wake up at 7am every day regardless of what day it is. In Phuket, that 7am wake up call became a 6am wake up call. This was not a relaxing holiday for Mr Ninja and I haha.

They could see the swimming pool from the hotel balcony and couldn’t wait to jump in. I said we had to have breakfast first. So we went down at 7am for breakfast. And there was no breakfast. Breakfast only starts at 8am. Omg.

We spent A LOT of time swimming in the Windmill Phuket Hotel pool

The children LOVE swimming. I mean, what kid doesn’t like swimming right? We spent so much time in the swimming pool that Mr Ninja said we might as well have just stayed in KL and gone to a public pool. Instead of flying all the way to Phuket.

He’s such a party pooper.

Anyway, the pool was super super nice. Really big with a kiddy area. I loved it. The kids loved it.

The first epic toddler tantrum

So this was my first time in Thailand. Ya, I know, I’m weird. But it was like Mr Ninja’s 50 millionth time. So he was excited to bring us around and show us cultural stuff and heritage things and eat awesome Thai food and blend touristy and local things together.

Ya, we did like none of those things.

After a full morning of swimming, we planned on taking a Grab to Patong Beach. Just for fun. And to have lunch. Everyone showered and got dressed and went down to the lobby and then…

Aisha went into crazy toddler tantrum mode. So we had to abort mission and return to the room where she crashed for three hours. By the time she woke up, it was evening.

Mr Ninja and Ayub cycle to Family Mart on the hotel’s free bicycles

One of the cool things about the Windmill Phuket Hotel where we stayed was that they had a free shuttle bus to bring you to the nearby beach and free bicycles to use as well.

So while Aisha took her well-needed nap, Mr Ninja and Ayub went on a cycling adventure together.

An evening shopping and eating at the Phuket Weekend Market

Once the little queen woke up, we got ready (again) to attempt to go out (again). We booked a Grab.

You should know three things about Grab in Phuket:

1. They will demand that you cancel the ride on the app before they start driving so that they can keep all the profit for themselves and not give Grab the commission
2. Doing this too often will get you banned from the app
3. The minimum ride to ANYWHERE is 400 baht, that’s like RM40 (even for just a 2 minute drive)

We spent A LOT of money on transport in Phuket. There was really no other way to get around for a family of 5.

Anyway, we arrived at the Phuket Weekend Market around 6 or 7pm. I don’t remember. It was getting dark but was still super super hot and humid.

Hmmm… it was a very big pasar malam. What can I say. I’m not really a fan of pasar malams. They hot and stuffy. This was the kids’ first time in a pasar malam. Haha.

Little queen was not so impressed. It was very hot. She didn’t want to walk nor did she want to sit in her stroller. She wanted me to carry her but I just can’t anymore with ma big belly.

Sulaiman is adorable. He wanted to try all the food. Fatty bom bom. Loads of halal options. I didn’t know.

I wanted to eat this thing but it was just so hot and I didn’t have an appetite and I dunno how people do these pasar malam thingies.

Ayub wanted to eat this squid thing but he was already munching on a cup of corn and a few sausages at this point so I said we’d come back but it was so crowded so I don’t think we went back and it was just so hot omg.

What are these things? They look terrifying.

Our resident entomologist eats his bugs

In case you are not aware, Ayub really likes insects. He wants to be an entomologist. He launched a line of insect-inspired stationery.

Of course, the insect boy wanted to eat his bugs. He filled up a baggie of silk worms.

He said he liked them. I tried one. It was mushy and gooey and I could taste the worm’s guts.

I super love these stalls that just sell like boiled vegetables. Or parboiled. What’s the word I’m looking for? I dunno. But they looked yummeh. If I had an appetite I would totally eat a whole pile of veg.

ALSO THERE WERE NO FLIES AT ALL IN THE MARKET! How is that possible? It was so clean. I have never seen such a clean night market. The ones in Malaysia I’ve been to have always been filthy and full of flies.

Anyway yeah. We had an over-priced dinner at a tiny restaurant outside the market. The food was pretty awful. They brought us beer instead of iced Thai tea haha. Mr Ninja was stresssssed.

I should have taken more pictures. But it was so packed and crowded and hot and the little queen wasn’t in the mood for any of it.

Back at the hotel and going through the swag

We bought the kiddies some toys from the market so they were really happy. Such good kiddos. Pokemon cards and little plastic surprise eggs and wooden Jenga set.

It was a good second day. Haha.