During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, we flew a couple hours north to Phuket, the resort island off the mainland of Thailand. It was crowded, packed with tourists from Russia and elsewhere, but we stayed out of the heart of the tourist zone so managed to enjoy ourselves. Here’s a look at what we got up to.

We spent a great deal of time on the beach – specifically Karon Beach, right across the road from our hotel. It was lovely and pretty clean, with great sunset views and sand that was perfect for building things in.

Here are some random shots from around the island, including Nyan riding in the back of a tuk-tuk  and getting some love from one of the Burmese girls working at a seafront restaurant that we frequented

The resort we stayed at had several swimming pools – one with a water slide – plus a kid’s club area, rock paths that a curious five year old liked to examine using his new night-vision goggles, and more. Let’s take a look.

Here’s the young man, bouncing around inside the kid’s club

Finally, some shots from the traveling. Hanging out with Pikachu at the airport, waiting in line for passport control, and passed out on the bed after flights and car rides to the hotel.

Next up: More pictures and videos from around Phuket .