We have just heard the devastating news of the earthquake in Christchurch, it was such a shock, we are feeling frustrated here as we came to town to find the next books in the Harry Potter series for the kids and can't - then popped into an internet cafe and saw the headlines - without even looking for them! It put our problems into perspective! We are just so relieved to hear that everyone we know is safe, but still feeling sad because of what everyone must have gone through and how frightening it must have been and will continue to be.
So this all seems pretty trivial now, we wrote it in our book at the time, but couldn't be bothered publishing it as we have just been too relaxed!!
His bit
Trang - Krabi
Trang to Krabi -140km, two 70k days ride - so we told Mick! Anything over 70ks is impossible in his mind. We got off to a good start, there were a few guest houses around 50km but that would leave a big day the next day, so we soldiered on by 1o'clocks we had 80ks under our belt, Sam wasn't feeling to good, but Mick as full of energy and as everyone knows, the world centres around the one with the biggest mouth! We finally found a hotel at 103km. A big effort from all of us and what made it better - only 37kms tomorrow into Krabi. we then made the extreme sacrifice and 'backtracked 4km' to the market for dinner!
Riding into Krabi you can see al the limestone sticking up covered in gush - quite awesome, seeing alot more dead snakes on the road now (the best type to see!). We stayed in Krabi for two nights, the second day we hired a car to have a look around to find a nice place to base ourselves for a month of school. Ao Nang was on our list, but when we arrived there it was like Brighton, tourists everywhere and 100 or so shops all selling the same touristy shite. We asked around and were directed to this plce with thatched bungalows in the jungle about 3km from the beach, hammocks on the verandahs, just our cup of tea - the best thing for Kim is that they had just been completed so no one else had used her toilet before her! Because we are here for a month the price is really good, we have a bungalow and the boys have one about 20 metres away - so peace for everyone! There is a 'restaurant' where we can get food for all of us lunch and dinner for 300 baht - about $15 and we get delivered a plate of fresh fruit every morning for breakfast. So no cooking necessary - shame! They are building more bungalows so I have been giving Mohummed a hand in the mornings while the kids are doing school work.
We are enjoying not having to pack up every morning to ride on, but are using our bikes to go to the beach, shopping etc.But are concerned about the state of our eyes, not sure if it is the sun or rice, but we all seem to have squint about us! DT.
Her bit
Well almost a week of no riding !!! Wow we have settled into life at Khlong Son really well. The bungalows are really basic, but lovely and best of all brand new - so nasty Thai drain smells!! That's my favourite bit actually! Our day is pretty much get up, get showered, dressed, make the coffee, sit on the verandah and read, play cards etc, eat our fruit, then head off to school work. The boys do maths and lit in the morning and Sam has been doing some science in the afternoon and Mickey is making a powerpoint about Thailand. Poor old Jake has only just got his work today - yay! He also found out that exams for over seas students happen one month earlier !! Gosh, good job he is one of those last minute students.
All our kind thoughts and love to Christine, Amy, Aaron and family, Danny, Fiona, Robbie and kids, Jenny, Laurie and family and to everyone else who is worrying - cos worrying is hard work!
Lots and lots of love
David, Kim and boys
xxxxx
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
TOTALLY TERRIFIC AND TERRIBLY TOOTHSOME THAILAND!
Thailand has hills, Thailand is hot, Thailand has very little English, Thailand has very few hotels Thailand is still the best!!
Wow, we love Thailand, all of the above but the scenery is amazing - and I know that if we got some pictures up you would see that!! and we will, but not sure when - the only problem is my backside (or my frontside) always looks too big so they don't make the cut.
Well after dragging our sorry little backsides out of that Frangipani place we set off at snail's pace, suddenly the heat seemed hotter, the hills seemed bigger and we were kissing luxurious indulgence goodbye - boohoo. It was the maddest rush to get the 1pm ferry - actually i've had madder rushes with the morrissey's to early morning flights - but not much! We bought our tickets at about 12.45, rushed into the terminal and you know how you follow the signs, follow the signs, everything's good - then no more signs. That was us, lucky guess and we ended up in immigration - amazingly, we had forgotten we even had to do that, but as we were heading to Thailand and not back to Malaysia - we did! Then up the ramp down the ramp 'park your bicycles there', on the boat, phew!
This time only 1hour on the ferry, Welcome to Thailand - two lovely long months on our visa. We are planning to take our time and find some longer term accommodation so that we can DO THE SCHOOLWORK. Correspondence should be on it's way as we speak.
We have had a great time so far, the food is fabulous, but as mentioned above there is a dearth of hotel options, yesterday we ended up riding 99km between hotels, there was one at the 40km mark and rumours of others that never eventuated, we are going to plan a bit more thoroughly as we head for Krabi.
Many thanks to everyone for their messages and emails, we were briefly online on Weds morning and it was great to see the emails etc, so well done guys keep up the good work!! Don't seem to have much internet access here though, unlike Malaysia.
Wow, we love Thailand, all of the above but the scenery is amazing - and I know that if we got some pictures up you would see that!! and we will, but not sure when - the only problem is my backside (or my frontside) always looks too big so they don't make the cut.
Well after dragging our sorry little backsides out of that Frangipani place we set off at snail's pace, suddenly the heat seemed hotter, the hills seemed bigger and we were kissing luxurious indulgence goodbye - boohoo. It was the maddest rush to get the 1pm ferry - actually i've had madder rushes with the morrissey's to early morning flights - but not much! We bought our tickets at about 12.45, rushed into the terminal and you know how you follow the signs, follow the signs, everything's good - then no more signs. That was us, lucky guess and we ended up in immigration - amazingly, we had forgotten we even had to do that, but as we were heading to Thailand and not back to Malaysia - we did! Then up the ramp down the ramp 'park your bicycles there', on the boat, phew!
This time only 1hour on the ferry, Welcome to Thailand - two lovely long months on our visa. We are planning to take our time and find some longer term accommodation so that we can DO THE SCHOOLWORK. Correspondence should be on it's way as we speak.
We have had a great time so far, the food is fabulous, but as mentioned above there is a dearth of hotel options, yesterday we ended up riding 99km between hotels, there was one at the 40km mark and rumours of others that never eventuated, we are going to plan a bit more thoroughly as we head for Krabi.
Many thanks to everyone for their messages and emails, we were briefly online on Weds morning and it was great to see the emails etc, so well done guys keep up the good work!! Don't seem to have much internet access here though, unlike Malaysia.
LUSCIOUS LANGKAWI
Oh dear the Thomas' fell off the wagon - despite fierce declarations of sobriety and frugality until we hit Thailand - and when we fall, we fall hard!!
Well on the sobriety front we did pretty good, just a couple of beers, but frugality, not so sure. We took the ferry from Penang to Langkawi - 3.5 hours on a Beachcomber type boat, we had been really looking forward to the promise of clean, clear water and some R & R after our non stop whirlwind, tour north. The main resorts were 24km from the ferry terminal, in the midday heat it took us about 2 hours - in fact in the cool of the afternoon it would still take us about 2hours - but that's by the by! Anyway, when we finally got to the land of sparkling resorts and sundress shops, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked - eek, the pressure was getting on, we decided to go to the far end of the beach and work our way back, then we would know there was nothing better further on. Thankfully we entered the tranquil, fragrant setting known as Frangipani Langkawi resort - translates to 'black money hole'. Anyway it was about 10 times our budget so of course we booked in for as long as we could, 3 days only on account of Chinese New Year. But it was bliss!! We lived in our perfect little tourist bubble with the aircon flat out and clean sheets everyday!! Bliss. Other blissfulnesses was our balcony overlooking the pool and ocean beyond - the breakfast buffet - nirvana for a Thomas. Possibly the best bliss was the duty-free G&T sundowners!!
Well on the sobriety front we did pretty good, just a couple of beers, but frugality, not so sure. We took the ferry from Penang to Langkawi - 3.5 hours on a Beachcomber type boat, we had been really looking forward to the promise of clean, clear water and some R & R after our non stop whirlwind, tour north. The main resorts were 24km from the ferry terminal, in the midday heat it took us about 2 hours - in fact in the cool of the afternoon it would still take us about 2hours - but that's by the by! Anyway, when we finally got to the land of sparkling resorts and sundress shops, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked, sorry fully booked - eek, the pressure was getting on, we decided to go to the far end of the beach and work our way back, then we would know there was nothing better further on. Thankfully we entered the tranquil, fragrant setting known as Frangipani Langkawi resort - translates to 'black money hole'. Anyway it was about 10 times our budget so of course we booked in for as long as we could, 3 days only on account of Chinese New Year. But it was bliss!! We lived in our perfect little tourist bubble with the aircon flat out and clean sheets everyday!! Bliss. Other blissfulnesses was our balcony overlooking the pool and ocean beyond - the breakfast buffet - nirvana for a Thomas. Possibly the best bliss was the duty-free G&T sundowners!!
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