As I sit here listening to the birds chirping outside and I feel the fan blowing intermittently on my neck, I realize how much life has changed.  We live such an outdoor life now, with windows constantly open unless we have the AC on in the bedrooms. We swim in the pool every day, eat outside at night, either here at home or at a restaurant and visit beaches almost every other day. I compare this to our year in Chester where for a large percentage of the time we were shut in with the heating on, wrapped up in layers and layers of clothing. Even when we wanted to go out it seemed such an effort to drive somewhere for a walk. Going to the movies required almost a 2^nd mortgage (not that we had one of those, a mortgage I mean!). There always seems to be something to do here that doesn’t require money or much of it anyway.

Another thought is that we eat much healthier here. Lots more fruit, smoothies for breakfast etc. Salads galore and no pasta, no cheese (It’s very costly here), not nearly as much bread as we used to eat, just rice dishes and the occasional pizza to satisfy our western needs.

We took the girls to see Alice in Wonderland on Monday night. Lara in particular had been dying to see it and we had already gone the previous evening and been very disappointed to find that we had missed it. Fortunately we found another cinema on the island that was still showing it and for just 120 baht we sat in air conditioned luxury in seats so comfortable that had the movie been boring we could have fallen asleep.  For 500 baht you can have a reclining seal with a blanket and pillow with food and drink delivered to you while you watch!! Anyway we all loved the movie apart from Nick as it wasn’t really his ‘thing’. Mr Depp had seriously strange eyebrows and emerald green eyes but was his usual wonderfully talented self.

We went out on the ministry yesterday for the first time. Richard took us on some of his calls to ease us into it gently. It was nice to see so many out. There is a lovely French family here for a few months from Toulon who don’t speak much English so it has been great for us to practice our French.  We went for lunch at a Thai restaurant with a family from the Thai congregation. The setting wasn’t so great, near a busy road but the food was awesome, probably the best we have had yet. The lady who ran the restaurant had tiny twins and Richard told us that two days after having delivered them by c section she was back working in the place. That is how hard people work here.  There seems to be a much greater divide now between the rich or well off and the poor. The Thai brother we ate with works a 12 hour shift for just 600 baht (£12).

We are off to find a hidden beach this afternoon. Apparently it is one the tourists don’t know about, just the locals. We also need to go to the market for our fruit and veg.

Don’t  forget to check out the photos I upload regularly. Just click on the link to the left of this page that says ‘travel photos’.

A week of Phuket life

Well we have been in our house for a week as of tonight. I can't believe how much we have packed into it actually. I'll start at the beginning. When we looked around this place a week ago we told the lady that we wanted to move in asap as we were in a guest house but that it may take us a couple of days to get the rent and deposit money. She said 'Oh just move in tomorrow, we'll worry about the money later'!! Don't you wish everything was that easy. No credit check, no asking what we did for work and needing proof, just a friendly Thai lady who was willing to let us move in without paying a penny first.

Not that everything was that simple of course! It took us a whole, very frustrating, day to sort out the internet. We found out that the club house and pool was not included in the rent and would be an extra 23,000 Baht (a lot of money!!) for a years' use. So we thought about it for a day or two and realised that you can't exist here as a farrang (foreigner) if you haven't got a pool to cool off in. 

It was lovely to go to the meeting on Wednesday night though and meet everyone. We had a great welcome and quickly realised that we will be kept very busy here with only about 20 in the cong. 

It has been a challenge learning how to shop and cook here again. Wine is def out here as Jacob's Creek is about £12 a bottle!! The rum and whiskey is about £4 a bottle though which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it!

The three kitchens in our house are interesting! The inside one has the fridge, cupboards and a sink and we use it just for making drinks. The next one is in a room like a laundry room that has an outside door and it is where I cook on a large version of a camping stove. It also has a sink. The third one is just a sink really outside for doing the dishes. That is a good idea as it keeps any waste food outside so cuts down on bugs. For the style of house you would imagine a much better sort of kitchen but I think the Thai's eat out a lot as it is very cheap to do that, also it is really too hot to cook. We went to a food market the other day and I have never seen such an array of perfect veg. Such great quality and so cheap. I got a huge bag of strange mushrooms for just 50p. We stayed clear of the meat though. No fridge, just out in the dusty open air, no thanks!

Today we found our perfect beach again, Layan beach. So quiet and peaceful. The water was refreshingly cool though so we just chilled for a while. 

I had forgotten how great it is to wear minimal clothing. It is so much quicker to get ready to go out. Although you do see some rather disgusting sights of Europeans baring almost all!!!

It's 7.30pm and we are going out for some dinner. The girls want pizza, I want Thai, not sure about Nick. It will probably be pizza!!

Journey to Phuket

We finally got to visit China Town, which was an amazing experience. The incredibly narrow alleyways were packed tightly with a mixture of people and stalls with mopeds and delivery motorbikes narrowly missing everyone. I think it would have been possible to buy absolutely anything you wanted and in any quantity. It takes a strong constitution though to cope with the smells of food, drains and people along with the constant throng pressing past you and towards you.
The rest of the day was spent getting some things sorted out. Changing money, getting some Thai sim cards for our phones and booking the trip down to Phuket.
Our plan was to go by 1st class sleeper train but unfortunately as it is a Thai holiday at the moment it was fully booked all week. We have already tried the 2nd class option and didn’t fancy that again so the option was to fly or go by bus. We opted for the bus as it was only £20 each compared to at least £50 to fly. The ‘VIP’ coach ride was a 12 hour journey that was a grueling endurance test which only took us to Surat Thani where we had to get a mini bus to take us the rest of the 4 hour journey. Fortunately it dropped us right outside the Talang guest house where we quickly checked in after a quick scare after being told that there was only one air conditioned room. After some persuasion we managed to change it to two, thank goodness. As after hauling our heavy bags up the steep stairs, with the temperature hovering around 35 degrees, to the 2nd and 3rd floors where our rooms were located, we were in desperate need of some cooling down. Rarely have we felt so filthy and sleep deprived.
By the time we had showered it was just 11am so we all collapsed into very basic but clean beds for a couple of hours sleep. It was so tempting to sleep on and on but we knew if we did that we wouldn’t sleep that night. So all feeling a bit grumpy we dragged ourselves out for our first decent meal in well over 24 hours.
What a treat! Curry, chicken, noodles and rice for all of us for 300 baht (about £6 / $9!) The little restaurant was obviously owned by a vintage toy enthusiast as there was a long cabinet down one wall with everything from VW Beetle corgi cars to an old Mickey Mouse toy. Our table had a glass centre with star wars toys displayed in it. The walls were covered with old advertising signs and Chinese medicine ads. With the front all open to the busy street it was a perfect place to watch the world go by and while away the hours till bedtime.

First few days in Bangkok

Well after a leisurely morning at mum's and counting the slow moving minutes until the taxi's arrival we were finally on our way to Manchester airport. Everything went well at the check in, no over weight bags etc.
Our first flight to Dubai was excellent. Yummy food and plenty of drinks and movies. We even managed to sleep a bit. Our arrival time there was tough, 4.30am UK time but we only had a couple of hours to wait until the next flight so by the time we checked in again and sent a few emails we were ready to board.
A nice surprise was that it was one of the new double decker airbus a380 planes. It almost defied logic to imagine that this huge object could take off never mind actually stay in the air! Plenty of room and so comfy it was almost like business class (well, maybe not quite that good!).
Our arrival in Bangkok went very smoothly too, nice friendly immigration (unlike a certain other country we have spent time in.....) and in no time at all we were in a taxi heading for the city. It may be that we happened to get stuck with the most annoying and irritating taxi driver ever. Most drivers here double up as kamikaze pilots, however this one found it hard to break 30 miles per hour and the more he talked the slower he went. Not easy to cope with when you are as tired as we were. His main rant seemed to be that he wanted to drive us around for the next few days while we were in BK. Erm, no way Jose!!
Finally we reached our hotel, which was quite a bit more expensive than last time we stayed and we needed two rooms as they wouldn't put an extra bed in for us like last time. However it was just nice to be here and get a shower.
Our meal at Hippie Hi was all we had looked forward to for so long. It was great to be back breathing in the fumes as we whizzed along in the tuk tuk and winding our way through the madness of the Khao San Rd.