Chasing Crabs with torchlights TO Underwater Viewings of Whale Sharks - Week 18

Week 18  - Thailand (Koh Lanta)

24^th to 30^th of November

This little stop in Koh Lanta just made all the difference!!!

After four months of travelling we were all getting a bit weary of sleeping in different beds every few nights, negotiating different menu’s and using challenging modes of transport…it was time for a little stop. A little breather….and the island of Koh Lanta could not have been a better destination for this. Close to Krabi and Phuket on the western coast of Southern Thailand, the island is reachable by a water taxi from both of them. We picked up the boat in Krabi and were on KL in two hours. I think it takes a bit longer form Phuket. Another option is to go by mini-bus over land, using two car ferries and do a bit of island hopping on your way there. We used this option for our return journey to the mainland. The island of Koh Phe Phe (the kids are still laughing about that name!!) is also in this area and many tourist do day trips over there. So what makes this area so popular? Well, it needs to be seen to be understood, but I’ll give it my best go!! The clear aqua marine blue see-through water, with the yellowy sandy beaches is almost enough…but then add on year-round 28 to 30 degrees seawater, with visibility up to 30 meters on the hot summers days, the palm trees, great cuisine and breath taking sunsets… Well, what more do one needs for a tropical dream holiday destination? Maybe a hammock on the beach?? Well, they are there too, plus the Thai-massage with the lull of the ocean in your ear and do not forget the marvellous exchange rate!!

As you could gather from Alana and Arno’s posts, we made the absolute most of this opportunity to rest, to play to learn new skills and make new friends!

Our two bungalows were set back form the beach on a hill amongst tropical vegetation. The Narima Resort was started 12 years ago by a Thai family, who has worked all their lives away form their birth island, but always had a dream to return and created a business to serve tourists but also provide career possibilities for native Thai’s. They secured a beautiful private beach and woodland area more than 20 years ago and then established the resort once they retired form their engineering jobs in Bangkok. We were honoured to meet the owner, who was seen to be meeting and greeting guests every morning at breakfast time. He even waved us goodbye on our leaving day!!

We were having so much fun on the beach and beside the infinity(!!!) pool, that we were really not too interested in travelling to far from the Narima. During my early morning run on our first day there, I located the Mini-marts and the big long white sandy beach!!! So after breakfast we took a tuk-tuk over to the shops to sort the little girlies out with new swimmies. We were sooo blessed to successful in one out of the three shops. The only ones available for children were in their sizes!! Ha!!! We decided to walk the 3 km or so back to our resort, but stopping on the beach for a play and a swim. After a little while we realised that it might be a good idea if we were to speed our walk back to Narima up a bit……VERY dark clouds were gathering and we could not really hide from them!! Thomas still has a bit of a ‘thing’ about thunder and lightning, so we were in for an exciting walk back!! Long story short…we did not even put on clothes over our swimmies but just walked back in another torrential rain shower. Here and there we were hiding underneath trees, hotel lobbies until the big water has passed us by. This was an challenging adventure back to our resort, but this unexpected rain shower provided us with the best opportunity to work together as a family. We had to be strong for one another, help each other (either carrying a shopping bag or a little one!!) and persevere to the end…regardless of the circumstances. I will always remember our two hour long walk back!!!!

Now, we met a fellow traveller in Xi’an, Ceaser form Spain. He told us about the cliff top restaurant with the bested sunset view in ‘all of the world’!! My word, Narima Resort was right beside it!!!!! So an energy recovery stop had to be made at the Diamond Cliff restaurant…and Ceaser…it is as marvellous and spectacular as you were making it out to be!! Thank you sooo much. We had some pancakes, coffee and mango-steamed rice (yum) there, while watching the lightning bolts striking the ocean on the horizon. Absolutely magical!!!!

The resident scuba diving school/shop (Scubafish) offered us a free come and try dive in the swimming pool. I saw this as my chance to get a taste for this underwater sport. Thomas joined me and our instructor John was so good at his job!! I did not feel unsafe and had a great time swimming on the bottom of the deep pool! Alana and Arno tried too, but they have already decided that they will be doing the 2 (Alana) and 4 (Arno) day training. You can read some more of their experiences here.

So the rest of us just enjoyed the restful time in and out of the water, while A and A were watching safety and training video’s, writing exams and practising in the pool.

This week turned out to be such a great fun filled ‘holiday’ amongst weeks of extreme travelling. We made friends with Isabelle, Florian and their two boys (Paul and Felix) form Germany. Thomas really enjoyed all the cuddles with little Felix, who just turned one. Paul and our little girls spend hours in the pool, jumping, baby-diving and perfecting their underwater swimming. With the awesome layout of the Narima resort (private beach with beach bar, half way up the steps was the infinity pool and then at the top of the steps the restaurant overlooking the pool) I felt pretty confident to let the children play in the pool or on the beach at their own leisure. What a joy to have ‘swimming’ children. This all gave me some precious chill out time sitting in a bamboo chair doing some reading or writing AND working on my sun kissed look!!

The lovely Isabelle then invited the kids and I to come on a traditional long-tail boat accompanying them on a day trip to the Bu-Bu island on the eastern side of the island. I was so thankful, because Arno and Alana was due to go on a diving boat for their first deep sea dives and for Alana to complete her scuba diving certificate. So, off we went early morning for the 45 minute drive across the island in the signature pick-up truck taxi thingy. We were taken to the mangrove forest that connect the two Lanta islands. A rickety walkway above the dark muddy swamp, took us out to where we boarded our long-tail boat.

An interesting boat ride followed, including a stop to feed the ‘swimming monkeys’. One actually boarded the boat…I just tried to keep the kids and myself well clear from this little mister. I’ve heard of so many stories where monkeys, which are used to being fed, get a bit out of sorts and biting people. For that reason, I will never trust a monkey to come near the kids or I.

Once docked on the Bu-Bu Island, we found ourselves a little quiet spot and just enjoyed the lovely warm water, pretty shells and the Robinson Crusoe feel of the island. Unfortunately the visibility was next to zero, so the planned snorkeling did not happen. We rounded a great day off, with a little trip to our nearby mini-mart for some ice creams. We were also so looking forward to hear all Alana and Arno’s stories after day on the diving boat….

The feedback was one of overwhelming awe about the under-water wonder world. Arno could not wait for his next dive and Alana was so pleased that she was now qualified to dive down to 12 meters, accompanied by a diving instructor or master diver. She was also looking forward in just relaxing for the next few days, examining the sea world, chasing crabs and playing in the pool. So big, but still so little……

You can not visit Thailand and not attend a Thai cook school of some kind. I was soo excited. Alana wanted to join me, so the two of us were picked up by a driver, who was sent by the Lanta Thai Cook School. We picked up a few other ‘chefs’ on the way and arrived at the double story wall-less school. As a group of 7 people, we had to choose 4 out of the 10 suggested options. We decided to make a fried rice dish, a red curry, a ginger stir fry and banana fritters. We first prepped all the veggies, then we tackled one dish at a time, eat it (Yay!!!) and then moved onto the next one!! It was such a great time for Alana and I to cook together and enjoy learning together. The thing about Thai cuisine, I’ve learned during this experience, is that you need to do ALL your prep and then just cook the food quickly. Not one dish took longer than 5 minutes to fully cook…. This was just the bestest afternoon!!!

Another little sweet moment we had was a date night of just Arno and I dining out on our own, just the two of us…yes…we managed to get the kids to bed early and then relaxed at the beach restaurant. While waiting on our food we realised that background music was actually a collection of worship music! We felt soo blessed!!

Then I saw something moving VERY quickly love the sand...with further investigation Arno discovered that the beach were filled with crabs. Apparently they know that there will be nobody to interfere with their own time on the beach, once it is night time...or so they thought.....

The following evening Arno took the kids, kitted out with torches, down to the beach. A new game of finding a innocent crabby AND than changing it to the water side with the light of the torch, excited giggles and delightful squeals following. The kids (and their dad) had the best fun! I even felt that I was missing out and just had to join in too!!!!

Arno’s last day of diving saw him qualified as a Padi Open Water diver, down to 18 meters. He had tears in his eyes as he was trying to describe the beauty of the unseen world to many, me included. His little farewell present was to have the honor to see a whale shark cruising by….

Thailand, especially the Narima Resort, has completely ran away with our hearts. We would absolutely love to come back here….meeting up with our new friends (who’s been here a number of times now)..doing some more diving… Thomas joining Arno and Alana and maybe even the mama……

Our Thai-time was running out now. We’ve met up with wonderful locals and international globetrotters, animal encounters to our hearts content, many hours spend on trains….curries and pineapple-fried rice. Oh Thailand, I will be missing you..(minus the ants though….)

We were very sad to leave all our Narima friends. We were getting a lunch time bus traveling across the Lantas, using two short ferry boats, to the mainland, heading for Krabi Airport. Our final night was spend in the Bencha Mountain Resort. Mr ….. sent a big minibus to collect us from there and transport us the 20 minutes over to the resort. We travelled through palm and rubber plantations and were surprised by a little karst mountain, with the resort at its foot. In the process of into and out of taxi’s, Thomas left his little day pack. We eventually tracked the driver down AND managed to have it returned to us…but all his last saved pocket money pounds were being used for the extremely high fee the taxi driver was charging us for the return of the bag…. A big thank you to the owner of Bencha for helping us to locate the bag and organising the return of it.

 The Bencha Resort consisted out of a collection of stone bungalows perch up a very steep hill. It was an mission to get our luggage up to our house!!  A sweet resort, but a little bit rough around the edges. After our amazingly enjoyable week at Narima, I felt a little bit cheated out of my happy Thai memories. We were just booked in for one night before catching our flight to Delhi, via Kuala Lumpur.

Alana going deeper and deeper.......

I was always intrueged in  the life  underwater. I wanted to dive deeper than I ever had before and look into the eye of nature.

 We were not even though the doors of The Narima resort when Thomas and I spotted two people getting ready to scuba into the 2m deep pool. We were listning to what their instuctor was saying.In the back of my heart, I was begging dad to let me go and learn to scuba. Thomas was already shouting in dads face begging him to go and scuba. He even said he was going to give mum and dad all his pocket money to pay for his lesson. He was heartbroken when dad said he couldn't do it, because he was to young. Although I was old enough I still felt sorry for him. Face it - he is my brother.

 I was overwhelmed when dad let me do the two day course. 

The next  day we got try outs to see if we liked it or not. Thomas absolutaly loved it and hopefully he will be able to do the two day couse in a year. Even my mum had a wee go.!

The next day dad and I were up eaerly, bright like a daisy and ready for a day of studying and excercises in the pool. The first thing we did was to meet our instuctor- a lovely kind man Jon Martin. We went inside the office to start our day. Fisrt we watched a clip wich is about junoir suba divers and the safty of suba diving. The next video we watched was a training video and about your gear. After them, we done four written tests. After lunch we went to the pool to get started on the wet stuff.

We put our gear on and submerged under the water. I found it actually really easy to breath with the regulator (this is the name for the mouthpiece which leads the air to our lungs from the big tank on my back). The following were a few excersises we had to do under the water. We took our regulator out and blew bubbles and put it back into our mouths. We took our mask of and completly fludded it with water and then put it back on and cleared the water out. This is an intersting way of cleaning your mask under water. After your googles were filled up with water you need to  press your palms agianst the top of the glass lenses, blow from your nose and press the goggles to seal onto your face agian. As easy as pie. Then we went and watched a third video and done two more tests.

On Tuesday we finished some excerses that we didn't complete the day before. One of them nearly gave me a sleepless night. Jon talked me through the whole excersise again and then I was ready to go. For this  I had to take the regulator partly out of my mouth and then breath into the freeflowing air...still submerged. It is not to hard to do, but it is quite challenging to convince my brain that  I am not gona swollow big gulps of poolwater.... So when I had finished my excerses I was free to go. For the rest of the day I just played at the beach and looking for hermit crabs.

On Wednesday we took the big boat to Koh Haa (island five).
  
 Dive 1
I was the only child on the boat except for Arlo, a nine month old baby boy. My first dive was at the lagoon. We saw clown fishes and the smallest one was no bigger than a newborn baby's pinkie!!! So small. We saw lots of barracuda and two scorpianfish and I went down to at least 12m. It was so so so beautifull...... it was as if you were swimming in the sea and I was! 

Dive 2
My second dive was at The Cliff Jump Cove 
There we saw one scorpionfish, an angle fish ,a sea snake ( one of the most venomous snakes in the world) , a peacock mantis shrip the most powerfull animal in the world about 6inches long,( Why do you not see them in aquariums? Because they can break through glass!!) and a boxfish. It was absolutely amazing!!!!!!! 

Now I am a qualified scuba diver and I can't wait to dive agian soon!

That is the story of my dive.

From VERY BIG to very small.............. Week 17

Week 17 Thailand (Chang Mai 2, Khao Sok, Koh Lanta)

17^th to 23^rd of November

On a sunny morning the 6 Theron birds had to leave their Bamboo Nest in Northern Thailand for the hustle and bustle of the big city of Chang Mai again. We had to change accommodation form Julie’s Guesthouse to Rose (on the corner of a busy street) Guesthouse. The return journey by pick up truck to Chang Rai, revealed that we had not even scratched the surface of the beautiful north. We had to wait a few hours on the busy bus station, but that gave Arno chance to do a bit of sandal shopping with Alana. Her travel sandals were not up to the trek anymore. A 3-hour ride in a Sunday afternoon bus and then some tough negotiating with eager red taxi drivers, brought us eventually at Rose’s, by 6pm. We were hungry and tired, the cheap guesthouse was……cheap, but served us in a marvelous way and the food was good. We did a short hike up the street for the promised ice-creams and continued onto the famous Sunday market in the old town. Rose Guesthouse is inside the city walls, so for the sake of the market, some of the streets were traffic free. That provided a bit of a challenge for us with our luggage on arrival, but the kids were great and praise God, the walk was not THAT long!!

The main reason for our return to Chang Mai, was to have an elephant encounter and to pic up our train journey south (this time pre-booked sleeping bunks…yay!!!!!) Our preferred elephant camp was the highly acclaimed Nature Elephant Park. Only 25 visitor’s per day are allowed in here. We left it too late and missed a visiting spot there, but not to worry…in Chang Mai you will never be short on elephant encounters. We managed to secure a booking with Happy Elephant Home (which ended up begin just across the river from our first choice…still more than and hour’s drive outside Chang Mai) We could leave our luggage at Rose’s, while we were out for our morning excursion. A early morning pick up turned into a nail biting affair….other pick ups, traffic and a long distance away resulted in us just getting to the Happy Elephant Camp by 10:30am. Well, you might wonder why we were so anxious? We booked half a day Ellie encounter, with the view that we had a sleeper train to catch from the station in Chang Mai at 4pm…a train that we were NOT intending on missing!!!! The encounter was not cheap and we were planning on having some good time with the elephants. Well, a little bit of brain adjustment had to be made, not to distract our attention off the main event of playing with these AMAZINGLY large animals. (Who knows, maybe never to be repeated….)? We were with the elephants, even though it was now way later than we anticipated…and we were going to enjoy it!!!

So after introductions made by our chief mahout, Omo, we got changed into our mahout outfits (these are to keep the elephants familiar with the look of their ever-changing carers.) We were introduced also to Bambam, Café, Muklock and Tawhee and they loved us because we had hands filled with bananas to feed them.

Fact stop: Only male Asian Elephants have tusks, and most of the time also just one…. The females do not have tusks.

The little mahouts impressed Arno and I so much. They were feeding the giants, walking beside them, leading them by a rope halter, talking to them and feeding them some more bananas. All but the littlest mahout. She just wanted to ‘lead’ her mama, talk to her mama and keep a very safe distance between herself and the gentle giants.

So after the initial banana indulgence of our big pets for the morning, we led them down to the river with the help of the ‘real’ mahouts. It was a gentle walk with some steep sections, but the elephants were like ballerinas and we were the specie slipping and sliding on the loose gravel. We brought them to a lovely riverbed. They did not need any encouragement…straight in. We gave them a little ellie-play-time, before we stripped down to our swimmies and joined them in the water. We could wash them, splash them and then it was their turn to spray us with gallons of water!! We had the best time. Nina opt for playing with the stones on the riverside, and Philippa, although in the river with us, preferred one of us holding her high out of the water!! The mahouts had a bit of a hard time to get the ellies out of the river, but nothing that a banana cannot fix!!

Our little Philippa, impressed us by requesting to lead Bam-bam home. It was the sweetest memory of the day: seeing her walking fearlessly beside this huge animal (and it was a baby elephant!!)

After lunch, a swim in the resident pool and a few farewell bananas, we were on our way back to Chang Mai. With an hour to spare, we were dropped off at ‘Rose’. We grabbed our bags and Arno was running down the street to look for a ride. We saw at least 4 red-‘wagons’ parked along the street, further down, but all driver-less. Praise God another one came crusing towards us. Arno flagged her down. Then ANOTHER stand off. She wanted to charge us double the amount we paid to get from the train station to our hotel in the first place. We were fed up and not having any of her nonsense!! We just told her to go away, we will find somebody else, then she changed her mind and winked us back over! Amen!!! We reached the train station 20 minutes before departure!! Yay!!! After dropping the bags in our carriage, Alana and I rushed to a nearby 7Eleven for supplies. At 4pm our sleeper train departed for Bangkok and we were on it and had food to tie us over till the morning!! Pfeew!!! All in one day!!!

This train was exceeding all expectation with a lovely clean bathroom (even including a shower!!), an carriage attendant coming round to make everybody’s beds up for the night and a lady coming to take our dinner orders. A bit of a different scenario form the 3^rd class travel we are used too!!! After a good night’s sleep (Arno and I even watched a movie after we’ve put the children to bed) we arrived in Bangkok station. We were now seasoned travelers, knew the best coffee shops, where the find the 7Eleven for another stock up on goodies and how much to pay at the toilets!!! We might not have explored the city of Bangkok, but we certainly know our way around the train station!! By 8am we were on our next train, heading to the south!

A full day was spend reading, sleeping, watching movies and admiring the changing landscape from our comfy seats. Bliss. Slowly rice fields were changing into pineapple, palm and rubber plantations. The hilly north also give way to the flats of the south with the occasional karst mountain. I was totally mesmerized with these awesome little limestone mini-mountains randomly scattered over the green ocean of tropical vegetation. Just lovely.

Mr Driver was waiting for us on the platform on arrival and before we knew it, we were on our way to the Green Mountain on the outskirts of the Khao Sok National Park. 28 hours after setting off in Chang Rai we arrived at Mr Tawee’s resort. Well, it was more a bush bungalow camp, amongst interesting bugs, beasties and rubber trees!! A very laidback travelers rest, where reggae is played until the wee morning hours and Mr Tawee and his friends are enjoying their wiskey!! The friendly lady at the helm of the kitchen was such a sweet woman. I never saw her without a smile. It’s a bit of a family business with Mr Tawee being the director!!

After a lazy first morning here, we were sorted out fast with a cousin-guide to take us down the lazy river on tubes. The kids absolutely loved the experience. Nina was on my tube and Philippa with Arno. Loadsa splashing was going on, balancing acts, swinging on ropes and negotiating small rapids. With a light afternoon drizzle, some of us were just starting to loose feeling in our fingers when we were navigated to the riverbank, with our pick-up truck waiting. Nice. Last but not least, we had to do a proper hair and body wash under a nice refreshing cold shower. Such brave children!! A hot Milo (kind of hot chocolate drink) put everybody in a better, warmer place!!

At first glance the accommodation was a little rustic and the service not always up to standard, but we met some great fellow travelers here. Stefan, a German cyclist, was living his dream riding his bike around the globe. His wife was happy to remain at home, while he was giving himself a 50^th birthday present. Every now and so often, she would fly out to meet him somewhere!! Very inspirational man!! And then there were the Dutch honeymooners, Katinka and Rob. They shared a taxi with us eventually and the kids so loved telling them stories and hanging out with them.

We planned to do a bit of a jungle trek with guides, but Arno had a little accident, cutting his foot on a plastic container in the children’s bedroom, so we decided to forfeit the moaning of little children that wants to be carried…. to just spend our second morning in a hammock (hee hee!!)

Another big highlight was to follow in the afternoon!!! Proper elephant riding!!!! After arriving at the elephant sanctuary, we were rushed over to an elevated platform (we had to climb up with steps to the top of this). The platform was built just at the right elephant-back-height. Alana, Nina and I got on first and our lovely Indian lady elephant was instructed by her mahout to move out, so the next beast can move into her place at the platform to pick up Arno, Thomas and Philippa. What followed was an unforgettable hour of gentle mahout encouragement and corresponding elephant grace, strength and compliance. Our lady, Thomas’ newest lady friend(!!) and the rest of the other 6 or so ellies who were following us, went up the steepest jungle treks (most of them extremely slippy and sloppy after the rain of the previous night), over tree stumps and roots, big boulders and through sloshy mud mazes. They knew the route and did not need to be lead or pushed at any time. It was more a case of: What, do you need me to walk through this mud puddle…again?? Really??

I was having pity on these gentle giant ballerinas, but also admire them even more now. With those amazingly big body shapes, these elephants can maneuver through the tiny-est little gaps. Respect! If I ever have admired elephants in the past, I now absolutely adore them!!!

Elephant fact: African elephants are much larger and more moody than the Asian elephants…and they have two tusks…both male and female (unless they have managed to survive a poachers attempt to steel their tusks…)

Our last evening in the Khoa Sok National park was spent watching a movie with the kids in our mosquito-net covered double bed and then having dinner with all our new friends in Mr Tawee’s tree-trunked tabled restaurant. Chatting and exchanging travel experiences have become our latest point of connection with man and mouse….no surprise there!!!!

While settling the kids in their bamboo and grass woven hut, I made a trip or two to our room, to fetch and drop off clothes and so on. After every quick visit to our room (did not switch the main lights on, since I knew what I was looking for…) I had an ant or two on my leg or shoe….(You might guess what I am going to tell you now…..!!) At first I did not think to much about this, until during my third trip to our room the ants were really starting to bite me once I stepped into our room. I switched the lights on and what I saw …well to put it lightly…sort of freaked me out… A LOT!!!!!!

Many ants were up my legs already and biting me like mad…reason…the floor of our room looked like a major ant Christmas-come-early party!! I did not even took time to take it all in, but just ran out of our room as quick as my flip-flops could go, to get re-enforcements in the form of Arno, a HUGE can of ant-spray and a broom. Just for your information, ants are very good at climbing…even up mosquito nets.

For the next hour or so Arno and I was turning ‘mission impossible’ into a bug-free zone. Well, he was doing most of the stripping of our bed and shaking of the mosquito net, while I was handling the bug-spray and mainly trying to stay clear from the crawling menaces.  Actually, I started using the bug-spray on the pavement almost 3 meters away from the bottom step leading up to our hut…because that’s where the troops were already starting to line up for their big carry out….. I even went to the kid’s hut and sprayed their doorstop…just to make sure the beasties did not change their route. Needless to say, we took back an empty bottle of bug-spray…..

A HUGE lesson to be learned…never ever ever EVERRRRRR allowed the children to eat cookies in your bed, while watching a movie…especially not when you are staying in a wooden/leave-woven hut and ESPECIALLY after the owner have warned you (du-hu) to be careful with keeping your food sealed, because of the ants…..

Many times during our cleaning up extravaganza did I promise that there will be NO chance that I will sleep in that bed again, but bless my wonderful man!! He did the most amazing job in de-ant-ing our bed and room. I did end up sleeping in the bed and no ants bothered us.

It was one of those really fun, turned very challenging, evenings…which by the grace of God, will never ever be repeated!! In times like this I am so grateful for my kind and hardworking husband…and also for investing time in the past to practice effective communication!!! Such a very un-expectant and bizarre situation can so often place a lot of strain on a relationship and without the tools in our ‘marriage kitbag’ this situation might have had a complete different outcome. Face it, we’ve been with one another now for over 4 months…24/7!! I do not say we know it all, but what I am trying to bring across is, that it is worth it to invest quality time into your marriage by:

·      spending a date night together at least once every two weeks (Nikki and Silly Lee, authors of the Marriage Course and the Marriage Book suggest once every week!!),

·      learn together about listening and communicating well (this will empower you to handle challenging situations better)

·      and finding out what your partner’s love language(s) is (Garry Chapman writes about it in The Five Love Languages).

There are other foundational principles worth investing into too, but ‘nough said!! (Let me know if you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve mentioned in the last paragraph. Will be happy to help, advice or recommend!!)

The Green Mountain Resort was an interesting experience, with big highs and a very big low. Lets say, for the moment I wont be rushing back there…..but who ever knows what the future may hold!!!

Somebody else might disagree with me....

A three hour mini-bus (this time we opt for a private transfer and our new friends, Katinka and Rob joined us) brought us into Krabi Town just before 11am. We boarded the water taxi to our Thai island of choice: Koh Lanta. On arrival we had to negotiate the steps of the jetty, carrying our heavy packs and dodging a good number of other tourists in a torrential thunder shower!!

But we were on Koh Lanta. Our home for the following 7 nights. We were soooooooooooooooooo looking forward to this island stop and man, did it come at the right time!!

In meeting all these fellow travelers over the last few weeks and making some great new friends, the saying of Herman Hesse stays with me:

“Where paths that have affinity for each other intersect, the whole world looks like home, for a time.”

Our home is here and now….and we love the company!!!! Each new relationship very significant!!!