The Last Entry......

THE FINAL 2 WEEKS IN PHUKET

After an hour and a half flight from Chiang Mai, we arrived in a very hot and very humid Phuket.

We arrived at our fourth and last house swap and think we have saved the best until last! The house is quite large, with best of all, a large terrace area with a large infinity pool and the water is like bath water, it’s so warm!

For most of the 2 weeks we have been lazing about relaxing after a very busy 4 months. It’s much too hot to do much else but we are not really concerned that we haven’t seen much of the island because we have seen so much elsewhere.

We are staying at Rawai which is at the southern end of the island and is quieter than the popular resorts of Kata, Karon and Patong, although it’s the low season here anyway so its not really busy and prices are a lot cheaper.

We have also been eating out for much of the time because it seems cheaper to eat out than cook and the food is fantastic!

We have been out with the keyholder for this house and his Thai wife. They have a little girl who is 5 so Daisy has made yet another friend!

Our neighbours at Bradway Road have been out to meet us and we spent 3 lovely days with them. We chartered our own boat and went to the Phi Phi islands. We did some snorkeling off the boat which was great, there were loads of fish and they were rather partial to banana!

We went on Maya Beach which is where the film ‘The Beach’ was filmed starring Leonardo di Caprio and we stopped off to feed the monkeys at monkey beach! The monkeys were very cute and there were quite a few babies.

We have hired a pick up truck here in true Thai style! There were no saloons available so we have been riding round Phuket like the Thais do in the back of the truck!

Emily & Daisy both had their birthdays which had been a bit of a logistical challenge with presents though they both went OK and the girls enjoyed. Daisy specifically wanted to do a park on hers, and Emily ended up feeding a baby elephant (after shopping of course!)

We had nice meals on both, though birthday cakes were out and in was birthday 'banana split and pancakes!

We have also been to our new friends’ house for a meal. Rod (the Thai lady) and I went off to the market on her moped to buy ingredients for the meal. Then we both cooked a few dishes in Thai style! The food was delicious!

They also took us for a noodle soup lunch with them transported on their 2 scooters and side car! You see loads of these side cars in Phuket and the children went in there whilst Richard and I were on the back of the respective bikes!

We have really enjoyed winding down and recharging our batteries ready for the onslaught back to reality! We have certainly had some authentic Thai experiences whilst we have been in Thailand and have all really enjoyed the last part of our big trip!

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We have had an amazing 5 months and seen and done so much in that time including making a lot of new friends around the world. We have really enjoyed the quality time spent as a family and being able to undertake these new experiences together.


Items lost:- 
Olivers swim shorts now floating somewhere in the Coral Sea!!
Emily's fleece, now probably being used by parrots, rosellas and cockatoos somewhere north of Melbourne!
Emily's top now being used by spiders in Port Douglas!
Daisy - 4 teeth!!
Emily - 1 molar
Daisy - Pyjama top - in a hotel room in Mae Hong Son!
Richard - very expensive running sunglasses - being worn by a cassowary in the Daintree!
Richard - more hair!!
Sally - weight (Ok, I wish..!)
Loads of money - well spent loads not technically lost it...!
Gained:- 
Loads including having to send 1 suitcase back home along with some didgeridoos!

Many new friends in Australia and Thailand 
So many happy memories that will last us all a lifetime...

Looking forward to catching up with all our family and friends and being in our lovely home again.

We hope that you enjoyed reading our blog as much as we enjoyed putting it all together…..

UNTIL NEXT TIME………………!!!!