Wandering Footsteps: Wandering the World One Step at a Time » A travel journal following a family on their overland trip around the world.

April Madness, May Sadness

Posted in Asia,South East AsiaTags:

I know I am waaaay behind on posts, but perhaps an explanation of my last few months can serve as an explanation for why I haven’t bothered writing.
At the beginning of April, I spent a lovely week in Phuket with Louis. A few workmates rented a home in Phuket and needed me to cat-sit for them. So, we had a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with its own plunge pool to ourselves, for free! I rented a scooter, and every day Louis and I would explore a different part of the island. I must have gone swimming at a different beach each day! Spent lazy morning in the garden with breakfast, tea, and a good book. Watched sunset after gorgeous sunset from various lookout points. Cooked wonderful meals followed by nighttime swims in the pool. Oh yeah, and I fed the cats. 🙂

When we arrived back in Bangkok, it was Songkran, the water festival. I don’t have any photos (for obvious reasons) but I did have some good fun using my super-soaker to have ice-cold water fights with thousands of people on the streets of Bangkok.
And after all this, I went to Koh Lipe with Ushma (my friend from work) and Alex, who I hadn’t seen since my last trip to Singapore. Koh Lipe is a small, up-and-coming island on the Andaman, very close to the Malaysian border. It really has a southern Thailand flavor, which means a bit more Muslim and Malay influenced. We spent the week playing cards, talking a LOT, and being island bums. The highlight of the trip was that we chartered a sailboat for a day and had so much fun! We sailed around, snorkeled, went on a hike at some unknown island. Near the end of the day it suddenly started to storm REALLY bad and our sailor was caught off guard with the sails up. For the next hour we tried desperately to help him stop the boat from capsizing. It was really scary but I also felt safe because I trusted our captain, and exhilirated and really alive. Only later did our captain tell us that he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to keep us afloat!! Anyway, safe and sound it was a great memory
On our trip we also made fast friends with our hotel owner and our breakfast cafe. One night the hotel owner (who is Italian) made us homemade pizza and we hung out with all his Italian friends. Another night, the Iranian/Swiss cafe owner invited us for a nice seafood dinner because he’d caught a big fish that day.
May brought a quick camping trip to Khao Yaay National Park with Yeeling and Laura (two workmates) and Louis. Then school started – briefly – and then was closed for a week due to severe violence in Bangkok (the subject of another post).
As you can see, my summer holidays were busy, full of adventure, travel and great memories!