Koh Bulon, South Andaman Sea, Thailand

This was a lovely place to dine that we stumbled across on our first night. It was so good and so cheap that we returned several times. The view was stunning as we dined on delicious curries, Pad Thai, and coconut soup until it was dark and time for bed. This beach was especially perfect for us, due to the swings that were hanging from the trees almost over the water... who needs McDonald's Playland, this is the real thing!  Below Emma is lying on her back kicking the ball, very CIrque de Soliel. One night she played at length with some local kids, knocking each other over into the sand and laughing hilariously. She loved to hang onto this ball and swing out over the water and back to the beach repeatedly, which allowed Steve and me to have some cherished adult time at the table. They even had WiFi which meant we could blog and connect as warm gentle sea breezes and waves inspired us.  -Keith

As a teacher it's fascinating to see what schools are like in other parts of the world. This is the school on Koh Bulon, which interestingly has some parallels to our neighbourhood school, False Creek Elementary in Vancouver. It's right beside the water with beautiful views and lots of people, including tourists like me walking through. Here some kids are playing soccer. Behind the boy on the left is a gorgeous white sand beach with good coral and snorkelling. We spent hours here. The huts you see behind the kids are the "Schoolhouse" Bungalows aka bamboo huts and cost less than $20 Canadian/night. Below is one of the classrooms. From what we observed, there was no aircon, few resources, and not much learning happening. Emma and I had a good chat about the differences between school here and in Canada, and how fortunate she is to have the opportunities which a good education brings. Interestingly, her schoolwork met less resistance for the next few days!  -Steve

Awaiting sunset, at the very funky Coconut Bar. The entire island of Koh Bulon has only a handful of motorbikes, and most places only have power at night. We walked everywhere, including one day when we decided to do the cross island trail through the rubber tree plantation to the Chao Lair fishing village. The trail back was so unused that we had to bushwack, through the jungle, getting slightly lost and well covered in bites and scrapes. The Sprite and the Mojitos were well deserved!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! A puffer fish!  I found this puffer fish on the beach, it was gross but interesting at the same time. I took it to higher ground and buried it in the sand.  Ouch!! That hurt, it poked me on my finger while I was burying it- but I'm OK.  I buried it because I couldn't bear to look at it.  It was so sad, the puffer fish was stinky I couldn't bear it. ;-(>  I saw lots of big and small colourful fish when I was swimming. Daddy saw a live puffer fish.  -Emma