Thailand Island Moments

The wooden boat sits stranded on an outgoing tide as colourful monk blessed ribbons hang from her bow. She is awaiting the return of the water and her working days. Just as I await my return home, like the tides it is inevitable. In the meantime, the boat and I sit idly on sun baked sand, patiently waiting...enjoying our shared reprieve from working life. -Keith

Only a child can contort their body like this to pursue a fish! Many hours were spent finding, following and marvelling at the myriad of shapes, sizes and colours of coral and beautiful fish. The snorkelling was best right off the beach on Koh Bulon.

On Koh Lanta, our first and largest island, we rented this motorbike to get around. Keith sat in the back, and Emma sat in front of me. Not surprisingly, she felt like she was driving and pretty much ready to get her licence. She was allowed to start the bike, put on the turn signals, and dim the high beams. I  needed to be very firm though that going faster was my decision! Thankfully the island was quiet enough that we felt very safe. In fact, one night we seemed to be the only ones on the road, coming home satiated from dinner in the old town. It was a magical, contented feeling passing by fluttering banana trees, bathed only by the light of the moon and a warm sea breeze.  - Steve

Of course, when travelling for three months with luggage that most people pass off as "carry on", once in a while you need to do some laundry. Here we set up an assembly line of sorts. Steve washed, Emma used the sprayer for rinsing (the FUN job!) and Keith did a final rinse, wring and hang. No problem! 

The bathroom below was at the back of our bamboo hut on Koh Mook and was our favourite, although the steep stairs were not for the faint of heart, especially in the middle of the night. Above the shower curtain was open air up to the roof, so sometimes we'd have visitors like geckos, cicadas or other unidentified flying bugs.

Treacherous steps down into our sand floor with stone tiles bathoom.

Heading for Emerald Cave on Koh Mook.

Fresh coconut water and flesh. A tasty treat between dives. Emma was fascinated by the coconuts and loved to collect ones that had fallen. Her first was called "Coco" and got wrapped in a towel and brought inside our hut until we discovered the next morning that it was covered in ants. After this, all coconuts had to sleep outside!

With our goggles in tow we splashed into the turquoise water and moved towards the dark mass.  There was a bet as to whether it was a huge rock or a school of fish.  She was right, it was a school of thousands of small silver fish much like sardines.  We swam towards it and into the school of fish.  Once among them they would swim as a whole and encircle you as if closing a curtain. To be surrounded on all sides by a wall of fish was another special moment in Thailand.

 -Keith

Here I was in a hole on the beach preparing  shelvs for my precious items : a coke bottle and a shell. It was damp and cold in the hole,The walls were so high that water couldn't get in. At one point I dug deep enough that I got cold water in the hole. - Emma