In July 2005 we spent over 3 weeks in Thailand, we drove from Kanchanaburi to Phuket flew over to koh Samui, then to Koh Tao and made our way back again. I look back at the photos now and realise how young the kids were!
No two kids have ever worked so hard on a holiday. I have many photos of them sound asleep in some strange places:)
We did so much and had a fantastic time.
Flew into Bangkok for 4 nights
The Thai people just love children. Tannalee was pinched for good luck, poor baby on the streets of Bangkok we'd often hear her go "oww!"
No more walking mum please
We then did a tour up to the river Kwai and Kanchanaburi where we stayed in the floating huts. Tannas favourite dress was stolen by villages dogs who also trashed our camera!
When we toured the village we kept on seeing scraps of her dress it was very funny, but she was so upset at every little piece of fabric:)
Our verandas
We were cooling off when we saw the elephants come down for a bath
Bees every where freaked Tanna out
Hello elephant
We visited a local Mon school after that the kids kept on painting clay on their faces like the locals it was really cute
Train trip to get a driver to Hua Hin
Hua Hin where we picked up our car. We went to a water front restaurant for dinner, all of a sudden everyone in the restaurant started standing up. Ross and I looked at each other then looked around, not knowing what to do. We later asked a waiter why people stood up, apparently the King and Queen had arrived in the restaurant for dinner!!
I'd love to come back to Hua Hin some time
We drove to Chumphon to stay one night.
I had worked hard to plan this huge trip and did quite well, but I miss judged the driving distances Hua Hin to Champhon wasn't as far as I thought
The next leg of our drive from Champhon to Koh Soak National Park was a mammoth drive and we were all exhausted when we got there it was a huge distance to drive in one day. I wouldn't recommend it for holiday fun.
Though we did stop at a few places along the way
We decided to visit this place on the Khoa Lak coast where they were helping local fishermen rebuild their boats so they can make a living again.
We raised some money before we came over and helped as much as we could.
The devastated Khoa Lak coast
I talked to a local women who had lost most of her family in the tsunami. She showed us the point where her village had been, there was nothing but a few trees and the skeletons of houses left.
The lady was so beautiful and crouched down with Tanna to collect pieces of pottery from the beach, at first I was horrified that Tanna didn't realise these pretty little pieces were from peoples homes! The lady insisted that she take some as a memory of her home:(
Somewhere there are more photos of our stay at Arts River Lodge in Khoa Sok national park, I'll have to find them.
Tanna at the resturant
Staying here was a huge adventure we saw fireflies for the first time and had to evacuate our hut when the river started to flood, we were stuck in a tree house restaurant for hours as the river got higher and higher it was scary for a bit, but went down as quickly as it had risen.
Ry had temps of 39.8 here, it was a real worry so we cut our stay short and went to Phuket where there were doctors if we needed them.
We didn't:)
Driving to Phuket we got stuck in a traffic jam for a couple of hours. It was caused by a mud slide that had pushed a truck off the road!
Phuket , we had a great time but out of all the places we visited Phuket wouldn't be my first pick to come back to.
FantaSea park
Driving around
Putt Putt Golf Dinosaur theme
We then flew over to Koh Samui and met up with my sister and her family,
we stayed at The FairHouse Resort on Chaweng Noi baech
Lunch on the baech
Hotel pool
Breakfast on the beach
Tanna sitting on the elephants neck I was freaking out and held onto her hair. I'm not sure what good I thought it would do....LOL
We got a boat over to Koh Tao this island was bliss I could spend weeks here!
Ross went diving and the kids and I went exploring
We stayed at Sensi Paradise and feel in love with the place.
Afternoon tea at our hut
I love this photo of Riley and I
Some dude to take us to Koh Nang Yuan
I wasn't impressed, there were no life jackets and the boat looked less than sea worthy!
Koh Nang Yuan is suppose to be amazing and a lot of people do day trips to get there. But all the kids and I kept saying was "wait till you see Jamsons Bay, it's a hundred time better!"
Funny how young kids can be more interested in a puppy or kitten,
than the wonders of travel.
Jansom Bay my favourite beach out of all the places I visited in the world!
There were so many fish the kids were catching them in their T-shirts. Amazing huge coral formations and off the point there is a fishing boat wreck so close to shore and in shallow water. The kids could even snorkel it! Port holes and bow sprits I was expecting a small dingy or something this was a huge trawler of some type.
Fun in the sun
We left Ko Tao and headed back to Bangkok for a coupe of nights
Did another tour
Had the most amazing time and loved every minute of it.
One day I'll do this blog properly:)