Wh at an adjustment the last 6 days have been – it feels like over a week. It never occurred to me to look at what the temperature in South East Asia would be at this time of the year – but I am pretty sure high 30s was not what I was expecting!! We arrived into Bangkok at 10pm on Wednesday night at it was still 34 degrees. We were very thankful of our surprise going away gift from our friend Naant – a transfer to our hotel. It is the first time Shem and I have ever had someone standing at arrivals with our name on a card!!

Bangkok was unsurprisingly big, busy and in your face. We explored the Khaosan road district which was a flood of sensory experiences or the children who have never been to Asia before. We organised the next leg of our trip and then decided to walk back to our accommodation. It was a 7.5km trek in 38 degrees, but the kids cant complain that they have not been acclimatised and see the real bangkok!

The next day we did the touristy things – the royal palace and reclining Buddha which were amazing but the heat and sheer number of people took the edge off.

I can feel a grass slide show coming on!!!

The afternoon Shem and I went to buy me some new sunglasses in one of the massive bangkok malls. It was an interesting experience as the lovely glasses I purchased for what I thought was 60 Australian dollars, tuned out to be worth 600 Australian dollars when I returned to my hotel to check my bank statements – you have never seen me move so fast back to return the glasses!!! I am now the proud owner of at 5 dollar street pair!!

It turned out that it was the Thai New Year festival – the biggest celebration of the year. The new year festival is a festival of water and it traditionally involved sprinkling water on passes by to cleanse them of their sins, but is now a full blown national water fight with super soakers, barrels of water and people driving around in the back of utes soaking anyone and everyone – not ideal when you are on the move – and we were about to be.

That evening we made our way on foot, then subway to the main train station to catch an overnight bus down south to the island of Ko Phi Phi. Overnight bus being good as you get a nights accommodation as well!

All was good until our connection to the ferry was missed and meant a 3 hour wait in the heat for the next one. 17 hours after leaving Bangkok we reached Ko Phi Phi which was in full blown festival mode. We had to walk with our bags through the entire town and were completely soaked with water, orange food dye and a white plaster paste they put on your face. Now I love a view and I love a bit of incidental exercise – so I took the bad reviews about the steep steps you needed to climb to get to our accommodation as a challenge and great pre-season nipper training!!! It is only about 500, which in 37 degrees, with packs on and after 17 hours was pretty challenging and there was not a lot of love for me or my choices at this point! I tell you our kids are tough!

It is worth it though as we are now sitting here watching the sun go down and it is amazing.

We spent our first day on the island out on kayaks getting away from the masses of people.

Armed with Dibs’ new GoPro we had a sensation time – except for the fact that we are now all burnt to a crisp and feel very much like British tourists!!!

The kids are doing well embracing Shem and my love of street food and are slowly coming to terms with rice and pad Thai for breakfast!

After a day sheepishly hiding from the sun we were back out on the water. This time a 6.30 start to avoid day trippers, we hired a boat an went out to Phi Phi Lea which is a marine sanctuary that was used to film the movie the beach. The first two stops there was no one but us and it was truely magical.

We even got some swimming training in!

https://youtu.be/47IrdmI1384

We leave here in a few days and are off to the Jungles of Laos – now a little worried about hiking in the heat – but we will definitely have prepared ourselves well with our stair training!!