By time you read this, we will be out on a boat trip to some islands; no idea what day it will be – feels like I’ve been on a continuous night shift! Here’s a detailed account of the last 36 hours.

Monday saw us finishing up lots of little bits and pieces:

• Washing & ironing
• Drop bikes off
• Drop dog off
• Bins out & fridge emptied – all the stuff you gotta do to get ahead of the post-holiday rush before work & school goes back.

We had a leisurely drive to Melbourne and before we knew it, we were checked in. Hamish, as you may have seen, swapped out some AUD for Thai Bhat which was fun! We got through customs quickly, but not until after Hamish’s backpack was searched for contraband in the shape of a mini tube of pringles. Won’t be packing those again…

We hung out in the departure lounge with a few hundred others and after a short-ish delay, we were on our way. The 787 Dreamliner was full and we had a smooth flight to Singapore. As mentioned, Scoot are the non-full service carrier of Singapore, but staff were great, our meals fine and somehow the 3 of us each scored a blankie!

Neither Rod nor Hamish slept, but I managed probably 4 x blocks of 30 mins which helped at the other end of the day. Once in Singapore we hit Starbucks for coffee, hot chocolate and just a couple of plain bagels, which predictably cost a mint! We made our way to another terminal and found our gate. I prepared a small sleeping space and managed another hour or so. Rod and Hamish said they tried, but were just unable to relax.

Our next short flight was from Singapore to Phuket (about 2 and a half hours). Hamish was asleep before we taxied to the runway. He said, “wake me for food” and that was it for a while. We had some delicious spicy noodles for breakfast and the flight was over pretty quickly.

Flying along/over the Malaysian coast and into Thailand was lovely, with plenty of islands, mountains, meandering rivers and boats to been seen from the air. Whenever I travel, I am both overwhelmed and so grateful of the experiences; today there were a few “I can’t believe I’m in Thailand” – type comments, not just from myself & Rod, but from Hamish too. He has the travel bug and has been keen to update his friends of his travels so far.

Thailand is a busy mix of chaotic traffic, old buildings, bountiful electric wires, run down shop fronts and progressive establishments, such as the hospital (see pic). There are no road rules, well, there are, but our mini-bus driver did not care to follow them as he turned a predicted 90 minute trip from the airport into 60 minutes. Impressive. At one point, Rod and I discussed if Thailand used the metric system, as the driver chose to ignore all speed limits. Lucky we were so overtired as to not be concerned for our safety. It was a wild, wild ride – constant lane changes, last minute braking & talking on his mobile (hands-free of course…). Hamish slept through this.

Incidentally, there are many (what appear to be) legit weed establishments on every street. I’m sure one of you may be able to enlighten me on this, what seems like a contradiction. Oh, stand down. Rod has just enlightened me: the laws have changed and now marijuana has been legalized and the emphasis is on the rehabilitation of drug users instead of the death penalty or life imprisonment. Looks like Rod can go into that little bakery we found today after all!

Our hotel is just beautiful. We arrived and decided a swim, followed by a sleep were probably our best idea. Rod and I walked into the town area late this afternoon and got a few supplies from the Bamboo Mart: water, a couple of beers, two small wines (well we’re not sure exactly what they are, but Rod has already drunk one…) a couple of cans of fanta and some other Asian treats. I bought a hat and the shop owner told me how I’ll need it because it’s hot in Thailand.

We walked back up the hill to the hotel and saw a sign my mother would be happy to see. We (that is, our hotel) is the Tsunami evacuation site.

Hamish’s thoughts on Thailand: “What a great place Thailand is. It started off as cool inside the airport, but then when we went outside the humidity just hit. My sleep was good on the mini bus. The food is great.”

Rod’s thoughts on Thailand: “Nothing to add, you’ve said it all…”