Friendly Bank Managers

As always it's been a busy week. Plans are afoot for our trip to India and Nepal. We can't decide whether to go at the end of Feb or middle of March. Either way we will fly to Dehli from Phuket and then overland to Kathmandu.
The aim is to travel super light so now we have to plan on what to do with all that we have accumulated here in the past ten months. Ah, the challenges of the nomadic life.

Last night I went into the bank at central (big mall in the middle of the island) to find out why the 200 Baht payment for phone credit I had made with the online banking system had not worked. (Bear in mind that 200 baht is about £5.) I had about 3 women helping me on the phone to see what had gone wrong. While they were doing that the bank manager came to chat to me and started showing me photos on his computer of his holiday a few weeks ago to Austria and Germany. Only in Thailand would you get such friendliness and people being so helpful over such a small amount of money!

The weather has finally picked up and we have lots of sunshine. Whoopee.......more beach afternoons!

On a sad note my friend Chika is in hospital and is very sick. They think it is dengue. This is very worrying as it is now the 3rd person in our little circle of friends here who has contracted this illness. I have been super strict with Nick and the girls about keeping up with our vitamins and the homoeopathic tablets that mum sent.

Our weather last week

Stuff is nonsense

So I have been thinking lately about all the 'stuff' we saddle ourselves with. All the crap that we think we need. In reality there are very few things in life that are really necessary. Living here in Asia for 9 months or so has opened my eyes to what we in the western world think of as 'things we desperately need and cannot live without'. I have come to the conclusion that life is less stressful if you manage to keep it simple and lean. Experiences are what count, not things.

So we had a trip to Bangkok. It was so good to get away from Phuket for a few days. The manic hussle and bussle of the big city was ironically a well needed break from our island life. Our days have  become very predicable and serious. Not a good thing at all. Not to mention that we are now in high season and the driving has become even more of a nightmare than before. It was refreshing to regroup and think about being true to ourselves and how we have always lived. Starting this week we will be changing a few things and planning a two month adventure trip before we go back to Blighty. Nick has always dreamed of Nepal so that will definitely be on the itinerary. I would love to visit Tibet, so maybe that too. Our tentative plan is to get to Nepal and then make our way through Tibet and  China and down through Vietnam. Bhutan would be amazing but not sure if we will fit it in on this trip. So first we will just book our journey to Kathmandu and see where the wind takes us. No definite plan on how long to stay or where to go. All we need to do is get back to KL for the flight back to London on the 30th April.

I read half the LP Vietnam book on the beach today. So exciting. The planning of a trip is almost as exhilarating as doing the actual trip itself. Tomorrow I am going to buy the Nepal book. We have a rule about LP books. They are a sort of souvenir of where we have been but we are not allowed to buy one unless we are definitely going. So all the books in our collection are places we have been to.
Today we went to Nai Thon beach, and although there were more tourists now the high season has hit, it was still a haven of peace and tranquillity. We swam in the sea and it was amazing to see the change in three weeks since we were there last. It is so much calmer and the lifeguards were obviously not needed as much, no crazy big waves or rip tides. Nothing on earth is as relaxing as a long afternoon at the beach reading James Paterson and eating ham sandwiches. Totally rejuvenating.
Back to crazy madness tomorrow but with a difference.