Andaman Sea

We have had a very lazy last week or two but did manage to visit a couple islands in southern Thailand's Andaman Sea.

Our first stop was Phuket, where we settled in at Patong Beach. It didn't take us long to figure out that we were out of our element. Patong Beach is a major tourist and party town for whatever type of "party" you are looking for, even Easton was offered "massages" on more tahn one occasion and Elyssa was quick to notice the abundance of silver poles on each bar top open to the street. Prices here were exactly what you would expect in a major tourist town and would destroy our budget if we weren't careful but we managed to find some reasonable places to eat and a great place to stay off the strip. We did get some great weather and were able to enjoy some quality beach and pool time.

From Phuket, we packed up the backpacks again and ferried out to the island of Ko Lanta. With the off-season or green season as the locals call it in full swing due to monsoon winds we found a fantastic deal on a pool/beachfront bungalow at roughly 1/3 regular rate. However, with the green season we were quick to find that very little is open on this sleepy island. We managed to occupy our days by renting motorbikes and touring the island, we only ran out of gas twice! We also volunteered at a local animal shelter (www.lantaanimalwelfare.com) where we walked dogs which made us miss Casey even more. We filled out the balance of our time by lazing pool side and the kids finally finished their homework (yes, they have been doing school stuff...just in case school staff is checking in!).

We really did luck out with weather and were able to enjoy some sun and heat for the bulk of the time in the area. It was windy and the postcard like blue waters were not as advertised but we had some real relaxing days and were able to recharge before our last five weeks on tour.

Off to the Gulf of Thailand for a few days. Bye for now!