Best Guest Ever

We now have the perfect guest, she is exactly the type of guest that I hope one day we attract when (or if) we have our own unique Hostel, one that wants to hang out with us and see the sights with us.   Lizzie came on Friday morning, she is from Minnesota, and was really happy to accept our offer of taking her around.  We have had a lovely weekend, basically beaching and eating and a great last day of holiday before work commences again tomorrow.

 Lizzie and Lola

 Friday market at my favourite wine bar.  Always a good night, and now they have started veggie food so I am extra happy.

Saturday a long day at our beach.

 Red Tuna, Saturday night dinner which is one of Luis's favourite restaurants.  Of course I only can have the veg green curry but it is enjoyable here.  

Sunday brunch and day at the beach in Panwa.  She has a few more days and we will not be able to show her around too much more but we already have planned an Indian dinner, her first ever and a few more things...

Ko Rang Yai

What a beautiful place and day we had yesterday.  Ruth organised for some people that stayed in Phuket to go to one of the near by islands, Ko Rang Yai, for a picnic.  it was gorgeous and so easy to get too.  Door to shore was 45 minutes, so I can see day trips here happening quite a bit.

These are a few of the one thousand pictures I took.  Just a fantastic day out.

Chez Luis

We have returned home and as it is still our holiday hosted a dinner party for friends that are also enjoying a staycation.  Luis cooked all day, I made a pretty pathetic quinoa falafel salad and then spent the rest of the time being sous chef (I hate being sous chef, it seems to involve a lot of cleaning and fetching and very little credit).  Luis did a fantastic job, everyone did a lot of oohing and ahhing and he enjoyed every second of it!

There was a lot of cutting and peeling going on throughout the day.

 My salad which looked a hundred times better than it tasted!

 Luis's pumpkin soup was fantastic and I really wish I had taken an up close picture of it to show his presentation.

 We had some bubbles to celebrate Adam's recent completion of a triathlon in Bangkok.

 The ladies.

Chef an sous chef.  We had a lovely evening.  Oh and I side kinda private side note (well not too private as I am posting it) I would also like to point out Luis's McKinstry t-shirt (in case my Aunties read this), well it is actually mine but he has taken it as his favourite one.  Good taste I would say!

Kamala Beach

We have loved being here in Kamala, especially Lola who loves being right on the beach.  But we have decided that actually we do love where we live.  We love our empty beaches, our house and local restaurants.  So no more kicking ourselves and now we are just enjoying the beach and some quiet time.

 Quiet time and of course bubbles

 The Indian restaurant next door, good but not nearly as great as our local one.  I love our local one that delivers to our door at least once a week...

 We have enjoyed the bath like temperatures, and Lola's amazing swimming.  

 This side of the beach is deserted for nice long walks, the water is not as nice but the crab hunting is much better for Lola.

 The most bizarre thing is the wedding photos, there must be at least a dozen on the beach every day.  But not just regular pictures, they all have props and take shots all around the town.  Early that morning we saw this couple with a skate board in the street and then a taxi shot with coca colas (oh and they can neither skate nor surf).

When we first arrived in Phuket we stayed in Kamala while looking for a place to live.  You would not recognise the place now that is high season.  I have a similar picture to this in August but there was not one bike, car, umbrella or person, now there are thousands.  One more night and we will return home to finish half term with adventures even closer to home.

Bradcation

Our holidays have begun! And with cars that are slightly unreliable, well one is still in the shop for who knows how long and one is the Green Machine,  we decided to stay close to home.  Very generously one of my bosses, Brad, offered us his house on the beach for a few nights.  So we packed up the forward thinking Green Machine and headed twenty minutes down the road to paradise.  We are now kicking ourselves at not jumping at the opportunity to live here next year (Brad is moving on and told us the house would be up for grabs!), it is properly amazing!  We will just have to enjoy it for the next few days instead.

 About twenty steps from our back patio

 It is so calm that Lola is properly coming out swimming with us.

 A little afternoon G&T on the top balcony

 Lola loving the view.

Me practising the Ukuele and driving off all people sun tanning close to our back door.  What a great way to spend the next few days, loving half term thus far!

Return of the Machine

The Green Machine is back in action, 2300 Baht to fix the breaks, 25 000 to do the reverse.   Soooo... Green Machine will continue to be a forward thinking car but at least she still believes in stopping!

We enjoyed two days having a car that reverses. It was actually so strange to be able to park anywhere, and have a working radio windows.  Total luxury!

 We had two days of easy beach parking, this was exciting to Lola as it maximised crab hunting time.

 Lola loved it more than any of us, here she is singing to the radio.

 A new car to discover with cool leather seats and tinted windows keeping the sun out of her eyes.  She was very excited.

But sadly all good things must come to an end and as Green Machine is back we had to return the other car.  This is Lola literally minutes after the previous picture.  She definitely is our posh girl and was sad to be back in the hot, no music machine.