Our journey into Thailand, the land of smiles, was not quite the start little Charlie had hoped for. On arriving into Bangkok for our transfer to Krabi it had been about 24 hours since he had his boo boo dressed and we were told that it was imperitive that it was cleaned at this time. With a long lay over, a two hour flight to Krabi and a two hour drive for a late arrival into Koh Lanta, my only option for him was Bangkok airport.
However what you get if you are two years old, 2 1/2ft tall and have the cutest dimple on one side of your face is 6 female nurses all wanting to dote on you. In other words he was in good caring hands that even rewarded him with a cookie at the end of his little experience. So we were off to Koh Lanta with all toes in tact.
So what do you get if you cross paradise, a gorgeous home, fabulous kid friendly pool, safety, awesome new friends and a new social calender that is booked for nearly a month? Koh Lanta, a place we could have very easily called home. A place where we felt we had been forever, we were so comfortable.
As soon as we arrived on this tiny island we knew we were somewhere special, almost unknown people had been contacting us to meet up that were doing similar travel with their kids and one set in particular had a set of twins about Lara’s age and she was super excited to unstick herself from Mommy and Daddy’s grasp and go and do kids stuff.
Pauline, David, Gwynth & Dylan are doing exactly what we are, traveling the world and within a few days of arriving we all hit it off great, their children loved Lara and she did them. This turned into a sleepover at our place and meeting them almost everday of the five or so days they had while we were there. We are meeting them in Rome and Paris as our paths cross again…safe travels guys until then :).
Our villa was part of three or four that shared this fabulous pool that had a wonderfully big shallow section for the boys to practice their swimming in relative safety. Ashton went straight into goggles and practicing his waving under water.
On day one we met Susannah and her three wonderful kids in the pool, later we met her husband Ben, from Henley on Thames. They are living in Koh Lanta until next year for the overseas experience. Ever feel as if you have known people for most of your life when in reality it’s been a few weeks? Within three days we were having a wonderful meal at their house, fun on the beach and trip and meals out. Their friendship was clear and we will miss having them as our neighbours. Lara fell in love with their three gorgeous kids, did a stint of baby sitting and helped out when Ben had to go out of town. Their girls thought she was wonderful. Kristi and I had a few great nights out with Ben and Susannah and felt we were interesting adults again and not just parents. These guys will be on our Christmas card list forever and we cannot wait to see them in Henley in July. Stay safe guys…
Now Kristi has two best friends that are English and who would have thought that Jules from South Carolina (ala Nottingham UK) and Susannah would be so close to my American girl who can be so closed to strangers. While travelling we have spoken to many new interesting people also travelling and many expat Brits that Kristi has really enjoyed getting to know.
The next family we had the pleasure of getting to know was Ben, Kelly and Lulu. By the end of this trip the boys were shouting out to play with Lulu, Mali, Isla or Jack. Even Ben had a mention in their play wishes. They were at home too.
Now these guys are from San Francisco and like us gave up their corporate roles to fulfill a dream of travelling and with a young child we had loads in common. Their beautiful little girl Lulu captured the boys’ hearts and I even think Ashton was practisicng a few lines here, what do you think?
We had fun at the pool and at the beach and this again gave us a feeling we have met a new family we have not seen the last of. We shared stories and recommendations with all our new friends and have gained such an insight into the highs and lows of travelling.
Wrapped up by our awesome diving instructor Max and his partner Liz, we met some pretty amazing people and what followed over the month were awesome memories.
The next blog, our final for Koh Lanta we will go into more of what we did as a family.
If you cannot wait until then, the full set of photos for Thailand are right here