Monday, 27 October 2014

busy busy busy

well, sorry but it's been a while since I wrote on this blog.  We've had visitors and been keeping busy exploring Krabi with them.  Courtney came for a visit in August and we had a fabulous time. Spend 3 days shopping in Phuket as well.  I didn't want her to go home.

fish spa - wasn't very nice but we braved it for the full 15 minutes
 
our second elephant trek

Courtney made some new friends while she was here
 
another new friend - Thai Ronnie Mac
 
Courtney & LaLa
 
on our day trip
 
Courtney celebrated her 23rd birthday while she was here

found employment since I've been here :-)
 
at Phuket FantaSea
 
at Phuket FantaSea

We had Gary's brother Mark and his son Luke visit during the September school holidays.  They were here for 10 days and did all the touristy things.

My sister's Ange & Jenni visited for 2 weeks.  Once again we did all the good touristy things.  We spend the first 5 days visiting Bangkok and then we came back here to Krabi for another 6 days.  Went way to quickly.

at the Grand Palace Bangkok
 
Grand Palace Bangkok
Grand Palace Bangkok
 
feeding my elephant
 
Ange gave her elephant a drink of Sprite.  A new best friend.
 
my elephant's name was Somboon.  She's 47 years old. 
 
long tail boats in Krabi
  
Jenni's new friend Ronnie.  He makes friends with all the tourists.
 

Ange has a new job - elephant mahout.

Tiger temple near Bangkok
 
Tiger Temple near Bangkok
 
 



We have Gary's sister Kim and hubby Michael visiting at the moment.  They're heading home tomorrow :-( 

visited Koh Samui with Kim & Michael.  This was the plane we flew there and back on.  The flight was 27 minutes from Krabi to Samui and 50 minutes back.  Spent 3 days in Samui
 
Hong Island
 
Hong Island
 

Tourist season is just starting to kick off here in Thailand.  Traffic has been hectic.

 
We've managed to spend some quality time watching sunsets on the beach as any good retirees should.


We're heading back to BrisVegas in about 5 weeks so looking forward to catching up with everyone then.  See you soon.

Louise & Gary

Saturday, 2 August 2014

What's going on.....

Greetings from Krabi.  It's rainy season here.  And boy has it been raining. Every morning when my barista (Gary) brings me my coffee, he gives me a weather report - sunny or rainy. Mostly he says rainy.  At least its still warm, unlike beautiful BrisVegas which I have on good authority (several different sources) that it's bl**dy cold.



Pool Is at a standstill at the moment. We think its because they are letting the concrete cure but not sure as we haven't seen anyone for about 4 weeks. Its also been Ramadan for the last 4 weeks so that may have something to do with it. This is the progress so far.



We've also had a local Thai guy giving us a hand to do the garden, lawns etc. Its starting to look good.






Out the front
Our atrium is also starting to look good. We've got some beautiful plants in there.





some interesting bugs here in Thailand. Found this one in our shower.



Thats all the news for now. Love to everyone down in Aus. 
xxx



Sunday, 1 June 2014

Martial law and other MORE important things.

วิธีการเป็นคุณในวันนี้ - Kun sa bai dee mai - how are you today?


No doubt everyone has heard that martial law has been declared in Thailand.  Most of the problems and protests have been in Bangkok.  We didn't even know about it until someone text and asked if we were ok.  We've found out all our information about it from the online news as well.  The army did come to Krabi to show their presence but I think it was a "muscle flexing" exercise.  We saw them once and then they left.  I took a photo at the road block they'd set up but did it sneakily so they wouldn't know - just in case.








Anyway, that's all the news on the coup.




In other news, we're finally getting the pool finished.  They started beginning of this week and are making good progress so far.  Been a few rainy times which is hindering a little, but it is the rainy season here so it's to be expected.  Some photos of the pool progress.









the mountain of dirt left over from digging out the pool - next person to visit, bring a shovel :)


We've also started working on our gardens.  There is a lot of work to be done in the yard so we've been doing bits at a time.  The heat here makes it impractical to work during the day so we've had to do most of the gardening late in the afternoon.  We've done a little garden at the back but because there is still a lot of work in this area to be done, we're limiting what we're doing there in case all our hard work gets damaged.







 We're in the process of doing the garden and lawn at the front of the house at the moment.  We're going to have a hibiscus garden here with lawn on the rest of the area. 














The garden below is outside the middle bedroom.  We'll put a small table and a couple of chairs there so whoever is in that room can sit outside if they want.



We also had an unwelcome visitor - well 2 actually but I didn't get a photo of the second one.  It's quite common here at the moment.  The rain is chasing them out.  It just means we're being extra careful outside and in the garden.  The photos were taken safely from behind the window and the curtain.  No way in the world I was going outside while it was there :-)














We've been getting at least one thunderstorm per day.  It's lovely to sit out the back and watch them come over.  Sometimes the sky isn't really that black.  The bottom photo is Naka mountain - with a thunderstorm rolling over it.



I've also started language school.  Yep, I'm learning to speak Thai.  Its a hard language to learn but hopefully my brain still functions a little to get me through.  Some words can mean up to 5 things depending on the tone you use.  I found out the hard way when my teacher was telling me the word for come was "ma" - said flat, but with a rising tone it means dog and a high tone it means horse.  So, of course instead of saying come, I said dog.  Kept her amused.  I'm sure I'll get a lot of that when I try and speak to locals.  I'm eventually suppose to be able to read and write Thai as well, but if you can see the Thai writing at the top of this blog, it's complicated.



Well, that's all for now.  I'll send more pictures soon.
have a great day
xxx