Sydney, 11 - 18 December 2008

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Originally uploaded by matt.j.cox

Introducing Einstein. The new addition to the family

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Originally uploaded by matt.j.cox

Einstein is a little Golden retriever pup, 7 weeks old. He's settling in well as part of the family.

Ko Lanta photos

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Ko Lanta, Thailand

Good news on the airport issue in Bangkok. Everything seems to be back to normal at the airport and we're on our way up to Bangkok to catch our flight to Sydney tomorrow afternoon.

Our last 18 days were spent Long beach (Phra Ae) on Ko Lanta. We stayed at L.D. Beach bungalows (also called Sandy beach). We got a great bungalow with air con, fridge, cable TV and a nice front porch., all just 50 metres from the beach. The place was immaculately clean, with cleaners coming round every 2nd day. It's a really friendly place, and got the room for only 700 baht per night. This may be the best value on the island for that price.

For all of our other needs, scooter rental, boat trips, onward travel, we used 'Follow me tours', just next door to the Sandy beach reception. This is run by Mai, and she looked after us very well with friendly service and good prices. She even gave us cost price to the thai boxing, where her husband was on the bill, and we got a bike for free to go up to the local school to watch some dance performances for the King's birthday celebrations. We were sad to say goodbye to Mai, her husband and her two little girls.

Most of our time was just spent chilling out on Ko Lanta. We met our neighbours, Graham and Carly from Kent and spent a bit of time with them. It was really nice to have another couple to hang out with. See you guys in NZ in a couple of years eh?

The only catch with our time on Ko Lanta was the weather, which wasn't kind to us (until the day Graham and Carly left). We only had a handful of sunny days in total, and more than our share of rain. The rainy season is supposed to be over, but someone forgot to tell mother nature.

We had to wait until our last day to get a snorkeling day in. We took the Phi Phi islands tour which included snorkeling at 'the beach' on Phi phi leh, playing with yet more monkeys at Monkey beach on Phi Phi Don, and some free time to explore yet another market area, this time on Phi Phi Don.

We've got a sleeper train to Bangkok to look forward to, then it's a week in Sydney to cap off a long and memorable trip home.

Stranded in paradise

As I sit here looking out over the Andaman sea from our bungalow balcony, with the gentle sound of waves lapping the shore, it's hard to believe the headlines that we're "stranded" in Thailand.

Of course, our flight out of Bangkok isn't scheduled until the 11th December, so technically we're not actually stranded yet. I've been advised by Qantas to wait until a couple of days before our flight to see if it's cancelled, and then they can advise us what to do.

It seems Qantas are planning to use Phuket airport to fly passengers out, which suits us well since that's the closest international airport to us, just a short ferry ride from where we are, in Ko Lanta.

So I guess we'll just need to stick it out here on the beach for another week or so. We're booking a snorkelling day for tomorrow :)

While we're scheduled to leave Bangkok on the 11th, we then fly out of Sydney on the 18th December, so even if we get delayed in Thailand for a few extra days, I expect we'll still be home on time.