This post picks up from when we left England in early October and headed back to Singapore, our country of residence for 15 years whilst en route to our house in Koh Samui Thailand.
Landing back in Singapore was a bitter sweet experience. It really did feel like coming home, but at the same time we had none of the old anxieties we used to experience, i.e the back to work, back to school, back to piles of mail and bills B/S that used to face us upon our return. Instead we had a totally calm feel; that of a tourist, but with the knowledge of exactly how the country runs and operates.
However, the bitter side of the deal was the dreadful haze that enveloped the island and had done for almost 2 months by this point. Each year the horrific burning of Rain and Peat forest in Indonesia causes a dense thick cloud of smog which covers Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in toxic fumes. This is not a new problem, it has been happening for decades and is going mainly un-noticed by mainstream media who seem to be too interested in what Kim Kardashian has squeezed into or what Donald Trump is spouting on about. It’s a global issue that needs to be addressed and those in charge and responsible for it need to be exposed and brought to justice. Luckily for us Han Solo gives a shit and is trying to do something about it!
The beauty of this school run was that it was only 5 minutes in the car, to one location and with a starting time of 9am. Compared to the madness of the Singapore school runs that started at 6am and went to 3 different locations, this was an absolute walk in the park! They were also very interesting indeed, on one morning we saw 7 stray dogs, 6 chickens, 5 whole families on mopeds holding babies in one arm whilst driving, 2 monkeys on a truck, 1 temple and 1 naked guy in a wheel chair getting soaped up on the side of the road by an old fat woman. So no, these were not your usual school runs!
We got to meet some great new friends ourselves and loved spending time with them getting to know them better. We will stay in touch for many years and are already discussing where they might be headed to next. Here is hoping they are all still on or at least visiting the island for when we return next time!
A brief backstory as to why he wanted to send in a paragraph.....
Before the Bunts arrival to Phuket, the Prince family eagerly sat around discussing their favourite Australianisms that Greg uses. We then wrote them all down and played Greg Bunt Bingo during the week, surreptitiously striking off all the sayings that he used as the days went by. We presented Greg with the list on our last evening to much laughter.
Greg's post hides several of those sayings, see if you can spot them!
Thanks Greg, awesome times as always!
Giddy up people.
Another week in our world class holiday destination, JW Marriott in Phuket. After not seeing each other for almost a year, the kids went off like a frog in a sock, swimming and playing like there was no tomorrow. Greg and Dan made a rookie error and went to view the fresh fish from old matey, there were more flies in the bucket than prawns so if you are that low on bananas we had to move to another beachside shack and who would have thought, even better place to eat seafood. Dan was all over this new find like a fat kid on a cupcake, there was no time to dilly dally. Allison and Jared stomachs were playing up like second hand lawnmowers, Andaman Grill had to take a raincheck for them. The kids spent time at the new marine turtle sanctuary where even turtles that were on their back had somewhere to go.
Fun, yes. Dusty, yes. Back in 2016, yes.
Boom.