Keeping Up With The Culveys - 2020
2020 started, full of hope, we had survived a really challenging year in 2019 and were ready to move on in a more positive direction. Little did we know what was to come!
We met up with Ayton (Logan’s bestie) at a local shopping mall, they were having an event with lots of farm animals, the Lama’s were very inquisitive and gave the boys a big laugh!! They also had a great day at Sara’s birthday party. They held it at their Moo Baan pool, and hired in some great inflatable balls where they could get in and roll around the pool!
Indi had a clear focus in Jan as it was time for her mock iGCSE’s! As you know, Indi is pretty focused when it comes to studying, and she had worked very hard to be ready. She was really feeling the pressure, and we did our best to keep her head in a positive place of belief in herself, but it was tough. Having said all that, she powered through the week, and got through all of the exams. She took away a few learnings for the real thing in the summer, but overall got a good result from all subjects.
While Indi was focused on her mocks, Kai headed off on residential, this year for Kai it was a trip to Chiang Mai! They were heading up to Chiang Mai on the train so we all took Kai to the station to say ‘Bon voyage’. They all had a great night on the train, sleep seemed to be a pretty low priority (except for Ollie of course), but playing games, chatting, and devouring snacks was!!
Chinese New Year came early, in January which isn’t common, at school Logan joined his class to celebrate and follow some of the local traditions.
Our positivity was tested before the end of Jan with Lyra having to head into hospital! Lyra had a wisdom tooth out at the dentist, but it had become infected and had given her lock jaw. This meant she had to go into hospital for them to get the stitches out and clean it all out. Her lock jaw took a few weeks to ease completely so she was only able to open her mouth about a centimetre for a while! And no, it didn’t mean she couldn’t talk or give out orders / requests to get things done!!
As February arrived, Logan disappeared to Ayton’s for a boys day of fun! Namin and Petch were also there to raise hell. They had a fabulous day in and out of the pool and running around in the garden.
February though was for our Indi, and this year was a big one!! Not so much sweet sixteen, more like seriously sixteen!! Again, her birthday was a school day so it was a quick celebration in the morning before heading off to school! After school though we made her the special lady of the day and reflected on her sixteen years of amazing experiences!!
At the weekend it was lunch at the Goji Kitchen buffet at the JW Marriott, which is always a great feast, and involved the staff presenting her with a cake and giving her a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’!! As if that wasn’t enough eating for one day, that evening, Isobel and Max came over to celebrate with us, and eat some more!! Ollie was also in the house, so any of the leftovers were in good hands!!
On the Sunday, Indi had a special treat, Lyra took her to an animal cafe, where they spent some time just hugging and stroking abandoned, but rescued cats and dogs. Indi was particularly attached to a poor 3 legged cat, it was lovely to see… and no we didn’t bring it home (Phew!).
During half term we took a quick trip down to our second home, Phuket! Things were a bit quiet considering it was peak season. The big change? No Chinese tourists. They had been banned from entering Thailand due to a mystery virus that had flared up in central China. At the time, people were actually quite happy, the island was a bit more peaceful, and the general view was that Chinese tourists only spent money in Chinese establishments, so the locals weren’t really being effected. How little we knew about what was to come…
For us, we had an amazing week, hanging out on the beach, playing in the surf, hanging out around the pool, and enjoying the great Marriott resort. One evening we took in an outdoor movie, it was lovely to sit and watch the sun go down with a few drinks, and then settle down for the movie. Sadly it was a dodgy take on Romeo and Juliet (No not the brilliant Bar Lurhmann version), it was a rather boring version, still the surroundings and the company were great!
Some old friends from Kuwait had retired to Phuket at the end of 2019, so we were excited to catch up with them again. Bernadette and Ian came over to the Marriott one evening and we headed over to Bill Bentley’s for dinner, Bernadette and Ian’s Daughter was also with them, along with her chap. We had a good laugh, and played a few games of pool and air hockey. The air hockey between Ly and Kai got a little too competitive (who would have thought!), so when Kai was practicing with me he sent the puck high off the table and chopped the stem off Lyra’s wine glass!! It was unbelievable, right out of her hand, it was hilarious! Rest assured though, Lyra kept hold of the crucial part of the glass with the wine it, not a drop was spilled!
We couldn’t go to Phuket without spending the day with the John Gray canoe crew and as usual it was a fun day with the team, and yet again, the kids favourite, who they call Black Panther was there to give them a big day of laughs!! It lived up to it’s usual standards, we have been on this trip at least six times, but we love it as much as ever!
Our other tradition at the JW is dinner at Kabuki, it wasn’t Kai’s birthday, which was unique for it has been our favourite reason to enjoy Teppanyaki, but we couldn’t miss the chance to enjoy some theatre and wonderful food! Before we headed back to Bangkok we spend the day with Bernadette and Ian on the beach, we had really enjoyed spending some time with them, it was great to have friends in Phuket.
Not long after we got back, the virus in China was all anyone was talking about, it had started to spread to other countries and restrictions were being imposed to stop the spread. People had started to wear masks, and debates were had as to how effective they were.. At work we decided to suspend international travel for a few weeks as a precautionary measure. At the same time, Kai suddenly felt very sick, he had a fever, and was feeling very lethargic. Obviously we were concerned that maybe he had picked up this virus somehow? His friend Ollie, and his family has also been ill. We took Kai to hospital to get checked over. We asked whether it could be this virus, they asked whether we had been in touch with anyone who had travelled in the last two weeks, the answer was no. Therefore, we were told, it couldn’t be this coronavirus. The Dr gave Kai some antibiotics, and within a few days he felt fine. Indi and Logan both also felt unwell, but not as bad as Kai, but again cleared up quickly. Based on what we know now, we are pretty sure they had COVID.. but we won’t know for sure!
As they had been ill, they all had to do 2 weeks at home as nobody was allowed into school if they felt unwell. Once the 2 weeks were over, they returned, only to be told that all the schools were being closed to help prevent the spread of the virus. My office also declared that everyone that can, should work from home. So just like that, we were all at home together, schooling online, and working online! The house felt kind of busy, especially for Lyra, and Wan, who where used to having the days to themselves! But we pretty quickly got into a routine. We know that we were pretty lucky, our home space is lovely, with our own outdoor space, a pool, and plenty of room within the house. Many people were locked down in small one bedroom apartments, on their own, with only online contact!
Just as all of this was happening, we managed to celebrate my birthday, we got out for lunch together, and it was pretty much the last time we ate out for quite a while!
With us all locked down at home, we focused on making sure the kids had a good environment to learn, for Indi and Kai this was quite simple, Indi had everything set up in her room, Kai took over the dinning room table, and we set Logan up on a bench in our bedroom. I took the office and moved my screen etc from the office at work to home. We also worked hard on ensuring we all still got some exercise, and got out in sunshine everyday for our vit D top up. I started cycling early in the morning which worked really well to ensure that I kept my exercise levels up, Kai and Logan played football in the garden, Indi was a regular cross trainer, and Lyra, who had to be really careful after her stomach operation focused on her daily yoga.
The kids did really well with home learning, and we were proud of how they attacked the challenges and really made sure they were getting through all the work set, and getting online for the live classes and chats everyday. Logan too did well, of course he needed a lot more supervision and guidance, but he was always happy to do the work. Lyra spent a lot of time working with him, and we found that anything logical and clear like maths, or science, he would whizz through, but anything more creative that required him to use his imagination, rather than his recall, or logic was a much bigger challenge! Creating stories was like pulling teeth!!
April was soon with us, and of course that meant, Easter hols, and birthdays! Usually at Easter we would head off to Phuket, but as inter province travel was banned, we were locked in at home. This was of course a big change, especially for Kai’s birthday!! No JW Marriott this year! We were so pleased we got down there in Feb before COVID kicked off!
We celebrated Kai’s birthday at home. We had hit the online ordering so he did ok for gifts! He was very happy with his new phone, and a goal for the garden and new football to score with! We got the goal set up that morning and all of us boys enjoyed scoring goals in the garden!! We also had managed to get a cake delivered, in full Liverpool colours, so he had some candles to blow out. Most of the day we enjoyed ourselves in the garden, and the pool. A very different birthday, but great family time for sure.
Before April was out though we had Lyra’s birthday to celebrate too! Again, we had no choice but to celebrate at home. The online ordering had been a reasonable success so we had a nice selection of gifts. I had also taken a gamble on an online delivery of some Lebanese food as Lyra loves her Mezze! Luckily the food did arrive and it was lovely, score!!
Lyra’s birthday was tainted with sadness though. Since the beginning of the year, our Izzy had started to struggle more and more. She had been living on steroids to help keep her stable, and she had developed a severe tilt with her head, she could not hold it straight, it would always be twisted to the left. To be fair, she coped with it pretty well most of the time, but there were times we thought we would have to call the vet. On Lyra’s birthday, just as we were settling down to watch a movie, we noted that Izzy was in some discomfort, she panted endlessly these days, and at times this led to her getting significant excess air stuck in her abdomen and she would blow up like a balloon. This had happened again. So I took her off to the vet and everyone prepared themselves for bad news. At the vet they gave her some pain killers to keep her at ease and just told us to keep an eye on her, if it didn’t subside overnight, to come back and they would operate to release the air.
Sadly though that night, Izzy took herself off to a quiet corner of the garden and refused to come into the house. In the morning, Khun Wan found her, in the same position as we had left her the night before, but she was gone, her heart couldn’t cope with the pressure the excess air had created and she had died in the night. Of course we were devastated. We were also angry as we felt the vet had given us bad advice, and that hey should have insisted on something being done that night. However, it was too late, at 14, Izzy was gone. Khun Wan and Khun Ae were an amazing help to us. They contacted the local Buddhist temple, and arranged for Izzy to be cremated at the local temple. I took her with Khun Ae, she was blessed by the monks and then cremated. For sure it was the end of an era, and something that would take a while to adjust to. She had been such a big part of our lives since we found her on the streets of Izmir, weak, dehydrated, and covered in ticks. She had lived through 5 international house moves and been a big part of the Culvey family. She would certainly never be forgotten.
Once into May, there were signs that that things were starting to ease. To be honest, in Thailand there was never a big outbreak of cases, or should I say reported cases. However with other countries starting to introduce an easing of restrictions, Thailand joined in. One of the first things we did was head out for haircuts!! For the boys, we had started to look a bit like yeti’s so it was very nice to get the clippers revved up. Of course everywhere we went we had to wear masks, which both Lyra and I really disliked, and felt it was pointless. Despite some easing, life still continued at home, schools remained shut, and all the discussion was around whether they would go back before the Summer hols, and of course how Indi and every other sixteen year old would be able to take exams. It wasn’t long before it became clear that the exams simply couldn’t go ahead and that they would be judged on the work they had been doing for the last two years. Assessed by their teachers, and then validated by the exam boards based on the submission of pieces of work. At Brighton, they felt they still needed some further evidence so they did set up a number of live online tests for certain subjects, which Indi tackled really well. We had been concerned that all this uncertainty would really impact Indi, but she took a really pragmatic view and went along with the advice given. She took all of her tests, worked hard to get ready for them, and did a great job. She was happy that the examination boards were getting a good insight of what she had done so she felt quite comfortable with the approach. And of course was very happy that the overall iGCSE exams were not going to happen!
The partial easing also meant that we could get together with some friends. Thankfully our close friends took a similar view to us and were happy to get together. Logan could finally meet up with Ayton, and they had a great playdate together. It was even more exciting when Logan found out that Ayton had just got a new puppy! Little Roxy was tiny!! Not even cat sized!! But Logan was in love! At his sleepover, he carried on doing his home schooling with Ayton, hats off the Cici for keeping them both focused on their tasks as well as Ayton’s older Sister!!
With the easing of the lockdown, we were able to head out for the day by the end of the month, we did some research and found a restaurant we loved that wouldn’t make us wear masks, wouldn’t force us to all sit on separate tables, or have perspex sheeting between each of us (which was becoming the norm in many places) so we headed out for lunch and the Gardens of Dinsor. They have a lovely garden right in the heart of the city, shaded by the trees and with a lovely big pond full of Koi carp. It was great to be out and about again! When we think about the amount of moving about we usually did, especially me, I hadn’t left Thailand or gotten on a plane since mid Feb, it was normally every couple of weeks at least!
After our great lunch out we headed over to the Bangkok lung, an area of the city where the river almost encircles it and is a big green area with only local, small dwellings. It is like being out in the rural areas right in the middle of the city, it’s very green! We went to have a look at a park over there but sadly it was closed (due to the remaining restrictions), so we headed over to a place I had been to before. We walked along the riverside on raised wooden walkways through to a nice cafe, but they too were insisting that we would have to sit apart from each other, despite the fact we were the only ones there and had travelled there together in the same car!! Insane! Still we kept walking and found another place who were a little more relaxed! We had a drink and an ice cream and enjoyed chilling by the river for a while!
June brought more ‘normalisations’, so Logan was the host for a mad afternoon at our place, and we could resume our weekly yoga sessions live! Yes, we no longer had to rely on video lessons from Khun Apple , she was back!! Then in the middle of June, with 3 weeks until the summer holidays, the school re-opened!!
Yes, while many of the other international school had called summer early, Brighton went back. This was great news and gave the kids a chance to get an understanding of what School was going to be like in the COVID era. They would have to wear masks, they would have to socially distance themselves, and many other restrictions, but they were back in school and we were all happy about that (we really were, even the kids!).
One thing that Logan and his buddies had been practicing for since the beginning of the year was the Brighton’s Got Talent competition! They had formed a band, The Demons, Ayton on drums, Japan on the piano, and Petch, Namin, and Logan doing vocals!! As there were no big gatherings, the entrants had to record their entries so we all gathered at Japans for the big recording session. They did a great job, all dressed in matching T-shirts and with the help of Ayton’s drumming tutor they put on a great performance. In the end, the school recognised all the entries and didn’t announce a winner, instead they celebrated all those that made the finals!
Those three weeks zoomed by, and before we knew it, the summer holidays had arrived!! Of course, this summer was going to be different, no flying to Europe or any international travel. Luckily though, we live in Thailand and there was a huge country to discover!
I had recently managed to get my motorbike licence sorted out, so I took the plunge and bought a bike! Nothing crazy, it was just to get me to work and back, as on the bike it takes about 10-15 mins, but by car it can be up to an hour at times. Plus with all the activities the kids do, it gets a bit much, so this would give us a lot more flexibility. Riding in Bangkok was a little bit scary at first, but I soon got used to the traffic and making my way in between all the stopped traffic, now, I love getting about on the bike!
The kids enjoyed a week of chilling out once the holidays started, Logan and his crew went off for a day at an adventure centre within the Bangkok Lung called Get Growing Farm. Oh my word, what a day they had, riding rafts, being tipped into the water, climbing over rope bridges, down slides into big mud baths, just good old mucky fun!! And did they love it!!!
As we headed through July though it was time for our first road trip, just a few hours away in Kaoh Yai. We were meeting Cici and Arm with Ayton and Ali, plus Rai and Danny with Petch and his Sister Pitcher. We were staying for a couple of days at a resort called Toscanna, which has been built to resemble an Italian village! All sounds a bit odd, but it has been done really well, and when you are sitting outside a restaurant in the Piazza, you could be in Italy!! They even have a leaning tower of Piza (although it doesn’t have a lean!!)
We arrived during the afternoon and met up at a cafe to have a catch up and let the kids run off some energy. As we were fully into the summer, this means that it’s rainy season, so we saw a bit of rain during the afternoon. The kids didn’t care, they were playing footie and enjoying the playground in the rain! They looked like a bunch of drowned rats when we finally found them! So it was time for a shower and a change of clothes, then we got back together for a ‘quiet’ dinner on the resort.
The next day, we all headed off in convoy to discover a bit of the national park. As we headed into the park we had a little fun at the entrance as the families were mixed up within the cars. This wouldn’t normally be a problem however, in the COVID times, the Thai government has started to charge foreigners more to enter national parks . So the park staff has to work out how much to charge each car with a mix of locals and foreigners in each car, it was hilarious!
Once in the park we drove up into the rolling hills, climbing higher, and higher. Once we made it to the park visitor centre, it was notably cooler up in the hills, not cool, but cooler. We went for a walk through the woods, and admired the amazing trees, views, and wildlife. To be fair most of the wildlife that we saw had come with us! The noise they make, the local wildlife was far away from us!! We continued to drive through the park, stopping every now and then to take a look around, or grab some refreshments. At one such stop they boys were having a look around and they stumbled across a deer. This deer wasn’t seemingly afraid of us, and Logan managed to get within a few metres of it!! By mid afternoon, we all getting a bit hungry so we set off for a restaurant. While we were there, the kids got to say hi to a lovely little parrot (probably not a parrot, but it looked a bit like one!), they all got to hold it and even give it a stoke if they were careful!!
Back at Toscanna, we hired bikes and rode around the resorts bike track with all the kids! For Logan, this was probably the furthest he had ridden since he had mastered two wheels! He did brilliantly and really pushed himself.
In the evening we had booked an outside table on the piazza, and were hoping that we had a dry evening! It was a wonderful evening, and it really felt like we were sat somewhere in Italy, they even had a fabulous street performer playing saxophone to accompany the amazing Italian food!
Next day we were heading home, as we were packing up, I went to pull the car around to our room, but it wouldn’t start, it seemed the battery had died overnight! Thankfully it’s a leased car, so they would come and sort it out… in theory! It took a few calls and the help of my assistant, but within a few hours the mechanic arrived to fix it. Unfortunately for him, Arm and I had just got it started!!
While we were waiting for the car to be fixed, the kids dragged us back down to the bike tracks and we did another couple of laps of the bike track again! They definitely had the biking bug!
With the car running, we decided that with the dodgy battery we should aim to drive back without switching it off, so we headed out and drove back without stopping!!
Once back home, Khun Ae got the car fixed up with a new battery, which was just as well as we were off on our epic adventure the following weekend! For years, in fact ever since we had been coming to Thailand I had wanted to see the North, but we had never done it, until now! As we were unable to travel internationally it was the perfect time do some touring. So we loaded up the car and headed North!
First stop was Ayutthaya, about 2 hours out of Bangkok, it is one of the ancient cities of Siam (former name of Thailand). Just before we got there the heavens opened and we got a big downpour, not to worry though, in Thailand, 15 mins after a rain storm there is no sign of the damp! We had a spot of lunch in a local restaurant. It was going to be just a drink and a snack, but a bit of missed translation and we seems to get a little more food than we expected, but hey, it was nice so no worries. After lunch we had a good look around the ancient city park. Amazingly you can climb all over these ruins, it was a pretty stunning place, the old pagoda’s were often on a slant due to their sheer weight but they have been standing for a long time, so we shouldn’t criticise!!
After our wander around it was back in the car as our target was to get to Sukhothai that day, which is another ancient city, and the old capital of Siam. It was about another four hours drive north, but it was pretty easy driving with relatively light traffic so we made it in good time. The hotel we had booked was a lovely boutique place and our room was a kind of two storey duplex suite, so kids upstairs, Ly and I downstairs… perfect. We dropped our bags and wandered off down the street to a restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was a really nice outdoor restaurant. In normal times you would expect this place to be full of tourists, but sadly it was very quiet. Dinner was nice though. Once back to the room, we hung out, played a bit of guitar, and played few games of cards.
In the morning, we packed the car up, and headed over to the historical city park. We paid to be taken around on a buggy as it’s a pretty big place. Once in the park we realised we were the only ones there, the whole city , and it was just us. This is one of Thailands most popular destinations in normal times, and it was completely empty. Obviously this is really sad for all the local traders etc, but it did mean that we could take a good look around in complete peace (if you ignored our kids), and also get some wonderful photos.
After lunch, we hit the road again, today’s target was to reach Chiang Mai. It was a long drive, about six hours, but the countryside was lovely, it was interesting to see how the scenery changed as we got further north. Certainly the large open plains were exchanged for lots of wooded hills, it was really lovely.
Google of course took us off on a few detours down some pretty minor roads as it calculated that it would be a couple of seconds quicker, but it was great to get off the high roads and see the real countryside.
As day was coming to a close, we made it to Chiang Mai, we found the apartment we rented a collapsed onto the beds (well I did anyway!). The apartment was nice, but tiny! Certainly not designed for a family of five! Either way, it would work for us, we only needed a place to sleep!
Dinner was at a jungle themed restaurant, the venue was great, next to a lake, with plenty to keep Logan occupied! Dinner was good, if you like lots of fried stuff, but it did the trick after our long day in car.
Next day we had a slow start, but we headed out to find somewhere for lunch, our first option was closed due to the lack of tourists but the second one was open and it was wonderful. Set on the river, it was a great mixed menu, plenty for the kids, and the best milkshakes!!
During the afternoon, we had a drive around the old city, we wanted to take a look at few places but the whole place was pretty much closed, barely a shop open, most of the cafe’s, bars, and restaurants were closed too. It was really sad, we had heard so many great things about Chiang Mai, and it looked really nice. Attractions were closed, parks were closed, COVID had destroyed the city’s tourist trade, it was a ghost town.
So with that in mind we headed out of the city to find a temple on top of the mountain! It seemed pretty simple, there was pretty much only one road, so we couldn’t miss it. We climbed and climbed, higher and higher. The temperature dropped from about 34C, down to about 20C! It felt chilly up there! We stopped at a lookout, high up in the clouds. Looking down on a village nestled in the hills, it was an incredible view. However, we hadn’t made it to the temple yet, so we headed on. The roads got smaller, and narrower, then we passed where the pin said it was, and nothing… we kept driving, but found nothing. So we turned around and headed back to the pin location. There was a small road heading off, but not big enough for the car. We parked up and headed off on foot, it wasn’t far, and this definitely wasn’t the temple we were looking for, but it was an amazing little shrine, lost in the woods, one of those unexpected little gems!
We headed back down and stopped at a village on the way, and realised that the temple was a short walk from where we were standing!! The temple was worth the adventure, it was lovely, really spectacular, and the view out across Chiang Mai was stunning.
With so many restaurants closed, we decided to return to the restaurant we had lunch at. In the evening it was also lovely, we sat inside this time, and we shared the restaurant with one other table, and had a really nice evening, the food lived up to the expectations we had built up, especially the desserts!! During dinner we also continued our tournament of cards, we truly are a competitive family!!
In the morning we were preparing for the next leg of our tour, today we were going further North to Chiang Rai! Before we left though, we wanted to check out the pool up on the roof! It was really lovely, and a great view! But Chiang Rai beckoned!
The road up to Chiang Rai was a great drive, long sweeping corners through wonderful wooded valleys, the time past quickly, and before we knew we were driving into the town. It’s not a big place and we soon found the hotel. We were staying at the Le Meridien, a bit of luxury after all these days on the road! We had earned it!!
As soon as we got there, I needed to jump onto a call for work (my only one of the week), so everyone else headed off into the hotel to have a good look around! Unsurprisingly they found a nice outdoor restaurant and enjoyed a lovely lunch in the sun. The hotel, as you would expect, was very, very quiet. Once we got into our rooms, we got changed an chilled by the pool, we were the only ones around…
We woke up ready for adventure, today we were going to discover The White Temple. We had seen photos of it, so we were excited to see it for real. And boy did it live up to expectations! It was an amazing sight, so different from any other temple we had seen in Thailand (and we’ve seen a few!). Built by a famous local artist, he funded the project completely by himself to ensure there were no outside influences on his design. It tells a story of finding enlightenment within the the distractions of the modern world, it is a truly stunning place. All around the temple is also great to see, with beautiful gardens, and a second palace dedicated to celebrating the Hindu god Ganesha.
Part of the temple grounds included a wish tree, so we added a few of our own, wishes for the family, and the wider world…
It was a really hot day, so once we had finished having a look around, we retreated to an Amazon Cafe for some lovely cold smoothies! The rest of the day was back to the hotel to chill by what was increasingly seeming like our own personal pool complex!!
Our next target was to reach our furthest point North in Thailand, known as the Golden Triangle, it is where Thailand meets Myanmar and Laos, separated by the mighty Mekong river. On the way, we stopped at an interesting place called the Black House, or Baan Dam. Built by another famous Thai artist, Thawan Duchanee. This was a very odd set of buildings that resembled the set of Games of Thrones! A fascinating collection of buildings, settings, paintings, and artefacts.
Then we continued north to the Thai border. Reaching this point was a great moment, this was the intended destination of our adventure! We had made it!! It was a stunning location, the Mekong river is a serious river! Again we seemed to be pretty much the only visitors, there were a few stores open selling refreshments and a bunch of long tail boats running trips out on to the river. We decided that would be fun so we donned our life jackets and headed up the river, we headed further north between Myanmar and Laos, then turned back and headed down river too. We turned again to head back to the Thai side and the boats engine stalled! Out captain frantically tried to restart it but it seemed to not want to play. The Mekong , especially at this time of year is a pretty fast flowing river, so without an engine we were drifting down stream pretty fast! We all looked at each other wandering what was going to happen here.. Thankfully just as we were thinking where are we going to end up, the engine burst into life, our captain smiled, and let out a big sigh of relief and took as back upstream to the jetty!!!
On the way back to Chiang Rai we took a detour to visit some mountain gardens called Doi Tung Royal gardens. Again it involved a pretty serious mountain road drive, we were again very high up, and the temperature was dropping. When we arrived we were presented with some stunning mountain side crafted gardens. They were beautiful, awash with multi coloured flowers and plants, it was absolutely lovely! We wandered around and found a treetop walkway and zipline experience. It was great, the only challenge we had to getting on was that Lyra wasn’t wearing trousers (she had a dress on, she wasn’t half naked!), so they loaned her a pair! I’m sure most of you know Lyra is quite keen on being clean and hygienic, so being asked to wear somebody else’s trousers was not something she fancied doing! However, she wanted to do the walkway, so the trousers went on! It was a great walkway, and the ziplines were great fun. It was the first time Logan had experienced one and despite being a bit nervous he loved it!!
So now that we had gone as far north as we could go (considering we couldn’t cross borders) it was time to head south again. Before we did though, we had one more night at the Le Meridian, and it was buffet night! Yet again, we were the only ones in the buffet, our time there felt like we had the entire hotel to ourselves! It was a BBQ buffet, so the kids were loving having steaks, pork, and chicken chargrilled, just for them, and for Ly and I, they dod some lovely fish, calamari, and shrimp. Wonderful.
The following day, we packed up and hit the road, we were aiming to drive straight back through to Sukhothai (about 7.5 hours) to be able to see sunset at the ancient city. Well we made it! It was a long, long drive, but through beautiful countryside, we had our playlists and there was a lot of singing along to our favourite tunes, and we arrived back in Sukhothai in time for the sunset. It was a holiday weekend, and this had brought a lot more people out to tourist destinations, so we had to share the place with a few others!
We checked into a very small B&B, and headed over to the park. This time we hired bikes and rode around the historical park. The bikes were traditional Thai style bikes, which are a very different riding position to our mountain bikes. They took a bit of getting used too and we had some giggles as we wobbled around, but we got the hang of it.
It was great to ride around, with the sun going down the heat was dropping so it was a really nice experience. The atmosphere of the place was really nice too, lots of happy smiling people, watching the increasingly beautiful sunset over the ruins of Sukhothai. Just stunning!
Once the sun went down, we took our bikes back and went off to look for somewhere to eat… Sadly, many restaurants were still closed, the great one we went to last time was full, so the hunt continued. After about an hour of searching we ended up at The Pizza Company! We got takeaway and took I back to the B&B, living it up on the last night of our grand road trip! Pizza and a game or two of Sussed!
After a good night sleep, split between the boys and the girls, we had a nice breakfast at the B&B, we enjoyed playing with the young kids of the family that ran the place, and even discovered they were Liverpool fans!! But it was time to head home, this was our last leg, a six hour trip back into Bangkok. This was by far the hardest part of the trip, the traffic got back to the normal busy levels, so far less relaxing, but I think we had also had such a great time, it was a little sad that it was coming to an end. Having said that, it was lovely to get back to our home.
It was great to be back in the comfort zone, but we had a brilliant time on the road. We settled in for a few days and then we met up with Linda, Rayard, and their littlies Holly & Olivia at their place to celebrate Holly’s birthday. It was nice to meet up with these guys as we hadn’t seen them since before the lockdown had started so we had plenty to catch up on. The kids enjoyed a few games together and then it was time for pizza and cake!! Lovely!
I went back to work for a couple of weeks, and Logan of course went and spent some time with Ayton!! We then headed off again for a week away together, this time to Hua Hin, which is about 3 hours south of Bangkok. It was a nice easy drive down, and we arrived at the Hilton late in the afternoon. We had a 2 bed suite waiting for us with a nice view out to sea, we quickly unpacked our things and headed out to discover the hotel. They were doing a bit of a refurb, so around the lobby it was all a bit of a mess, but the rest of the hotel was really nice. As per our new normal the hotel was very quiet. We had a good look around, and then wandered down to the beach for paddle! Unlike our time in Phuket, the swell was non existent which didn’t please the kiddo’s but the beach itself was really nice. We sat and watched the sun go down.
The following morning we got ourselves up and headed for a relaxing breakfast in the lounge, as was becoming our usual we played a few rounds of cards, Gong of course. We then got ourselves together and hit the pool! No worries about finding a sun bed, we could take our pick as we had the place to ourselves… again! Much to the joy of Indi, Kai, and Logan, there was a swim up bar, so it didn’t take long before we were hanging around enjoying a drink ! There was also a water slide, which Kai and Logan loved! It actually was a pretty good slide and it fired you in to the pool at high speed!! In particular, Logan came around the final bend so high up on the side he looked like he might fly over the top! Thankfully he didn’t!
Logan and Kai also made their way down to the beach as they wanted to bury each other! There was also an attempt at building a castle, but they seemed to lose interest half way through! Logan, Kai, and I had a bit of a wander along the beach, and met a few beach ride ponies, they were very sweet, and thankfully looked in excellent health. After posing for a few pics we headed back to find the girls… who were chilling out around the pool.
Our room came with lounge access so most evenings we headed down there for our dinner and of course our few rounds of Gong! We then chilled in the room to watch a few episodes of our latest viewing favourite Lost in Space (an updated version!). We also noticed that Logan seemed to be glowing, and giving off a fair bit of heat! Yes, our boy had burned! It hadn’t been a particularly sunny day so we had been quite relaxed about the sunscreen, big mistake clearly, so it was out with the after sun!
After a couple of days hanging around and chilling at the pool, dodging the odd downpour here and there, we decided to go for a bit of look around. Khun Apple (our Yoga teacher) had recommended us to go down to Plan Buri, just south of Hua Hin, so we jumped in the car and trundled down that way. We found the little boutique hotel that she had recommended and stopped there for a drink, and a game of cards of course, but decided not to spend the day there so we got in the car a did a little more adventuring around.
Lyra found what looked like it might be a nice bay, so we pumped it into google maps and headed off there. The Sanae Beach Club at Sanae beach (who would have thought!) turned out to be a lovely little resort, that you could pay for a day pass and use all their facilities. What you paid to get in became credit for drinks & food while you were there, we had no problem covering that!!
It was a great spot, nice a quiet, the boys and I had a walk along the beach and went for a climb over the rocks at one end. We managed to get up to the top of a lookout which was pretty cool, especially as we no shoes on!! We spent the afternoon taking it easy, then had dinner at the resort. The food was excellent and as it got dark the place was lit up with fairy lights, always a winner with us! We had a really nice dinner, then climbed back in the car to head back to the hotel, happy and content from a lovely day.
The next few days were a pleasant Groundhog Day of pool and beach, but for our last night, we decided to head out and try the Marriott which was just down the road. We booked to eat in their Big Fish restaurant, which by all accounts was superb! The resort itself looked really nice, and Logan insisted that we come back and stay there soon! The resort was designed with water ways that meant you could step out of your room straight into the pool that ran all around the place, it looked really lovely.
The restaurant itself was really nice, there was a little moment when we arrived that we thought uh oh, this isn’t going to work. We weren’t allowed to walk from the entrance of the restaurant to our table unless we put on masks! Bloody ridiculous, but we decided to let it go, and we were so glad we did as the food was amazing! The chef came out to see us and told us all about the menu and gave Logan lots of treats (always a winning tactic!). We had a great evening, lovely fish, and superb desserts!! What more could we ask for!
The next day it was time to head back to Bangkok, in the morning, we had out last breakfast (with a few rounds of Gong, which by the way, I was winning by a healthy margin!), had a wander around the pool again, had a final drink at the beach bar, before climbing into the car to head home..
Once back at home, the kids had a week or so before term started, and all was looking good for the school to open so no more online school. We were also excitedly awaiting Indi’s iGCSE results. She had a couple come through while we were in Hua Hin, and they were really good A’s & B’s, but she was still waiting for the rest, and getting in-patient!! Anyway, soon enough they were delivered, and at the same time there was an amendment to her earlier results too, so Indi ended up with 10 A’s, including 7A*!!! She was over the moon, and we were super proud parents! We knew Indi had put the work in so we were absolutely delighted that she got such brilliant results! To celebrate, we headed to the Goji Kitchen at the Marriott for a buffet with a difference. In these Pandemic times, at a buffet you can no longer serve yourself, so you have to ask the staff to serve you. All worked ok, and we had a lovely lunch and celebrated Indi’s great achievement and the great work both Kai and Logan had done during online schooling.
And then, just before the end of August, the schools reopened! Kai, and Logan pulled out their uniforms once again, Indi got dressed up in her 6th form smart suit (!), sadly they had to wear masks, but at least they were back and could socialise with their friends again!
On the Friday evening of this week, we got a clear reminder that the rainy season was still with us with a torrential downpour leaving all roads around us under water!
With school back, and me spending a few days a week in the office, Lyra found September a welcome return to some form of normality! I even got to enjoy a day of peace and quiet as I had a day off in which Lyra and I enjoyed a lunch together in a lovely little restaurant Lyra had found next to a spa she had visited.
At school there were many restrictions in place to control contact between people including a very strict pick up approach for the kids at the end of the day. To help with the strict timing that was being applied, Khun Ae, our driver also at times picked up Ayton and Elias and waited in the car park with the three boys having ‘fun’ in the car together. I am sure Khun Ae must have gone home with a headache on those days!! Some days there were still CCA’s, but on others we found things for the boys to do together (while they waited to pick up Indi and Kai), one of the new activities Logan was doing was rock climbing. The local fitness centre had a climbing wall and Logan, Elias, and Sara were building up their skills and bravery climb all the way to the top!
As we hit October, the rains were still falling! In fact we had the biggest flood of the year just before Logan’s birthday. The flood covered the entire Moo Baan and made it’s way about half way up our driveway, so it must have been 30-40mm deep!!
Luckily, Logan’s 8th birthday fell on a Sunday so we were able to fully celebrate on the day! We started with a nice cooked breakfast, and then Logan got to open his gifts from us. He wore his new Liverpool shirt (a gift from Petch), so I wore mine too! It was then time to head over to the Gateway Mall and meet up with fellow birthday boys, Ayton and Petch for their Harbourland party! Most of their classmates were there and they had a couple of hours to go crazy in the adventure playground. They had an absolute blast! After this the sweaty beasts all piled into the party room for piles of very unhealthy food and snacks! Once they were full of all of the ‘health’ food it was time for cake! Our good friend Sal had made the birthday cakes and they were spectacular!!
Once we got back from the party, we were all bushed, it had been quite a day! Once we had chilled out a bit, Logan couldn’t wait any longer, he had a huge pile of gifts from all his friends at the party and he needed to open them! Well he was one lucky fella with lots of really nice presents, including about 6 different Nerf guns!!!
The day after Logan’s big celebration Lyra and I did something we hadn’t done in over 6 months… we got on a plane!! In past years we had always tried to get away for a week on a healthy retreat, normally we have made it over to Portugal, for our Juicy Oasis treat, but of course COVID had made sure we weren’t leaving Thailand so we went down to Phuket for a week at an Ayhurvedic retreat. We were going to enjoy a week of vegan food, yoga, and some wonderful Ayurvedic massage. The Mangosteen was a fabulous resort in the south of the island. Sadly it is suffering the way all resorts and hotels are due to the travel restrictions, and we were the only guests! Truly having a resort to yourself is a bitter sweet experience, yes it is wonderfully peaceful and we were very well looked after. We had all the flexibility to complete the program as we wanted, but you couldn’t help feeling sad for the owners, those that had lost their jobs, and the local vendors that simply had no tourists to serve.
The Ayhurvedic treatments were amazing, having two massages a day was fabulous, the vegan menu was really lovely and we were able to vary what we had as they were preparing it specifically for us. We felt very special!
As we mentioned before, our friends Bernadette and Ian were still living in Phuket so they came over to see us for dinner. It was great to see them again, but we were saddened to hear that they had decided to leave Phuket and return to the UK. With the lockdown in Phuket being so strict, and no sight of being able to travel freely or have guests come over, they felt the main benefits of being in Phuket were not able to be realised, so it was time to go. We had a lovely evening together, and wished them all the best on the return to the UK.
While we were in Phuket, Logan had a nice trip out with school, they went a Swiss restaurant to experience cuisine from another culture. Logan loved going to the restaurant, but was not always a fan of the food they had to try!!
No sooner had we unpacked from Phuket when we were heading off to Kanchanaburi with The Cantwells, and The Stepniak’s for a long holiday weekend! You would have thought by now the rain would have given up but no, it had clearly heard that we had glamorous ladies going camping, or to be more precise, glamping, so the weather decided to test us further! We grown up’s came in our car with me driving, and the kids, all eight of them went with Mr T (Not the guy from the A team). It’s about a three hour drive, and all went smoothly. First stop was the Bridge over the river Kwai. We walked the bridge, posed for photo’s and then made our way to a restaurant on the river that gave us a nice view of the bridge. Once we had filled ourselves up, it was back in the cars and onwards to our glamorous campsite near Hellfire Pass.
The rain was pretty heavy as we pulled into the campsite but they were well prepared for the weather and had covered trolleys to pile our luggage into. The campsite sits high up so there was a wonderful view of the river. We checked in and made our way to our tents. For us Culveys we were splitting by Boys and Girls (not fair to make Indi crash with the boys these days!) so we made ourselves comfortable and then got our swimmers on and headed down to the natural spring pool! It was really nice, the water was a bit cool as it came off the hills but very refreshing! Dinner was at the resorts restaurant and it was an eat all you can buffet, so what it lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity! Not memorable, but it served a purpose for our hungry beasts!
In the morning we all set off for Hellfire pass, this is a section of a railway built by allied POW’s captured during WWII. This section was the toughest to build as it cuts through solid rock. It is a quiet place of reflection that reminds us all of the sacrifice so many made during this period. You can walk a few kilometres along the railway and there are a number of reminders along the way of how it was built and the challenges faced. We hired the audio guides and listened to the incredible stories of the POW’s. A touching experience.
After all this, everyone was hungry so it was time to find a restaurant! We had passed a nice looking place yesterday so we headed there. We found it easily enough and it was really nice, partially outdoors with a huge green area for the kids to run around. We ordered a pile of food to share and relaxed into the afternoon.
Our next stop was to reach the pier on the river we needed to take us to the Float House, our hotel for the night. It is aptly named as it is a string of floating hotel rooms all linked together. It was a lovely place, really well designed, and the rooms were lovely. Each one has a platform on the river so you can enjoy the view and watch the river flow by! Again we had dinner in the hotel (no choice really, as we were really in the middle of nowhere). It was a great evening, we sat and chatted for hours, and the kids all got on so well, they were having so much fun even though they were all different ages from 8 to 16!
The following day we arranged to have a trip along the river, we took two boats, adults and kids. The kids headed off ahead of us, and we didn’t see them again until we reached our destination! Along the way we jumped in and had a swim and floated along with the boat, it was a great trip. Once we were back at the float house the kids wanted to jump in at one end of the hotel, float down stream and then catch the jetty at the other end! The river is relatively fast flowing so I went in with them to make sure everyone got back across the river to not miss the jetty at the end!! They loved it and did it two or three times!!
Our day of action wasn’t over though, next we headed up the river to another ‘on land’ resort where they had a treetop adventure and ziplines! First of all we had to got through some training which in itself was an experience and took a while to get us all through, then it was up in to the trees to start the adventure. Logan was the youngest that did it, and there was no doubt he was a bit nervous, but he did really well and took on every challenge and conquered the whole course, including the last super long zipline that zooms right across a lake!! Brilliant fun!
After all that fun, it was time to get back to the hotel, grab some food then head back to the cars as we needed to get home!! Tomorrow we had school and work! We ordered food then got ourselves packed up and checked out, and waited for our food, and waited, and waited! We then realised that their capacity to produce what we had ordered was going to take a good while, I guess we weren’t getting home very early!
Over the last year or so, we had noticed that Logan had a runny nose a lot, and was always sneezing. It seemed he was struggling a bit with some allergies. So we got him checked out. He took the allergy test where they prick your skin with about ten different common allergies. Logan, as usual, took it in his stride, and we discovered that he is allergic to horses, cats and dogs, grass and bed mites!! Now we knew this we could make some changes to help him. He also got some medicine to try to clear it up. So now he has to be careful not to get too close to the cats for too long, and ensure we keep his bedroom animal clear, and make sure we keep his bed very clean to keep the mites down. We have seen an improvement and it is very obvious when he has spent too much time with his beloved cats.
It’s the end of October! That means it’s halloween!! Of course, going house to house was not really going to be the done thing this year, but thankfully our restrictions were not severe so there was no reason we couldn’t get together and party!! As many of you may be aware, last year we went to a mega halloween party at our friends Paul and Su’s. Well this year, because our friends Kerrie and Marek were on their final countdown before they left for Australia (hopefully) they wanted to do it at their place as a kind of leaving do part 1! So Paul brought his halloween decorating kit (enough to fill a 20ft container!!) Lyra was part of the prep team and they all spent nearly 10 days turning Kerrie’s place into a nightmare on Moo Baan Panya!! A lot of work for sure, but the place looked incredible!!
The big day arrived and we all got dressed up, Kai as James Bond (very suave these days), Indi & Logan as the cutest Men in Black you had ever seem, and Lyra and I as Trinity & Neo from the Matrix! I think we all looked amazing, but kudos to Lyra, she even cut about 6 inches off her hair to emulate Trinity, she looked awesome!! We hired a professional photographer to be able to catch the best of the evening which you will see in our photos section. What a night it was, lots of people came and the costumes were amazing! We had a good few Marvel characters, Thor, Black Widow, Dr Strange, as well as Wonder Woman!! The Money Heist crew made an appearance, as did Donald Trump with his Ex wife Ivanka!! What a night! Huge thanks must go to Paul, Su, Kerrie,Marek, and Lyra for doing so much to make it a memorable night! And we won’t talk about the strop the DJ had during the evening… :-)
As November settled in, we felt we hadn’t been anywhere for a few weeks so we drove down to Hua Hin on a Friday night to join good friends Cici, Arm, Danny, Rai, plus all the kids (mostly Logan’s buddies) at the Sofitel. A great resort, very kid focused with a big pool and an inflatable obstacle course called a Wibit right down the middle.. the kids couldn’t wait until the morning to be able to climb all over it! That night as we were all arriving at different times we got ourselves settled in and met down at one of the restaurants for a bit of dinner, the kids ran amok around the place until we decided to call it a day and get to bed and be ready for a crazy day around the pool tomorrow.
Saturday was one long party for the kids, and one long chill for us grown ups!! Everyone had a great day and as the sun went down we gathered by the beach for a few sun downer drinks before moving on to dinner outside the main restaurant. It was a very chatty, chilled evening that also became a very wet night!! We lost the kids for most of the evening as they did their own thing in the resort, playing fusball and climbing over the playground.
Before we knew it, Sunday morning had arrived and it was time to think about heading home, of course the kids hung out for as long as they could! We had a nice breakfast, but in the end it was time to hit the road, Bangkok beckoned once again.
Lyra went on a cycling trip around Bangkok with her friend Clare which by all accounts was great fun and gave her the opportunity to see new areas of the city and learn more about the locals that live their lives here. Logan had a good bounce at Bounce for Dexters birthday, Kai joined the school basketball team and won a medal at a local tournament, India was finally presented her iGCSE certificates in a ceremony at the school, and we were finally allowed to come to the school and be part of the celebrations! In between all this, we hit the shops and tried to find each other Christmas presents, not particularly successfully!
We received sad news in November, after a long battle with illness, our beloved Uncle Michael finally passed away peacefully. The last few months had been really tough for him, as well as the family, as he spent most of his time in hospital. With all of the COVID restrictions poor Auntie couldn’t go and see him, and it was even difficult to be able to speak to him. Despite great efforts by Chris, Gemma, Jane, and Lyra we were really struggling to get clear information on how he was, whether he was improving or in real danger. It was such a difficult time, in particular for Chris and Gemma as they were right there and trying so hard to get updates. Eventually we did manage to get a process together to be updated, but it was clear things didn’t look positive, and then we got the news that Auntie had been called in to the hospital. Thankfully she got to say goodbye and he slipped away peacefully. During these times even funerals are restricted, so only a handful of people could be present to say goodbye to Uncle, however there were some wonderful memories shared via Lyra’s lovely words that were read out at the service on behalf of the family. We watched online from Thailand, very sad, but for Michael his suffering was over, he could rest now.
As we came to the end of November, we headed away again for a weekend at the birds and bees resort in Pattaya. The resort was owned by the same group that run Cabbages & Condoms, a great restaurant in Bangkok. We had purchased vouchers to stay in the summer while lockdown was on as they were great value and we were keen to help independent Thai businesses. Our plan was to go with our friend Vikki, with her boys. Sadly COVID created havoc in their lives. Vikki and her boys had travelled to the UK at Easter to sort out some personal things, but found that it was very hard to get back. In the end Vikki came back on her own after significant challenges. Then the next problem was getting her boys back, issue after issue saw them not make it by the summer holidays. Eventually Ollie made it back at the 2nd attempt and rejoined school but neither Ollie or Vikki were settled. Within a few weeks, they both decided to that going back to the UK was the right thing for them and we had to say goodbye. It was a very sad time, Ollie was Kai’s closest friend, they would really miss each other, and we would miss Vikki, she had become a close family friend. We could only hope that they would find a better path once they were back together in the UK.
Anyway, that meant we couldn’t go to Pattaya together, so we had to enjoy it alone. The resort is lovely, right on the coast with a lovely view out to sea. Somewhat ruined each morning by some guy that insisted on standing in the sea stark naked, with the sea just low enough to make it unpleasant for anyone looking in that direction!! We had a nice big suite though and enjoyed dinner under the stars with their lovely local cuisine.
Saturday was spent hanging around the pool, and down on the beach. A great chilled out day. In the evening we headed over to Pattaya bay and had dinner at a great BBQ restaurant buffet. Our meat loving kids had a feast!! After dinner, we strolled down to the beach and joined the thousands of others that had gathered for a firework display. As we hung out waiting for the fireworks, Logan amused himself with a flying spinner we bought from a vendor, a bargain for this level of fun! The fireworks finally started and they were worth the wait, it was a fab display!! Getting back to the hotel was fun, we had found a great parking spot, but the city was full of people trying to get out too so it was very slow going!
Sunday morning was a chilled breakfast, a quiet pack up and then we headed home once again, another weekend in a great place together as a family. We know how lucky we are to be able to do this when most of the world is locked down. Privileged, and humbled by our fortunate situation.
The 1st of December is always a bit of a special date in the Culvey house. Why, well it’s the day Belfy (our Elf on the shelf) arrives to play with Logan, and report back to Santa on how he is behaving! Interestingly, sometimes it should be us talking to Santa about Belfy’s behaviour as every night he gets up to all sorts of mischief! This year he was found zip lining from the fan to the Christmas tree, trying to get into the chocolate hamper that we had been given, in the fridge eating Logan’s chocolate coins, doing snow angels in the flour, and much, much more! Still he is great entertainment!!
As we headed into the last couple of weeks at school, the fun side of the school grows and the academic side seems to take a back seat! Logan had a Stone Age day, where he went to school dressed as a caveman complete with furs and a club! Then Indi and Kai had a movie day, so they dressed up as movie characters, you’ll never guess which ones… Kai was James Bond, and Indi was… Yep, Men in Black! Again!
We also got to be in the school (a rare treat these days) for the Christmas fair, there were lots of stalls, some by the school houses, and others by local traders selling things for Christmas. It was really nice, and Logan even picked up a couple of Christmas presents! Part of the fair is always some entertainment from the kids. Logan joined the Pre-Prep choir and gave us some nice renditions of a few Christmas songs, the older kids did their choir, but without Indi and Kai these days, there was a rock band, and the teachers gave us a rendition of A fairytale from New York, thankfully with quite a few of the words changed from the Pogues original!!
The big event of the year end though was the Senior School Formal! There is enough of them these days so parents are no longer welcome, but Indi and Kai got dressed up and had a really great night together with all their school friends. The evening was held at the Marriott, we all went down together and we were staying the night in the hotel (except Logan who went home and stayed with Khun Wan as he needed to be up for school in the morning). Indi and Kai went off to the party, they enjoyed dinner, music and dancing, plus a few games! They also gave out a few crazy awards which both Indi and Kai managed to swerve, however, Kai did come a close 2nd in the the game where you and a partner (Phoenix) have to both stand on an ever decreasing piece of paper! While they were partying, the parents headed up to the roof bar for their own party! It was clear that the kids were much better behaved! Everyone had a great night, and once it was all done, we all collapsed in bed in the hotel.
There was still school in the morning, Indi and Kai had arranged to go to school with Isobel and Max (who were also staying in the hotel), I woke them up and made sure they were ready, we got down to the lobby, but it was all quiet, no Isobel or Max. I rang Kerrie, and woke her up, they had dropped Lyra a message last night to say they were going to go in a bit later, but Lyra had been a bit sleepy after the party and hadn’t seen it!! Never mind, they hung out for a couple of hours and then all headed in together.
Before the last day at school we had another treat for the parents, as they held a school concert. Both Logan and Indi performed with their respective choirs, as well as a number of other musicians and dancers. A great way to finish the year off.
As soon as the Christmas holidays started, we headed to the airport and flew down to Phuket to stay at our favourite place, the Marriott Beach Club! We hadn’t been since the beginning of the year as the restrictions had stated that masks had to be worn, even when sitting around the pool!! This was not going to happen. Anyway, we decided to risk it and see if it was really enforced, if it was we would find somewhere else to stay. Thankfully though, it was really relaxed and we really didn’t need to wear one at all.
It was great to be back, sadly the hotel was really, really quiet, maybe 20% occupied at the most, we had never experienced it so quiet. It was a great week, we spent a lot of time on the beach, with some great surf for the kids get blasted and thrown around all over the place!! I had to stay out of the water to begin with, I had had a little argument with a pen knife the week before while I was trying to put a new hole in my belt and had given my thumb a nasty cut that got me six stitches! Anyway, the kids managed to have plenty of fun without me! Sitting around the pool, we were pretty much the only ones there (again), sometimes we had to share maybe with one or two others, but never more.
We hadn’t arranged to go on the canoeing trip that we normally do but, this time we decided to go diving. We had done a pool drive the last time we were in Phuket, and Kai was really keen to give it a go in the sea. Indi wasn’t but was happy to snorkel, Lyra really fancied it, but wasn’t ready to commit, as she does have an issue with being under water, so she snorkelled too. Logan was right up for it and desperate to have a go, sadly though he was too young! He had to be ten! It was snorkelling for him too. We went out on a nice boat for the day, with maybe 10 or 12 others, so nice and relaxed. Kai was a bit nervous, but determined to do it. We had our briefing and got the gear on, then it was time to take the plunge. I had done it a couple of times before so I was ok, but this was Kai’s first step in as a diver, he dived straight in though. Once we were in, Kai took to it like fish to water (sorry!), he absolutely loved it. We spent about 40 mins underwater, around 10-12 m down, the coral and sealife was amazing, it was everywhere, and really clear. The highlight was probably the moray eel, a lion fish, a puffer fish, and some amazing star fish! After lunch we did a second dive at a different site, but it was just as good. Kai was very keen to do more and I think we may be heading for an open water course next time!!
While Kai and I were down below, Lyra, Indi, and Logan were enjoying their snorkelling on the surface. They too saw lots of great sea life, and had a fun day! As part of the trip we were given a great lunch, and plenty of snacks and drinks to enjoy, it was a really nice day out.
As you would expect, most of the time we did our favourite holiday pastime, chilling! However, it was only a couple of weeks until Christmas so we had a day out shopping too, we needed to get the Christmas presents ticked off! We hired a car and drove down to the Central Mall. A few hours focused shopping and we were pretty much done!
As mentioned earlier on e of our traditions in Phuket has been to enjoy dinner at Kabuki, the Teppanyaki restaurant in the hotel. Sadly though it had closed! However, in it’s place they had just opened a Benihana’s! Still Teppanyaki, and well known for it’s entertainment! Kai was still not happy at losing Kabuki, but he decided to give it a try! Thankfully, it was a wonderful night, lots of fun having a go at flipping the eggs, and generally smashing them! The food was really lovely, a perfect replacement for our old favourite! Even Kai reluctantly agreed!
Soon enough though the week was over, and it was back to Bangkok for the final preparations for Christmas!
I did a couple more days at work and then it was Christmas all the way until the end of the year! The first part of Christmas is always Lyra, and my wedding anniversary! 19 years to celebrate this year, and we spent the night at the Kempinski in the city. It was really lovely, and beautifully decorated for Christmas. We had a wonderful dinner at their Mediterranean restaurant. Lyra and I enjoyed the peace and tranquility that comes from being alone, without the tribe in tow! We love them dearly, but a night on our own was just lovely!
In the morning, the kids came over to join us for lunch, or to be more accurate, it was high tea! Up in the Exec lounge, it was a collection of sandwiches and yummy cakes, after our quiet night, having everyone back together was noisy!! But it was still a great experience!
We spent a quiet Christmas Eve at home, putting the last touches to things. In the afternoon, Logan’s friends Dexter, plus his Mum and Dad (Carly and Damien), and Elias, with his sisters and his Mum and Dad (Sal, and Chris). They had a great time together and got themselves nicely wound up and excited!! Then it was time to head of to bed to ensure we were ready for Christmas Day! By the time Lyra and I got to bed it was a bit late, and we were shocked to find Logan awake in his room too! He was a bit upset, as he was really excited but couldn’t get to sleep so he was scared that Santa wouldn’t come if he wasn’t asleep! Too cute! Anyway, I laid down and chatted to him for a while, that soon got him off to sleep! And then we were all out for the count building our stamina for the big day!
Of course it started early! Logan was up and excited to share his Christmas stocking with everyone!! However Indi and Kai had given him strict instructions to not disturb before 08:00… so he just bugged Lyra and I! It was lovely actually, seeing him so happy and excited it simply wonderful!
We got ourselves a nice breakfast then settled down to exchange our gifts. We were served by a very odd elf/reindeer called Kai!! We all did very well, we are a very lucky family, and had some wonderful presents! Kai got a new acoustic / electric guitar, Logan had a new digital drum kit (!), Indi had a new professional microphone, Mum, lots of things, smells, treats, and some clothes that she picked out for me to give her!! I was lucky enough to receive a new MacBook Air!
Once the presents were opened, the kids enjoyed them while we helped Khun Wan with the dinner! As many of you will know, Lyra and I don’t eat meat these days, but we do aways make an exception for Christmas and enjoy a turkey! We had managed to get most of the trimmings, sprouts, parsnips (yuk!), even some cranberry sauce, and crackers!! It was a lovely feast!! Christmas dinner of course is not complete without some Christmas Pud and custard! Trouble is, I am the only one that likes it! So I had some as my Christmas Day dessert, and I was still eating it past New Years day!!
Once we had cleared everything away, it was time to settle down on the sofa and start speaking to the family! First up was Nanny & Grampy on Skype, then Uncle Chris, Gemma and Faith, we managed to speak to Auntie Irene too, then Grandad! The rest of the evening was lots of fun games!!
Boxing Day was a bit of a replay of Christmas Day, minus the gifts, lots of food, and games!! Then on the Sunday we had our usual yoga lesson! Then we followed it with lots of food, with Khun Apple, and of course more games!!
New year this year was a bit of a difficult one, in Thailand, we had enjoyed a pretty normal life compared to most of the world, but just before Christmas there had been a spike in infections in a province close to Bangkok. Even though relatively the numbers were still low, it put a lot of people on edge, in response the Government started to restrict things again. In particular gatherings. This meant that the usual gathering around the river to watch the fireworks was not allowed. So we needed to decide what to do, in the end we decided to stay home, and we invited Sal, Chris, Elias, Amira, and Hannah around to celebrate quietly together. Early on I dropped Lyra at T77 to have a drink with Sasha and Raki while I picked up a few pizzas for the kids later, then I picked her back up, with Raki and we headed home to enjoy the evening. It took us a bit longer to get these things done than we had planned and when we got there, Sal and Co. were already at ours! All a bit embarrassing but thankfully Indio and Kai were there to entertain them until we got back!
We had a fun evening together, the little ones amused themselves with games, and the rest of us enjoyed some nice food, and chatted about what year it had been!! Sal and Chris had warned us that they were not sure they would stay until Midnight as their little ones were unlikely to stay awake. How wrong they were!! Little Hannah did fall asleep comfortably in a beanbag, but the rest were wide eyed and going no where!! In fact at about 11:00 they were in the pool!!
As midnight approached, we got ready to celebrate the countdown, after last year it was decided that at midnight, we would all jump in the pool again!! Chris and Sal abstained! But the rest of us took the plunge!! It was actually a bit chilly but once you were in and jumping around it was great!!
And there we have it, 2020 was done, a memorable year for sure, we all looked forwards towards 2021 and hoped for better times for the world, and reflected on our lucky lives here in Thailand.
Happy New Year everyone!!
For a year where there were so many restrictions, we had managed to have another busy and exciting year! Hope you enjoyed our adventures!!
Lots of love, The Traveling Culveys!
Dan, Lyra, Indi, Kai, and Logan xxxxx