Driving

When we first arrived we said "we'll never do that". Now we brave Thailand's roads on a daily basis, along with numerous people, dogs, vendors and the occasional buffalo. It is not like driving in Canada. Here is an illustration of the average 7 minute ride to school. The bits in red are the things that happen.

Pug on a Motorbike

A regular occurrence here in Thailand, for your viewing pleasure here is a pug on a motorbike. We have seen much bigger dogs sitting in this same fashion, but not managed to snap a photo. Not much to say about this one, except enjoy!

The Lady's Club of Thailand

Well, I've had my induction into the Lady's Club of Thailand...

Apparently this happens to all the Thai ladies. I was sitting side-saddle on the motorbike when we had a little tip carrying Shane's surfboard to the beach and I ended up with some painful, but not too serious, 2nd degree burns. Lesson learned and we've now had a blacksmith make us a side rack for the board, so we'll be riding much more safely! Unfortunately this means that I live on an island but I can't go swimming until the bandages come off, sigh.

I love my Fino

Breaking news this mother's day sunday... we have become the proud owners of a motorbike! No more grocery shopping at 7-11, now we can get out to Tesco! No more taking SUPER SLOW buses to the beach, now we can get there ourselves. It is also convenient to be able to go places that are outside walking distance from the apartment. We are definitely looking forward to increased mobility.

Not too shabby! We ended up buying it off a guy who was upgrading from this to something fancier for his girlfriend :) which meant the price was definitely right.

So, for all you prospective visitors, come on down and you can go for a spin (seats up to six lol)! : )

Am Canadian, Will Roadtrip

When confronted with the question of how to move ourselves all the way from Nonthaburi to Phuket (900 kms), we provided the obvious Canadian answer "we'll drive there". We then proceeded to rent a truck (this one), pack up our stuff, and hit the road.


It was a beautiful drive. Shane was armed with the steering wheel and the task of not hitting other vehicles (more challenging in Thailand than in Canada) and I was armed with two maps, some Google map directions I wrote in a notebook, and the knowledge that as long as we went south and a bit west (and didn't cross the border into Burma) we would probably make it. We left at 5am (to miss Bangkok traffic) and around 12 hours later arrived safely in Phuket. On the way we saw incredible scenery, beautiful tropical trees and pre-historic looking mountains that wouldn't have been out of place with a Pterodactyl or two circling the tops.

 A "bus" filled with people. You can't really see in this picture just how many there are but they are really crammed in there like sardines! Glad we didn't have to travel this way.

 My job as navigator for the day.

 Beautiful mountains along the way!

 Beautiful jungles as you get further south!

It was a really great way to see some more of the country, even in a brief kind of way. It is always interesting to watch the changing landscape as you drive long distances. Luckily Thailand isn't very big compared to Canada, so it took only one day to drive across, rather than our road trip to BC in September that took 5 days! Now we are in the process of settling in to our new apartment in Phuket town, on the island of Phuket. We will post pictures as soon as we get things unpacked and cleaned up!