Stephen & Anh Family Pictures
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| We have moved to the Sand and Sea Resort. Stephen negotiated them down to $50/night for a 1 1/2 month stay. We will stay here at Railay until April 15th. It sounds expensive but we are 15 feet from the pool and 40 feet from the beach. Our balcony has a view of the ocean. Things are a little more expensive here than Ko Samui. But we can take a 15 minute boat ride inland for our shopping. As for the kids, they are doing well. Our schedule everyday from now on: wake up, eat breakfast, swim, lunch, nap for 3 hours, play on the beach, dinner, watch the sunset, ice cream, swim again, and get ready for bed. This is within sea view all day. I know it sounds boring, but it's paradise. Kayla has gotten to be a really good swimmer with her floater. She jumps in and out of the pool 50 times a day. The kids have been eating mostly crab and rice here. We don't order french fries very much. It's all Thai food. There are no McDonalds here. We met another Swedish couple (Fred and Anna) with a 14 mos. old. Stephen is planning to go climbing with Fred today while the kids nap. Hopefully he will meet some climbers with some gear. We don't see many climbers on our side of the beach. They all stay on the East side because it's cheaper ($10/day). Why don't we stay there? Well, it's only a straw hut with no air conditioning. We still really miss all of you. Anh, Stephen, Kayla, and Ryan March 2 |
Fun on the beach with their new Swedish friend -and- the little mermaid
Hmmm, ice cream is good... and Ryan likes to wear it too
These are the boats we take to go shopping
| Life in Railay is still pretty good for us. We have been meeting more and more new people every day. They come and go so it's hard to get to know them really well. So far, Stephen went climbing twice and I went once. It's absolutely beautiful when you make it to the top; all you see is the ocean. Since we are both so out of shape, we get pretty sore the next day. The kids are still doing well. They play pretty hard all day so they eat a lot. They eat Thai food but they still ask for pasta and pizzas. There's a restaurant near our bungalow that makes the best thin crusted pizza in the world. I don't think I can go back to eating Domino's. We went to Krabi yesterday; a big city near Railay. It was a 15 minute boat and a 20 min. taxi ride. It was fun to be able to explore a new city. We carried 100 diapers, batteries, soap etc. back to our bungalow. Things are cheaper in Krabi but we didn't really save money because we had to pay for the boat and taxi rides. Of course we had to stop by KFC for lunch and Swensons for dessert. Kayla was really excited because she got to eat her sorbet. They fell asleep on our way back to the boat so we stopped at an Internet shop in Krabi. We both had a chance to call our parents. We also stopped by McDonald's after they woke up. What can we say? They missed their french fries and hamburgers. When we got back to our bungalow, Dalit (4 years old Swedish girl) came over to watch movies with Kayla. They played really well with each other even though they don't speak the same language. It was really cute to watch them talk to one another. Maybe they have their own ways of communicating. Later on, Anna, our other Swedish friend came over for some cough syrup. We now have become a first aid station for all mothers with young kids. I could go on forever so I will say goodbye now. We love you. Anh March 6 |
| For the first time, the kids went to bed at nine o'clock last night and slept the whole night. It was so nice that Stephen and I got some alone time. We took a mat and sat on the beach together. We gazed at the sky on a pitch dark beach for 1/2 an hour. It was pretty romantic. Enough with Stephen and me. It's probably making you gag. Anyhow, the kids are still doing well. We said goodbye to another Swedish family yesterday. Kayla sat on the beach with me and waved goodbye until the long tail boat disappeared out of site. She was sad because she had lost her movie's buddy. Then again, she got over it quickly because we met another family, an Italian family. The mother is American so the kids speak English. They have a lot of legos so Kayla likes that. We are planning to do movies night with them also. Stephen and I got to climb with each other twice. We went when the kids were asleep. Our door was watched by people we met and know really well. So don't worry. By the way, send some home cooked meals. We are getting sick of restaurant food. We still miss you and think about you all the time. Anh March 11 |
Kayla gets her nails done and romps with their new friend
Kayla investigates the nightlife and Ryan the furniture
| Hi all, We are sorry we haven’t been writing much. It just has been the same every day except for Thursday. It was the best day ever. Just remember that 38 Baht = $1. -Breakfast -Kayla got her hair braided = 40 b -Anh got her feet scrubed for 1 hour = 200b -Swim for 5 hours at the pool -KAYLA LEARNED TO SWIM without her floaters -Lunch and drinks at the pool = 300 b -Kids nap for 3 hours -Anh got a 2 hour massage = 800b -Stephen got a 1 hour foot massage = 300 b, and he can see our room from his massage chair We were sooooo relaxed that Anh stopped saying NO to Ryan that day. Our Italian friends left that day but we met another couple from NY with a 4 year old girl, Maya. Kayla likes her a lot. She invites herself over for play date. Kayla swims with her in the afternoon and watches movies with her at night. Anyhow, we will write again if we have any new updates. Maybe Ryan might learn to swim. He is trying to because we always cheer for Kayla. We love and miss you. Anh March 18 |
| The kids are sleeping and Anh went to Ao Nang with Mena, the wife of the NY couple with the 4 year old Maya. This morning, I took Kayla with the other couple to go climbing. Kayla and Maya didn't climb too much, but they had fun. It was too hot I think for them to climb. We will pick one in the shade next time. We have fallen into a nice relaxing routine here and I have been climbing every other day or so, often with Anh. I am getting a little stronger and look forward to the next month of climbing. We are looking forward to seeing my parents in Vietnam. Love, Stephen March 22 |
Bath time
Play time with friends
Yes, it rains in Shangri-La... but only for a few minutes at a time
| Dear all, We just want to let you know that we are still well. On the night of the earthquake the kids fell asleep early at 8pm because they didn't nap that day. I started watching 24 until midnight then went to bed. At 1pm, a loud knock on our door woke us up. The neighbor was saying "the tsunami is coming!" Then the front desk person told us that we have to go to higher ground and that the tsunami is coming in one hour. We took the kids and 2 life jackets and put them in the stroller. We went towards the East side where there was higher ground. Stephen was in his boxers and I was wearing my nightgown. There were 500 people gathered at our destination, "The Rock Bar." By now, most of the Thai people know us. They gave us a shirt, 2 towels, and a mat to make the kids more comfortable. The music was blaring in the background. To the kids, it was a big party. They ran around and played with their new friends. At 3am, the bar told us to go home and that there will be no tsunami. We headed back to our room and turned on the news. Thailand was safe because the earthquake was more south this time. We got the kids back to bed at 4am. The next day, since I was so stressed out from the excitement that I got my 1 hour massage. It was back to vacation again and things were back to normal. We love and miss you a lot. Anh March 30 |
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