- Published on
Winged time glides on insensibly, and deceive us; and there is nothing more fleeting than years
We have already travelled around South East Asia for a whole 21 weeks. By the end of our time in Thailand, we would have travelled for almost half a year. To be very honest, we didn't think that we would last this long with the little we had to finance the trip. We still crack our heads about how next month will be. But it has been an incredible feat, a journey by faith and grace. I'll talk about the crazy flight in bit...bear with me.
It has been a mammoth task juggling travel, homeschooling, budget constrains and a post pandemic world. On top of it, we are also walking through a very difficult journey of grief. This is why I'm incredibly proud of Debra who has completed the first book in a series she intends to write. It feels crazy to have an ISBN number allocated to your work and sending a copy to NLB.
Ravi and Kitty - A durian discovery (E-BOOK, Tamil & English)
$8.99
E-BOOK - Bilingual (Tamil and English Version) Title: ரவியும் பூனைக்குட்டியும் - ஒரு டுரியான்பழக் கண்டுபிடிப்பு / Ravi and Kitty - A Durian Discovery ISBN: 978-981-18-5361-6 (PDF) 978-981-18-5360-9 (Epub) Page Count: 28 Year Published: 2022 Ravi and Kitty stumble upon something that looks, feels and smells very odd. Join them as they go on an adventure to find out what it is! ரவியும் பூனைக்குட்டியும் நடந்துகொண்டிருந்தபோது, ஏதொ ஒரு வித்தியாசமான பொருள் அவர்களது அருகில் வந்தது. அது என்னவென்று அறியும் முயற்சியில் அவர்கள் இறங்கினர். This book comes with a downloadable activity bundle found in the book! Author Background Ravi and Kitty is a dream that is long time coming. While Debra Sherni was reading child psychology, she took extra interest to specialise in writing and publishing as it was her real passion. That all took a backseat when she started a family and her own little business. Little did she know that home educating her children will rekindle her passion for writing and illustrating. She strives to create engaging stories that encourage children to explore their world. She hopes that her bilingual stories will also kindle the joy of learning their mother tongues.
Ravi and Kitty - A durian discovery (E-BOOK, English)
$8.99
E-BOOK - English Version Title: Ravi and Kitty - A Durian Discovery ISBN: 978-981-18-5359-3 (PDF) ISBN: 978-981-18-5358-6 (Epub) Page Count: 28 Year Published: 2022 Ravi and Kitty stumble upon something that looks, feels and smells very odd. Join them as they go on an adventure to find out what it is! This book comes with a downloadable activity bundle found in the book! Author Background Ravi and Kitty is a dream that is long time coming. While Debra Sherni was reading child psychology, she took extra interest to specialise in writing and publishing as it was her real passion. That all took a backseat when she started a family and her own little business. Little did she know that home educating her children will rekindle her passion for writing and illustrating. She strives to create engaging stories that encourage children to explore their world. She hopes that her bilingual stories will also kindle the joy of learning their mother tongues.
The Aroma of his Coffee (E-Book)
$8.99
E-BOOK Title: The Aroma of his Coffee ISBN: 978-981-18-5697-6 (PDF) 978-981-18-5696-9 (Epub) Page Count: 36 Year Published: 2022 In this book, we take a journey across the world as we remember a man's love for his family, travel and his coffee. We find comfort in the memory of him through the wonderful aroma of his coffee. Author Background Vincent Kwan is the author and photographer of the "Odd Life Blog". He loves engaging people through his writing about about travel, homeschooling, food and mental health. Despite graduating with a degree in English Literature, he never envisioned that he would ever become a published author. Coping with bereavement brought out his desire to help others walk through their journey of grief. Illustrator Background While Debra Sherni was reading child psychology, she took extra interest to specialise in writing and publishing as it was her real passion. That all took a backseat when she started a family and her own little business. Little did she know that home educating her children will rekindle her passion for writing and illustrating. She strives to create engaging stories that encourage children to explore their world. She hopes that her bilingual stories will also kindle the joy of learning their mother tongues. Her published works include the "Ravi & Kitty" Bilingual series.
The city was much kinder to us compared to our previous nightmare visit to KL. We even got to meet some old friends and our children had a whale of a time meeting up. So blessed to have a wonderful afternoon at the soft play and a pizza dinner to celebrate Matt and Gwyn's birthdays!
The almost fateful flight
We thought we were catching a routine short haul flight from KLIA to Phuket, Thailand! Lo and behold, we had to come face to face with our mortality.
We only managed to get Batik Air (previously Malindo Air) tickets because other airlines offered unearthly timings and ridiculous prices. It almost turned out very very wrong. After we were issued the boarding pass, we went through the formalities of security and immigration checks before walking towards the gate printed on the boarding pass. Upon checking the screens indicating departure information at the airport, we realised we were heading the wrong way. The gate for our flight was printed WRONGLY on the card.
As the plane filled with passengers, it became really hot in the aircraft. We were all perspiring. The plane also departed late.
The full thrust came in and we were rather violently pushed into our seats. There were sounds of worried squeals on the aircraft. As the pilot accelerated hard down the runway, we were being swayed from side to side pretty hard by the pilot constantly kicking his rudder right and left. It felt like he was struggling to control his aircraft. It was a hot, sunny and still day. I'm not so sure if he was fighting a crosswind.
I quickly put that worry behind and just assumed there was a suddenly rush of crosswinds. The flight was uneventful for the next 1 hour but we were rather annoyed that the aircraft had entertainment screens but none was turned on.
We had a pretty uncomfortable descent with quite a few shakes and drops but I just assumed it was the clouds causing turbulence. As we rushed down the last 500 feet, it became quite clear that we were in for a pretty harsh landing. True enough, the aircraft landed with a very loud THUD AND CLANK. It sounded like something in the landing gear took a pretty bad beating on that landing. The plane swayed again from side to side again as the pilot engaged reverse thrust to slow the aircraft down. Gwyneth was holding on to her mother for her dear life as Matt and I held on to our seats.
I've travelled extensively and have flown enough times to consider myself a seasoned flyer. This wasn't normal at all. I've never had to feel like I was gonna die or experience a serious aviation accident in my entire life. This was just something else.
I would definitely avoid Batik Air at all costs in future!
Welcome to Phuket
The airport was efficient and we cleared immigration, customs and collected our baggage in no time. We were told by the taxi counter staff who claimed that our hotel provided free taxi transfers. We wasted 15 minutes walking back into the terminal and being asked asked to join this resort package sales talk to get a free taxi transfer. Don't waste your time like we did! (unless you would really want to purchase a resort package). We obviously declined! We are just poor aspiring authors, writers and designers!
We settled into our accommodation and had a hilarious conversation with the receptionist. I asked him about putting on masks in Thailand because no one wore one outside of the airport. He replied "You see, if you believe you don't have virus, and you don't test, you don't find out! You don't have to go to the hospital! So no need any masks, you are free!" We had a good laugh! Off with the masks then!
For the first time in 2 years, we walked down the street with our bare faces, seeing smiles and feeling the wind on our skin. We took an evening stroll through the Patong Beach areas.
We tried to enter Junceylon mall for a stroll and grab our dinner there. We were shocked to find that the mall was closed except for the supermarket and a handful of shops around it. I've been to this Island 5 times and I consider this mall to be the crown jewel of Patong beach! You get all the family friendly entertainment, food and shopping in a large mall.
We explored the area further and found many surrounding hotels and resorts abandoned or shut.
A quick google search showed that some larger hotels and Jungceylon itself is being refurbished and scheduled to reopen in the 4th quarter for high season of 2022. If you want a quiet and less crowded time in Phuket, now is a good time! If you want to see Phuket in his former glory, it would be better to come by next year!
As many businesses shut, a huge new industry has emerged in Thailand. For the first time outside of the US and Holland, we've seen weed (Ganja, Cannabis, marijuana) being sold in public. They are everywhere! Booths, pop up stores and full blown stores selling them. I'm still not very sure how to feel about this development. Still have mixed feelings about it. Smoking anything would harm your health and addiction is a real risk. However, research has also shown that medicinal weed can help ease some very severe illnesses.
Drop us some suggestions of family and pocket friendly stuff we can do in Phuket!
Thanks for reading and joining us on our journey this week! If you enjoy reading our musings, do consider joining our mailing list to get notifications when the latest one is posted!
