May 6th

It's been a little hard to keep up with our weekly intentions of the blog update...Thailand was packed with adventure thanks to our good friend Meng! After our last update we travelled south to the Islands of Koh Lanta then Koh Phi Phi. The six of us (our family, Meng and grandpa Wayne) spent lots of time swimming and snorkelling. A must see area of Koh Lanta was around Koh Rok where we took a boat trip and kayaked around the incredible formations and caved areas. Ko Phi Phi was nice to get away from cars and motor bikes on this very small island. We rented bicycles for 2 days to get around so we could travel easily with our combination of 3 generations!

The one tour we took on Phi Phi was to Maya beach, the famous site of the filming of "the beach". It was a fantastic trip with our own longtail boat driven by a local with good taste for reggae music. The waters were the bluest blue I could imagine with loads of little fishies to peer at. The only thing of course was the masses of people arriving by the minute even though we went at 8:30am to avoid the crowds!
On Phi Phi the view point was well worth the long and hot hike to the top. It gave a great perspective of where we were and of all the little gems around the island.

It was sad to leave Meng and grandpa, I will miss their company and  the amazing Thai food and all the dishes we ordered thanks to Meng's local knowledge and great taste! Already in Italy here we have been using our translation book to make sense of the menu saying "we need a Meng!".

The travels from Thailand to Italy were long...3 planes and all night flights. Martin was convinced that Doha was another name for Dehli where we would spend time in the airport changing planes, so we had Orrin excited for butter chicken.  It turned out we changed planes in Doha, Qatar in the Middle East! Definately no butter chicken to be found. Silas we have discovered doesn't do well with exhaustion, as we were standing in Bangkok airport at 1am he says "I don't feel good", I look at his pale face and no sooner had I stood him up and he threw up all over the airport floor!! The rest of our Baht currency went to the cleaning lady.

Now we have been a few days in Rome and are blown away every corner we turn. Unfortunately just to sleep here uses our daily budget up so lots of pizza and water from free running taps in the streets gets us through! Today there is a free concert in the park for May Day and the rain has just stopped. Some of what we have seen here is the colosseum, we heard the pope speaking from a distance in a massive mob of people, and learned a lot about DaVinci! We didn't realize we were here at holiday time so anything "popular" to see has hundreds and hundreds of people there. The most enjoyable has been the gems we have stumbled upon like finding kids to play soccer with in the park, turning a corner and seeing another incredible sight or entering a church and hearing choirs sing. Tomorrow we pick up a camper van so we will be able to grocery shop and cook up some Italian food. At least the wine is cheap!

We would have posted more photos but something is not working. We are well though!