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It's a funny old world!

Welcome to Racha Island Hello everyone and greetings from Phuket, Thailand THAILAND THOUGHTS Thailand where we have now reopened the country and are ready to welcome international fully vaccinated arrivals without quarantine to our beautiful island.  For all the details check out  Phuket Sandbox: Would you, should you, could you?   This month another southern island Koh Samui followed along. There are slightly different arrangements with guests to stay within their arrival hotel for three days before supplying a negative Covid test. This gives freedom to roam the island, after 7 days, visitors can also visit the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. For all the details check out: Welcome back to Thailand via Koh Samui plus All this as Thailand records the highest Covid numbers and death rates ever recorded and stricter measures have been released across the worst affected Provinces.  There is a plan for more of the country to open and the idea was for Thailand to fully reopen to vaccinat
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Hello from my corner of the world

Hello, hello how are we all doing?  I am sorry that I have been absent around here for so long. I can't really think of any excuses except for a certain global pandemic, which remains a distraction in our daily lives here in Thailand.  Still, I am pleased you can join me today as I bring you up to date for some good, random, Friday bliss and fun from Phuket. We are fine.  Like many of our neighbours in South East Asia, our Covid-19 situation here in Thailand had deteriorated over recent weeks. However, with strict measures in place to curtail the rise in cases, we are all hopeful for the arrival of the first international visitors into Phuket from July 1st.  We came to the island of Phuket in Southern Thailand for our Christmas holidays, and have remained largely based here ever since, as many Bangkok offices have requested home working. THE GOOD Phuket has been a blessed stay and we feel so fortunate to be here. I've written about this more here: Working from the beach, (WFB)
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Perfect Phuket - Hello from the other side

Hello from the beach! Spoiler alert if you are snowed in, pandemic bound or just plain jack of 2021 already, you might want to flick straight onto the next blog! On the other hand, if you are looking for some escapism and to tag along for the virtual ride, stick around! We came for Christmas and we haven't left yet,  so I've only got pictures of sunshine and palm trees and empty beaches waiting for tourists return. Bangkok is still a designated High controlled area.  Schools, shopping malls and gyms have reopened and homeworking for some companies remain in place or operating on a limited A-B team return to work. Pubs and Bars, gambling venues including cockfighting and soapy massage remain closed. Ha, let's see who is reading this closely and no I have no idea what a soapy massage is! Most of my friends are more concerned about the booze ban and pollution in Bangkok but here at the beach, life is calm, quiet and rosy! Phuket has removed it's 14-day Quarantine for those
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Happy New Year ... Well this is fun!

Oh, my golly gosh we're still in the first throws of 2021 - does anyone else think it could be a long year?  It was so lovely to see all of you who had stopped by to say happy festive season before Christmas. I just wanted to say hello before we got too far into this year which as others have said does look a bit like the ugly sister of 2020...  Kata Beach Nevertheless and thinking positive, Happy New Year  to you where ever you may be reading this. Did you have fun and fireworks as best you could where ever you were celebrating? Or did you see the 2020 out with as much good riddance as you could muster, settling in for another early night?  Kata Beach Phuket We have been in Phuket an island in Southern Thailand. Normally at this time of year, the beaches would be packed with people from all over the world celebrating. This year was a subdued affair, not only were we without our fellow Internationals, many within Thailand fearing our own COVID-19 lockdowns on the horizons, cancelle
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Hey-Ho Ho Ho Happy Christmas Countdown

Hello, hello how are you doing? We are doing just fine and counting down to our first-ever Bangkok Christmas. Christmas in Bangkok is a tad hit-and-miss here.  It is, after all, a normal working day and not celebrated by most Thai people. You either have to search it out in the shopping centres or in the big hotels.  Christmas Tree at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok So to get in the Christmas spirit we visited my favourite lavish hotel, the one that starts with a private boat ride down the river. Does anyone else think that the Christmas tree at the Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok usually the epitome of style and elegance, looks a little well, how do I say it delicately, messy this year?  Or does the designer have a great sense of humour? They have probably been given zero budget and just decided to throw everything at the tree they had in the cupboard. Ho Ho Ho. Mandarin Oriental foyer  I should say the tree looks better in the needle than in my photos. Anyway, they have absolutely na
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Thailand's Elephant Tourism

Hello and greetings to you from Bangkok. I have just finished an incredible week of travel looking at Thailand's elephant care tourism. Thailand was expecting 40 million visitors this year, the pandemic closed the borders and has decimated all aspects of Thai tourism. I was one of eight bloggers, journalists and influencers invited by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to learn more about the current situation for elephant care. I came with a clear set of assumptions that : Elephants are wild animals and should be in the wild. Riding elephants for tourism is not something I would support. Elephant circus and tourist shows should be abolished. In 2018 for my birthday, we attended the annual fundraising King's Cup Anantara Elephant Polo . The monies raised went to support amongst others the  Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort. We spent our honeymoon at this wonderful elephant sanctuary and I was keen to contribute towards their work.   We joined a dawn yoga lesson
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