And so we are about to board an A380 so huge it is hard to believe it can fly, hopefully qantas have repaired any wing cracks, after a relaxing week in Melbourne, some beach days hot and sunny, even warm enough to swim in the sea though a nippy shock after Thailand. They say Melbourne can see four seasons in a day, one minute you hang your towel on the sunny balcony, the next it's drenched in a downpour out of nowhere. It was lovely to spend time with family, di...

It seems that the email notifications do not go out if the blog is updated from the iphone app which I have used, and not the website, so if anyone wishes to see what we got up to in Thailand it is on the site via this link or on www.offexploring.com/katepowell We are relaxing in the Melbourne suburbs with my brother and his family, my mother is here and sister and nephew due tomorrow when Qantas fix the plane. Luckily it has been hot and sunny but about to brea...

I really can't tell you anything about Phuket as we only left our hotel room for lunch and dinner the 3 days we were there. I will post some pictures of the garden pool villa we had thanks to Trailfinders and you will see why, not necessarily what you were thinking. It would however be perfect for a honeymoon. Although from the outside the resort was underwhelmingly minimalist chic with municipal car park walkways, single villas and small 2 storey blocks surround...

60km out in the Andaman Sea lie the Similan Islands, originally 9 but 2 further north were added to the National Park, which closes to tourists for 6 months of the year to protect the wildlife and coral. Some trips visit several islands, snorkel and swim from the boat, but seeing little point in spending the day on a boat we went to Tachai, the northernmost, as you can go onto the beach. An hour and a quarter by bucking bronco speedboat, sea-sick tablets and plat...

Our second day trip is to Ao Phang Nga Bay in the Gulf of Thailand, famous for its hundreds of tall, steep-sloped islands. We didn't take the usual large scale tourist trip to see the one used as Scaramanga's lair in the Bond film, but a boat taking 20 to canoe into the hongs, beautiful tropical lagoons hidden within some islands, completely surrounded by limestone crags and only reachable by air or a narrow tunnel through the rock where the sea has eroded right ...