We did you a disservice by not telling you, or showing you photos of our own beach. They've now been added to the album of Phuket. Our room is a "lagoon room" but the hotel also has a beach side but it's spoiled by the fact that it's public and therefore the hotel cannot stop a load of crude hawker's stalls being erected between it and the sea. We walked up from our hotel towards The Banyan Tree Resort, this morning and the water was the clearest, warmest wate...

More language amusement! "Noy" or more precisely "Noi" or "Noui" means "small" or "little" (No comment). Our waitress last night had a nickname of "Noui" and was sure Richard must have been her father! It gets worse; now "Yai" means "big" and the agent for Tour East (who are managing our affairs down to Australia) is Ms.Yai! Seriously! So Mr. Little asked to see Ms. Big and reception could not stop laughing! On Tuesday we just chilled in the resort, whic...

Hong Kong was all hustle and bustle. Commercialism and capitalism abound with little time for the regards for others. By comparison Thailand is the land of "respect". We have learned a lot about the Buddhist attitude to life and the need for merits on earth to provide the ticket to heaven. The most common show of respect, man to man is the hands palmed together (as if in prayer) and then head bowed after saying the word "Sawadeekaa" (woman) or "Sawadeekrap" (...