Birthday & Mother's Day celebrations

Mrs Kray poses proudly with her boys
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Within 4 days we had mother’s day and my birthday. Result! We could go outside the budget (Jont paid from his own cash, bliss) and go out for a special lunch on both days. We went to the next beach over, Tuna Bay, and both times went to the Tuna Bay Resort. The food there is very nice, more than twice the price of Mama’s menu but a much wider selection and better quality. Living on a budget isn’t particularly hard (well, missing lunch for a week did make me a bit grumpy) but having the same old menu items for 2 weeks is a pain. It was bliss to be able to have more choice and more interesting food.

The Boden photo shoot went well.. Archie, Stanley & Max
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On the whole Malayan food is quite monotonous (the basis of most dishes is chicken stock and chillies, with noodles or rice) and not a patch on their Thai neighbours. We’re quite close to the border with Thailand but although Malaysians do a dish called ‘tom yam’ which is a bit like the Thai tom yam soup, it doesn’t have half the subtlety or depth of flavours. In fact Malayan tom yam has the same effect on your nasal passages as snorting a tub of Vick’s Vapo-rub. Cleansing.

the same effect on your nasal passages as snorting a tub of Vick’s Vapo-rub

'Do you think the children will mind if we swap them for a square meal?'
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My birthday was greeted by a huge rain storm, but eventually turned into a warm sunny day. I had Indonesian prawns cooked in a clay pot for lunch - absolutely gorgeous and the first time I’ve been properly full since arriving! Yum. The boys made me cards and Jont bought me Darkly Dreaming Dexter which I am loving. We’re reading voraciously but almost entirely indiscriminatingly so have both read some strange stuff recently.

These past two weeks have been lovely, relaxing and fun as we’ve snorkelled, swam, sunbathed and made new friends. The boys love playing with some English children we’ve met travelling from Maidenhead, and their parents are great company for us so it’s been really nice to hang out together and chat about our travels. We will soon be ready to get on to the next stage of our travels, going to the Thai/Malay border, getting a tuk-tuk to the train station and travelling up to Hat Yai. Adventure awaits...