Almost Greece... Spring in Spain

Something African and poetic

The Knight's Christmas holiday pictures

Pretty Thai ladies

Balade a Phuket town

And banana treats... yummy

Surfing and paper kite flying at Bangtao beach

Phi Phi Islands

enjoying our Banyan Tree villa

New year's eve on Bangtao Beach

Thailand inpressions

Coucou, Hello...

I shall continue in English. I am determined to make this blog live. I think it is so much fun keeping a diary of the family this way. Let's all try and post once a month. So here is my january post:

We went to Thailand over Christmas and new year and we had a ball.

Most of you will have been or heard of Thailand so I will not talk about the obvious.

Yes the food is A-ma-zing!!!!! simply the best and I miss it still.

The people are delicate, polite, courteous, friendly and graceful about how they go about their day to day. Everything is done with a sense of esthetic. What they do with flowers is just out of this world.

At first glance the place might seem chaotic but it is clean and actually quite neat.

Here are a few things that struck me I had not heard of.


There are dogs everywhere, but not the mangy stray dogs you might expect to find in developing (3rd world) countries. The dogs are large, clean, all collared, never ever tied up, they never fight or bark, they live in and among people a bit like the cows in India. These dogs seem to be an integral part of the people's life there, well kept pets that roam free and are clearly accepted in their society.

The other thing I noticed, was how the Thais hang their laundry. Every single item is on a separate hanger hung on a line. That was true from the back streets of Bangkok to the smarter homes or the rural villages of Phuket. I liked it.

Bangkok is on a river that runs brown through the city, it then branches off in a myriad of canals. In fact, it is a lot like Venice. From a distance it appears to be a concrete jungle but it is in fact built on a network of waterways. Indeed traveling on the water with the amazing Long-tails (Bangkok's equivalent of a Riva, but much more fun) is by far the most pleasant and efficient form of transport.



Now, you would expect the whole thing to be a bit pongy... not in the least, the streets, canals and markets are not smelly at all, they are clean and perfumed with the smell of the delicious street food and flowers.

As usual celebrating Christmas day in the tropics was rather strange but New Years eve was a bit of an experience!

We still haven't quite worked out when New Year really is for the Thais. Phuket traditionally has a large Chinese community, so for some, it will only be in a few days from now, as for the Thais they just smile and agree.

Having said that New Year's eve was spectacular.

We were staying in a beautiful hotel called The Banyan Tree, it was great but also full of Russians and not the refined kind. So we decided to book a table at Tony's, the Thai (yes, I know, the name is misleading) restaurant on the nearby beach.

Tony had a great spread put out for his guests, a delicious buffet of Thai food and each table was served a giant platter of the freshest grilled seafood. We feasted whilst the sky of the entire 8 mile beach was lit by literally hundreds of fireworks and paper lanterns throughout the evening. The Chinese have a tradition of sending large paper lanterns in the sky on which they write messages and the sky was just full of them.

We danced on the beach and at midnight the fireworks amplified, the lanterns multiplied. It was quite magical. The kids had a lot of fun.

Oh dear, I have to say something about the food after all. I visited some village markets and to say that everything is fresh is an understatement. Even a French girl like me, brought up around the farmers markets of Provence, can't help but marvel at the intense crisp freshness of everything. Sugar cane juice and coconut juice are made there,
on the spot, as you order them, fish looks like it has just been pulled out of the sea, the veg is still seeping from just being picked and the ready made food is irresistible.

There is so much more to describe like the quirky motorcycle side cars that carry entire mobile kitchens, the colorful tuk-tuks (the local popular taxis), the spaghetti electrics, the silk, the orchids,...

Thailand took my breath away and then I started to wonder about the questionable influence our mere presence has on the local culture, their values and the environment... it really left me thinking for days