This is a brief look into our month and what we’ve been up to for the month of May. As long-term travellers/digital nomads time often passes us by so quickly. This is our time to reflect on the month and what lessons we’ve learned, how we’ve spent our time and how we’ve been feeling.
One of the things we love most about long-term travel is the community and how everyone supports each other. We’d love for you to share what you’ve been up to in May and answers to any of our ‘what’s’ below.
Let’s get going…
What we’ve been doing
After six, very long and very cold months back in the UK we finally headed back to our paradise island, Koh Samui, Thailand. We seemed to have accumulated so much stuff since we arrived home in November last year, so we spent almost an entire weekend packing everything away, donating clothes to charity shops and boxing up our belongings… more stuff for the loft, but we did it, we’re back!
We did have a slight delay with our arrival as our connecting flight from Singapore was cancelled, but the airline did put us up in a very nice hotel for the night and provided a buffet breakfast and lunch, so we finally landed in Samui on 17th May.
We certainly treated that first week as a holiday, enjoying lots of delicious food, relaxing at the beach and indulging ourselves in cheap Thai beer but you can have too much of a good thing and just five days into our time here we had a bit of a setback as Carl had a pretty bad accident which resulted in a two-night hospital stay and has meant the last week and a half we’ve been taking it easy, lots of rest and relaxation at the apartment and lots of pills for Carl. Thankfully he’s completely fine now, still some healing to do, but with lots of good food and some sunshine he should be back to his usual self in no time at all.
What we’ve been eating
Unsurprisingly, lots of Thai food, we couldn’t wait to get back to all the beautiful, fresh Thai flavours. After careful consideration, I opted for a red curry & a crunchy papaya salad for my first meal back and Carl selected a delicious shrimp fried rice. What’s your favourite Thai dish?
We’ve also been fully indulging ourselves at our favourite restaurants in Bophut including:
- 2Fishes – right in the heart of Fisherman’s Village, serving up insanely good Italian food plus lots of incredible grilled local fish.
- Koh Co Beach – part of Cielo boutique hotel, this seafront venue serves a mix of Mediterranean classics and Thai-inspired dishes using lots of local produce. Visit on Saturday afternoons for live music and great happy hour deals.
- La Brisa – a cute seafood restaurant in the village, perfect for long, lazy lunches with the perfect sea views.
What we’ve been watching
Firefly Lane – final series
I always knew it would be an emotional end but this just rounded it off so beautifully and completely. I’ll miss the Firefly Lane girls and their complicated relationships but no doubt I’ll revisit this one in the future. Beautifully written, wonderfully acted and just a great story about friendship and love.
Succession S2
We are firmly hooked on Succession, the final episode of season 1 *gasp*. We’re now fully engrossed in the second season and despite all of the characters just being utterly awful human beings we can’t help but feel sorry for them. If you’ve not started this yet, might we suggest giving it a go?
Below Deck Adventure
We actually watched this on our 13+ hour flight from London to Singapore. It was a night flight and we were both shattered so didn’t fancy concentrating on anything too heavy or having to focus on a two-hour movie, so just binged about 6 – 7 episodes. Not rating it as highly as Sailing Yacht or the original, but of course, there is still all the usual drama which keeps you going back for more.
The Founder
Starring Michael Keaton, this movie tells the story of how McDonald’s came to be the powerhouse it is today. We both love movies based on real-life stories so this was a great watch for us. Set in the 1950’s the costumes and design are nostalgic and wonderfully done plus it’s an interesting story, worth a watch in our opinion.
What we’ve been reading
The Switch – Beth O’Leary
This is such a cutesy read, very sweet and romantic. Grandmother and granddaughter switch lives, one moving to the countryside to enjoy a slower pace of life and the other heading to London in search of romance and adventure. It’s such a lovely story and the perfect beach read in my opinion.
The Museum of Ordinary People – Mike Gayle
I’ve only just started this one and usually I wouldn’t jump straight back into another lighthearted fiction, but it’s just what my soul is craving at the moment. After a bit of a dramatic month, including a lot of change, I just wanted something easy and fun and so far this one is delivering just that.
What we’ve discovered
Carl’s love of durian
Despite spending eight months here in 2022 we were always wary of trying durian. For anyone who doesn’t know this is a really stinky fruit which grows in many South East Asian countries. Many hotels and apartments will have signs up to say you’re not to bring durian in, it really is that strong. We both agree that it smells a lot like petrol, but that smell sticks to everything and lingers.
I personally didn’t really rate it, but Carl is now a big fan. I’ve seen other people describe it as tasting like custard and apple, kind of sweet and creamy, but yeah, I just didn’t get it, give me Thai mangoes any day.
Thai tea
Thai teas and coffees are made by mixing your preferred tea/coffee with condensed milk and are served with a cinnamon stick. These local specialities are super sweet and indulgent and we like ours iced, mostly because the temperature rarely drops below 28°C at the moment. This is something else we had completely missed when we were here last year, in my defence I really can’t stand sweet teas/overly sweet juices/cocktails so just figured it wasn’t going to be to my liking, but boy was I wrong.
Positive Vibes Cafe, Fisherman’s Village
This cute little cafe bar had only just opened when we were here last year but it is such a great spot, with direct access to the beach (although the beach here is not good for swimming, looks very pretty but the picturesque sand turns to silt almost as soon as you set foot into the water), delicious juices, smoothies and cocktails and a really simple menu with some great Thai food on offer, would highly recommend the red curry.
It’s fast becoming one of our favourite daytime venues.
What we’ve been celebrating
The King’s Coronation – 6th/7th May
The weather for the King’s Coronation was absolutely awful, it just rained all day long. We had already decided we would celebrate with an afternoon tea at home, but we were hoping to have a mini garden party with lots of bubbles and cake, instead, we laid out lots of sandwiches and scones indoors (are you team cream or jam first?) and watched the coronation and the concert on TV… we did also nip to the pub for a pint.
Our 6-year anniversary – 20th May
Just by complete coincidence, we were in Koh Samui this time last year and ended up spending our 5-year anniversary at one of our faves, KohCo Beach, so we had to go again this year. I rave about this place all the time over on Instagram and in some of our blogs/mini guides but everything here is just so beautiful, the gardens, the decor, the views, the staff, the cocktails, the food… it’s all 10/10, every time. I highly, highly recommend a visit for anyone coming to Koh Samui this year.
What we’ve been struggling with
An emergency visit to a Thai hospital
So, after just five days of being back in Thailand, Carl had a really nasty fall. He hit his head on a concrete slab and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance. He had multiple scans and tests and thankfully the damage (although bad) is all cosmetic.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t had the opportunity to organise our insurance before this happened. After travelling for more than two years without incident and being home for six months, we decided that on this occasion we would look to buy local insurance when we landed in Thailand as we knew this is where we would be staying for at least six months.
He has ended up with more than 100 stitches in his forehead and they have reset and stitched up his broken nose. The trauma to his eye will heal naturally and the external stitches have already been removed but it will take around 6 – 8 weeks for him to completely heal, so we still need to be extra careful, especially getting on and off the songthaews (open backed buses) in Samui.
Noisy roosters
OK on a much less serious note, our Thai neighbours have got themselves a rooster and some hens since we were last here and seriously, WTAF is wrong with roosters? I get it, you’re awake, it’s 5 am though hun, go back to sleep *yawn*.
What we’re feeling grateful for
Friends, family, fast recovery & bucket hats
Due to not having insurance in place, we had to pay for treatment upfront, which cost approximately £3,500. Carl’s sister was an incredible support and help whilst I was trying to arrange all of this and has kindly lent us the money for Carl’s treatments. We have also received donations through our ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link and many people have supported us by buying our Thailand ebook. Every penny has helped us and so we are so thankful as the £450 we’ve raised so far will be used to pay for Carl’s continued treatments, dressings, hospital visits and any other care he might need.
If you would like to support us you can do so here.
Carl is now nearly two weeks into his recovery journey and is already looking and feeling much better. It was a very scary injury, which could have ended very differently, so we are eternally grateful that he is on the mend, plus he got to wear his bucket hats which I personally never thought would see the light of day.
What we’re looking forward to for June 2023
We’re actually just really looking forward to getting back into the swing of living in Thailand. Carl’s injury definitely set us back a bit, both financially but also in terms of settling into a proper routine.
We also have some big plans for our online work which we are hoping to get up and running by the end of June, if it all works out it will just allow us some extra flexibility with our travels and location later in the year, so watch this space.
How was your May and what are you most looking forward to for June?
It would be great to connect over on Instagram or on Twitter, we love building our little community of fellow travellers and travel lovers, or if you want to follow along on our travel adventures why not subscribe, we aim to post something new every week.
Until next time…
travel eat sleep repeat 