Bangkok and homeA business day for me today: two meetings and a site inspection before heading back to the UK in the early evening. I was lucky to see The Chilli Hostel - which is due to soft open in about 10 days time. They are well progressed with the preparations and have just some small snagging to do before they are ready to go-live. My trip to the airport was by the new Airport Express Train - which opens commercially on 23rd August. Until then they are of...

Bangkok - STA visit and Lub D Siam SquareAn early start for me today - my flight transfer was at 7.15am ready to get me to Bangkok for lunchtime. I was staying at the Ramada D'Ma Hotel in Pratunam overnight, so headed straight there to drop off my bags (and laundry - boy, did it smell after swimming in the sea and mangroves!?!) before going to the STA Travel Thailand office to meet with JJ. JJ and I have corresponded for several years but never met; we spent quit...

Yaowawit to Phuket - the market and site inspections Our last day together and it started early.We joined the children on the bright yellow school bus at 7.30am to go to the local market.Anticipating a few stalls I was astounded by the range of products available for sale here.Not only was there a good range of foods - meats, fish and vegetables all sourced locally, but there was pretty much everything else you could want too - homewares, clothes, shoes, even to...

Ban Talae Nok to Yaowawit - palm weaving and hot springs Breakfast at the homestay was fried rice and 3-in-1 coffee - simple but effective! As the family are fasting it was difficult to eat in their presence as I felt so self-conscious about contravening their rules. They were quite relaxed about it however - maybe bringing in foreign guests makes it easier for them? After breakfast we went a short distance up the road to the women's weaving group. They harvest...

Kuraburi to Ban Talae Nok - soap and kayaksIt was a slightly later start to the day today; a pick up at 9am and an introduction at the Andaman Discoveries office to understand the briefings they give all volunteers before they start. From Kuraburi we went to Ban Talae Nok - a Muslim community about an hour north of Kuraburi. There are 220 people living here in 60 homes - some built with their own land (as they had land in the old village) and some in the tsunami ...