Leaving Lanta

Where did the time go? 4 months have gone like a wind. Time flies when you are doing nothing. We felt we had all the time in the world when we first arrived and now we are packing up to start the next leg of our journey. It has been a very lovely time though. New friends, a lot of laughs,  sleep when you are tired, eat when you are hungry, not a worry other than where and when to eat. Back home days like this are unheard of. Always things to do places to go. Always in a hurry. We feel grateful for having this time together as a family.

Today was last day in school, so most of the people we know here are either going home to Sweden or traveling to another destination. The kids and the teachers invited us to song and entertainment in the sala this morning. Sad to say goodbye to all the nice Sanuk people. Thanks for all the good memories. Pop kan may! So long!

Lucas and his teacher Monica.

After the lazy days in Koh Lanta we are picking up speed. First 3 days in Tokyo before we head to Los Angeles for a day. Then our Peruvian adventure starts. Go go go!

 

 

More animals

This week has been the big snake week. From not seeing any snakes in the months we have been here to spotting two in two days. One in our garden and one in our breakfast restaurant garden. It was not the most dangarous kind of snakes.

Yesterday we went back to Lanta Animal Welfare to check on the kitten we left there on friday. We did not get to see her because she was in quaranten with her new mother. But we got to feed the cats in the Happy cat house and walk two dogs on the beach.

Lucas , Tim and Irene with Owen and Dick Dock

Lucas and Owen

Happy cat house.

Lucas donated his birthday money to Lanta Animal Welfare.

Frankie at the Thai boxing centre is a bit bigger than Owen..

Pimalai

The weather forcast was predicting rain all day!

May 17th cats and dogs

First of all: Happy May 17th to our Norwegian reader(s).

Our day on Koh Lanta started with quite a surprise. We were going to have breakfast with some of the Swedish parents from school, before the Friday volleyball game started. When we arrived the breakfast we were met with a big crowd of children and adults carrying Norwegian flags and a long table was set up. What a nice surprise! They even started to sing our National anthem!  Very touching!

May 17th breakfast at Goldenbay Resort

Frangipani hart

After a very enjoyable breakfast we all gathered for a improvised May 17th parade going to school. Marching on the beach waiving flags and singing. Maybe the first May 17th parade on Klong Dao beach?

Since we did not have a marching band it did seem a bit unorganized..

The parade got into shape eventually.

We even reached the newspaper..

At school Lucas told the other pupils about May 17th and why and how we celebrate the day in Norway. He just had the topic in the last assignment from Globalskolen so he was up to date.

Coming back from school we ran into this poor little girl on the beach. She seemed hungry and dehydrated, and according to some of the staff at the hotel she had been walking on the beach for some time.

We did not have the hart to leave her there with out her mother, so Irene and me decided that it was a case for the Pet rescue 911. we jumped on Irene`s tuctuc and drove to Lanta Animal Welfare.

Out of pure luck they had a cat mom with kittens just a week or two older. The cat mom adopted the little kitten at once. What a great cat! A happy ending to the cat story. http://www.lantaanimalwelfare.com

The weekend plan for Reiseselbekk to celebrate May 17th was two nights at the 5 star luxury beach resort Pimalai at Kantiang beach south on the island. We were so happy to have a room with sea view and everything was indicating that this would be a wonderful weekend..

but then came the rain.. It is raining cats and dogs!!

So insted of swimming in one of the infinity pools or relaxing on the wonderful beach, we stay in the room in our robes and slippers watching DVDs..

Let´s hope the weather gets better tomorrow, and that the forecasts are wrong, wrong, wrong..

What did you learn in school today?

How do we organize school for Lucas when traveling for 6 months? Since we have stayed most of the time in Koh Lanta, Thailand Lucas has been attending one of the two Swedish schools at the island. Since Norwegian and Swedish are similar languages this was the best solution for us. We did think that Lucas would understand Swedish since we have been traveling with Swedish families a lot before. But he had forgotten a lot of the language so the first couple of weeks at school was a bit tough on him. Sanuk is a vacation school for children who are staying for shorter or longer time in Thailand.  Some are here for 4 weeks others live here. What is great about the school is that the classes are small, maximum 10 pupils in one group. The children work individually on their week plans from their home school, or like Lucas do his assignment from globalskolen.no, math and English in the books from home. In addition to the regular subjects, there is a lot of other stuff to learn when you live in a different country. In high season December-April the kids had Thailand subject, like learning Thai cocking, visit a temple or learning Thai Boxing. They also have physical exercise twice a week, pure luxury compared to home.

   PE on the beach.

There are also different projects that the kids work with in groups. All ages together. Right now they have been working on a Storyline. They are building a miniature village and have to figure out how to get electricity in their village, how to make the village environmental friendly. And a lot of other issues had to be addressed. They worked in teams and found out what they needed to learn to solve the assignment. Then they all presented the project to the parents.

Lucas and Roki Fjellberg, his alter ego in the Storyline project.

The Storyline village with kindergarten, houses, ICA and various energy solutions.

Sanuk work with an organization that helps children from Burma that has fled to Thailand “Children of the forest”.  In February there was a found raiser at school to raise money for Children of the forest, and last week 40 children from the organization came to visit the school.

Visit from Children of the forest.

Last Thursday the school went to Krabi for a school trip to visit a temple, Wat Sam Sua. They walked  up 1237 steps to a golden Buddha statue and  swim in the emerald pond. According to Lucas a great trip! He felt very proud to have reached the top of the mountain.

Going up the 1237 steps to the golden Buddha.

View at the top.

Coming down.

Swimming in the Emerald pool.

And the best thing about Sanuk school according to Lucas: NO HOMEWORK!

Some of the pictures is borrowed from http://svenskaskolanthailand.se/

Sanuk mac mac!

Low season-Slow season

Low season in Koh Lanta starts mid April after Easter. The number of people here got drastically reduced. A lot of the long stayers went home.

We thought that it would be a lot of rain and storms coming in May, but so far so good. The temperature and humidity is higher, but  we have had little rain. A lot of the restaurants on the beach are closing down, but there is still a lot to choose from. We will not starve here. The beach it self is also changing, a lot of waves dispose rubbish on the beach.

The water is clearer. But there is a lot of rubbish on the beach. Since the restaurants have closed no one is picking it up.

Even Lucas’s favorite place is closed: the fish spa! Mom could not care less..

When we planned our journey staying at Lanta at low season was one of the things we looked forward to. The school have few pupils so the classes are small and it is easy to get to know everyone. It is very cozy ; )

Even at Thai boxing classes there is almost one trainer for each pupil.

And there is still enough people to play volleyball on Fridays.

So all and all the pro’s of staying on Lanta during low season outweighs the con’s. We enjoy the relaxing day´s and I think we will still enjoy the last three weeks we have left on Lanta.

10års bursdagen min

 

 

På fredag reise vi til Phuket, sammen med Alvin, Arvid, Anders og Cia. Vi reiste for å feire bursdagen min på Phuket Fantasea. På den ekte bursdagen min skulle vi på badeland.

På lørdag var vi først på BigC, et kjøpesenter, og handlet, før vi lekte masse i bassenget på hotellet. De voksne måtte være med å leke siden det var min bursdag.

På ettermiddagen på lørdag gikk vi til Fantasea, et lekeland, fullt av morsomme leker og spillehall. Og så er det et show med mange fine historier elefanter, mennesker, geiter, kyllinger er på scenen.

 

Her kaster jeg og Alvin piler på ballonger. Jeg vant to kosedyr, et til Arvid og et til Alvin. Tilsammen vant jeg 9 bamser i spillehallen. Jeg kastet ball, og pil, fisket og hoppet med frosker.

Her er noen av bamsene jeg vant.

Etter showet som var veldig spennende så red vi på elefant, og fikk popkorn.

Elefanten fikk mat av oss etter rideturen.

Jeg fant en liten baby gecko utenfor hotellet vårt. Den krøp over hele meg.

Så var det endelig min virkelige bursdag på søndag. Jeg våknet av at mamma, pappa og hele Larsson familien sang bursdagssangen for meg.

 

Jeg var så rask med å blåse ut lysene at pappa ikke rakk å ta bilde.

En helt perfekt bursdagsfrokost. Desverre den sist med Alvin, Arvid, Cia og Anders.

Etter frokost spiste vi kaken før vi reiste med Alvin og Anders til Splash Jungle, som er et badeland.

Først var vi en runde i et stort sprømbasseng.

Så tok vi en kjempestor vannsklie med en virvel på midten, sånn som i Charlie og sjokoladefabrikken, hos ekornene. Den var kjempegøy.

Til og med mamma turte å ta den sklia.

Jeg hadde en fantastisk fin bursdagsfeiring. Den beste bursdagen EVER!

Tuna ville også blogge, men jeg skjønner ikke helt det hun skrev..

@¨æwæqsqaz<S