Every year for the past few we've been fortunately to have our friends Trina and Joe and their adorable daughter Sarah come to visit us in Malaysia. The same was a possibility this year as their Chinese New Year vacation is longer than ours (theirs is one week to our four days). But we thought' "why not give them a chance to go somewhere else as well and perhaps we can fly and meet them in a neutral spot?" And so that plan was set. They were going to fly from Dalian where they live to Bangkok for a night and then fly on to Krabi, Thailand. As it turns out Krabi is just a 1 hour 20 minute flight from KL, so we opted to go see them. To spice things up, we decided to go in convoy style with the Colombian entourage in tow. So Natalia, Laurence, Irini, Amalia, Tia, Avihurik and TTmouz all boarded the plane and headed out to Southern Thailand for four nights on the beach. Aahhhh! There is little that can beat a beach in Thailand, though it was perhaps more touristy than any place we've been to in a while. Still, the hotel stood right in front of a bay, overlooking the ocean, and karst outcroppings dotted the landscape. The hotel ran inward away from the beach and our rooms (pretty large and quite beautiful) sat at the back, in a quiet setting overlooking a pool. We arrived a day before Trina, Joe and Sarah and we quickly found out how lovely the place was. TTmouz, in particular, was overjoyed by the beach and, thankfully for us, Irini and Amalia followed him and Avi into the water time and time again. The next morning we sat at breakfast when Trina, Joe and Sarah pulled up in their boat (as we had the day before) and we rushed over to say hello.
The next few days were spent hanging out with them and catching up, and watching the kids play in the water, sometimes in the sea and sometimes in the pool. Breaks were filled with a nice snooze on a king sized bed. In the distance, the real world ticked on. In our little haven there was nothing but sun, talk and down time, just like we had hoped. Of course, being with Trina and Joe, sharing stories and plans and dreams - from new homes in the planning to professional aspirations, to family life - was a great opportunity to dip into our friendship further. We miss you guys!
The Colombian extended family added to the experience, of course. Trina mentioned how strange it was to see Tia in Thailand when they had last seen her in Colombia. The world is getting smaller it seems, for all of us.
Our departure found us returning to the news that Pappou (Walter) had fallen and broken his arm. There was a sudden thrust into the 'real world' as we contacted Aleko to make sure everything was okay. While we sat and slumbered on the beach, Aleko had flown to Geneva where the accident had happened, and helped Monica help Pappou with all the medical concerns. Jarred from our vacation mindset it was a bit of a shock, but happily everything had turned out well (or as well as could be hoped for). Monica's emotional state was back to (more) normal. Aleko was back in a routine work environment. Pappou was in his usual high spirits, even with a sling around his neck and stories of necessary physiotherapy. Normalcy has been (somewhat) restored for all of us. Life goes on.
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