Our Daily Companion Coffee This is a blog for the animal lovers, those that want to hear about happy life’s for furry friends who have suffered and the incredible people who volunteer their time and skills to ensure animals are cared for in the local community. We spent four nights at Chill Out Village in the small sea gypsy town of Ban Lampho surrounded by nature, wildlife and rescue animals. It was the most soul filling, rewarding time meeting the 3 dogs and 13 cats that called the village home during our stay, the number of residents fluctuates depending on who gets adopted or if someone new joins the family. Located about 20 minutes from Krabi’s Ao Nang Beach it felt like we were miles away from everything in the best way possible. Olly-Ang Driving along small village roads we initially wondered how our time in the back of beyond would be, with questioning looks from our driver we arrived to a welcoming committee of barking dogs alerting staff someone was at the gate. After a warm,...
It’s a week since we left our home town in Hawkes Bay and what a full on but absolutely incredible few days it’s been!
We always wanted to start fun and special and just really enjoy some chill time together and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
Before selling our house and booking flights we had bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran so we absolutely had to plan our departure around that. We traveled to Wellington and spent three nights exploring New Zealand’s cool little capital, ate fantastic food, drunk amazing coffee and had the most magical night singing and dancing to Ed Sheeran. The coolest ever first concert for Hugo and such an epic way to start our journey.
Waiting for Ed
With NZ being so far from everywhere we weren’t able to fly directly to our first extended destination so opted to fly through Hong Kong, the reason for choosing Hong Kong as a stop over was because there is a Disneyland there and we are HUUUUUGE Disney fans.
A Disney hotel has always been a bucket list dream and the themed Disney hotels in Hong Kong are much more affordable than some of the other park locations. We chose to stay at Disney Explorers lodge on a ‘pay 2, stay 3’ deal and paid just under $900 NZD and honestly the experience was faultless and I would absolutely recommend it to any Disney loving family. Included in our hotel stay were shuttles to and from the park that ran every 15-20 minutes, a seperate entry lane into the park which moved a lot faster than the general access queues and the option to buy merch at the park and have it sent to the hotel.
The lodge itself was outstanding, there was themed music playing throughout the lodge and grounds, multiple food and drink options onsite, a Disney store, kids club, activities and the the room itself was tastefully themed.
Disneyland Hong Kong was our fourth visit to a Disneyland and again it did not disappoint, we love how all the parks are similar but different, each with their own unique personality but same general layout. The stand out at this park for us was the Lion King performance and Momentous Party in the night sky. It’s a smaller park and easy to navigate so easily doable in a day but a 2 day pass definitely makes the experience more relaxed.
Disney Castle
From Hong Kong it was time to travel to our base country for the next 6 weeks…..Thailand!
Knowing we would be wanting some pure relaxation after Wellington and Hong Kong we booked 5 nights at the Centara Grand Beach Resort at Karon Beach in Phuket. We had a pre arranged private transfer with Discovery from the airport to the resort which made things super easy, the drive from the airport took about 1.5 hours and was air conditioned bliss.
As we arrived at the resort we were greeted by Cath with the most delicious purple welcome drinks, I’m pretty sure Hugo would have drank all 3 if we had let him 😜 Cath guided us through downloading the resort app and talked us through everything we needed to know before personally taking us to our room, the initial impression was faultless and the resort has continued to be that. Think spacious air conditioned rooms, private balcony’s, multiple restaurants and bars, swimming pools, slides and even a lazy river.
Karon Beach Sunset
The resort is amazing, situated on a beautiful beach with safe swimming water and only a short walk into town. It’s even got its own variety of local wildlife, lots of birds, lots of bugs and while writing parts of this a 1.5 meter long Monitor lizard wandered right behind my chair, sticking out its bright blue tongue! Not long after we had to get out of the pool as a smaller monitor lizard decided to take a swim.
This has been the most perfect start to our adventure and given us the fun and chill we needed before we really settle into the reality of full time travel. On Saturday we travel to Koh Lanta via ferry where our new normal will begin, cheaper accomodation, cheaper food, less activities, figuring out educating Hugo and just more day to day living. We are now ready to take on the next challenge!
Comments
Post a Comment