Hey Reader,

We’ve had a pretty tricky month here in Thailand, between flash floods, landslides, sleepless nights and illness, it will go down as one of our tougher months on the road.

Let’s get into it with this month's Travel Journal:

As if Covid and food poisoning weren’t enough at the start of the trip, we had a week where we couldn’t sleep in August. Absolutely out of nowhere we just had one sleepless night after the other.

Sleep is a tricky one for us, we are both such light sleepers, so if one of us wakes up, we wake the other and so begins the tennis match of keeping each other up all night.

If you've struggled with sleep, you know how worrying about needing sleep can keep you awake. 😅

You would not believe the lengths we go to to get good sleep. We have tried every sleep hygiene routine out there!

Bad sleep plagued us until we decided to sleep separately and stop stressing about it. Eat the sugar, watch the horror movies until late and don’t set an alarm. And it worked 😆 Nothing like a good slasher to send you off to dreamland 🔪🩸

In the midst of our sleepless nights, Phuket suffered a horrendous landslide. One morning, I came down to the hotel lobby to find it had transformed into a river.

Once the water subsided, the hotel team rallied and had everything back to normal, minus a broken lift, by the evening.

Other homes and hotels were not so fortunate, and Phuket suffered loss, damage and injury on quite a large scale. Locals informed us that while heavy rain during monsoon season is normal, flooding in this area never happens.

The day after the landslide, Sam started with a fever and became bed-bound for 72 hrs. We weren't sure if it was food poisoning or if he had ingested tap/shower water by mistake, but it was the worst case he'd had so far.

Antibiotics and rest to the rescue! 👩‍⚕️

A few days later, it was our 4th wedding anniversary, which Sam had just about recovered in time for. We had a lovely sunset dinner and a jet ski tour. I wouldn't say 'tour' was the most accurate word for how the day went.

We apparently saw nine different Islands off the coast of Phuket, but I couldn't tell you a thing about them. This tour was really more: riding a jet ski flat out for almost four hours. And honestly, we found it boring.

Within the first 45 minutes, we agreed that jet skiing is like riding a bucking bronco while someone throws buckets of water in your face. In the future, if we want an adrenaline fuelled day, we'll hire some dirt bikes instead.

As far as we're concerned, September is the beginning of Spooky Season and for the next two months, we'll read and watch all things eery. We kicked off the month with a trip to the cinema to watch the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which we thoroughly enjoyed. 💚

Last week was another hit-and-miss week with feeling good, making progress at the gym, working lots and then, you guessed it more sleepless nights and another hit of food poisoning for both of us. This time though, we only have ourselves to blame.

Note to self: Don't eat kebab meat at the night market 🤢

We did, however, have a great day exploring Phuket Old Town on Sunday. The street art and laid-back, alternative vibe brought back fond memories of living in Melbourne. The colourful Portuguese style buildings made me feel like we'd stepped into a portal that had transported us back to Europe.

On Sundays at 4 pm, designated streets close to make way for the market, and stalls filled with food and crafts line the roads. These are the best food and crafts stalls we've seen so far in Phuket, we'll be back for another visit soon. 🌵

You know how I said earlier that flooding in this area never happens? Well, I kid you not. As I am writing this email, Sam came to tell me that the street is flooded again! We don't know the cause yet, but right now the water is rising in our kitchen and the heavy rain is not due to subside for a while.

Perhaps it's time to consider relocating. 🤔

Let's see what happens over the next few days and whether we decide to extend our Thai visas or make a new plan.

I've been slack with daily journaling in the past couple of months, which I'm sure is obvious from the Travel Journals you've received. So I'm just wondering, do you prefer these shorter, snappier journals? Or would you prefer I go back to the longer, more detailed versions? Hit reply and let me know!

See you in a couple of weeks with the AAW Newsletter! xoxo

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