Yesterday we went on a half-day trip to go snorkelling off the coast on the other side of Phuket island. This was mainly Thing Two’s idea. She really wanted to try snorkelling. DW, who was also keen on the plan, looked into it, and came up with this tour which we booked through the hotel.

The day did not start well. The Boy had gotten sun cream in his eyes during the morning application. He then started to cry and rub his eyes. Which got even more cream in there. And repeat. Queue screaming child all the way through breakfast. And the drive to the boat.

After a short but noisy 30-minute drive across the island (Phuket is thankfully pretty small), we arrived at the harbour to board our boat. We then had another 30 minute journey, but this was rather more interesting, especially for The Boy, as it involved a speedboat zipping across a fairly choppy sea. So as you might imagine, lots of bumps, bobbing about and spray flying everywhere. The sore eyes got forgotten about very quickly. It was pretty cool, except for poor DW who has a tendency to seasickness. In fairness, if I had that tendency, there’s no way I’d have gone on that boat so good on her for arranging and joining in.

The snorkelling itself was good fun. The Boy didn’t stick it for long, but the girls really enjoyed it. We followed that up with lunch and a swim on a small island nearby before heading back. This particular island is tiny, but almost every square inch of useable land is taken up with beach bars or deck chairs. It gets a lot of tour boats calling. Our guys managed to time our trip to arrive just as the morning boats were leaving and before the afternoon boats arrived, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves which was lovely.

The Boy certainly does not need lessons in how to chill:

The drive back was more delightful than the one out, thanks to the absence of the max-volume soundtrack (The Boy was shattered and fell asleep almost as soon as the wheels started rolling). We actually noticed a few things. Like rubber tree plantations, with black plastic cups at the bottom of each tree to collect the rubber sap. And little brightly decorated religious shrines outside almost every house, especially in rural areas. And a large mosque. And kids coming home from school (the girls particularly enjoyed that!!). It was a lovely end to a lovely trip.

Seeing the school kids reminded us of the need to remind the girls to get going on their travel journals. They don’t have to keep up with coursework while they’re away from school, but the school principal has asked them to each keep a journal of what they do and see along the way. So they spent much of the early evening getting started, using a journal app they have on their iPads. So this is doing your homework, holiday style: