A bit of rest on a small little island

Greetings friends and families! I write to you from a small internet room - I think this is someone's living room - with a fan luckily blowing at my back. We have spent the last four days at the small and intimate island of Koh Phayam in Thailand. This has been a mixed blessing. We have started each day with an early morning run on the beautiful white sand beach in front of our bungalow. The food is amazing - the best Thai food I have ever had with fresh curries and fresh fruit shakes every few hours (mango, orange, or banana are the best!). The rest time after two months of moving around a bunch in Nepal has also been quite nice. I just finished my 14th book of our trip and am well into the next one. Michael is also reading a ton which he is loving as well. We don't make enough time for reading at home. We have spent most of the last four days reading in the shade while the hot sun time passes over us with a warm tropical breeze. We also got a couple of surf mornings and afternoons in while the sun was weak and the waves were good. This was a welcome surprise because we didn't know there was good surf here.

The "bad" part of all of it is that it is just too soon for us to be in the sun. Or, maybe never again will we be the sun showered people we used to be. We have hunkered in the shade for most of the day reading - 9am until about 4pm, but the reminders of feeling stuck in the shade have re-opened my skin cancer feelings, but have also sparked some good conversation between us both. We have made it work for sure, but I think there is still some processing to be done on my part about the whole melanoma thing and changing our relationship with the sun. But, good to have some time to process it, and wonderful to get so many yummy fruit shakes and hammock sessions! I have also gotten to put my new SPF gear to the test - it holds up well even in the tropics!

Well we are off to Bangkok tomorrow on an overnight bus for two more days in the city. We have a few more temples we want to see, and we are treating ourselves to some Thai massage therapy before we head off to Turkey.

Sending love to all of you at home! Hugs and kisses!

Kelsey and Michael