Day Twenty-Three - 13/12/25

I was up early again for a run with the guys. I was pretty cooked from the big day before, but still managed to get 5 km done. It was super hot and humid, so by the time I got back I was drenched. Straight into the pool for a cool down, which felt amazing.

After that I caught up with Kia and the kids and we all headed down for breakfast. Lots of chatting and a pretty cruisy start to the morning. I tried to get a bit of work done back at the room, but the kids had a soccer game booked for 10 o’clock, so we headed down for that. We dropped some washing off on the way. Kia stayed back andworked on the family video for YouTube.

Soccer was good fun, but absolutely roasting. It was adults versus kids and way more hectic than you’d expect in that heat. After the game the kids got ice creams as a treat. Only problem was… they were durian flavour. We didn’t realise until they took a bite. Super stinky, very confronting, but somehow they still powered through and ate them.

On the way back we grabbed some bánh mì for lunch. I wrapped up a bit more work, then we had a really chilled afternoon. Swimming, hanging around, Maddie cruising about, the kids doing a bit of schoolwork. Nothing rushed, just a nice steady pace.

I got stuck into a solid couple of hours of work later in the afternoon. A lot of people were heading off to the night markets, but we decided to stay local instead. We jumped on the scooters and went out for dinner at a nice restaurant.

Emmett had his grumpy pants on, and the staff clearly picked up on it. He’s become a bit of a celebrity here, blonde hair, green eyes, everyone thinks he’s very handsome. To cheer him up, they brought him out a plate of spaghetti on the house. That definitely did the trick. While he demolished that, we waited for our meals and eventually had some really nice beef noodle dishes.

Scooter riding is still something I’m always switched on about. If anyone wiggles, it throws the balance out pretty quickly, and with only three helmets I’m always conscious of keeping everyone safe. Just as we were about to leave the restaurant, there was a massive scooter crash right out front. People flying, scooters everywhere. There are no real road rules, and it definitely put everyone on edge and was a good reminder of how alert you have to be here. It’s exciting, but it can be draining always being “on”.

We headed back and spent some time chatting with people in the common area. Stayed up as late as we could, but by about 8:30 we were done. Off to bed, ready for another big day.

Another excursion day which we are all looking forward to.

Day 23 felt like just another day.