the step back before going to the beginning (again)

Hello 2008. I don't know you very well. What say we have a quiet drink, get to know each other and then ramp it up as the year goes?

2007 was kind enough to give me a prelude to what 2008 could be. He (well, I had to give it a gender, didn't I? Heaven forbid if I describe "God" as a "He" for you liberal progressives out there) gave me a nice warm sunny holiday in Thailand with my family.

I hadn't been enjoying myself at the end of 2007 - there was the very cold weather (though I did get to wear my favourite duffle coat every day), my new job which I wasn't enjoying too much and a heap of other usual nit-picky things that can make or break your existence. Of course, being the over-reaching drama queen I am, lots of plates get broken.

It was brilliant to escape the London cold. Getting out of London was a breeze - the UK Gods clearly had had enough of me cursing them, as they gave me the benefit of an ON TIME train for the first time in a fortnight. Getting through the checkpoints at Heathrow was a breeze too - this is what happens when you're a control freak like me - I had already packed my 100ml bottles in a BAA-approved clear plastic bag already for quick inspection. Which gave me plenty of time to browse through duty free shops when I ordinarily hate Christmas shopping. Of course, when you've been given free samples of vodka, Baileys and chocolates at 10am there is a lot of Christmas cheer going around. I bought 6 pounds worth of Christmas biscuits in a hideously expensive gesture to my family and family friends who I was meeting in Thailand.

Getting off the flight was a bit of shock to the system - off came the scarves, jumpers, coats, gloves and beanies - I was sweating profusely as I made my way through the enormous new Bangkok airport. My mum/sister/brother were on another flight from Australia that had arrived minutes after my flight, so I was rather excited to see if I could find them. Alas, despite our baggage carousels being next to each other, I was the first to clear customs to meet my Dad. Then there they were - the rest of the circus straggling out. Brother - unshaven, unkempt, in thongs and tee breezed out like he had just drunk a jug of Pimms; sister - clearly in the aftershock of taking travel sickness pills (she's a bit of a poor traveller at the best of times), feet swollen and puffy eyes; and mum - struggling with suitcases she had insisted on pushing out herself.

It was nice to have the 5 of us together and I was talking non-stop - the effects of needing to relay 6 months worth of information before I decided that all I wanted was a cup of tea. Of course, being a Yiu, we can never sit still and do such leisurely things. Straight from the airport it was off to the floating markets in the outskirts of Bangkok which Dad and I had arranged.

The floating markets were a lot of fun, though a bit touristy. Seven people got into a single boat which one middle-aged lady was skippering by herself - an incredible feat to push all of us well-fed Westerners (erm... skinny Asian-Westerners) in a river which was getting more full by the minute. At one stage we were jammed in the middle of a scrum of boats with nowhere to go - but this little Thai lady was incredibly deft in steering us out. She sure put a shame to my driving skills on sealed urban roads. Paddling on we munched on guava and pomelo which we bought from boat-vendors (ok, "vendor" is a bit of a grand term for a poor Thai villager selling fruit from a leaky boat) and I laughed and laughed as we kept on getting stuck in the traffic jam, although I'm sure our captain was cursing our demands to "go here, no, over there! that direction! stop!".

Of course, being a family we had all emailed each other suggestions on what we wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon. Toby had requested a massage, and our family friends in Bangkok knew just the place to go. Toby was delighted - the venue was a 5-star day spa centre. I was secretly delighted, but had to agree with mum who wanted to go out exploring. So we compromised. A 2 hour massage was followed by a wander up and down the chaotic and steamy streets of Bangkok. But let me rub in the massage a bit (hee haw - groan). It was quite possibly the most painfully blissful experience in my life. The polite, demure, gentle Thai massage girl turned out to be brutal with the pressure points and her elbows. As Toby's masseuse explained, "hurt now, nice later". Bloody oath.

The brutal trip continued on with our flight down to Phuket with some family friends. I didn't think Phuket was anything special - the beach was nice, the people very friendly, but I felt that something was lacking. Quite possibly what was lacking was the tranquility with kids splashing about in the fabulous pool and creating a ruckus while I, the tired British civil servant, tried to read a book and drink cocktails in peace. The first day was spent mostly splashing about on the beach and the pool and spending some nice quality time with the family - a long forgotten feeling with the 5 of us wizzing around the world at breakneck speed. The second day, the Yiu family got bored of sitting around by the pool, carefully reapplying sunscreen every few hours (noticing that the people who were just as careful as us were other Australians) and we were off for walks along the coast and a set of golf lessons. One poor Balinese guy had the poor luck of having to teach 5 sports-challenged Chinese people how to play golf. He was hilarious however - he said that the 3 Yiu kids each had one good aspect of their swing that, when combined would be unbeatable. I didn't follow through properly, my sister had her grip wrong and Toby's backswing was too fast. "Be gentle!" he would say to Toby and I - "you are the man!". We laughed and thought about our day jobs.

Of course, with Thailand being so fabulously cheap, we managed to eat our way through an entire village's winter harvest in a few days. The food was oh so good. But what I did discover was coconut icecream. I have never been a fan of anything with coconut, but having decided to try something a bit different than the usual blueberry swirls or what have you (ok - i admit I blanched at the though of the purple Taro icecream). The spending of money continued with a bout of shopping for a tailor made shirt and suit and another massage. Oh. And another swim at the beach. Christmas Day was a bit strange in a holiday resort without the obligatory barbecue, but don't worry! don't panic! we managed to guzzle our way through crayfish, scallops and oysters anyway. I should be ashamed of my gluttony. But I'm not.

After 4 days of burning himself to a crisp by the pool, Toby decided he wanted to have some action, so we headed off to Phi Phi Island. We chartered a boat for the 7 of us which was great - it gave us flexibility to do what we wanted, rather than being forced to do everything under time limits set by tour operators with hundreds of other people. It was a bit of a trek to Phi Phi Island - but as we got closer, we noticed more and more boats speeding up behind us to join the absolute traffic jam of boats trying to get into the bays with the good snorkeling. We dropped in and out of some little bays (stopping off at one beach to feed the monkeys - well - we ended up just watching the other hoardes of tourists provoking the monkeys while we munched on pineapple which was cut up for us like corn-on-the-cob. The beaches and bays were so busy that we ended up going for an early lunch so that we could get out of the more busy areas and find our own way after lunch.

Phi Phi Island itself was crap. Backpacker tourists everywhere, touristy shops and just general overcrowding in the peak holiday season. Before we disembarked onto the main Phi Phi Island drag, we had passed an enormous boat so full of people that it looked dangerous. Toby, always having the most smart-arsed description for anything, called it the "refugee boat". And it actually DID look like it was a leaky old rustbucket about to capsize with too many desperate people fleeing from hell. Speeding past the refugee boat, Toby waved politely at the five hundred of them crowded on deck. Not one single person waved. So with all the dignity he could muster, he raised his third finger at the boat. I was mortified. I told him that I hoped that the refugee boat didn't dock at the same place we did.

Turns out that the refugee boat had booked out every restaurant for lunch. Talk about bad karma by association. After dodging the entire population of Queensland on the island, we settled on a small rather run-down eatery full of loud obnoxious Australians who loudly demanded that he wanted his tuna sandwich without mayonnaise. If the feral Aussie had been any more rude to the poor Thai waitress I would have pushed him underneath the refugee boat. I was sickened at how these backpackers, who loudly proclaim their cultural tolerance, carry on like they have evolved from under a rock. But back to our lunch. Being savvy travelers who travel a fair amount, we all ordered cooked food and cans of coke rather than bottles. Then the combination of the heat and hunger took its toll - Toby and I started to snipe at each other, escalating into a full-blown argument in the middle of the eatery. Now it was our turn for people to look at us - two similar looking Chinese boys nit-picking over the most mundane matters. Our parents even had to intervene. I felt right at home.

At the end of lunch it was off to find a nice snorkeling spot. We moored in a pristine and beautiful inlet, about 100 metres away from the beach. With not a single boat in sight, we attracted fish to the boat with bananas and got into the aqua water. While my siblings were pretty quick to dive in, I dithered about, fretting without having my glasses on and being completely blind in the water. With the stunning clear blue water now an enormous blur, I jumped in and paddled around. I relaxed and headed towards the beach. Then, terror struck. In front of me was what I thought was a jellyfish coming straight towards me. I flailed about in the water, taking gulps of seawater, making me gag, my snorkel filling with water and thrashed in a backwards direction. When I had managed to swim away, I resurfaced at the back of the boat - with the entire boat laughing at me.

I had swum past a plastic bag.

I really must look more carefully at those laser eye leaflets.

But it was time to head back to Bangkok for the Yius to split up again. Because Dad travels so often, we were upgraded to the executive suite at the hotel which was fabulous. It was a tough life, having high tea at the top level of the hotel. But it was back to reality.We were shocked to see that Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated - it is those moments when it only reinforces how privileged I am. To live in a democratic country where people aren't killed for merely turning up to place a piece of paper in a ballot box.

And then it was time to say goodbye to mum, sister and brother who were returning to Australia. Dad was flying to London for work meetings and would fly back with me. We spent the last day in Bangkok taking it easy, a slow breakfast with the papers, a wander through the streets, a simple lunch of noodles. Dad brought me along to meet one of his friends - an economic adviser to the Thai government. A chat about the Thai election turned into a Chinese dinner and a hunt for some cheap DVDs for me before it was time to fly home to London.

It was strange landing in London - I had massive deja vu of the feeling when I first arrived to live in London. And yet, I felt at home. Being back in my flat was reassuring, yet I couldn't get rid of the niggling feeling that this was someone else's flat.

Probably because of how tidy my flatmate had left it.