Today was a day filled with new experiences and times where if fear got in the way, I would have not lived life to the full! I started my day with breakfast alone, since, as always, I'm the first to wake up! I never mind it though, and actually enjoy the alone time! Then, I headed to Pranang Beach, where I was met by all my monkey friends!
This morning, they were more friendly than usual, and this one actually climbed onto my shoulder to hang out. I honestly wonder if they are starting to recognize me... I have been here for a week after all! I quickly handed my camera to a guy standing nearby and asked him to snap a picture for me.
Turns out, his name is Beau and he is from North Carolina but has been teaching in Ulsan (40 minutes north of Pusan) in Korea. He invited me to rock climb up to the local lagoon with some friends from the UK who he had met on the boat coming over to Railay, so I decided to tag along! It's amazing how quickly you can meet cool people when you're traveling!
Here's the beginning of the hike.
This was the viewpoint (along the trail to the lagoon, which we had to climb to the top of the cliffs and back down to get to. (Remember the picture of the cliffs where the monkeys climb, those are the cliffs we had to climb over!) Crazy huh?!
It was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY slippery because of the mud, so it ended up being a 4 hour adrenaline rush for all of us! On, and it's worth mentioning that I was wearing my bathing suit, a sarong, and did it barefoot! I obviously had no idea this hike would be part of my day!
Beau is an avid rock climber, so he was scaling 50 ft cliffs, with no rope! I was literally shaking, so terrified that he was going to fall!
It was such a gorgeous hike/climb! We were basically in the middle of the jungle! And yes, we saw a snake!
Ami and another girl from the UK. (Not sure her name, she was climbing with her boyfriend behind us) See the rope in the background?? We had to scale down the side of a 20 ft cliff, caked with slippery mud. (Mom, close your eyes, and don't read this!!!) It was extremely dangerous, but the guys spotted and talked Ami and I through every step of the entire way! All in all, we had to scale (3) 30ft+ drop off slippery cliffs by either rock climbing, or pulling ourselves up with a muddy rope...
Believe it or not, I have no pictures of the lagoon! I'm sorry!!! Everyone else took pictures, and will be putting them on Facebook, so you can see them soon!
Introducing our new friend Beau:
After we finished climbing, we headed back to Pranang for some swimming and massages! I had a $6.00 Thai oil back and neck massage on the beach by my favorite lady boy (who, turns out, isn't a lady boy at all! Oops!) Her name is Pan.
Sunset at Pranang (Kristen, Me, and Jess)
After the sunset, we headed over to Mom's kitchen for dinner... but I stopped off to see Nat (another Thai Rasta guy), who is the DJ at Bamboo bar, and also one of San (Bob Marley's) good friends who printed a picture of San and I to give to him before I left. He thought San would love the gesture. He even grabbed some ribbon and tied it for me! Adorable, huh?!
We had dinner at Mom's kitchen tonight. D-licious as usual!
These are 2 of Beau's friends who climbed to the lagoon with us. He is from the UK and she is from Ireland! Awesome, awesome, awesome couple! They sat with us at dinner. All together, we had people from: Cali (Me), Chicago (Jess), Kristen (Miami) Carlos (Columbia), Ben (UK), Ami (Ireland), Alon (Israel), and a guy from London. When do you ever get to have dinner with people from all over the world?!
Hanging out on the deck of Joy Bar tonight!
Crystal and I opted for some good ole diet coke tonight. Cheers! :)
Tomorrow, Carlos, Jess, Me, Kristen, and Beau are heading over to Ko Yao and Ko Hong for a couple day trip. Should be beautiful! I'm not sure if I'll have internet, so you may have to wait a couple days to hear from me! Meanhamnida (sorry)!
