Goodbye vacation...

All good vacations must come to an end... as much as we hate for that to happen!  We both slept in this morning and then put our backpacks on and made the trek to West Railay for some brunch.  We sat down at a restaurant, looked at the menu, and then simultaneously said, "Let's get pancakes instead!"  The thai street pancakes are to die for, and we just couldn't resist taking advantage of our last opportunity to have some!  So, we put our menu's down and walked down the pathway to the pancake stand!

After brunch, we jumped on a longtail boat (for $2.00 each) that took us to Au-nong beach, a great little town with lots of shopping!!  We were both set on buying a thai style floor pillow, which is what thai people sit on when lounging or eating at a table on the floor!  We were sure we would be able to find them in Au-nong, so with our packpacks on, and the sun and humidity in full affect, we began our search!! 

Some charming little Thai statues in front of a restaurant.

There were many stores with traditional Thai statues, candle holders, picture frames, etc, mixed in with some uber touristy nik nacks...  This store even had fruit for sale! 

I don't know what it is with my knack for catching animals in the act while I'm on vacation!  Remember in the Philippines when I was catching dogs right and left... this this trip, it was the monkeys!   While I've never seen actual elephants having sex, I did happen to see a statue of it for sale in a shop!  I couldn't help but laugh, wondering who in the world would want to display this in their home?!

Bet you didn't know Thailand sold chiclets gum too!

It's only natural that a country with gorgeous beaches would sell bathing suits, right?!  Well, I'd bet my life savings that there are more bathing suits for sale in Thailand than there are residents!  They're EVERYWHERE!

There are also thousands and thousands of handmade pillowcases, head pillows, scarves, and "bedgovers" (bedcovers)!  :)

There is also jewelry galore in Au-nong... from beaded bracelets, to intricately crafted rings and necklaces, to feather earrings, cocount and shell charms for necklaces, and every kind of knock off watch you could ever want! 

It was so hot and humid that we actually stopped and ordered stuff at two different cafes just to cool off and put our bags down!  At one of the places, I accidently knocked my drink on the floor, which sent glass flying everywhere!  Oops!

We ended up finding the Thai pillows and getting the guy to let us pay 1/2 of his original asking price!  Instead of buying 2, we decided to split the price and have part ownership of the pillow! haha   

With the last of our Thai money, we paid for a taxi to take us over to the airport, where we hung out until our flight left.  Luckily, we had just enough baht left over to buy some drinks and little snacks, which in turn allowed us to sit and hang out here at this little cafe.

I love this picture of Aaron's travel feet!  This is what happens when you get off of a longtail boat in the mud and walk to the shore, then put on your wet leather rainbow sandals, and allow them to stain your feet brown!   

After 4 hours in the airport (which was better than walking around in the sun in Au-nong with our backpacks on), we boarded our AirAsia flight from Krabi to Bangkok!

The first flight was over and we had successfully made it to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport!  Try to say that 5 times fast!  Unfortunately, we had another 4 hours to spare here while we waited for our next flight to Shanghai...

...so, we walked around for a while, scoping the place out!   I thought it was really interesting to see that the airport had a special Muslim Prayer room for it's Muslim travelers. I couldn't help but notice that this Muslim traveler had a bright redish orange beard!  I was intrigued by this, as I don't believe I've ever seen a bright red beard on a Muslim man!  After doing some research, I found this scripture in the Muslim books: Bukhari 7:786 Allah's Apostle said, "The Jews and the Christians do not dye (their grey hair), so you shall do the opposite of what they do (i.e. dye your grey hair and beards)." Apparently they are only allowed to dye it with henna too... So, there's a little bit of religious cultural history for ya!

When it was finally time to check in, we walked over to the ticket counter and grabbed a place in line with the hundreds of other people.  We got stuck amidst a crowd of Chinese tour groups, who for whatever reason, literally take forever when checking in for a flight!  After about an hour of standing in line, we were both feeling a little like this...

... but then, I noticed a group of girls congregating and staring at one of the Thai guys standing near a bench closeby... I watched for a while and noticed that the girls were acting really giddy and taking pictures, so I said to Aaron, "I'll be right back!  I wanna see what's going on!"  Being the sly one that I am, I scoped out the situation and noticed that the guys girlfriends were trailing closeby, so I went up and politely asked them, "Excuse me, Are those guys singers or actors or something?"  They proudly said, "Yes!  Come and meet them.  They are very nice and will be happy to meet a foreigner!"  Once again, the foreigner card works!!  The one on the left is an actor in Thai music videos and the one on the right is a famous TV actor in Thailand!   You should have seen Aaron's face when he turned around and saw me taking this picture!  He thinks it's ridiculous when I do stuff like this... but it's all part of the experience, right?!  I personally think he's just jealous that he didn't get to meet them! :)

After the flight to Shanghai, we caught our last flight (overnight) back to Busan!   I will say though, the travel bug has not been killed yet, we're already planning our next trip!  I found this group of lonely planet books at one of the airport bookstores and took this picture to serve as a clue to where we're headed next!   If you've followed our past trips, you should be able to figure out where we're going!