Ko Yao and Aon-nang!

This morning, I heard a knock on my door and it was Dana and Chloe coming to say goodbye. They're off to Australia. Once I was awake, I decided I'd go and get myself some breakfast, but first, I stopped into the internet cafe to write my daily blog! :) I'm always thinking of my fans! haha

I then, headed over to Jess and Carlos's place, and layed down at the restaurant on the grounds of their bungalow, ordered some green curry, a nice glass of cold water, and with a Thai pillow behind my head and a book in my hands, I was feeling great!

I did happen to fall asleep for about 15 minutes too! Where else can you lay on the ground and fall asleep in a restaurant?! Only Thailand!

Jess and Carlos woke up around 11am, and we all rented scooters again to ride around the island. Kristen jumped on the back of mine again, and off we rode into the jungle! :) But first, we stopped for some gas at this little convenient store. Notice, the gas is poured through 2 liter soda bottles!

We stopped in the market for some quick shopping and a yummy Thai lunch at a local place! There were no walls, dirt under our feet and a hut roof above us, literally! I've fallen in love with this type of dining!

The road we drove along...

We then took another tuk tuk to the pier and said goodbye to Jess. :( She headed back to Korea last night... We were all really sad to see her go.

Carlos, Kristen, Jenny, Gail, and I all jumped on a speed boat that took us to Aon-nang. As soon as we jumped off, we were approached by this man, who offerred us a place for 150 baht a room! He said it was his friends place and didn't have a key. Kinda shady, but we all did it anyway! I took this picture, just incase we had to track him down! haha


We stayed the night in this shanti of a place! But here's the best part, it was only 50 baht a person! That's about $1.50! None of us are oppossed to spending more... There's just something about staying somewhere a bit ghetto that makes for a fun memory! Carlos, Kristen and I are all sharing this room together!

We dropped off all of our bags and did some walking in the town...


... had some huge pizzas at an italian restaurant...

They have really funny tuk tuk's here!

We are right next to the beach, so I took this picture when the sun was setting! I'm convinced Thailand has the best in the world!

Kristen is in love with chocolate, so we stopped into this convenient store for her, and found this kitty laying on the shelf! haha

I ended up buying a necklace from this little one. She was so darn cute!


Shopping...

There are tons of these shrines that say, "Long Life the Queen" all over Thailand.

We hung out at this bar for most of the night, playing games and talking under the stars.

This guy tried soooo hard to get me to buy this crazy hat. No thank you!

Carlos and his mojhito!...

Gail, Carlos and I played some dominoes. (I bought this wooden, hand made set, on the street for the equivalent of $6.00, so I busted it out for a trial run!)

Neither of them had ever played. This was one of Carlos's moves. He's what we like to call a slow learner! If you know how to play Dominos, you know how funny this is!

Even though I was the most experienced, I obviously was not on my game. :(

I'm leaving Aon-nang this morning to go elephant trekking through the jungle for 2 hours! I am sooo excited, since this is the one thing I didn't want to leave Thailand without doing!

I'll be dropped off at the Krabi pier in the afternoon, and then I'll be jumping on another speed boat which will take me to Phi Phi Island, where I'll meet Carlos and Kristen around 3pm! We are all planning to share a room for the night and then they're off to go home, back to Korea. I have no idea where I'll go after Phi Phi, but I like the feeling of being free to go wherever!

Ko Hong Island

Yesterday, the 8 of us hired a private long tail boat to take us to Ko Hong Island. Our "captain" was awesome and he took us into this secret cove where the water was so clear, you could see to the bottom!

Me and Jess on the long tail boat...

Our first glimpse at the cove! Incredible!

Jess was the first to jump in!


Then we all did it! Kristen, Carlos, Jess, and Me.

The beach at Ko Hong Island (Jess and Carlos)

Carlos and Jess

Kristen and I love doing jumping pictures!

The tree where we layed out by in Ko Hong.

Some things never change... I'm always on the lookout for beautiful shells!

We definitely did some snorkeling here! The water was crystal clear and the fish were everywhere! I saw one blue one that was at least 3 feet long! And there were lots of parrot fish. You can look them up on google... they're beautiful. Jess was snorkeling and was watching one of them and she said it turned around and showed her all it's teeth and that was enough to get her out of the water for a while! haha

The fish literally swim right up to you... hundreds of them! I was lucky, I only got bit once!

Low tide at Ko Hong Island...

When you take boats here, they don't pull them up to a dock. They stop them in the water and you have to jump out and tread through. Yesterday, they pulled the boat in the mud in Ko Yao and we walked about 300 meters back to the beach. The mud was soooo soft that we all sank1/2 way up our calves with each step! It was really funny and kind of gross, but a really great experience!

After we got back from the Island, Jess, Carlos and I all rented scooters to ride into town. Jess and Carlos shared one, and I got my own. Mind you, this was my 1st time (If you don't count the time I rode Kevin's in Korea for about 100 feet). I was a natural! We rode about a mile and spotted Kristen, so she jumped on the back of mine. I was really proud of myself for learning how to drive one, with someone on the back, on the left side of the road. If I were in a contest for trying new things, I would have made a lot of points with this little adventure!

Jess and Carlos at the gas station. 1 liter of gas was only 40 baht!

We rode the scooters to this fishing village to buy some lobster. It's only 100 baht for 1 kilo, which is EXTREMELY CHEAP! We had no idea how we were going to cook it, but we figured we'd get creative!

But when we got there, there was no one working. :(

This was a cooler of gigantic fish! Ehhh

so, we rode the scooters through this market in Ko Yao and stopped for dinner at a local joint. It was really good and the lady who was working there cut us some fresh pinneapple on the house!

All in all, it was an AWESOME day!

Ko Yao

We did it, we made the big leap yesterday, and said goodbye to Railay Beach, well for 3 days at least! :)

Introducting Ko Yao:

The drive from the port to our bungalows was done on a tuk tuk, basically a truck with a tent over the bed of it with benches on either side... It felt a little like we were on safari, since Thailand is very jungly! (Is that a word?!)

This island is NOT TOURISTY at all, which is awesome! We are really getting a glimpse into the life of the Thai Island dwelers!

Riding around in the tuk tuk, trying to find somewhere to stay.

As it turns out, the homestays were not available, since it's low season, so Kristen and I ended up here! What a cute little bungalow huh?! Ready for the drumroll... it's 250 baht a night, which is the equivalent of about $4.00 for each of us!

The view from our porch... a grassy area with palm trees and then the water! :)

This little cat greeted us at our porch when we arrived... She's very sweet!

Maybe this is why it was only $8.00 a night total! haha... but this is our style! Hut roofs, ghetoo bathrooms, a comfy bed, and front porches that overlook the beach! What more do you need?!

*** The toilet doesn't have a flusher. There is a bowl in the black bucket that you scoop water into and then throw it into the toilet bowl and it flushes! :)

This little girl was sleeping in this hammock in the hut restaurant next to our bungalow. What a life, huh?!

After we got all settled in, we walked down the road and found this AMAZING restaurant! It overlooks the ocean and looks like a giant hut! It's beautifully charming.

Kristen...

Jess was explaining how much she LOVES massages! Heck, when they're only $6.00, who doesn't?!

Kristen and I

Lunch was delicious! We ended up meeting 4 other girls who we've been hanging out with here. We're convinced we may be the only foreigners on the island! We met on the tuk tuk actually. (Jenny and Gail are from Ireland, and Dana and Chloe are from London) They've been a lot of fun to hang with and get to know!

Jess and Carlos are staying in this hut, which is basically at the base of the water! Stunning!

Jess's bungalow. Nice hammock, huh?!

We almost all stayed here, but we had already settled at our other place. It was a 3 room bungalow where the owners used to live. What a life huh?!

It started to get really stormy while we were there, so we all lounged around and watching the lightinging storm over the water...

This was the view of the storm... beautiful, huh?!

During the storm, it got really windy and was pouring rain, so we moved inside for some coffee and hot chocolate with the other girls.

On our walk back to our bungalow, I spotted this buffalo roaming in a palm tree field. As you can see, we are in the middle of nowhere on this island!

Kinda scary if you think about it!

We had dinner here. The restaurant is actually closed during this time of year, but they opened it for the 8 of us! I'm telling you, we are literally the only foreigners here! The guy who owns the restaurant knew we would all come for dinner, so he quickly decorated the place and called his friends to come over and bartend and cook for us! It was amazing!

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich (Not my typical curry, but I was craving one, and they made it!) Here's the funny part though. I asked them for a grilled cheese sandwich and some fruit. He asked me what kind of fruit and I said, "Ummm, banana and pineapple please." When my sandwich came, the fruit was inside! We all died laughing!

Jess and Carlos!

Kristen and Jenny (from Scottland)


Me and Gail (from Scottland)


Carlos actually found this rock earlier in the day and gave it to Jess! It's a perfect heart!

Today, we're renting a boat and heading over to Ko Hong.