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! 

Kayaking 12.5 miles!!!

Our Thai bhat is almost gone, so the amazing 600 baht snorkeling trip that I went on last time is absolutely out of the question for today!  I was a little disappointed not being able to share the pure paradise of Poda and Chicken Islands with Aaron (where the snorkeling trip goes)... but we had talked about kayaking to nearby Tonsai Beach (1km from Railay), which I had never been to, so I was excited about the new adventure ahead! 

But then, when we got to the beach, Aaron asked, "Do you wanna kayak out to the islands?  I think we can do it!"  Looking far off into the distance and just barely even being able to see them, his idea of kayaking out there sounded like an impossible, and quite frankly a bit crazy, task!  But then I thought: Some of my favorite vacation memories have been when I've done something completely out of my comfort zone!  So, we pushed the kayak towards the sand, loaded our stuff into a water safe bag, jumped in and started paddling!

I knew, about 10 minutes into it, when it seemed as if we were barely making any ground, that this was INDEED a crazy idea!  I've only kayaked three other times in my entire life, and they surely weren't to islands 8 kilometers off shore! 

When we reached what looked like the halfway point, Aaron jumped out and swam a bit while I kept the kayak from drifting too far away!  Plus, I wasn't about to get stung by the jellyfish nearby!  (We originally started at the 3rd sandy beach from the right).

We FINALLY MADE IT!  After about an hour of intense paddling (and yes, it was on BOTH of our parts!) we floated onto the gorgeous white sand beach on Poda Island!  The people on the beach stared at us as if we were the craziest people they'd ever seen, and couldn't believe we had kayaked that far!  (We started at the beach on the far right in this picture.)  I even said to Aaron, "Don't you feel like they should be clapping for us, or something? ...welcoming us after a long and traitorous journey!"  haha  Unfortunately, we didn't get an applause, but we were approached by the sweetest couple (from Israel) who congratulated us and said they had just done the same journey by kayak!  We instantly bonded and become friends (and each other's photographers, which was a nice plus)!    

The water here, on Poda island, is some of the prettiest I've seen in Thailand, and I remember it looking the exact same as the last time I was here!   In fact, I've dreamed, many times, of coming back to this exact spot, so to be able to do that with Aaron was a true blessing!

 There are thousands of these yellow and black striped fish here, and they're so used to humans feeding them, that as soon as you enter the water, the immediately surround you! 

  

Lucky for me, I only got bit ONCE this time! Apparently my right leg resembled a piece of tasty bread!!

 After leaving Poda (far left of this picture - Railay is in the distant background on the right), we kayaked over to Tup Island (right next to Chicken Island), where we virtually had the entire beach to ourselves!

 We spent a lot of time in the water here, snorkeling, swimming around, and collecting more shells for my students! Aaron even spotted a puffer fish while we were swimming to a nearby island, and tried throwing rocks at it to make it puff up!  While his aim was impeccable, the puffer wasn't fazed by the rocks!  (Disclaimer: he never actually hit the poor guy.)  Still pretty amazing to see one! 

 After leaving Tup Island, we kayaked back over towards Poda to lay in the shade on the sandy beach, before heading back over to Railay!  As we were pulling up to the shore, we noticed that our friends Moron (pronounced more like "moh rahn" and less like "moron") and Elad, from Israel had our same idea!   It was fun to get to spend more time together!   

Believe it or not, we made it back to Railay, and it was actually easier on the way back - maybe because our muscles were warmed up from the earlier trip!  We felt so great about kayaking so far, and were honestly really proud of ourselves for our adventurousness! We even went a little out of our way to check out the tiny islands right off the coast of Railay.  This is the backside of the island that I swam to yesterday, from Pranang Beach in Railay.

We were even able to kayak into this million year old cave, inside the island!

By this point, Aaron was exhausted and ready to take the kayak back, but I was determined to see Tonsai Beach before I left Thailand!  According to Jessica and Carlos (and Elad and Moron), Tonsai is even better than Railay, because the only people there are 20 somethings, from all over the world: rock climbers, Rastafarians, yoga loving people who practice their yoga poses on the beach, and free spirited artists selling their own handmade paintings and jewelry around town!  So, Aaron said, "Okay, if you wanna got to Tonsai, you're gonna have to paddle us the whole way there (which was at least 1.5 kilometers)!   I'm not going to help you!"  He only said this because he figured I would say "never mind" but after I paddled about 1/2 the kilometer, he joined in and helped! :)  He's a good man!  He's also obsessed with The Amazing Race, so when he noticed a couple kayaking ahead of us he said, "Okay, let's pretend we're on The Amazing Race and we have to beat them to the beach"!  I swear, the guy's gonna be on the show one day!  Mark my words!

We walked the beach for a little while and then grabbed a table on the deck of a nearby restaurant!

We were entertained the entire time by the musicians, jewelry sellers, rock climbers, and a couple doing couples yoga poses!  It was fantastic and exactly where we wish we would have spent the last couple days!  It was awesome!

And speaking of awesome, the sunset was stunning over Tonsai Beach! 

We paddled back to Railay, in the dark, and as we passed the cliffs dividing the two beaches, we were taken aback by the gorgeous Thai fire lanterns floating up into the sky - one by one from the wedding taking place on the shore!  The beach was stunning, and romantically lit with restaurant candles, and coffee shop mood lighting!  I paddled slower, and slower, making sure to take in the beauties of my last night in Thailand.  It was the perfect day, and the perfect night for our Thailand finale!

Railay, day two!

I woke up bright and early today and walked down the beach to get a fruit smoothie for breakfast!  I quickly found a cattin (cat/kitten) to sit with me!  Check out those eyes!  Each eye was yellow AND light blue!  She was a sweetheart and tucked her head into my stomach, purred, and kneed me the whole time I was there!

The tides here are REALLY extreme. In the morning, and late at night, the water receeds REALLY far and leaves boats stranded on the sand! Then, in the afternoon, around 2pm, the water comes up so high that it splashes against the makeshift boardwalk and you get soaked trying to walk the beach! 

Aaron met me after breakfast and we headed over to Pranang beach again, set our stuff on the sand and immediately jumped in the warm water and swam to the island!  We spent about 45 minutes there searching for shells for my students (I give them away as prizes)!  As a kid, Aaron used to walk for hours, along the shoreline on Edisto Island in South Carolina, searching for shark teeth!!  So he's a good guy to have around when I'm in shell searching mode!  He says he feels kinda lame looking for shells, but does it anyway!  Gotta love him! :)

The clouds began to cover the sky around noon, so Aaron heade back to Ya Ya to do some reading, and I went ahead and had myself a little $6.00 massage on the beach!  What's funny though, is a woman approached me and asked if I wanted a massage.  When I said, "Yes" she asked me to follow her over to a different area where she laid out a mat and asked me to lay down... and then she dissapeared!!  Out of nowhere, this old guy sat down and took over!  Uuughhh, I wasn't expecting that!

As I was enjoying my "gentle" massage, which felt more like a back rub from a 5 year old child, I heard people off in the distance cheering!  So, when my massage was over,  I headed towards the cheering and found that people were cliff jumping!  I sat here, for a while, watching!   (And no, I didn't partake this time!)

Last night, when Aaron and I were taking pictures of the sunset, we noticed some people were looking up at the cliffs and taking pictures... Curious as to what was so great, we looked up and saw a guy tight rope walking across the wire connecting these 2 cliffs (about 300 feet in the air)!  Can you see it?  We had seen some guys practicing, at the beach, on a rope that was a couple feet above the sand, earlier in the day, but I had no idea they were practicing for THIS!  We could hear the guy let out a big scream and cheer when he made it all the way across to the left side!  TRULY AMAZING!

As you can see, it was kind of a cloudy and gray day, but it was okay, because the food boats were here and the Pad Thai I ordered was delish!  I ate it, while sitting on the sand, next to a HUGE black dog that I had remembered from last time I was in Railay!  He was so well mannered too, and never begged for any chicken! :) 

I left Pranang around 3:30pm and headed back to see what Aaron was up to, and relaxed (and wrote yesterday's blog) in my treehouse room!   At 5:00pm, I took Aaron to one of my favorite places... where we hung out a lot last time I was here!  It's a gorgeous area, kind of hidden away on Railay, that only the true backpackers and locals go to!  I was happy to see that NOTHING had changed back here!  

On our hike back down, we encountered a big group of monkeys, playing the nearby caves!

Each one, teach one!

Is this not one of the biggest leaves you've ever seen in your lifetime?!  I literally had to hold it with both hands!

At this point, we were in the back of Railay, where the locals live!  This area has remained completely untouched, which made me more happy than you can imagine! 

We decided to walk back over (about a mile and a half) to Phranang Beach to watch the sunset again!

The only way to get to Phranang beach is to walk along the caves!  They are gorgeous and millions of years old!

 Once again, a little writing in the sand to commemorate our stay in Railay!

These are the stalagmite (sp?) cliffs that Railay is so famous for!   All of the following pictures were taken with Aaron's fish eye lens in order to get all the detail into 1 shot!  I personally love all of them!

The sunset on Phranang Beach, under the cliffs...

The penis shrine!  The locals have carved and presented penis statues in this cave for years.  Legend has it, a virgin princess once crashed into this cave, during a storm, and died.  The locals believe that if they give her penis's (to make up for her being a virgin) she will be happy, and in turn, watch over the area!  According to some of the locals, there have been hundreds of "sightings" of the princess after the sun goes down.  I looked tonight, since it was pretty dark, but I didn't see her!   

 This is Railay East, the area where we are staying is WAY down the beach.  This is the beach we walk along to get to Phranag beach!   As you can see, it's VERY low tide time!

This is looking the opposite direction towards the caves!

We stopped in at this local joint for dinner and had some Pad Thai (surprise surprise) and some masaman curry!  It was soooo good!

Then we walked up the beach to Skunk Bar, which was where I spent most of my nights last time I was in Railay!  We sat at my favorite table, on the deck, and ordered myself a screwdriver, which for some reason tasted like cranberry juice. hmmmm.   (Mom's kitchen- my favorite local joint, is on the far right with the bright white lights!)

The air was cool, the stars were bright, the fresh pinneapple was delicious, our Thai rastafarian server was high on weed and in a great mood, the drinks were yummy, and I had Aaron there to enjoy the whole thing with!

I'd say today was a pretty darn great day!