Freedom Beach, grilled fish, and a good book!

Where did I last leave off??  Oh yes, I had just finished my pink Pad Thai with Aaron at our resort's restaurant!

After dinner, we moved next door to the charming, Thai style, New Heaven Restaurant, to have some drinks and enjoy the full moon, shining over the water! (Picture to come!  Sorry, it's on Aaron's camera.)  We met and played with the funniest little girl, who at first, we thought was "special!"  Her name was Ria, and she was about 3 years old.  After meeting her parents, we learned that she lives in Koh Tao, but only speaks French (from her dad) and Mandarin (from her mom), which explained why she seemed "special" at first!  She was probably totally confused by our speaking English! Our ESL training definitely came in handy when playing with her!  She was such a ham and her mom said she's never warmed up to people that quickly!!

After drinks, we called it a night, both exhausted by the day's snorkeling and climbing up the 100 steep and tall stairs from the bungalows to the street numerous times throughout the day!!

I woke up to the sun blaring through the window of my bungalow, and got up, in search of Aaron, who happened to have been up for hours, reading his book in bed!  He had woken up to watch the sunrise over the water!

We both got ready and made the trek up the 100 stairs to the front of the resort...

jumped on our $4.00 a day rented scooter...

 and headed for some breakfast in town!   Aaron had accidently forgotten his electric razor at the last place we stayed, so he dropped me off at KoPPee cafe and rode the scooter over to see if they had found it!  Luckily, they had, and even gave him some free coffee while he waited for them to search for it!  That place had the greatest service, I tell ya!

While I waited for Aaron, I sat, eating delicious homemade banana bread and petting this sweetheart of a dog!  All dogs and cats are welcome in restaurants and cafes in Koh Tao!  They live on the streets and basically come and go at their own free will!  I, personally, love it!

 After breakfast, we went back to the bungalows and put our bathing suits on!  The sun was shinning, the water was clear, and we were ready for some swimming!  We had heard that Freedom Beach was beautiful, and close by, so we slipped our rainbow sandals on and walked (hiked) over to the beach!  The only way to get there is to follow this path along the waterside! 

The sand was powdery, the water was clear and turquoise, and the view was to die for!  When I thought I had seen the best beaches in Asia, I was once again, pleasantly surprised!  This may have been the prettiest beach I've been to yet! 

One of my fav pictures of the trip!  At this point in the day, we had already snorkeled way off shore into about 10 meter deep waters to see beautiful corals and colorful fish!  The longer we keep those tight masks on though, the more they indent our faces!   So, in other words, those are not new wrinkles! haha!

We had lunch, there on the beach, and took some fun pictures of Aaron!   This was my personal favorite!  

After lounging, eating, snorkeling, swimming, and sunbathing at Freedom Beach, we decided to head back to the bungalows!  We went a different route this time, hoping that we could find a secret pathway over the mountain!  We did... kind of... It was a bouldering pathway, but it got us back to the bungalows none the less!  I felt like I was the guy from 127 hours, jumping from boulder to boulder!  I did take a decent fall, but luckily never had to cut my arm off!

We didn't want to leave the sharks out today, so we went back out, infront of my bungalow, to say hello to all our shark friends!  Aaron saw 3 huge baracudas!  I was happy I didn't!

We ended the afternoon with hours of reading!  Aaron lounged on the boulder infront of my bungalow, while I chose to stay on the veranda, in the shade! 

No relaxing vacation is complete without a good book, right?!  Thank you Annie Kerkian for lending me Bitter is the New Black!  I can't stop laughing!

As the sun was going down, we rode the scooter in search of the perfect restaurant for dinner!  After parking and walking the entire length of Chalok Bay, we found the hidden gem!  A wonderful fresh fish grill!  You pick your fish...

...and then they grill it, right there on the beach!  We kicked off our shoes and grabbed a table to enjoy our yummy fish and grilled sweet corn!  We could quite possibly stay here forever!  I think we've found our paradise!