And that's a wrap..

Well, we have made it to our last stop on the Thailand Trip- Koh Tao.
I was really loving Railay so I didnt know how I felt about going somewhere new...again. I LOVED how much we got to see on the trip, but we basically stayed in a new place every night. I wouldnt have changed one thing about how we did it though.
From Railay, we hopped on a tractor which took us way out into the ocean (The water was really low for a far ways) and got on our last long tail boat.
The long tail took us to a port where we hopped into a van that would be taking us to our "cruise"!
The van was nice and we had it all to ourselves for most of the way. The ride..if I remember right was about 6 hrs. We were able to get out and stretch our legs once and rode all the way into the night. Everyone always asks me if I (we) were ever scared on the trip, being so far away and not knowing the language. I always said no, but really I was getting scared at this point in the trip.
It was me, Russ, and a Thai male driver, driving us in the middle of nowhere in the dark. I finally told Russ I was a titch nervous and he was so sweet and sensitive when he replied "Yeah, this is about the time they kill me and turn you into a sex slave" hmmm that helped.
They did no such thing, but they did stop us off at a nice little restaurant while we waited for our boat. We had some delicious pizza ( I was craving it) and of course a fruit smoothie.
We got back in the van and headed to our cruise. Koh Tao is a tiny little island, and you could either get there by an overnight boat, or a speed boat. The speed boat was more expensive and we thought we would save money by taking the overnight boat so we wouldnt have to pay for another night in a hotel.
As we were driving I said to Russ.."This is pretty cheap, do you think its just like bunk beds?" He pictured it as a tiny little room. So we were anxious to see.
We arrive at the harbour and to our surprise our "cruise" was just a boat carrying produce to the island with a few beds laid out!!
Isnt it beautiful?

Good thing we are both adventurous! We just laughed and laughed.
I call top bunk!!

By the time we were about ready to set sail, the whole place was full,even with people sleeping on the floor. We had 4 hippies, dreads and all, one dog, one flute player, a bunch of Thai peeps, and me and Russ.
The flute player who slept next to Russ sat up and played a few tunes. It was lovely.
The next morning it got into Koh Tao at 5 AM. It was still dark out. The hippies grabbed their packs and one of them had a FULL pot and pan set. Im not talking a little traveling one, they had more pots and pans dangling alongside them then I do in my kitchen right now.
We sat at this little restaurant waiting for the sun to rise so we could catch a cab (It was a tiny tiny island).
At this point, I was thinking it would have been worth paying the extra cash for the speed boat.
We get a cab, and he drops us off at the top of a hill. He said we would have to pay more for him to go over or he could drop us and it was a "short" walk down the other side. So we hopped out.
Not short at all! I felt like we were walking forever. It was steep, I was tired, I was hungry, and we had no place to stay.
But then....Wala! The sun rose!

And we saw this nice lady walking around in the middle of nowhere at the butt crack of dawn!



I cant remember if I have said this or not, but the whole trip Russ and I discussed which was better, back pack, or luggage. He won. There is no way I could have rolled luggage up that hill. You happy Russ?

It was still too early for us to find a place to stay. So we had a little breakfast and asked around. Here is where we ended up!!

Little Bungalows right on the water.
As I said in an earlier post Koh Tao is known for scuba diving and snorkeling.
And that's basically what we did. That and of course eat.
This was the one and only time it rained on us. Russ was down snorkeling and I was laying in the hammock.
Even though it was pouring rain, he stayed in the water for awhile. I could see him from the bungalow and it was just him, in the whole bay!





After it stopped raining we went down to the beach and Russ went back in the water. I swam for a bit and as I was laying there drying off I saw someone on the top of the rock...Russ waving at me. I grabbed my zoom lens and captured his amazing dive!

He is brave!

While I had that lens on I spied on a kid doing some interesting...acrobatics on the beach.

We came up for dinner and got to see this nice sunset

I love the ocean

Time for yet another feast!
I think we may have gotten carried away. They just give you a menu and you eat, and they put it on a tab. Between the not having to pay right then, and the delicious food we ate A LOT

Yum, bananas in coconut milk...

We would both order a few things and just share. It was great.
That night there was a HUGE spider. Im talking huge. Scared the living daylights out of me.
Russ threw on his trusty head lamp, grabbed the porch broom, and shoe and went in for the kill. He missed.

The next day we spent the whole day in the water yet again.
We spent some good time under the sea capturing a few sea life photos.
There are plenty of things in life that arent flattering for me, two examples: 1-a convertable. My hair is not sexy blowing in the wind hair while in a convertable or on a motorcycle. 2- Snorkel gear.

But I sure have fun wearing it!

There were these amazing bright colorful looking things, and when you dive down to touch them, they suck in! It was really cool to see.




And in they go

It was really nice having an underwater digital camera



We spent a good portion of our day underwater.



Dinner time, went back and got some dinner and came back down to the beach.
Everyone was standing pointing and to our surprise there was a shark fin, right where we had just been playing.

We decided no night swimming for us.
Russ, jumped in the water with some other dude ( I believe he was French?) looking for the shark...down right crazy.
I played it safe and made friends. I love Thailand! There are dogs everywhere waiting to make friends.

My brother thinks he looks dead, he is just comfy.
What a perfect way to end our last night before heading home.

Another beautiful sunset.

The next day turned out to be a long day. At this point in any trip, if I know I have to go home, I just want to be there.
We had to get on a 30 min taxi which took us back the main part of the island so we could catch the speed boat back to the main land.
We had a couple hrs to kill so I got a pedicure, while Russ got a foot massage.
It was the funniest pedicure Ive ever had. No wonder it was only $6. Do you like the color Russ chose? The paint job looked like something one of my nieces would do.

I think the ladies liked Russ because they gave him a free massage while I finished my pedi

We also tried to take advantage of the Thai Pancakes. We did just that! We had FIVE pancakes to hold us over until we can go back!





I miss all those street vendors.



We then hopped on 3 hr ferry ride. It was beautiful coming into the mailand. Little islands everywhere!



When we arrived at the mailand we had to walk down this incredibly long board walk where I serinaded all of the boat passengers espeically Russ, with my own redition of "Under The Board Walk"- by Bett Midler on Beaches.

At the end of the board walk we waited for our bus.
While we waited, what else would we do? Eat!!
Russ got some fruit and somehow we ended up firing the seeds at each other. One hit his face and I didnt tell him it stuck until after I could snap a pic. Good times.

We then boarded an 8 hr bus ride back to Bangkok.
We have absolutely no idea why or how, but we ended up in the "suite" of the bus. Just the 2 of us, and one other couple. Everyone else was on the top part of the bus all cramped in and we got out own TV, our own bathroom, and our chairs reclined.





We got into Bangkok around 3AM, got in a taxi and headed to the airport for our 5AM flight for our 20 + hr plane ride home!
So that was a taxi, speed boat, bus ride, plane ride which equaled out to 43 hrs to get home to SLC.
In Los Angeles I realized I left something in Thailand...my ankles.

They stayed swollen forever. You could push in my ankle and there would just be a huge dent.
It stayed so long and got so painful, a few people were speculating a blood clot. I went in to the insta care and they agreed and made me an appt at the hospital. I had an ultra sound down on my leg and there was no clot! Just a lot of traveling, and my body was still trying to get its circulation back on track.
In LA, we had our last game of Ear Bud Tug A War. If we ever had to make a decision and niether of us could decide we would play Ear Bud Tug A War. We each put in an ear plug in the ear and slowly moved our heads apart. Whoevers came out, had to make the decision.
I wasnt good at it. I would always smile, but Russ...he didnt mess around with this game.



Thanks everyone for reading about our Thailand trip! Best trip Ive ever been on. Bar none.