Summer Fun

Hi!

My blog has been suffering over the past few months. There is a list the size of a small whale posted to my desktop on my computer listing the different things that I need to write about. I'd like to think that I'll eventually get there. At this point though that's neither here nor there because I've started another adventure which I hope to document as I experience it - it's called Summer Vacation 2008 Part 1 and it started a few days ago.

Classes finished up several weeks ago. The students took finals last week. I spent the beginning of this week grading those finals and submitting grades. Come Wednesday evening, I was finished and ready to go. Thursday morning found me on a bus heading to Bangkok. Once in BKK I took a taxi across the city from the northern bus terminal to the southern bus terminal where I met Yui and a bunch of friends. We got onto the bus and began our 12 hour journey to Krabi. We got in at about 9am and headed straight to the guesthouse. There are 8 of us so were were staying in the National Park bungalow right on the beach. We stayed on Noppharatara Beach, which is just north of Ao Nang (one of the more famous beaches in Krabi). Just about as soon as we had gotten our bags inside, a truck came to pick us up and we headed out to meet the long-tail boat. We were hiring the boat for the day to take us out to several of the closer islands. We ended up going to four different islands by the end of the day. The first island was just a simple little island near several very stunning islands. The views of the cliffs were spectacular. We ate lunch on the beach and played in the water for a bit before jumping back into the boat. We then headed out and around the island towards Chicken Island where the main sight is a rock formation that looks uncannily like a chicken. We moved on and parked offshore another island. We jumped in and the guide started throwing bits of bread into the water which was instantly gobbled up by the hundreds of fish that swarmed towards it. He got his laughs by throwing the pieces of bread close to us and watching our reactions as the fish would poke and ram into us as they tried to eat the bread. There were so many and so thickly packed that I reached out and several time had one or two in my hands for a moment or so. We then swam into shore and hung out on the beach for a while and ended up getting into a sand ball fight - that was fun. Our next destination was one of the most famous sights in Krabi. There are two islands which are connected by a sandbar. At high tide both appear discontinuous however at low tide the sandbar appears and you are able to walk from one island to the other. We timed it so that we were there pretty close to low tide. While the sandbar wasn't exposed, we were able to walk across in about 4-5 inches of water. As we were crossing, it started to rain. We sought refuge in the boat for a while until the rain passed and then headed out to the last island of the day. This island was beautiful, but was unfortunately the home several classy resorts. There was some neat things to see and of course the amazing cliffs that dominate the coastline here were stunning, but the resorts and the people ruined it a little. And with that we headed back to shore where we stumbled onto dry land only to be drenched by a fast-moving rain storm shortly there after. We sought refuge in a restaurant where we ate dinner while we waited for the rain to pass. Then we picked up the obligatory two bags of ice and headed back to the guesthouse for showers and a night of UNO, Go Fish and drinking.

The following morning I woke up feeling like I was on vacation. Despite having been on vacation for a day already, it was so long and tiresome and followed a tremendous bus ride that I just felt a bit out of sorts all day. But waking up Saturday morning ushered in those wonderful feelings of serenity and peace. Ah. It was going to be another busy day, but I was ready for it this time. We headed out to meet the boat - today however we were riding on a speed boat and heading out to the more distant islands. After a 40 minute ride which left me wetter than if I'd swam there, we piled out of the boat onto the beach for our first snorkel of the trip. The conditions weren't ideal and the coral wasn't that spectacular, but I was the only one who had snorkeled before so they all loved it. We then headed out to another spot which was significantly better. It was a beautiful little bay surrounded by high cliffs which has a secluded beach on one end. We did a little hiking and headed to the other side of the island before getting back on the boat and snorkeling in the bay. Krabi has many 'famous' sights including James Bond Island (the island from one of the James Bond movies (I can't remember which) and the island that was used in the movie "The Beach". That was where we headed next. Just a quick look around and it was time for lunch. For lunch we went to a restaurant on Phi Phi Don island. The buffet was fantastic and it was wonderful to get my fill of food. One thing I've failed to mention so far is that Krabi and Phi Phi were severely impacted by the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. Phi Phi was the hardest hit place in Thailand and as we approached it, it was easy to see why. The largest concentration of buildings is at the center of the island which sits at the back of a long bay which gets progressively narrower as you move inland. Not only this by the bay is lined with spectacular cliffs - both of which would funnel water straight towards the heart of the island. There are two things that have stuck me - the newness of all of the towns that I've spent time in so far and the ever-present tsunami evacuation route notices. We ate dinner and then walked around the island. Apart from what I mentioned, there was little evidence of the tsunami. But I wonder what the non-touristed areas look like. Of course the tourist destinations are going to get re-built quickly. After Phi Phi island we headed to several more snorkeling destinations before heading home. Oh! The guide who was leading our little trip here eventually started asking about me. I was traveling with a group of 7 Thai people and she got curious and phased the question in such a classic way. She basically asked one of my friends where they brought this foreigner from. They said Lampang. She then replied inquisitively if my plane had crashed in Lampang. Classic. Once she found out I was a teacher she started calling me 'Ajaan'. It was humorous.

After showers we headed out for our seafood dinner. We loaded up on all kinds of seafood - clams, squid, fish, crab etc. and ate until we all nearly burst. It was fantastic. We worked a little bit of it off as we went to buy more ice for our evening festivities. Unfortunately the whiskey ran out early in the evening so we had to start taking shots of whatever we had in the room. We ran out of everything at about 11. But by that point we were half asleep as it was so we happily went to bed.

The following morning we all got up and had breakfast and got ready to head out. Everybody else had to go back to BKK to get back in time for work Monday morning so we had lunch together and then they took off. I moved into another guesthouse and took a nap and relaxed on the beach all afternoon. I had originally planned to leave with them and go to my next destination on Sunday but decided against that. After watching the sunset, I headed off to a great little bar/restaurant and had a Happy Hour cocktail while the sun set and then had their salad bar buffet for dinner (which was amazing! They had baked potatoes!) and another cocktail before calling it a day. Sitting there on the roof of this little bar sipping my gin and tonic watching the sun go down with a great ocean breeze at my back was the ultimate way to relax. As I was sitting there I could feel all the stress and anxiety being blown out to sea. Bliss.

Since I didn't leave Sunday, I planed to leave Monday but seeing as it's Monday and I'm still here, that didn't happen. I just wasn't ready to leave and to travel again so I spent the day here sleeping and reading on the beach. I really didn't do much today other than that. I did get an amazing sandwich from this sandwich shop though. That was the highlight of the day today. I do think I'll head out tomorrow though. My next destination is Nakorn Si Thammarat, which is a city on the Gulf side of Thailand famous for their shadow puppets so I figured I'd check that out. From there, I'll work my way down to Penang, Malaysia where I'll catch the ferry across to Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia where I'll spend about two weeks in Sumatra. I'll be sure to update the blog soon. Hope you all are doing well (if anyone is still reading this).

Ryan