Wishing You All A Merry Christmas!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS MERRY CHRISTMAS MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

To be honest, it's kind of a blue Christmas over here for us (and not just because the sky is perfect and without clouds). It was strange waking up this morning and not being at home with presents under the tree, eating breakfast with our families and enjoying the holiday spirit. It certainly has shown us that although Christmas can happen anywhere in the world, it's just not CHRISTMAS without your family, your traditions, and all that love surrounding you.

All of you are definitely in our thoughts more than ever today. If we could port ourselves home instantly to spend today with you and then return we would in a heartbeat.

Here are a few photos of what we have been up to in this tropical paradise. Visiting monkeys on Monkey Beach, in the Phi Phi Islands. Snorkelling in the crystal waters off Khai Island. Partying on the raucous and rowdy Bangla Road in Patong. Lighting paper lanterns and launching them over the ocean with well wishes for our family and friends back home.

I would write more but this is our last day in Patong, so we are anxious to get out and soak up the town one last time. Tomorrow starts bright and early at 7am with a 27 hour bus ride to Singapore.

More from the big city and missing you more than ever,

Erin and Devlin

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Photos

The Beach
This is Maya Bay, on one of the famous Phi Phi Islands. You may recognize this location, it was used in 1999 for a movie entitled The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was one of mine and Devlin's favorite movies (the book is better) before we left, so it was fun to see it in real life. Ironic that in the movie it is the setting for a bunch of backpackers looking for that elusive undiscovered land, and now it's crowded with tourists all wanting to see the famous area. Beautiful scenery none the less.

Monkeys
Monkey Island was a tiny strip of sand completely inhabited by monkeys. I don't know how these monkeys got there, because there is no forest behind the beach, only a sheer rock face. I suspect perhaps the Thai people put them there in order to offer the tour and gain more tourist dollars...

Refreshing Coca Cola
Yes, this is a monkey drinking from a Coke can. Our boat driver was pouring out little cups and handing out cans of cola to the monkeys. I'm not sure it's very healthy for them, but it made for an amusing photo. Perhaps Coke will use this in an advertising spread and I'll become rich...haha!

Khai Island
The snorkelling here was superb, despite the weather being a little cool and overcast. The water was very shallow and you could snorkel very far from the shore and still be just 2 feet from reef.

Paper Lantern
Our pretty yellow lantern being lit by the friendly Thai. The writing on the side says "Long Live Our King". Yellow is the royal color here, and on any given day it seems half the locals are sporting yellow shirts with the King's emblem on it. It's like the unofficial uniform.

Lantern Being Launched
We kept seeing these eerie floating lights in the sky since our first day here. I was convinced they were aliens, the way they would fly around and appear and disappear (Dev kept telling me they were fireworks, but what kind of fireworks stay lit and floating for 20 minutes?). Last night we finally found the source, vendors selling the lanterns on the beach. They were a magical sight, watching people launch them over the water and seeing them mystically float up to the others in the sky.