After all the sun and beer and food and laughter of last night, this morning was a relatively slow-moving thing. Yesterday started off easily enough... We checked into our "resort" (read: bomb shelter) in Ranong. A pit. Really. This, however, cannot be the fault of Ray & Diane as they had never taken a group to this place before so ours was the trial run... Needless to say, Di was looking for other places by the time with left! Still, after so many days at sea with mediocre on-board showers, it was lovely to get to stand in a hot shower and feel TRULY clean. I forgot how great that was... We spent the day lazing, mostly. I went to lunch with most of the crew, and then afterwards relaxed with some of the guys with ... read more

Start with a lazy morning filled with instant coffee, an early swim (with great attention being paid to whether or not anyone had recently used the bathrooms), and yet another one of Joy's fantastic breakfasts complete with all things fresh and tasty...and it only gets better from there! Around 10am or so, a few of us decided to go for a kayak - Di told us that there were some little coves and beaches that were worth exploring (not that we needed any persuading) so we were off. I paddled with Katie, followed by Jean, Steve, Shauna, and Warren. Before long, we came around the side of the island to discover that, although we thought we had been living in paradise, we were most gravely mistaken. Where WE had been staying was certainly a version of ... read more

So right now we're in Burma, although the bulk of this blog is about Ranong, our last Thailand stop for a few days. We had our overnight sail (which I thought was so fun b/c of the constant movement) Katie, Warren, & I had the first shift from 10pm-12am. Then we had to make a relatively long pit stop in Ranong before leaving Thailand to get into Burma and get our passports all sorted out, etc. THAT was an interesting experience. First off, you can't dingy into Ranong yourself. The only way to get to shore is to hail a longtail boat and pay for a sort of water taxi (which looked to me to be no more dangerous than riding in a European cab). We could only manage to get one longtail to hold all ... read more

I know it's been a couple of days and the only excuse I have is that I'm on vacation and just haven't felt like writing, but today I have some time so here goes... Last night was one of my favorites so far. We dropped anchor off Ko Lanta and spent "happy hour" at a recently rebuilt bar on the beach called Relax Bay and, well, what was there to do there BUT relax? And so we did. Of course, all you had to do was glance down the beach and see the remains of debris that had been deposited by the tsunami...longtail boats, driftwood, and even a bed. When we arrived, a Dido CD was playing over their speaker system. Next to the bar, 4 hammocks beckoned. We all ordered a mix of fru-fru drinks ... read more

From what I understand there is a blizzard going on in New York right about now which I'm actually kind of sorry that I'm missing... However, I'm sitting in Phuket wearing nothing more than a sarong and a tank having just come from lunch at a Thai place on the main drag of Kata Beach, and getting ready to go to a Thai spa for an hour and a half massage for a little under $20. So I guess you could say I'm having my own brand of fun. :) It is absolutely amazing here, but also sad... The Thai's are thrilled to see us tourists (I seriously think we may be the only Westerners staying in this area...). The Thai's seem to be very intent on getting back to business as usual...in fact, it's really ... read more