Ao Nang Beach/Bamboo Island/Phi Phi Island/Bangkok

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12/18
Woke this morning and took a no choice cold shower. We left Khao Sok and are now in Ao Nang Beach/Krabi. Spent the afternoon just walking around and hit the beach for a bit. I finally got around to calling the airline to change my flight...the earliest I can come home is jan 14...that gives me 3 nights at the end of the trip to figure something out. Thinking of maybe going to cambodia or chiang mai...not sure but would want to do some type of tour group and not be by myself. Right now I'm at the homestay. It's not too bad...pretty basic, clean, and the food was REALLY GOOD! We took a walk down to the family's catfish farm and watched them do a rubber tree tapping. I tried it and I sucked....guess this will not be a new job for me. The homestay mother showed us how to roll sticky rice in a banana leaf for tomorrow's breakfast...again, another thing that I was not good at. I would suck at thai life. Other than that there's not too much to do here. Half of the group left to watch muay thai boxing. 800 baht wasn't worth it to me...that's a lot beers and cocktails. Decided to save the $ and finish my book. Tomorrow we go kayaking...hopefully I won't kill anymore trees this time.

12/19
Woke up this morning to some loud ass roosters. Tried to not kill myself going down the steep ass stairs to the bathroom...not sure why they are made this way. The stairs are made for a 7ft giant. Left the homestay early in the morning and had to quickly switch into our swimsuits for kayaking.
OH MY GOD....just minding my business in our kayak and a F-ING monkey jumped onto our kayak. My partner freaked out and I thought we were going to tip over or it was going to bite her. It crawled over to me and sat in between my legs to steal my water bottle. Needless to say....I was sccuurrrd, but it was cool at the same time. Just turned off the flash and snapped some pics. It grabbed my bottle and then left. Whew! It was a rush...nothing like a brush with rabies to start your day. The tide was much lower than the last time I came so we saw a lot more caves. Got stuck in the mangrove trees, but didn't hit any this time. We were actually in front this time 😊 It felt good to keep up with the guide...my new yoga muscles were put to use! After that we went down to the beach to read and find SHELLS! Went out to dinner and bar hopped for a bit. I peaced out early because it was too expensive to drink, so since I wasn't drinking I got bored. Asia bars to me are not fun except for Hong Kong w/ the crazy "M" crew. Walked back by myself with the pepperspray on standby.

12/20
Got up early to walk to the yoga studio....LIES! I walked for nothing. There wasn't one there or anywhere in Ao Nang. But now I'm super happy because the internet on my iphone magically works. It rebooted and now the "E" shows. Don't worry guys, I bought an int'l data plan before I left so I wouldn't be stuck with some crazy as $500 bill. Needed my perez hilton fix and update my FB page 😊 Ended up taking a freaking hike around town with my roommate. We were trying to find a market but ended up on the other side of town...uh, we were about 9 hours early. The person sent us to a night market site, not to a supermarket like we wanted...ugh. I like my roommie, she's in her 60's and parties like a rock star. We grabbed some singhas from 7/11 (much cheaper at 40 baht each) and then kicked it at the beach. Oh ow, got super burned today.
After the beach I got an oil massage. She must have been a call girl because, excuse my french, it felt like she gave my spine, legs, and arms a hand job. She was not good...what a waste of 300 baht, but I felt bad and gave her a tip anyway. Ate dinner at the local fish market...so yummy! Red snapper with lemon....awe in food heaven.

12/21
Today is the start of our 2 day sea safari...camping on Bamboo Island! Just kinda of crappy right now because it's totally stormy and raining. The day started out sunny and just got worse. Luckily we reached the island before it started to really get choppy...not good for the vertigo. Praying that it will clear up by tomorrow. I like this style of "camping". Someone sets up the tents for us and cooks. This is the best food I've ever had and it's all soooo basic. So much flavor (probably has a shit load of MSG in it) and it tastes delicious. The tent is super hot. My roomie is a genius and suggested that we buy rafts to sleep on. We won't have sore backs except that everytime you move it makes a swishy sound...other than that we are comfy. It's pitch dark outside. Taking a xanax now so I'll sleep through the night. PS I don't want to get up and pee, it's scary out there. There are crazy creepy crawlies all over the place and I just did not fancy seeing a huge hermit crab in the bathroom.

12/22
Slept alright....storm blew overnight and now it's sunny! Took a morning walk on the beach to watch the sunrise and collect shells. Today we went to phi phi island!! The snorkeling was really good. Saw a ton of bright colored fish. Did a night walk on the beach. Sooo pitch dark...I still don't want to get up and pee....
Once it's dark there isn't much to do but read in your tent. I have my flashlight propped up on my boobs so I can see to read/write.

12/23
Woke up early and took a walk on the beach to find more shells. Found some really good ones! Got a little nervous because I realized we were the only ones on this side of the island. It's scary to know if something happened I could scream and no one would hear me. Then my mind started to play tricks with me because I felt like someone was following me in the bamboo forest along the beach...soooo I started to walk back. We left the campsite and headed back to Ao Nang Beach. Right now we're at Poda Island to hang out. It's too crowded here with daytrippers. When we got back to our hotel (Ben's House) we just relaxed.

12/24
Cheeseburger, fries, singha, and free wifi on the beach= bliss. It's been a good Christmas eve. Took a last stroll on the beach to find more shells and also had a pineapple shake...not as delicious as the mango shake I had in Khao Sok. Started to feel yucky on the bus....just feeling like something is wrong at home or something bad is going to happen. Sent a msg to my sister to see if everything is ok at home. Right now we're on the bus going to back to Surat Thani train station. The bus is late and the traffic is bad....so slow mo here for everything. Listening to George Michael "too funky" on my ipod, I know totally random. Just gave me flashbacks of being in high school and loving fashion. I had the best Herb Ritts fashionista photospread...it was like my wallpaper. Trying to avoid thinking about the "real world" back at home. The minute my vacay is over I have to start thinking about my move to vancouver. There's no 2nd thoughts or cold feet...just intimidated by the unknown. Ugh, PS this bus is gross.

12/25
The overnight train was better than the last one...no bug bites this time! AND there was a western toilet yay. It's so weird that your pee goes straight down to the the tracks. This time I wore long sleeves, had deet, and slept with my liner sheet over my face. Slept pretty good until about 6:30 when the food vendors come on board. They are so loud and sqawky. When we got back to Bangkok I just hung around our hotel to do laundry and get supplies for the next trip. Stumbled on the local shopping area and found everything I needed at decent prices. Got an oil massage (200 baht) and pad thai (25 baht). Afterwards we went out for our farewell dinner and then hit the bars. Started out on Soi 2 at the suggestion of our guide, but that was just gross. It was a total girlie bar/prostitute scene. Tried to get into Bed Supperclub and Q but one of the guys in our group was wearing shorts (not sure why that is an issue anyway...) Ended up going all the way back over to khao san road near our hotel. Ended up in a random local only bar, but no one would serve us, so we just went across the street from our hotel and drank. Took one more stroll down khao san road and got 1 more foot massage before going to bed.

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Photos

sweet sunburn
not good for the deet....