Signing off Southeast Asia from the beautiful beaches of southern Thailand...

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After jumping from destination to destination every few days over the past month, I was looking forward to arriving in southern Thailand for some R&R, beachside, wading around lazily, possibly with a cocktail in hand.... Those wishful aspirations were quickly dashed as soon as we arrived, for fellow M had sponsored an open water scuba course for me as a graduation present and when we presented ourselves at the dive shop the night we arrived, I was handed a book with an assignment to read 100+ pages in preparation for my class the following morning. Sigh. The next three days were filled with a schedule of reading/classroom/pool exercises/exams/open water dives. Daunting...but discovering a whole world of life as soon as you submerge underwater and being able to be a part of what's teeming down there, floating along (and breathing!!) was a surreal experience... complete with a final dive at, where else, Maya bay :-)

Having passed the course and with only one more day remaining, my thoughts wandered back to, longingly, the pool, a margarita .... only to be snatched back to reality with fellow M marching us into a climbing shop to sign us up for a half day venture to scale some cliffs. Double sigh. Who knew, though, as worn out from diving as we both were, climbing turned out to be a fun activity, affording us with some spectacular views from above of Railay.

With the little remaining time we had, we decided to check out other notable sights in the Krabi area... including our now traditional ill-defined climb up a steep hill in in the jungle to a vague viewpoint, as sunlight was fading and thunder was striking, followed by a motorbike ride home in the midst of a monsoon shower. Gluttons for punishment, on our last morning we climbed some impossible number of stairs with the sun bearing down on us as we made our way to the tiger temple. Phew!!

But, FINALLY, with little time remaining before having to depart for the airport, we decided to sign off from Thailand and Southeast Asia with.... a Thai massage :-)



Europe-bound!

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