New Years 2006

I'm back home. Last night was 16 hours of van and bus rides. For a country only the size of Texas it takes a long time to get around. Carolyn and Brooke took the overnight bus from Krabi to Bangkok with me and then we went our seperate ways home.

Rachel, Adnan, and I flew down to Phuket on the 28th. Phuket is one of the tourist hot spots in Thailand. And there were LOTS of tourists where we were. It was a gorgeous beach. Nice places to sit on lounge chairs under big umbrellas. Sipping juice out of a coconut. Reading John Irving. As with most Thai beaches there was never a durth of Thais coming up to us selling fruit or drinks or spring rolls or sarongs or jewelery. At Padong beach there were also people selling 2 foot wooden motorcyles. As Rachel N said, "What would you do w that?"

The highlights in Padong were the run on the beach in the rain w Rach and the seafood dinner. The morning of the 30th we got up early and took a boat over to Krabi. There we met up w 8 other PC volunteers (two with guests) for a total of 13. Day one R, A, my friend Carolyn, and I rented a long tail boat (think big wooden row boat w an engine) and took a 20 min ride to a cute tiny beach tucked away on the back side of an island. All around the beach and jutting out into the water were limestone clifts hundreds of feet high.

Day 2 (New Years Eve DAY) the whole of us took a 10 minute boat ride to the next beach over- Railey Beach. Again huge limestone clifts. This time we walked into the middle of the peninsula and climbed up and over one of these huge clifts in the woods to get to a hidden lagoon. This hike was not for the faint of heart. There were 3 places where we went directly down for 15 feet-ish. It was serious rock climbing manuvering, with people below telling us where to place our feet or hands. There were ropes permanently in place to help. My back was sore for 2 days from holding myself up w the ropes. The lagoon was gorgeous. Again there were plant covered clifts all around going 100s of feet up. Sunlight coming in from above. Great echoes in there. The pool was probably 50 yards in diameter, but it was never more than 4 feet deep. We had a great game of frisbee in the middle and then discovered the soft clay mud under the water. Instant mud bath!!

After climbing out and checking out some of the ocean side beaches where they have famous rock climbing sites we went home and rested up for New Years. Yummy Mexican Dinner, than to a really big party in the woods. There was a huge stage and great DJ playing. We danced well into the New Year.

The 1st was a chill day of rest on the beach. Rachel and Adnan left in order to get to bangkok for their flight early on the 2nd. it was so so sad to see them leave. Before they left we had one last meal of one of Rachel's favorite dishes "Som Tom" (spicey papaya salad with sticky rice).

On the 2nd Brooke, Lindsey, Jessica, and I went on a tour of some of the islands in the area on a speed boat. It was nice to get away from some of the crowds and see more remote gorgeous white sand and blue water beaches. We also got to do lots of snorkeling in the clear water. One stop had a nice coral reef. We spent most of the time joking w our tour guide who was excited he had some thai speakers. It was too hot to really lie out, and I have no desire to get sun. We spent most of the time up to our waste in the water chatting away, or sitting in the water at the edge of the ocean.

Then back to the hotel to shower and get to the bus stop for that 12 hour ride....