Island Hopping: A Summary

Hello everyone and thank you for your patience in waiting for a new post! This past week was a whirlwind of activity and travel, with extremely limited internet access. Which makes Katie sad.

Good news and bad news. The bad news is we will probably be off the grid once more in the coming week as we take a slow boat from Thailand into Laos. The good news is we have a few nice long posts for you today to keep you busy until our next internet cafe stop. Let us tell you a little bit about the past few weeks...

We left Koh Samui for the west coast of southern Thailand, starting with a stay in the providence of Krabi. We downgraded a bit from our sweet digs in Koh Samui... In fact, we used our mosquito nets for the first (and definitely not the last) time.

If you know Katie and me, you know we LOVE staying active! Krabi allowed us to rent bikes for the cheap cheap (Thai slang) price of around USD $8/day. We spent one of our first days in town exploring the providence on a 30 mile bike ride.

Notice the helmets, parents. We were the only ones in Thailand wearing them!

We hit up the beautiful Krabi freeway:

And started heading for the princess's house:

Before we were stopped by the military police:

He was very nice, no arrests were made :) We finally settled on an amazing stretch of beach normally reserved for resort guests, but we sweet talked our way into sun bathing and using their pool.

We have also managed to fit in a few runs, yoga, some strength training, and plenty of walking! All that activity means that there is plenty of caloric room for Thai night life!

Since alcohol can be expensive, we usually limit our bar nights to once or twice per town. On our Krabi night out, we met two Brits who challenged us to an intense game of Jenga. We played for the honor of our countries, UK versus USA. Who would prevail???



"The trick is to not let any of the other blocks move..." - Katie Mockler



The pressure of playing for your country is overwhelming!



Our record: 31 stories



Final score: USA 3, UK 1. You're welcome, America.



While down south, we visited several beautiful islands, specifically Railey and Goh Yao Noi. Railey is not geographically an island, but is considered one because it is separated from the rest of Krabi by a massive rock mountain and is only reachable by boat.

It is composed of three major beaches and is best known for its amazing rockclimbing. We saw some very brave climbers while we safely sunbathed on the shores below.

 There is one cave on Railey that is well known for being the cave of "red tipped phalluses".

Sailors in the area believe a princess died at this island many years ago and that she favors those who leave her offerings before going to sea. Apparently, her favorite offerings are those in the shape of male genitalia, although you will find plenty of fruit and flowers in the cave as well.

We only spent one day on Railey, but were able to spend a few days in Goh Yao Noi, an island recommended to us by Melissa (a friend from the states who teaches English in Thailand). Goh Yao Noi is completely different from all the other places we visited in Thailand. Since not many people know about it yet, there are very few tourists and much of the land is devoid of the bars and markets we found in other areas.

We stayed in a rustic jungle bungalow, right next to the beach, also recommended to us by Melissa.

It had amazing hammocks that we took advantage of during a sudden downpour :

A Thai family style dinner was served every night:

While on the island, we were able to fit in both a day of biking and a morning of kayaking. Both activities were fantastic ways to see the natural beauty of the island.

If you are going to Thailand any time soon, we highly recommend this island as a nice change of pace from the tourist-fueled high energy feel of the other cities down south.

Our final stop in southern Thailand was the ever popular Patong Beach, located in Phuket. It is basically Thailand's answer to Vegas, complete with bright lights, big drinks, and sketchy ping pong shows.

We took advantage of the beach, hoping to rid ourselves of unsightly sports bra tanlines.

And, with the help of some Aussies, we also took advantage of the night life.

If you like pina coladas...



Getting caught in the rain...

A bunch of Sydney soccer players.

Thai tequila shots. They taste WAY better than buckets!

A funny side note about Thai nightlife. There is a thriving bar scene here, and it is partially funded by western tourists getting their spring break on. But it is also fueled by what they refer to here as bar girls. These woman are sponsered to sit in bars all night waiting for wealthy western men to come pick up on them. And these western men usually come to Thailand with the specific intention of picking up on these women... Sometimes even hoping to marry them! It is almost like a legalized form of prostitution.

Often you will see an extremely unattractive older white man walking around with a hot little Thai woman on his arm. Once you are made aware of it, you see it EVERYWHERE.

Well that about wraps up our travels in southern Thailand. Stay tuned for our next entry!