Without meaning to, we have reached the end of the world and take heart, it is breath taking!  After we left our dive in Chinatown, Bangkok, we got a plane and flew south to Krabi (which is about how I was feeling with our fourth day of planes :)).  We got off the plane and decided to take a longtail boat to a place called Railay Bay.  The adventure side of our trip went up a notch! You wade out to these longtail boats (they really are long, skinny boats), climb inside and hold on.   

Twenty minutes later, you see the most amazing scenery ever!  HUGE, beautiful rocks jetting out of the sea with such force I was rubbing my eyes in disbelief. 

We get to Railay Bay, and you guessed it, we get to jump out of the boat and wade to shore!  This is freaking hilarious to me because my backpack is so heavy that I don’t jump at all but try to roll of the side and thank God Brian catches me as I loose my balance and go backwards in the water.   We find a sweet bungalow in the jungle, literally talking “jungle” here.  And the strip of spots to eat and bars along the east side of Railay is straight out of the movie, The Beach.  It’s like this place is from another world!  We have a HUGE feast with a friend we meet from London, and I think our dinners are $1.50 each.  And we’re talking the BEST dang Phad Thai and Green Curry you’ve ever had.  You can’t help but tip for a total of $3 plus because it doesn’t seem right to only pay $1.50 for a feast of Thai food. Brian is dropping weight, and I’m freaking GAINING weight!  What do you expect when you put a half asian girl in the middle of rice paradise!!  I’m telling you, the food alone is worth taking four planes to Krabi and beyond.   Yesterday we rented a kayak and paddled out to an island called Chicken Island (it really does look like a chicken).  We didn’t think this journey would be that far…somehow the island seemed so much closer.  Then we found ourselves in open sea, and the island only seemed FARTHER away.  Brian started critiquing my paddling “form”, and ladies, you know it’s all down hill from here.  :)  But what do you do?  You’re stuck in a kayak for at least another mile!  I’ll tell you what you do, you freaking splash the crap out of each other without tipping.  And then once you have both cooled off, you start paddling again.  It was so worth it.  We found a deserted beach and snorkeled for hours off of it.   

(that’s me in the water!)

And when it was time to go back, we did what any self respecting couple would do–we applied our wisdom of 10 years together and 12 in counseling, and hired a longtail boat to take us and our kayak back.  

(daddy says “Hi Pascaline and Blaze! I miss you guys!”)We have loved every minute in this wonderful, beautiful place.  Our reason for coming was not only for our anniversary, but we wanted to see if Thailand was a place to bring the kids and live for a couple months out of the year.  Remember the book, Four Hour Work Week, yes, it has changed our plans and life in numerous ways.  All we know is that we can’t wait to get back here.  I can’t think of a better place to bring the kids, home school them in paradise, and just be.  The people, the scenery, the adventures that call you every morning, the food…the rice and CURRIES!!!!, yep, we’re going to work to get back here for sure. Okay, we’ve taken a bunch of photos.  Here are just a couple favorites! The mystery and beauty of all the longtail boats.

one more for the kids, “mama loves you Pascaline and Blaze.  And I can’t wait to bring you here so we’re all laughing on the beach together.  and see those rocks behind me!  you can climb them!!”

Tomorrow we scuba dive for the first time.  We’ve hired a videographer to come along so we can post it on the blog!  Do you think we’re nuts!  How can you not when it only costs $25!