Happy 65th Birthday Mom!!

Gerad and I survived our last week together in Thailand, all in one piece, basically! Koh Phi Phi was rainy all day Monday when we arrived, which provided us a great opportunity for some good afternoon napping and post-Patong Beach recovery! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the dive boat. Incredible diving around Maya Bay (where The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed - breathtaking limestone cliffs, white sand, teal water!). On Tuesday, we saw at least 7 hawksbill turtles, black tip reef sharks, lion fish, box fish and giant pufferfish. We did a surface interval in Maya Bay...Gerad and I jumped in and swam to a beautiful, secluded shore. Unfortunately, as most waters in Asia, a lot of garbage had drifted to shore. We did our best to pick up what we could. It is a shame that more people do not dispose of their waste (plastic bags, plastic water bottles, cigarette butts, etc.) properly because it is truly destroying our beautiful oceans and marine life. (Sorry for the tangent...but it's really sad to see so much pollution in paradise!)

Wednesday, we headed farther out to Shark Point and a wreck (an old car ferry that is over 200' long...so cool to swim through it and, yes, we saw the toilets!). Here, we saw at least four more turtles, two leopard sharks, black tip reef sharks, cuttle fish (they swim like aliens!), moray eels and sting rays. Phi Phi is by far the best diving I've ever done. It was a tiring and wonderful way to spend two days on the island. The picture of Gerad and I with some other folks were our diving buddies (dive masters and another couple!)...please notice how Gerad is forcing a six-pack in the picture! ;) We celebrated Phi Phi's version of the Full Moon Party on Wednesday night. Lots of fire twirling, whiskey buckets and sauntering about. Good times!

The rest of our time was spent in an absolutely breathtaking part of the Krabi province called Railay Beach. We stayed in the cheapest bungalow on the island, a bit away from the few tourists and resorts in the Bay. The area is known for rock climbing because of all the limestone cliffs. We climbed up to the viewpoint overlooking the bay. I did it barefoot, in a sun dress with my beach bag slung over my shoulder. I wouldn't recommend that! Regardless of the extreme effort it took to climb to the top, the views were breathtaking! The beaches here are beautiful, and the two perfect sunsets we saw were a great ending to our time at the beach!

We spent Saturday night (14 hours total!) in an overnight bus bound for Bangkok. Gerad had the brilliant idea that we would grab the back of the bus in the hopes of spreading out for the journey. That would not end up being the case. He and I were on opposite windows, and a family of three nestled in right between us. The father of this little Thai family is perhaps the largest Thai man we've ever seen....more like a sumo-wrestler. Needless to say, it was a very long, sleepless night for us!

Today, August 29th, is our Mother's 65th Birthday! We got to talk to her this morning to wish her a happy birthday! She's celebrating in NYC with extended family in the NY area since Gerad and I aren't there to celebrate with her in style! We love you Mom!

Gerad flies home late tonight. It has been awesome traveling with him. He is an amazing human being; he makes more noises than most humans that I know, he makes me laugh more than most humans that I know and he is in general an absolute joy to be around (except when he's hungry, thirsty or tired). Seriously, it has been fantastic...we've had some great conversations about life, love, etc. We made some memories that I will cherish forever. It's going to be weird for me to transition back to traveling alone after spending time in India with Gundula and Thailand with Gerad. I catch a plane to Cambodia 4 short hours. So my next update will come after I spend some time in Phnom Penh visiting the killing fields. And so on...Gerad's last commentary below!

Thailand has been an amazing experience. I am so glad to have been able to come over here and enjoy this interesting and exciting place with my sister. It has been a memorable trip and I wish it could last a little longer. However, I am not going to frown because its over, I will smile because it has happened.

Our last little trip was to Railay Beach, which is known world wide for its rock climbing. We did not partake in any rock climbing ourselves due to our slothfulness, but we did manage to climb up to a very breathtaking viewpoint. I even managed to climb down to a lagoon, which was quite a feat in itself. I saw a few barefoot French girls climbing up from the lagoon, so I decided I could also go all the way down and back up. It was very slippery, but worth the trip. Railay Beach is very beautiful, but I do have to say that the food was way over priced and not very good, really only the bad food we ate on the whole trip. On our last night in Railay Beach we ordered a spicy shrimp soup, you have to say Thai spicy or it will not be very spicy. However, this way WAY more spicy than we expected and had to send it back to be cut down with coconut milk. The good thing is that it did not cause havoc on our stomachs but it did make the wait staff laugh at us. We packed up from Railay Beach and headed to Bangkok on our last overnight bus trip.

If anyone ever has to take an overnight bus, do not pick the very back of the bus. It was not a good call. Basically, Jamie had a tiny child and woman in her lap and I had the father sitting in mine. It was definitely a character building experience, all you can do is laugh.

Overall, Thailand has been a blast and we have made memories that will last a life time!!!!!