HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Quick update... Ended up leaving Ao Nang yesterday and caught a long tail boat to Hat Ton Sai in the Railay province, home of the best rock climbing in the world, so I hear :) Limestone karsts jut up in every direction making this truly seem unreal. It's astoundingly beautiful. There's not to many people here but that's almost the beauty of it... Yesterday we explored our beach which didn't take to long and then discovered a trail leading over the rock to Railay East, a more ritzy resort type of place... Neat to explore. Headed back over to Ton Sai to enjoy some delicious food and beer (I do love the Thai beer...) and just chilled for a while.

This morning we woke early, to go kayaking! (I should mention that the place we're staying in is pretty primative, I kinda like it. It's a thatched hut with parts of a metal roof, yes parts, and grass sides. The shower's half open to the outside and we only have electricity from dusk until dawn.) Met a guy at breakfast from Denver and he tagged along with us... Kayaked all along the peninsula to the West side of Railay which was so beautiful the whole way. We discovered uninhabited beached without a soul in sight and amazing rock islands with the top being twice the size as the bottom. Can you say paradise?! Stopped at one beach that had an abundance of long tails and people flocking at one end... had to see what the big deal was. Apparently it was a shrine to the princess and the shrine was made up of hundreds of statues of male genitalia. To funny :) Anyways... I forgot to mention the biggest point of the day...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! It's now 2555!!!

In Thailand they start their years with the Age of Buddha... In celebration they throw water on everyone. Squirt guns are sold EVERYWHERE and you WILL get wet :) It's kinda fun! The kids are so cute running around trying to coyly squirt you.

After returning from kayaking we've honestly just been relaxing for the rest of the day... sitting down on the water at a little restaurant people watching, reading, trying to figure out our next move and running for cover when a monsoon desides to dump :)

Off to dinner soon... I'm a bottomless pit and need fed constantly :) Hope all's well back home! My trips coming to an end soon... be back the 21st... It will be weird, I'll be going back in time... I leave here right after midnight (my time) on the 21st and arrive in Seattle around noon on the 21st but will have been traveling for well over 24 hours... crazy...