Sunday/Monday: I will call him Squishy

The reason we got up and left so early the next day was because of the tides. We were set to drive another 3 hours to Phuket where we would pick up a boat to take us on our next leg. On the way though we would stop to sea kayak through some caves to some hidden lagoons. But the tide needed to be out to get through the caves, so our time table was tight.

When I woke up my cold had progressed severely. I felt like death warmed over, even if it was only in my nose/throat. Thankfully someone passed me some dayquil, so I only felt like crap during the bus ride. By the time we'd loaded the big boat I was almost functional. We cruised on the Andaman sea for about an hour until we reached one of many tall, miniature limestone islands. This is when we broke out the kayaks and paddled around until we found the cave. It was pitch black and lacking a headlamp I had to paddle through with my flashlight in my teeth. I felt kind of bad-ass but probably just looked really stupid. Once through the cave we came across a shallow lagoon where we took some pictures and watched these things called mudfish flop around. They are fish with 2 front legs who crawl around in the muck and survive out of water by holding some in their mouths. I have a feeling we covered these fish in some zoology class.

Going into the cave...

This process continued for a few more caves, one of which we got to get out of the kayaks and walk through. But at that point all I wanted to do was swim. The water was so incredibly warm, I'd been looking forward to it the entire time. But once we disembarked on a tiny stretch of sand and got in the water Heather felt something... then I felt something... squishy. We were convinced it was little jelly fish, so we bolted back to shore. Then a few other girls felt it and we migrated down the beach a little. This worked for a bit, then another squishy thing grazed me. Even if they weren't stinging us I still didn't really feel like swimming with jellies. So it was back in the kayaks and to the big boat for lunch.

A smooth 2 hour boat ride later we arrived at a slightly bigger small island, this one called Koh Yao Noi I believe. There we took our overnight bags and headed down the road to our accommodation for the night. This place had a pretty beach, hot weather, and lots of hammocks. It would have been great except the island was a Muslim community. Now I'm all for cultural experiences, but this meant all the girls having to cover their knees and shoulders. I was so incredibly hot. And that also meant no swimming or sunning unless you wanted to do so in your full clothes. Such a waste of a good beach. I spent the rest of the day in a lightweight tshirt and a sarong tied around my waist--as beachy as I could get.

After another cold shower, this one refreshing though, it was hammock time until dinner. Mae talked at length about our schedule for the next few days while we watched the men bbq us piles of amazing kebobs, which we sat there and watched get cold. Torture. And once we finally got a shot at it all and sat down with our plates, the power went out. I'm talking pitch black except for the light of a passing motorbike. We hung headlamps on whatever we could find and made due.

The problem wasn't eating in the dark, the problem was our plans for the rest of the night: a Muay Thai demonstration after dinner. No lights = no boxing. Luckily right as a motorcycle gang of boxers pulled up the power came back on. We cleared the tables away and set our chairs in a circle. Then the guys did some sparring and had us come up to try some punches/kicks. I was so looking forward to this but at the time my ankle hurt too much to kick anything and my nose was too stuffy to breathe. Claudia went up there and showed us all how it's done. I really need to take a kickboxing class next quarter. I don't like the idea of getting hit but I like the hitting part.

Once the boxing wrapped up I took some nyquil and was out early. The next morning we were back to the big boat by 8am for another round of kayaking. This time our guide took us to some island off Krabi to kayak through a mangrove swamp. It was a legitimate maze, but this time I was steering in the back of the kayak while Megan was the engine up front. It was a lot more relaxing with no wind and no waves to fight, just zig zagging through an eerie mangrove forest. In all I think it was about 2 hours. Then we set sail again for another swimming spot, on the way to which the boat broke down. No one knew what was going on except we stopped, dropped anchor, and the crew started yelling at each other in Thai. Maybe 20 minutes later they finally got it going again.

At the swimming island they dropped anchor away from the shore and told us we could swim there or kayak to the beach or into another lagoon. I was all for jumping off and swimming until someone pointed over the side to the water. There were large, white, bowling ball sized jellyfish swimming around and under the boat. Even though they weren't poisonous according to the captain, I got in the first kayak I could and paddled to the beach. There 6 of us hung out in the warm water with the captain and Mae.

Then the captain, Tom, brought us over a dead jellyfish he'd found on the shore. For some reason this fascinated us and we played with it for good half hour. We took pictures with it, threw it at each other, ripped holes in it. Don't ask me why we were so enthralled. We named it squishy. When we got back to the boat we started throwing pieces of the now shredded jelly at our unsuspecting comrades.

An hour of incredibly rocky seas later we made it Railay beach. I tried to video how badly the boat was rocking, mostly because I kept thinking "mom would be throwing herself overboard right now" but I'm not sure you can really see it. Immediately after I stopped recording this we hit a large wave and multiple trays of watermelon went flying towards me. I don't know how that doesn't make me sick but airplanes do. It makes no sense.

Railay is a lot smaller than I imagined. I had pictured a long, touristy beach in a bay. Instead it's a relatively small strip of sand on both the east and west sides of the island. We had to take 3 long tail boats from our boat to the shore. Then since the tide was way out we had to transfer to a tractor to take us up the sand. There we gathered our luggage and had to walk it from the east shore 5 minutes across to the west shore. Not a difficult task except for the guys pouring cement in the middle of the path... We had to pick up our humongo bags and haul them past all the wet cement and construction to our resort. I just kept thinking TIA.

Once we'd found our bungalows we dropped our bags and ran straight to the pool. The pool was small but clean, and relatively cool. After a while my group gave up on it and walked over to the ocean instead. Believe it or not it was significantly warmer. The Andaman sea I believe is part of the Indian Ocean, which explains why I loved it so much. This is still by far my favorite ocean, shockingly warm with big, calm waves. I spent a good while out there until it was time to take a shower and get dressed for dinner.

The whole group met up with Mae at 6 to watch the sunset over Railay. This turned into a photo shoot (as tends to happen with so many girls) with the beach and sunset. But at the end of our time here I expected no less. We walked to the east for some dinner, and on the path I found a wad of American $20 blowing along the ground. I picked them up, then stood there calling "hello? Any Americans?" looking for someone either shopping nearby or perhaps looking for something. I waited for a while and the shop keepers all started coming up to me like I wanted to buy something. Then I decided to just move on and donate it later. Perhaps to DEPDC or the elephant nature park. I need the karma. Now after dinner I've gone home early instead of the bar to get some rest tonight. Tomorrow we are boating to the super famous Phi Phi Island for snorkeling. Here's hoping I can kick this cold in time to enjoy that and a real night out tomorrow--our last real night in Thailand.

On probably the 20th try we finally got one of me in the air. We need practice