Beautiful South Thailand

We left Bangkok on Friday March 14th and returned Sunday March 23rd. During that time we headed south to the islands and coast of Thailand's Andaman sea. It was great to get out of the city.

Here are some of the highlights:

I (Steve) spent one morning climbing the very popular limestone cliffs on Railay Beach. If you look really close at this picture you can see someone climbing.

We booked a multi-island snorkelling tour where they took us around to a few different islands for snorkelling (we saw a big orange jellyfish!), before heading to a small uninhabited island for sunset and supper (picture below), after dark we got back in the water and played with phosphorescence (glowing bubbles appear in the water as you move your limbs).

After a few days at Railay we headed over to Ko Phi Phi Island. The main island on this island was totally devastated by the Tsunami but has since been completely rebuilt. Accomodation was a little more expensive on this island but the best beach (sand and swimming) is away from town and has the cheapest accomodation. We spent 3 nights in a cheap hut taking saltwater showers and then splurged for a luxurious bungalow with a view on our last night. We spent a lot of time just snorkelling off the beach in the crystal clear water, reading under a shady tree, and generally just enjoying paradise.

Coming back to Bangkok was hard. We like living in Bangkok. We have made good friends. It's a big city with big city entertainment/shopping/transportation/eating possibilities. We like that. But what our time away has made clear to us is that we really don't like seeing the air we're breathing. Its so nice to look up at night and see stars or to look out and be able to see things miles away that aren't enveloped in haze.