Goodbye Japan! Goodbye Asia!

Today I decided to go to kamakura. I left later than I wanted to cuz I slept in a bit, but good thing cuz I felt much better today! Sore throat was almost gone and had more energy. Grateful heavenly father answers prayers! So left around 930, couldn't remember if it was shibuya or shinjuku station I was supposed to go to, so I asked two staff who told me something different so I was confused, but I finally figured out to go to shinjuku. Once I got to the station, it took me a while to figure out where to buy the ticket, then I was finally on my way. It took over an hour to get to enoshima, where I stopped first. I walked To the island via a bridge, and took a couple of escalators up to this lighthouse. On the way there were two shrines. The weather was absolutely perfect and I enjoyed the walk. The top of the 

Lighthouse was refreshing with the cool breeze and pretty view of the whole island and ocean. Then I walked back down to the street where there were shops and restaurants. I decided I had to try the island's specialty dish- sardine sashimi. It was interesting...not my favorite but I liked it. 

After lunch, I walked back to the train station to go to kamakura. Went to the Daibatsu first, which was a big Buddha. Not as big as the one in HK, but still good to see. After my short visit, I headed to the Hase shrine or temple, can't remember which. That was nice as well, although they really all started to look the same after a while. Didnt stay long there either, and by then I was getting tired. Oh and before the Daibatsu, I walked down this street full of shops and bought a bunch of treats and tried lots of samples. And heading back I walked down another bigger street but didn't stop anywhere. I took the train back to shinjuku, and there I looked for some dinner. I was wanting to eat ramen, but ended up stopping at this noodle restaurant that had noodles kinda like udon, except they were square shaped, thinner and chewier that you put in some sauce. Not my favorite....but filled me up considerably cuz the bowl of noodles was huge. Couldn't even finish. After dinner, I headed back to sleep. 

The next day Anthony and I had to check out of temple housing at 10. I wanted to do baptisms that morning, but didn't realize that they didn't start until 1 pm. How disappointing. I never got to do any baptisms at all in any of the 4 temples I visited! Sad day. But anyway, Anthony and I took a taxi to our hotel and dropped off our luggage, then went out to find something to eat. We ate at this pork katsu place that was ok. Then we split and I went and shopped. Found this mall area that actually had cheaper stuff, so I finally fought some shoes and then a $9 skirt. Headed back to the hotel to check in and get settled in the room, then headed back out for an early dinner. This time had the ramen I've been wanting. Except it was kinda salty and I've had better ramen...I never ate sushi while I was her either!! What a crime! Hopefully I will come back someday and get some real Japanese fresh sushi! 

Anyway, after eating, anthony and I split again and I headed to shibuya to the 109 building for shopping where there were 9 floors of women's clothing. The stuff was all too expensive for me, so I only quickly browsed each level and went to Zara and forever 21 instead, where I bought more stuff. And this old (like 50-60 year old) Japanese guy starts talking to me and I was like I don't speak Japanese, and he asks if I wanted to get a drink with him. What the heck. Gross! He is probably married with a bunch of kids, maybe even grand kids. How terrible. But after that disturbing encounter, I headed back to the hotel and got ready for bed. Except I was coughing so much and I wasn't tired, so I couldn't fall asleep till late :( 

This morning I woke up at 9 and was wide awake, so I laid in bed for a while checking fb etc, then finally got up and got ready. Went to a few convenience stores and bought some cakes and more treats. Man I bought I lot of stuff! I'm sure ting and un will be happy! After the stores, I went back to the hotel since Anthony was still sleeping and he had the room key. I was afraid he would go out and I wouldn't be able to get back in! I thought we might go grab some lunch, except he just laid around and went back to sleep, so I just finished packing and sat around till it was time for me to head to the airport. Luckily our hotel had an airport shuttle so I didn't have to haul all my crap somewhere else. So once I got to the airport, I went and picked up my duffel bag and the reorganized my suitcase and then checked in my bags. Waited around for 2 hours or so and now it is time to board the plane! It's a 10 hour flight, and then I have a 6 or 7 hour layover in LA, the. I will be home around 930 pm. Yay! I can't wait to go home and sleep in my own bed! Excited to see my family as well. Well, Asia has been fun! I learned a lot and experience a lot! S grateful I had the opportunity to go on this trip!! And grateful to Heavenly Father for always watching over me. It has stregthened my testimony to know that He is always there, no matter how far away from home I am, perhaps especially when we are far from home! And I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to share the gospel with a few people. I've never really done it before, and it's not as scary as I thought it'd be! Even though no e of the people I talked to were interested, I'm glad I got to bring up the church somehow and hopefully they will remember it someday! I still have a day to give away a pass along card that I brought! I brought a few but never had them with me to give away! Tsk tsk. Maybe I'll have the chance to before I get home! Well, time to board! Wish me a good flight!

Japan Japan Japan!

Wow I didn't realize that I hadn't written since I got to Japan! I'm really liking it here, better than Seoul at least. Can't pinpoint exactly why...but I just do. 

Anyway, so after a long day of traveling on Monday (2 hours to kuala lumpur, 4 hour layover in a sucky airport-what kind of airport nowadays doesn't take credit cards?! It was the biggest hassle just trying to buy a bottle of water! And 6.5 hour flight to Tokyo) I finally arrived. I was really glad I decided to just stay at the capsule hotel that night cuz it would've been a pain trying to get to another hotel and working about the subways closing down before I got there. 

The capsule hotel was an interesting experience. Glad I got to experience it at least once. It was just beds separated by walls, with this sliding blind thing for doors. The bathroom facilities were pretty nice though. They provided nice Sheseido products, even face wash, makeup remover, etc. so I had a decent night there. Got up earlyish the next morning to look for a courier service to send my duffel bag to the Narita airport and store it there until I leave on Sunday. So useful! I know I definitely would have died trying to transport everything to the temple! Seriously. It was cheap too-less than $20! 

After getting the luggage situation figured out, I took the subway and found the temple without problem. Good thing I had a map! I dropped off my stuff and headed out to see the Meiji Shrine. The shrine wasn't all that exciting, to be honest. You first walk through the Nakimise(?) street which was lined with souvenir shops and food. I bought my Japan magnet and stopped by the shrine briefly. Then headed to the Takeshita Dori street which was lined with boutiques. Nothing too exciting there. The only things I got was from the Daiso store- more stationary and treat bags....I think I have enough to last me the next 20 years. Also got some candy. Japan, or Asia in general, has the best candy! 

I kept walking after I past the street and saw a Forever 21 which I decided to stop at and bought some clothes. I think I'm done shopping for the trip! Ive spent more than I planned already. Whoops. After that I wi Dow shopped a little more and decided to head back to the temple for a little nap before meeting Anthony at 5:30. Except his flight was delayed and he didn't get there till 8! Grrr... Wasted a bunch of time doing noting....we were supposed to meet Aiko for dinner but couldn't make it since anthony still had to check in between 9- 10. So we went near by for yakitori, which was so expensive!! They made us buy drinks, whic was at least $3, and their kebabs were all SO tiny. I only got 3 and some tofu, and was still hungry afterwards. That definitely made me miss all the cheap food in Thailand! And HK! 

Anyway, the next day Anthony and I headed out later around 11 and first headed to Ginza. I actually had itineraries planned but Anthony just wanted to "chill", so we wandered aimlessly. Waste of time in my opinion. We went to the oldest mall in Japan supposedly and grabbed a quick lunch from their food....how to call it...vendors? It was just a bunch of counters with food you can buy. What I got wasn't that great unfortunately. Some kinda beef with rice. And i had the biggest trouble finding a drink to buy there. What kind of food place doesn't sell drinks!? So frustrating cuz I was dying of thirst. 

After the quick lunch, we wandered around and anthony decided  to go to this store called the Loft, which had a bunch of random stuff like stationary, male up, clothes...and it was there that we lost each other. Probably actually a good thing, cuz he didn't wanna do anything I wanted to do anyway and was pretty much doing his own thing. So whatever, I left and went to the sensoji temple. That was pretty. Then went for a boat ride down the sumida river and took the train to odaiba. The train ride was so fun, cuz I sat in the very front where I got the perfect view. There weren't operators on the train so there were just big windows in the front. It was like a fun ride! 

After the short train ride, I got off and walked the two minutes to the bath house. Perfect timing too! They had a discount for after 6pm, and so I waited the ten minutes or so and got a $5 discount! The bath house was quite the interesting experience. It was actually quite enjoyable and I'm glad I got to experience more of this Japanese culture. So first you put your shoes in a locker, then they issue you a bracelet where they use it to charge everything you do there to pay at the end. Then you get a yukata that you put on in the dressing room. After changing, you got out to this public area with little shops and food. I ate a quick meal of pork katsu and then headed to the foot baths. It was outdoor with a few long shallow ponds of warm water to dip your feet in. It was a cute place. What I really wanted to try though was the fish therapy, where you put your feet in a pool of water and these fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet. Kinda scary at first and not to mention ticklish! But I got used to it after a while and it felt quite nice! Like a massage! The. These two girls came and stole all my fish away :( sad day, but it was funny watching other peoples reaction too. That was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I tried it! My feet are much softer now! I wish I could do it everyday!

After that I went to the actual bath area. That was definitely an experience, getting naked in front of everyone! They separate it into gender though, but I still felt weird about it. The baths were really nice though! There were a whole bunch of different ones to choose from, like different temps, sizes, ones where you laid down for a jacuzzi massage, steam rooms, saunas....I didn't stay too .9long cuz it got so hot, but I enjoyed it. Then there are a bunch of stations where it's like little vanities with a chair, mirror, and shower head to shower. They provide shampoo and all that too. Then you dry yourself off and put your clothes back on. And there are more vanity stations with hair dryers and all these fancy face washes, lotions, hair products, etc. quite nice. After getting all ready, you go out and pay. 

After the fun bathhouse, I headed over to the shopping area only to look at the giant gun dam statue. That was huge and it was fun to see it. And then I went to the big ferris wheel at palette town and got a ride! I really liked that- such nice view of the city and lights. The. I rushed home cuz I didn't wanna miss curfew and be homeless for the night! 

The next day i woke up sick! I already had a sore throat the day before, but I think I had a fever and I was coughing. No good, but at least I wasn't so sick I had to stay in bed. Anthony and I headed to the imperial palace garden first. He was basically ignoring me and just going off by himself, so I just left and walked by myself after a while. It was kinda a nice garden and walk. A little but hot, although I still stayed for at least an hour. Then I went to the station where this Japanese garden was supposed to be, but after I got there, it wasn't even on the map and I wasn't up for looking for it and walking around anywa cuz I was getting tired. I ended up stopping by this theater area at the subway station where there were a bunch of food stalls and got some ice cream. Then I headed to see the sky tree. When I got there, I found out I had to get a ticket where I had to wait an hour and a half to buy the real ticket to go up. I just wandered a bit, got this yummy cake filled with cream and custard, and waited till it was time. I stayed at the top for over an hour cuz I wanted to see the night view. I almost didn't want to wait so long, but glad I stayed cuz the view was beautiful. Especially the dusk view. After being satisfied with the night view of Tokyo, I headed back home early so I could get good sleep.

Japan!

I arrived in Japan safe and sound! Got here last night around 1030, and so glad I booked the capsule hotel in the airport because it would've been the biggest pain trying to get to the hotel so late at night and risking the subways closing before I get to my hotel. But the capsule hotel was quite interesting. It was just a bunch of beds separated by walls, that don't even have proper doors, just these sliding shade things. But the bathrooms were quite nice- they had all these vanities that had face wash, make up remover, q tips, hair curler and straightener....plus nice products that were all Shesheido or however you spell that! So that was an interesting experience.

I woke up early this morning and went to find the courier service to send my 50 lb duffel bag to the narita airport so I can pick it up when I leave. So convenient! It cost less han $20 too! I just pray that they are sending it to the right place and it doesn't get lost or something or I'd be very very depressed! Everything I bought on this trip is in there! It was slightly frustrating trying to communicate cuz some of the people at the airport didn't speak much english. You'd think they would hire people who were proficient! But oh well, I got by. I was able to find the temple housing without trouble too. I've been pretty lucky on this trip since I haven't really gotten lost!

After dropping my stuff off in my room (bunk beds- I'm sharing the room with another Japanese lady), I headed out to see the Meiji jingo shrine. I'm so glad I prepared itineraries for this trip! It has helped a ton. So I was albe to find my way there easily as well! The walk to the shrine was through this park area lined with tall trees, so it was quite nice. I stopped by the shrine garden on the way and that was quite a pretty and peaceful little walk as well. The weather here is soooooo much nicer compared to Bangkok! So much more enjoyable to be outside-thank goodness! The shrine wasn't all that interesting, to be honest, so I didn't stay for long.

After the shrine, I walked to Takeshita Dori street to browse the stores. First stop was Daiso, where I got more stationary and treat bags...I think I have enough to last me quite a while now...heh. Walked and shopped a bit in forever 21 and bought some clothes there, then pretty much headed back to the temple where I was supposed to meet Anthony but his flight got delayed so I'm still waiting...lame. And so hungry!! And I can't believe I already spent over $250, and it's only been a day! What the heck!! I don't even know what I spent all that money on! Hopefully I will be spending a lot less after today since I paid for my hotels already.  And I probably shouldn't buy any more crap either! I actually shopped quite a bit on this trip. Anyway, I hope anthony gets here soon. We are meeting Aiko at 8!

Hot Hot Hot!

Here we go again- off to my last stop- Japan! To be honest, I wasnt all that excited to go to Japan, but now I am eager to leave the heat, humidity, and bugs behind! I could never live somewhere with weather like this. I constantly felt so gross and sweaty! I am grateful for Utah's dry weather. 

Anyway, on to recap the past two days. Saturday was Andrea's last day with me- so sad! We booked a tour to see the floating market, river Kwai, and the tiger temple. We were picked up bright and early at 7am. Drive was so long! We drove for a total of probably at least 6 hours there and back. Our first stop was the floating market. Don't even remember what that one was called since there are a bunch of them near Bangkok. It was super touristy and crowded! Way too many boats in the river at the same time. There were shops along the sides of the river that sold basically the same things as all the other tourist areas, so I didn't buy anything. The sides of the boat were very low so we kept getting splashed with the nasty river water! Ew! We circled around to a village area and saw this HUGE reptile lizard thing climb out of the water onto the wall on the side! Creepy. It was probably at least two feet long. Actually maybe bigger. 

After that exciting ride through the market and village, we took a speed boat through the same river to some other random place where we waited for our driver. He then drove us to grab a quick lunch, and we were off to the river Kwai. I guess during the Japanese invasion during world war II, the Japanese built a bridge over the river for the trains to transport supplies and ammunition. Not really all that exciting...plus I was too hot to really even care. After the bridge, we finally got to go to the tiger temple, which is what we were looking forward to the most. They only let us stay for an hour, which was kinda lame. There were also lots of other animals there, like deer, buffalo, boar, and not sure what else we saw. There were so many bugs there! We first went to take pictures with the tigers. They had like maybe 10 of the, in this one area where everyone waited I line and the people who worked there grabbed your camera while another literally held our hand and led us around to a bunch of the tigers for pictures. It was interesting holding some Thai boy's hand. Heh. Andrea and I ended up going around twice so we could get more pictures. We mostly just got to stand near the tigers' behind, except for one where we got to touch one of their heads. A girl got to hold the tiger's head in her lap! That would've made an awesome pictures, except I was wearing white pants and didn't want to get them all dirty. Oh well. After taking pictures there,  the staff led one of the tigers out and everyone got to take turns holding the leash and walking the tiger for a quick picture. Then we got another picture with a monk bottle feeding a tiger. That was basically it for the tiger temple. A little disappointing because I thought we would get to do more with them. It also would've been fun to see the cubs. Too bad...after that it was a 3 hour drive back to Bangkok. 

That night, Andrea and I went to Khao San Road since we lived near it. It is known as the backpacker's street. We got some dinner there for super cheap! $2 each for green curry and stir fried veggies, and ONE dollar for a big plate of pad Thai!! Our whole meal cost $6 for the both of us with a ton of leftovers! Why can't America be that cheap?! Everything really is so cheap here! It's so much fun shopping. After dinner we walked down the street for a bit of shopping. I got 3 cover up/ dresses for $10!!!! We have found some super good deals here! 

As we were walking down the street, I see a guy holding a tray full of scorpions on sticks. And since Andrea said she would eat bugs, I chased after the guy so we could buy one from him so she could make good on her word (that she forgot she even said). I wasn't planning on eating no scorpion! But since Andrea finally had the courage to take a small bite, I did too (although it took us both a while). We got it all on camera too and it is hilarious! But the scorpion really didn't taste that bad. At all. In fact it was kinda tasty. Ha ha ha. Really just like the BBQ chips we ate that morning! We were gonna throw away the rest of the scorpion after our little bites, but we decided what the heck. And we each took another bite and finished it off. Afterwards we couldn't believe we actually did it! To be honest though, I really didn't think the scorpion looked as bad as the other bugs- even crickets. We saw a bunch of other nasty stuff they were selling, including giant grasshoppers and cockroaches. Now those you can't pay me a million dollars to eat. The scorpion seemed to me more like a crawfish or something, really. S if I had to eat another one, I probably would. That was quite adventurous and brave of us though, I've got to say. On our short walk back to our hostel, Andrea decided it was safer to have some sort of weapon to protect ourselves with, so she found a big rock to carry the rest of the way back to ward off any potential bad guys. It worked pretty well! 

The next morning, Andrea left bright and early at 4 am for her flight back to HK. So sad! No more Andrea to eat bugs with or to protect me with rocks :( I was quite sad when I woke up and she was gone. That morning after laying in bed longer than I had intended (I was too tired, plus didn't want to face the heat again), I finally got up and got ready to go to Ayutthaya- where there are a bunch of temple ruins. The receptionist at the hostel suggested going by bus and train, although online people said by minivan was easiest. I had a hard time deciding, but finally went with the bus and train. Big mistake! The bus ride to the train station went smoothly enough, but the train....oh that dang train! There was no a/c first of all. And at the first stop, the train broke down or something and stopped for over half an hour. I was getting so frustrated and annoyed, I finally got fed up with waiting and took a taxi to where the minivans left. Good choice! It took less than two hours total to get there. I was met by a nice tuk tuk driver lady who offered her services to me. I picked out 5 temples I wanted to visit, and we were on our way! She really was very kind. Let me borrow an umbrella as shade since it was so hot out, and even gave me a free cold water bottle. I liked her. The temples were pretty neat. I expected them to be in the middle of nowhere-like the Mayan ruins- but they were all right 

In the middle of the city. Again, it was too hot to really be able to properly enjoy the sites, so I only briefly walked around each one and snapped a few pictures. After the five sites, I took the minivan back to Bangkok and decided to go to a mall this girl in krabi recommended called terminal 21 . Walked around a bit but didn't see anything worth buying. Decided to grab some food since I didn't really eat lunch. Went up to the food court where they had so many selections for super cheap! I got this pork dish that wasn't that great though, and the another fruit smoothie. After eating I went to the bottom floor and bought some treats and headed back to the hostel to pack. 

Got up at 4 am this morning and caught a taxi to the airport, which only cost less than 200, instead of 350 like when we arrived. And it only took 20 minutes to get there rather than 45. Right now I arrived in Malaysia waiting for my connecting flight...have a four hour layover. What to do, what to do....I downloaded the second book in the seven realms series so i shall read!

Goodbye Krabi, hello Bangkok

Ughhhhhhh. I'm so frustrated and annoyed right now! We arrived in bangkok, only to find out Andreas bag never made it here and is still sitting in krabi. Andrea wants to stay here to wait for her bag to arrive, so we are stuck here until 2pm. 3 more hours. We are basically wasting the whole day! I wanted to go see the palaces but we probably won't be able to cuz we won't have enough time. Ugh. I guess things could be worse. At least we know where it's at and it gets here in a few hours. 

Anyway, I guess I'll do a recap of our last day in krabi. So yesterday we went on a tour to the Hong islands. Our first stop was Red Rock Island, where we got to do some snorkeling. Saw a couple of cool fish, but they were mostly the tiger fish like the first time we went snorkeling the day before. The next stop was Paradise island. It was a pretty little island where we just snorkeled some more and hung out on the beach. I needed to go to the bathroom, but the bathrooms there were NASTY!!! So of course I refused to use it. Don't know why I even included that piece of information...heh. Anyway, then we went to the Hong Island lagoon and circled it briefly, then went to the other beach side of the island and kayaked back to the lagoon. Kayaking was fun, I really loved the lagoon and being able to see it from the kayak. Makes the limestone look even bigger and more majestic! That was our last stop of the day before heading back to our hotel, where we washed off and changed. Then we went to get a full body Thai massage! It only cost less than $7 for a full hour!! Seriously crazy cheap. Except it hurt SO bad! The things running through my mind at the time went something like this:  

"Ow ow ow!!" 

"I think she is going to break my back!!"

"She's gonna give me bruises all ove- hahaha that tickles!"

"I don't think I can handle this for a full hour!"

Anyway, you get the picture. I don't think I'll be going back for any Thai massages anytime soon. But afterwords we got manicures and pedicures, which was fun. They were all my first time! If it was as cheap in the states as here in Thailand, I'm sure I'd go all the time. But alas...

After that, we finally got dinner. I was starving by then. We ate at this small cafe. Good, cheap food but oh so spicy. I think I might've gotten a stomachache from there too. But nothing too bad! We shopped a little bit after dinner and I bought a cute straw hat, a cover up, and take a guess at what else. Yep, more scarves. Eek, I don't even know how many I've bought already! Let's see...8 in HK, 3 sparkly elephant ones, and then 2 more shiny elephant ones from last night. That makes...13?! I want to keep them all for myself, but I will be giving some to my sisters, so that's not too bad, right?? They are just all so cheap!

Anyway, we also saw a lot of transvestites on the street yesterday dressed in skimpy outfits, hooker shoes, and faces plastered with makeup. There was one at the mani/pedi place, and we didn't even realize she/he was a transvestite till she/he spoke. Interesting stuff...I just wonder why there are so many here. Is it a cultural thing or what? 

But yeah, so that was basically our day. We got up at 6:30 and left for the airport at 7 this morning. The stupid lady at the counter who checked us in didn't put the luggage tag on Andreas bag, hence it got left there. Why can't people freakin do their jobs right?! I hope we will still be able to do something today, like see the palaces and stuff...2.5 ish more hours to go. I think I'll go read a bit. Glad I downloaded a couple books onto my iPad or I'd be so bored! 

It's now 9pm the same day, and ughhhh I already was almost done updating but stupid blogger deleted everything! Gosh. Today is not my day. I've been in such a bad mood all day long. Anyway. We survived waiting the few hours in the airport and Andrea was able to get her bag, thank goodness. We took a taxi to our hostel after waiting in a long line for one, and I was expecting the taxi driver to try to cheat me, but luckily the one we got was pretty honest and I didn't have to bite anyone's head off. 

We got to our hostel around 3pm, and dropped off our stuff. Then walked to the pier to take the boat to see the temples. Omg it is sooooo hot here! I was soaking all day long. It was nasty. I'm really not looking forward to the next 2 days....it reminds me of how hot central america was! Eek! Makes me excited to get back to Utah! 

So we took the boat to the first temple, Wat Pho. And let me just stop and say how gross and dirty the water in the river is! Or I guess Bangkok in general. Trash and bags of garbage everywhere! So gross... Definitely not liking this part of the city. But otherwise, the temple was cool. Wat Pho is where the reclining Buddha was at, and they had a lot of neat structures. Everything was so intricate. Then we took the boat across the river to Wat Aran. That one was neat too. You could climb up the stairs, which were super steep! Each step was as high as my knee so it was a bit scary climbing up and down. Reminds me of the Mayan temples just cuz the steps were so steep!so we only stayed for a bit, then went to the street they call china town. We didn't really explore it much cuz we were so hot and hungry. Just stopped somewhere for some noodle stuff and a cold fruit smoothie. Then we took a tuk tuk home. Tomorrow we are visiting a floating market, river Kwai or something, and the tiger temple. Hopefully it will be fun despite the excruciating heat! Eek.

Island Hopping

Well, today was an interesting day. As far as fun goes, it definitely wasn't as good as yesterday! But it was still good for the most part. We went island hopping to the Phi Phi islands. We left at 8:30 and took the speed boat to Bamboo Island first. We decided to sit up at the very front  of the boat without remembering it was the bumpiest part of the boat! It was definitely a wild 30 minute ride! Except our boat broke down or something in between for 15 minutes or so and the waves were kinda big, which almost made me seasick. Luckily I managed, other people including Andrea weren't so lucky. Poor things. Bamboo island was nice. We just walked around the beach a little and got a few pictures. We only stayed like 40 minutes there before heading to go snorkeling at Phi Phi Don I believe. It was pretty fun! There were WAY more fish there than in Hawaii! Like everywhere, so that was really cool. The only bad part was that my camera froze or something right after I got in the water! So I couldn't get pictures or videos there like I wanted to, but luckily we went to another spot where I was able to. After that snorkeling, we went to monkey island or something where we saw a few monkeys, and then to some lagoon which was magnificent! That was my favorite part of the tour. We just circled around it briefly but it was so pretty! Surrounded by the limestone cliffs....blue green water....really beautiful. After that, we might have gone somewhere else, but at the end we just went to Phi Phi something for lunch. Not the best food, but oh well. We walked around a little bit I the stores after we ate, and sat down at a restaurant by the beach for a drink. The ride back was a bit long but I slept through most of it so that was ok.

After getting back, we realized we lost Andreas wallet!! it was so bad....she kept all the money she exchanged in there, plus jet debit card so now she only has $200 left. It couldve been worse though. At least she didn't lose her passport and it was near the end of the trip. So we spent a few hours looking for it and trying to make phone calls to get the card cancelled. In the end we were able to reach her mom to cancel it for her. AfteR getting things figured out, we took the tuk tuk to some market which sucked. Mostly cheap clothes and stuff, so we only stayed 15 minutes before heading back to the area we were staying at. We stopped by some restaurant for dinner. It wasn't that great though. Got a garlic naan and cashew chicken. Then after dinner we just went back to our hotel cuz we were tired. Going to bed early tonight! Tomorrow is snorkeling and kayaking!

Can't Believe I'm in Thailand!!

Thailand is unbelievably awesome!!! So so so beautiful. Seriously. It really does look just like the pretty pictures you see! But starting from last night after arriving, we were picked up by our driver and taken to our hotel, which was kinda, ok pretty old and run down, but at least it was clean enough with no bugs. We got there at like 12:30am and didn't sleep till after 1, and this morning we got up at 6:40 to catch the bus to Krabi. We had to wait out I the heat while it was super humid for over an hour for the bus! But th ride was actually a lot shorter than we expected, only 3 instead of 4 hours! I was worried we wouldnt be able to find our hotel cus the driver didn't speak English and didn't know where the hotel was at, but we asked around a little and we able to take the tuk tuk to our hotel 2 minutes away from where we were dropped off. The receptionist lady was really nice and helpful, helping us book our tours and everything. We got to go on the elephant trek right after we got there pretty much. It was SO cheap!! $15 for one hour, including hotel transfer and everything! Thailand is not only beautiful, but so so so cheap!! Definitely my kind of paradise. Anyway, the elephant trek was so much fun! Our elephant had spotted ears and her name was Nara. We got to ride through the jungle for the first part, which was really awesome, I thought the ride was over after a circle in the jungle, but then we got to go into the river in a jungly area as well! THAT was awesome!! The driver or whatever got off the elephant to take pictures of us and he got some really cool shots that we were super happy about . And he also ordered the elephant to spray us with water! Three times! Haha it was kinda funny. After the fun ride, we got to feed another elephant bananas. That was fun too, although I think I was a bit scared of it, mostly cuz it's trunk was so slobbery. Haha. Oh, and Andrea found a spider on my head!! Ok, it was on my hat, but if it wasn't for the hat, it would've been on my head! I was freaking out, but she got it off for me. Whew.

After that, we were driven back to our hotel. We then got tickets for the long tail boat to Railay Beach. It was incredibly beautiful there, surrounded by limestone cliffs and green water. I want to go back every day! We stopped for a late lunch cuz we hadnt eaten much all day- so we went from eating nonstop everyday to starving ourselves! Sad! But we got some green curry and noodles which were relish. Then we walked to Pranang Cave across the peninsula. On the way were lots of monkeys!! With lots of baby ones too! Sooooo cute!!!! They were riding on their mommy's bellies and they were so little! I loved them! The caves were pretty cool too. At the end we got to another beach with another gorgeous view. Seriously stunning view. I wish I never had to leave!

But eventually it was time to catch the last boat back to Ao Nang beach, where we are staying. We live 2 minutes away from the beach! Although Ao Nang isn't as pretty as Railay, it's still a super convenient location cuz there are restaurants and shops right outside our hotel. We went out and checked out all the shops after getting back and shopped some more! I shopped a ton on this trip! I got MORE scarves for super cheap ($6). I know I already bought 8 in HK, but I couldn't resist cUz they were so pretty! But yeah, it was fun exploring surrounding areas. Shopping is especially fun hen everything is so cheap! Except I really don't have any more room in my luggage :( but I'm still gonna buy and then figure out how to carry them later. Ha ha.

Anyway, this was the most perfect first day in Thailand! I'm so happy to be here and so glad Andrea was able to come with me! We are having the time of our lives and are making memories we will never ever forget! Tomorrow we are going to the Phi Phi islands with 8 island tour! So excited!! Oh and not to forget the $8 Thai massage for a full hour!! Crazy cheap or what?!