Tropical Paradise

July 4

Well, today was a wonderful holiday and great way to celebrate the fourth. I pretty much did almost nothing all day.

I got up pretty early since I had crashed early the night before. Maybe 6:30am. So I decided to just read. Im reading "the language of flowers" at the moment. When Marion got up and showered and all, we headed to breakfast. Most people were already up and on the beach or eating already. That really impressed me since a fair number of people had been up so late the night before. This was around 9:15am.

Joanne was leading a yoga class on the beach at 10am. She has a certification for a yoga instructor at home so that was really cool and nice of her to agree to do that for us. It was a little strange doing it in the sand. It was really fun and relaxing though as well. The beaches are white fine grain sand and that was pretty much all over me at the end (and I even did my yoga on a towel). It did hurt my wrist a little doing the yoga, but it wasn't too bad. We did a lot of sun salutations which I think toward the end were too much for my wrist.

At 11am, jilleanne, Katie, and I all had booked a thai massage on the beach. It was so great. I love the Thai massages. It's a combination of compressions and walking on you and stretching you out and it just feels really good. I think it was better than my first massage in Chiang Mai. I kind of wish they would have worked out the knot in my shoulder though and that didn't happen. I didn't laugh this time when the lady was pressing on my thighs. Improvement! It still tickled a lot though. It was 100 baht more than the one in Chiang Mai as well (350 total... $13 for an hour!). And, the massage therapist used a lot more pressure than the last one which I also enjoyed. When its too light, I can't feel anything.

After the massage a lot of people were ordering lunch and I didn't think I was hungry. As more and more people's food came out though I was really hungry. I ordered cheesy garlic bread and chicken skewers. They were both delectable.

The day before I had been in the sun for so long and ended up being so exhausted by the end of the day that I purposely tried to stay out of the sun today. And I had already gotten so much color the day before. I have noticed that I tan really quickly, but my tan also fades rather quickly as well. Also, sun bathing is exhausting!

I spent the afternoon under the little pavilion area, out of the sun. Blogging, talking to Jilleanne, just hanging out. It was relaxing minus the exhaustion at the end from the heat and sun. Plus I didn't have to constantly worry about reapplying sunscreen.

Obviously it was still hot on the island, but one thing I really enjoyed was that it was a but cooler. You didn't feel like when you were out in the sun that your skin was being burnt. In Bangkok for example, I could literally feel my skin burning when I was in the sun. It is not a nice feeling. I wasn't actually burnt because I had out sunscreen on, but that's the only way I know how to describe the feeling. Or maybe it felt like my skin was baking. I don't know. It was a rather unpleasant feeling, that's for sure. So I didn't miss that or sweating my balls off in Bangkok.

Around 3:30pm, one of the guys from the resort told us that he would take us on a little hike to a really beautiful viewpoint. Brett recommended putting on shoes because the rocks at the top are slippery and if you slip, you don't come back. I took his advice and wore my hiking shoes. He said he's done it in sandals before but that he wouldn't recommend it.

I don't know why this happens every single time I go on a hike or trek in Asia, but it does. I don't know why I haven't learned yet. They made it sound like it would be a rather easy hike up to the top. It wasn't... And coming down was not a piece of cake either.

We were all sweating balls on the way up there. Like literally all of us, except the Thai guy who took us up there, were just dripping sweat. It was extremely unattractive. The climb up was a pretty steep incline for a fair amount of the ascent. We were climbing up rocks and dirt mounds and tree roots. It was intense. The Thai guy thought it was maybe 700m but I didn't catch if that was how much we hiked or if that was how high up the mountain was. It took us about 40 minutes to hike to the top.

When we were climbing, I saw what looked like butterfly wings on the floor of the forest. On the way down, less people were behind me so I stopped and sure enough, it was 2 butterfly wings. I wanted to take them back but I didn't have anywhere to keep them safe.

I should have brought water climbing up as well. They made it sound so easy I didn't think about bringing any. But then when we were starting to climb I saw the guide had a bottle and I was like well shit. That pretty much sums up the climb haha.

We stopped a few times along the way for everyone to catch up and probably for us to catch our breaths. When we got to the top, the guide warned us that once we entered through this rock area that we needed to be careful and go one by one on the trail. That was pretty much the only explanation given, but the second I emerged on the other side of this huge rock, I laughed.

As you step out from the rock you have to climb and look around the corner, there is literally a stone ledge, just large enough to put your foot down one in front of the other... Or sideways. But you basically had to lean forward into the rock and hope you don't slip off the back. If you slipped, you were never coming back. So that was awakening!

Once we walked along the ledge, we had to climb through a little stone opening and you came out into this area of rocks. It was safer because the rocks kind of made an area for you to stand in so you couldn't fall off the cliff. It also wasn't just rocks all piled up together, it was a sheet of big thick rock. It wasn't a huge space so we all had to kind of take turns with our photos and rotating around the rock.

I continue with the whole Thailand hates me theme, the rocks at the top were very sharp. I was scooting around and moving around on the rock and ripped a hole in the ass of my pants. It's really small but I for sure need to figure out how to fix it. The pants are expensive too! Not to mention, on the way back down, I was stepping over a tree branch and my pants got caught on it as I continued and I ripped another small hole in the thigh of my pants. So sad! And it was my one pair of pants that stopped just below my knees. I really need to figure out how to stitch those holes up.

Clearly, the climb down didn't go too well either. A number of us fell or slid down the mountain at least a few times. I did exactly what I had done in Laos and ended up slipping on some loose rocks and dirt and sliding down on my ass. Not very fun. I managed to scratch my leg up as well. The scratch looks like an animal clawed my leg. It is sore as well. But it is healing nicely so that's positive. Going down may have taken just as long as going up did. We went down in 3 different groups. I went down with Katie, Simon, and Nadya. The guide was also with us. By that I mean a million miles ahead of us and sometimes stoping to see if we were okay or still behind him. Every time he asked if we were okay and turned around and watched, Katie slipped down the mountain. It was a little bit funny that it always happened when he was looking.

Lesson learned. Do not believe anyone who lives in Asia when they say you are going on a trek but it is easy. It's a huge lie. Wear hiking shoes and be prepared to work hard to get to wherever you are going. And don't forget water!!!

That trek was literally the first time the entire day I had broken a sweat. It was a record and it was ruined! But, the view was worth it for sure. Since I was pretty sweaty, I went for a swim in the ocean with some people as well.

The water wasn't too cold at first, but it started to look like a storm was coming and then it got pretty windy and I literally had goosebumps in the water. Marion and I stayed in hoping it would pass quickly but it just kept getting cooler and more windy. We finally gave up and got out and suffered being cold on the way back to our bungalow.

When it came time for dinner, we headed back out to the beach. We had a long table set up for as in the sand on the beach again. This time it didn't rain. It was also the night of our seafood barbecue. I had ordered a mixed seafood plate. I ended up having a few prawns (the whole prawn head and all), white snapper (which was really good), and a large part of a squid (body and tentacles included). I think my favorite was the white snapper. For some reason, even though the shrimp here is good, I think the shrimp at home is better. I don't know if its because of the flavoring... But I feel like they're cooked better at home too. At home they have this certain texture that I like better. It's like spongy or springy in my teeth. But here it's more like the texture of chicken I guess? I liked the squid tentacles, but I spit out the head of the squid. It was too thick and hard to chew for me. Didn't like it at all. Bleh.

After dinner Marion and I were talking with Katya and August. They are from Norway I think but are living in Denmark right now. They are 25 years old. Katya is going to school to be a nurse and she is very similar to me in the fact that she is interested in psychology. She wants to work on the psych ward. She has been working with patients with schizophrenia on the ward and she talked about it with so much caring and passion. It was really cool. August is studying to be an architect.

While we were talking the pool table opened up and we ended up playing Marion and I against August and Katya. They won but it was a close game. Unfortunately, I scratched the ball at least 3 times and hit 2 of their balls in the pockets. Toward the end of the game, one of the Thai guys who worked there gave me a few quick pointers on how to hold the pool stick. After that, I was shooting way better! It was fun.

Marion and I walked back to the room and we chatted about life and boys for a while. I feel like there are a lot of experiences we have both had that make it easy to relate to each other. She's really good to talk to. She tends to repeat herself a lot though too. She also reminds me a lot of Alyssa. And Jilleanne reminds me a lot of Meggie. It's really strange actually.

I wasn't too sure how this group was going to be. It seems like it will be really good though. For the most part, everyone gets along really well and people tend to want to do things. Well see what happens when we get to the cities though and have activities all day long. The couples have been mixing well with everyone too. It's a different dynamic than my last group, but I think I have been really lucky with my groups because everyone has been very nice and gotten along. I am hoping it keeps going like that!