Happy Birthday to me!! Matt and I left Beijing 9/17 for Bangkok and had a great flight on Thai Airways. Only 4 1/2 hours long but we got 3 meals and free alcohol. Not bad. The new airport in Bangkok is a huge glass building that looks like something from a sci-fi movie. Well, we tried to be brave and spend the night in the airport because we only had about 7 hours until our morning flight to Krabi but at about 2:15am I gave up and we went to the hotel counter in the airport. Within moments the hotel car took us to our room where we enjoyed a relaxing 3 hours :) of sleep before our flight to Krabi.

We arrived at 9:30am and took a taxi with a couple from Sydney down to the dock to catch a 10am boat to Phi Phi Don Island. It is absolute paradise. No cars, no real roads. Just cliffs surrounding gorgeous white sand beaches. There are only about 12 resorts on the whole island and after being here for a few days you really get to know the locals and other tourists. We have a villa that overlooks the ocean and our days are spent eating, reading and sitting under our umbrella at the beach drinking banana or coconut smoothies. I even had a foot massage. We seriously considered spending the next month on this island and skipping New Zealand. Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe literally on the beach and Matt is across the walk way playing a bob marley guitar duet with one of the locals. All of the people are so kind. The children run and bike all over the island without their parents because its so small and safe. This one boy who is probably 2 or so started following Matt and I while we were walking the other day and he grabbed my hand and kept walking with us. After a while I stopped because I figured his mom would be looking for him at some point. When she came out of her shop to get him, he grabbed onto my leg and was screaming and crying when she pulled him off of me. So adorable.

Our second night here, we went to a bar on the beach called hippies and they had live music followed by a magic show and a flame twirling performance. It was all part of a big celebration called The Half Moon Party. I got really excited when I saw the bar setting up for musical chairs.....but all the rules were different. I ended up playing and instead of sitting down when the music stops, the DJ tells you an item you must find from someone at the bar and then run back to an open chair once you've got it. i.e. a lighter, black bra, boxer shorts. It got quite fun. The grand prize was a ticket on Thai airways so i was playing for keeps but you just can't compete with a guy who will take off his own boxer shorts to win.

Yesterday afternoon we went on a 4 hour sunset cruise with a few stops along the way. First we went to monkey beach and fed all of these little monkeys pieces of fruit. Two of the monkeys jumped right on me when Matt was trying to take a picture. Then we went to the smaller and uninhabited island of Phi Phi Leh and went snorkeling. Our last stop was a beach called maya bay. We had to swim out to a cave and hang onto rope during high tide and pull ourselves through the cave (Lost my sandals 3 times but luckily my husband has good reflexes and caught them each time). Once through the cave, you walk through a small jungle section before reaching the most beautiful beach. The sunset on the boat ride back was spectacular.

Ok, my birthday present.......I woke up this morning, rolled over in bed half asleep and there was Matt, CLEAN SHAVEN and holding a freshly (illegally) picked bouquet of white flowers from the tree outside. So nice to see my husband again. Just had a great steak dinner on the beach and tomorrow we take a boat to Phuket. Will write again soon.