Hello!

Well we ended up flying down to southern Thailand because all of the train tickets were full for at least 3 days!! We can't even imagine how hard it will be to travel in a week or two, when Thai New Year is and things shut down for about a week. Anyway we had to fly into Phuket because all the tickets to Krabi were taken. We flew Air Nok, and I (Sarah) was a bit nervous, as I had asked a Thai man about this airline and he made a gesture with his hand of a plane crashing! Although this man was trying to get us to take his bus, so I'm not sure how reliable his account of the airline was.

Anyway, we got down just fine and took a cab straight to a pier to get a boat to Ko Yai Noi, an island between Phuket and Krabi. We did not want to stay in Phuket because we have heard it is very touristy... but we got a bit more isolation than we thought we were getting by going to Ko Yai Noi! Our first indication of this was that there were no tourists at all on the pier, only locals. We took the public boat for 100 Baht (the taxi driver tried to make us take the private boat for 1650 Bhat) and it was a beautiful trip, got us there in about an hour and a half. Once we were there, there was a guy at the pier who wanted to drive us to find a place to stay. We looked at a map of the island, and it was too far to walk so we took him up on his offer. We asked him to take us to a place in our Lonely Planet book, but of course he took us to a place run by his family and tried to get us to stay there. It was way overpriced and we refused. We went around to about four different places, and every time Ryan would go look at the bungalows, but the guy would run up ahead and speak Thai to the people, and the costs were about three times what our book said they should be, so obviously this guy was going to take a cut of the money. Eventually, we found a place for 500 Bhat and it was a pretty cute bungalow by the beach. Anyway, to sum up this island, it was not exactly what we pictured... the beach was not very nice, but everything else was very scenic and we sure got away from the tourist trail. We went for a swim in the ocean and then a big thunderstorm came! Later we went out to find a restaurant, but the only one we could find was closed. So we went back to our bungalow and ate some protein bars! We decided that it would be best to get off this island to a place a little more suited for tourists. Also, the bottled water at this place was very pricey because there is no competition.

We were picked up at 7am this morning by the same guy and had a lovely drive through the island back to the pier, where we caught another public boat to Krabi. Then we piled in the back of a truck with 19 Thai people (I actually counted) and got driven into Krabi town. It was a very interesting experience to do what the locals do for a day; we only saw a few tourists on the island and none during any of our transportation journeys. So we just had breakfast (we were starving after only eating energy bars all of yesterday!) at a nice cafe in Krabi town and are now planning to take a boat to Railay soon. Ryan is on the computer beside me researching places to stay in Railay so the same thing doesn't happen to us when we get there as it did yesterday. You have to be very insistent of where you want to go, or they will take you to a place where they get a cut of the money.

Also, I have finally decided what to do for school... after a few painstaking weeks of going back and forth, I've decided to do the Masters in Occupational Therapy at UBC (which is why we are at the internet cafe, as I had to decide by tomorrow). It feels good to have finally made a decision, and now I can enjoy the beaches of Thailand without worrying about it! We are not sure how long we will be staying in Railay, but will be headed to Ko Phi Phi after that. Our book says there is no internet in Railay, but it was written a few years ago so that has likely changed. No time to get pictures up right now, but hopefully in a few days we will.

Ok, that is all for now I think! Ryan is almost done researching and then we will walk down to the pier to catch a boat. Apparently you have to wait until about 10 people show up and then the boat will leave. Railay is only accessible by boat. It is supposed to have amazing climbing, and fairly nice beaches, and a pretty relaxed atmosphere. We would like to find a place to stay for at least several days, as it is a bit tiring traveling everyday (and expensive) but is nice to see things.

Ok talk to you all soon!!!