Sunday, December 20th

After being in the sun for over 6 hours on Friday, we were both pretty exhausted, not to mention quite burnt in places. We hung out also at the pool that over looks the beach and even has a bar. Yesterday, after breakfast, we decided to get a little excercise and hike into town. It was a pretty hike across the island and ending up at Tonsai Bay. We hung out at the beac for a while which had tons of people and did some people watching. Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch any locals, but just tourists. We did realize that there are many Thai people who live on this island though. When walking behind our resort, we saw a whole little town. The buildings were pretty rough and you could tell the people were quite poor. It's sad that so many work at this beautiful, expensive resort and have to go back home to that. Yet they are so extremely polite - it never stops! We've learned how to say hello (Sow wat dee) and thank you (Korp kun) with a ka after everything I say and a krop after everything Scott says I just wish I knew more.










There wasn't much in the town except a ton of shops and a few restaurants and bars along the beach. It really wasn't very nice, was overcrowded and smelled pretty badly. I'm glad we're staying over here in our more expensive existence, at least on this island. How aweful does that sound?




... ok, I have to switch gears for a minute. Scott and I just walked over to the pool and I saw some animal moving on the ground and... it was a monkey! I was so excited and of course immediately had to take pictures. Then it came right up to the cottage we were next to, so I was able to get a real close p. The next thing I knew, it was walking out to the sidewalk right beside us. It walked right up to me and reached around and grabbed my leg! I was so shocked that I didn't quite know what to do, so I didn't get a picture. I didn't want to jerk away either. Then he let go and just sat looking at me. Scott was cared it was going to hurt me, but I think it just wanted to play or to be close to another living being. It followed us over to the pool, where a bunch of kids saw it and ran right to it. But it didn't run away. It reached out and grabbed onto the little girl's arm and they all just kept playing with it quite happily. I always thought you weren't supposed to touch a monkey because of diseases and the possibility they'd bite you. But thes parents didn't mind at all that their kids were playing with a monkey - weird! Now I REALLY want one as a pet because I know they like to snuggle! :-) (Sorry Terri) ;-) Okay, sorry for the interruption, I just had to after that....






Today was awesome. We took a snorkeling trip and went to a lot of beautiful places. We started only about 5 minutes from our beac here and snorkeled for 45 minutes. I fogot how much I loved it! It's so exhilarating to be staring into a completely foreign world. The water was super clear, so we were able to see a lot. We next went near monkey beach, where the oral was even more colorful. I swam overto monkey beach and walked around, but there were no monkeys. Luckily, I just saw one here! We then went to a neighboring island, but the winds were highand the sea quite rough. I seem to be more and more likely to get seasick the older I get. Oh well.










We saw a cave and learned that it's called the Viking Cave. The reason is that when explorers found it, they saw a lot of old drawings on the wall. They thought the boats looked like those of the Vikings, when it actuality, they were just local fishing boats. That island was the most beautiful I've seen yet. Beautiful blue green waters, high cliffs, lush foliage. We did one more snorkle on Maya Bay, where we saw a pretty large jellyfish. Luckily, it was at the bottom. We then went over to the beach, hung out, hiked around and had lunch before the ride back to our hotel. Then we saw a monkey and are now relaxing at the pool!
I'm still definitely not on this time zone. I slept really well the first night we were here but not since. I wake up early tossing and turning and am wide awake by 7AM. Then I'm tired beginning at 4PM and until 9 when i've been going to bed. Would Thailand make me a morning person or just until I get used to he time change. I've NEVER beena morning person before.
I've got a lot of religion thought on the brain lately. I'm reading a book "Lamb" for my book club which is a fictional bok as if it's from Jesus' best friend's telling of his life as a child and growing up (Since Matthew,Mark, Luke and John tell of him after age 30). In his traveling to learn how to be a savior, he travels far and studies Confucious. At the point in the book where I am now, he just finds Enlightenment as a Buddha. What an interesting thought! In our room there, they have a Bible but also have the book of Buddha since 95% of the population here is Buddhist. I've been readin that book too and learning bit about the religion. I've always been interested in Buddhism and even reading this book think that it's a good way of life. I think most religions strive for the same thing if you want to get down to their core, but what man has done to each of themakes them seem vastly different (and probably different from what Jesus or the Buddha truly intended).