Endless Summer Tiny World

From karosta prison we headed for kuldiga where we were hoping to find some sand caves you can crawl around in. The caves were not open but we did find europe’s longest waterfall, which is actually kind of funny because it is only 2 meters high! The old town was pretty cute and nice to walk around though. We then drove up to ventspils where we visited a very nicely restored castle. We drove up around the cape of kolka in Latvia and ended up in tukums where there is a place called cineville. Cineville is a huge area that has been made only for making movies set in Latvia in a certain period. All the buildings are very small and only the fronts of buildings. They also have an area that can be a canal or lake and a whole train section. It is still off season so everythings not completely set up but it was still pretty cool to wander around.
From tukums we headed down south to rundale palace. This was a palace that is HUGE and was designed by the architect who later worked for all the cars of Russia. It was really cool and you were able to go through a lot of rooms. After going there my only question is when did we stop putting secret doors in rooms?? From the palace we headed into Riga for a couple days. Riga is the most contemporary of all the capital cities but is really nicely restored. We spent the next couple days walking around admiring all the cool architecture, visiting the old buildings, climbing the church steeples to view the city from above and visiting the huge Saturday market. We also stumbled across the Riga marathon which was always entertaining to watch and cheer people on through the old streets.
From Riga we went out to estonia’s largest island, saaremaa. We spent time wandering the huge museum inside the old castle, which might be the best one we’ve gone to yet as all the old stairways and passageways are used throughout the museum so it’s almost a maze. We also went out and saw a spot where a meteorite landed 3,000 yrs ago and got to go out to the ruins if an old castle that still had underground rooms you could crawl around in. The next morning we were planning to head for another island but just missed the ferry so instead we headed back to mainland and back to tallinn. Mom’s allergies are pretty bad so were just kind of taking it easy here in Tallinn until our flight out tomorrow. Were off to England and Scotland tomorrow and staying in one of mom’s condos for the week! Only 9 days until I’m back in the states! I’m excited to see everyone again!!!

We’ve been having a good time, but were still enduring the cold up here! I told mom that I think were in the tundra! From the north of Estonia we headed down to tarty further south. Tartu is a cute university town and we were lucky enough to stumble upon some kind of festival so there were people out selling all kinds of local goodies and we were able to try some! We also headed to a museum that was actually in the basement of an apartment building and it was the old KGB cells and head quarters. Very interesting but sad to see these cells and how tiny they were. We then headed to a little town called viljandi that had lots of old wooden houses and an old castle overlooking a lake. It is actually really amazing how small these countries really are and how our longest drive never seems to be more than an hour or two! In viljandi we also found a bike race, so were able to enjoy watching a road race and the next day we watched the end of an off road race which turned out to be the Estonian cup. They actually won sone awesome prizes too… Computers, digital cameras, cell phones and of course champagne, I was impressed! We spent quite a bit of time relaxing as well since I had a pretty bad cold! After viljandi it was time to head into Latvia and we headed to Sigulda, a touristy area with lots to do. We got there and headed out to a castle that had been partially rebuilt. Then we headed to a neighboring town that had a castle that was still in ruins but they sent you around it with a candle burning in a lantern so that was very cool. We also tried looking for a few more places and got lost and enjoyed the countryside instead! The next morning we headed off to an old soviet bunker that was so top secret it’s location was only released in 1994! It is 9 m underground and is all original furnishings and everything. We were on tour with a large group of Danish people and they were pretty entertaining to go through the bunker with. From here we went into Lithuania and the city of siauliai. This is where the famous hill of crosses is located. This hill has had crosses on it since the 19th century and right now it has at least 200,000 crosses of all sizes all over it. The crosses were taken down, bulldozed, removed and forbidden by the soviets at least 4 times and they say that every time, overnight more crosses would show up. It was pretty interesting to see and you would never believe how there are crosses everywhere! From here it was time to head to Vilnius, the capital of lithuania. We arrived and proceeded to be lost in the traffic, confusing streets and one ways for at least an hour and a half looking for our hotel, so our first picture of Vilnius was not a great one! We visited the large cathedral, a bridge with locks all over it from the uzupis (ppl who used to be gypsies), they put a lock on the bridge when they get married to seal their marriage. We also wandered into the area of the city they claim to be their own country and looked at their very interesting constitution in several languages posted on a wall in the middle of the city! I had an afternoon at the US embassy where I had to have pages added to my passport and we saw two really interesting museums. One was the KGB museum, it had a lot of their old spy documents and equipment as well as the basement which was a prison. It was extremely sax to go down to the basement and see the cells, bathrooms, showers, and even pictures of beaten prisoners and the execution room. It is amazing people were still locked in this prison in the 80’s and 90’s. The other museum we saw was the holocaust museum. It was so interesting but also horrifying! They have very graphic pictures and some horrible accounts of events that happened in the Jewish ghettos that were set up in Vilnius and Kaunas.
We made a brief pitstop outside of Vilnius at the trakai castle, which has been almost completely restored. It’s amazing how small the rooms seem inside when the whole palace seems so big outside! After the castle we headed to Kaunas. In Kaunas we spent the night and in the morning headed to the sugihara house. It’s the house of a Japanese consulate who saved the lives of at least 3,00 Jews by issuing transit visas to them and allowing them to leave the horrors of the German invasion behind. From Kaunas we headed out to Nida on the curonian spit. This is a fairly large island made all from sand, though you wouldn’t guess it if you were on it. We spent two nights there and had our own little apartment. We hiked up one of the dunes and could look out over most the spit and over to the mainland. We also spent a day biking, and biked half the island! We probably biked about 35 miles but it was nice to get exercise, fresh air and see the pine forests. This morning we stopped to see the colony of cormorants and grey herons and watch them feed their young before heading for leipaja in Latvia. In leipaja we stopped briefly for a tour of the karosta prison. Karosta was and old naval base for the soviets so the prison was for punishing soldiers. No one was tortured or murdered here, they just had to face uncomfortable living conditions and hard work. We opted out of the option to stay the night at the prison as our tour guide seemed to think we wouldn’t make it as we already had a hard time with following directions and answering questions correctly on our 45 minute tour! From there we have stopped in a little town called kuldiga and we will explore the west side of Latvia for a day or two before heading into Riga. I am enjoying my time but I’m also very excited to get back home and get back intoa somewhat normal life again! Only a little over two weeks left!

Our last night in Bangkok we spent at joe’s new apartment in Bangkok that jib and him will live in after they’re married this November! It was very very nice and also had an awesome pool on the roof that we got to go swimming in. Chelsy left us from there, which was really sad and it’s weird to be without her, and then Whitney and i just hung out that night until I had to head to the airport. I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia later in the evening and met up with mom. So yes, I have traded in Chelsy for mom, hot weather for cold and temples for castles!

Old town in tallinn is very nice and we spent our first day wandering around and seeing the old city walls, towers and churches. The next day we headed down in some tunnels that are under a tower and a huge manmade hill. It was interesting and described all the things the tunnels had been used for in the past including bomb shelter and a KGB post. We then headed to a museum on Estonia’s history and the occupation of the Germans and soviets that endured for so many years.

The next day we rented a car and headed off to estonia’s largest national park, lehamaa park. We spent some time out on the sea and going on a couple hikes through old growth forests and bogs. We are now in tartu and will spend the day here before heading to viljandi and then into Latvia. Estonia is really nice and I enjoy it, it just needs to warm up a little as it is sooo cold here!

From Nha trang Chelsy and I headed to mui ne. We had heard lots of good things about mui ne and were told it was supposed to be pretty nice. Well as always, if it says three hours to get there it will probably take 6 hours, so by the time we got there, got our accommodation it was evening, so we spent the evening just walking up and down the strip, swimming in the pool an listening to live music. The next day we decided to have a beach day and it was such a disappointment! We were told the beach in mui ne was really nice, but actually it was littered with garbage!! It was so hot out and after swimming a couple times and feeling like we were swimming in garbage we gave up and headed back to the pool at our hostel. That evening we went out to a burger joint with a bunch of the people from our hostel and just headed for drinks after! Whitney, the American girl I met diving in Nha trang arrived late that evening to stay with us too! The next day we rented motorbikes and headed down to a nicer beach/ cove type area and it was much better. There was still garbage but not so much you were swimming with it and the water was much prettier. Later in the evening after it wasn’t quite as hot we headed or the famous mui ne sand dunes. We headed to the red sand dunes an had a blast! We were sledding, or at least attempting to sled down the dunes and by the time we headed home we were covered in sand from was to toe! That evening we headed for dinner and played a round of mini golf. It was a cement course, but we still had a lot of fun.
The next day we were off to ho chi Minh city or what I call ho chi mini. This was another day long process even though it’s only supposed to take three hours, and we got there in the evening and had dinner and then drinks at cheap places where thrifty up little plastic chairs and little tables on the sidewalk. We also got to take in some great live music. The next day we were off to the war remnants museum. We now know going in to any of these war places or museums to take it with a grain of salt as try are still full of propaganda and one sided, but it is still interesting and very sad to go. After having our hearts put through the wringer we were off to happier times of shopping at the market and dodging crazy traffic trying to find our way back to our hotel. We had an early night since we were headed off to the Mekong delta early the next morning.

The Mekong delta was cool, but we have basically already seen this type of stuff in Laos, so like always hind sight is 20/20 and it’s something we really could have passed up as it was mostly a lot of driving! We did get to see a fish farm, a floating market, a crocodile farm and took a bike ride through a small town. We spent the night in a floating hotel and the next morning we were off to the border of Cambodia by boat. We arrived in phnom penh and that’s where we said bye to Whitney for a couple days. This is also where our trip had a rough couple days! My passport is now very full and needs new pages, and we weren’t sure the border control would use my last couple pages, yet you need an appointment to get more pages, and we didn’t want to stay in phnom penh overnight…. So we decided to chance it and get to ko Chang Thailand without getting new pages. Well no worries I’ve crossed the border fine, I now just have to get to eastern europe without new pages as the embassy in Bangkok is not open on a Saturday. So we got on a bus at 12:30 at night bound for ko Chang, it was supposed to take 8 hours. 8 hours later we were at the border of Thailand, still had 5 hours to ko Chang but we had to wait for the bus, which would leave in six hours! Chelsy and I were so frustrated and irritated we took the next bus going anywhere close to the coast. This also took twice the amount of time! We finally got to ko samet at 6 pm last night! It was a long wasteful irritating day and were so happy it’s behind us! At least we made it and now we have two days to sit on the beautiful white powder sand beach! Oh and Whitney just met back up with us for the last couple days, so that’s nice too!!

Hue was really ice and very old! There is an old imperial city there which if restored would be really similar to the forbidden city in Beijing. It was still meat to walk around and see all the restored buildings and the massive wall around the whole thing! We then rented a motorbike and spent the rest of the afternoon motorbiking the countryside and checking out some of the tombs of the old emperors. The first tomb we went to was really cool because even though it’s all black cement on the outside the inside was done in all little pieces of colored glass. It was really beautiful. We then got lost for awhile until we found the next tomb which was not as impressive it was just very large with a huge lake and forest as well. The last tomb we went to was cool simply because the guy it was made for was a pretty funny story. He was tu duc and he had 108 wives, lots of concubines and no children! He also was very short so all the statues were fairly short because they all had to be shorter than him! We had a really great day, we got lost lots but loved getting out of the city and into the countryside!
The next day we were up early for a trip to the DMZ. We got to see the rocklike, which was fairly unappealing as now it just looks like a large mountain. We also saw the start of the ho chi Minh trail, also unappealing as it was just a bridge over a river, and the place of the khe sahn battle. This was interesting because they had “American” planes and tanks, as well as sone we think were real that were just scraps of helicopters. It was all super interesting because based on the photos and the story of the battle told to us you can tell it was all propaganda. The story of the battle I read in our lonely planet was completely different than the one they told us. The other thing the lonely planet said was the us removed or blew up everything up there so the vietnamese couldn’t use it as propaganda so it was very interesting they had us helicopters and large planes. The next place the tour took us to was the vine moc tunnels. These were soo crazy!! They were very short and narrow and so extensive! There were three different depths and they had 90 families in them! There were 17 babies in them and tons of entrances!! It was just so nuts how small and still all clay! If you were claustrophobic you would not want to be in there!
The next day we headed off to Hoi An. Hoi An is a really really adorable town as it is one of the oldest towns in Vietnam. Our first order of business when we got there was to find somewhere to get sone clothes custom tailored! The first place we went to we got some pants made, and they were ready to try on for alterations within 4 hours! The next place I found I decided to get a dress and a shirt made. This place took longer as the lady who measured me actually sewed the clothes herself and they fit perfect when I tried them on the next day! It was so cool getting things custom made for me, I think we should do that with all clothes!!! The next day Chelsy and I worked on our tans at the beach all day. The beach was really beautiful and it is so nice to be on water as it is so hot here! After Hoi An we headed on an overnight bus to Nha trang. Nha trang also has a beautiful beach so the first day after a nap we headed to the beach! We also found a micro brewery in Nha trang so enjoyed a nice microbrew! The next day I found some really really cheap diving so I was off for the day to the islands and a marine park for diving! It was awesome because I saw three octopuses!! One that wasn’t hiding so I actually got to see him moving and he was huge! I also saw lobsters and eels and sone great coral! I had lots of other Americans on the boat and had a good time chatting with them. One girl was named Whitney and she is traveling by herself so age is now hanging with us! We had another beach day and enjoyed the nightlife of Nha trang as well! We are now in mui ne for a couple days until we head to ho chi Minh city and decide the rest of our route.

Sapa is absolutely beautiful! We did a very fast brief visit but our trek made it worth it. The morning as we were coming into Sapa it was raining and we were so happy that later it cleared up and became beautiful! We had a group of about 8 people and we all took off in the morning and did about 4 hours of trekking above rice terraces and rivers while local girls walked along with you to help you or try to sell you something. We had dinner by the river in the local village and luckily clumsy Chelsy and I only fell once each! haha! It was really really beautiful and I do wish we could spend more time, but I’m just happy Chelsy toughed it out for the day since I know she was in pain!

We took the night bus back to Hanoi – night buses are always interesting since they stop so much, play loud loud music, and turn on the lights here and there all in the middle of the night. We made it back to hanoi with enough time for a brief nap and a shower before we were picked up to go to Halong bay.  Halong bay is also extremely beautiful but we definitely got what we paid for when it came to the tour since we booked the budget tour. It was a quite a drive there and we got on our boat (also called a Junk) just after 1 pm. We then sat down to have some lunch and while we were eating someone outside had an altercation with the tour guide in which the tour guide punched him!!! Kinda crazy but everything that we have heard about the north vietnamese is that they tend to be really aggressive. So that definitely put a little cloud over the trip just from the start. The rest of the day went well though, we sailed through all the cliffs and went through a cave. The caves here are interesting as they are all lit up with neon lights which make it look like a disco instead of a cave. And we also went to a fishing village and kayaking for a bit.  That evening we stayed on the boat and luckily we had two really good groups of people on the boat with us so we just sat around learning new swedish drinking games and having a good time. The next day after breakfast we got onto Cat Ba island – the biggest island in the bay- and just after we got off the boat it started downpouring!! We were meant to go for a hike up to a viewpoint in the national park but since it was raining it was not really safe so we just headed to our hotel in town and had lunch. That afternoon it drizzled most the afternoon but we just hung out with our new friends and wandered the town enjoying the view of all the fishing boats and the cliffs.

The next morning we were up and headed back on the boat for our beautiful cruise back to the harbor. As I said we definitely got what we paid for and I just wish we would have decided to spend the extra money and go a little nicer as we had to do sooo much waiting over the couple days. But no doubt about it the bay is beautiful. Hindsight is always 20/20 though right?

We got back to hanoi and we were so happy when we found our canadian friends – Jeff and Lindsay, who we met in Laos and hung out with in Siem Reap-  waiting for us at our hotel! We ended up having a good night out with them and had planned to leave the next day but decided instead we wanted to have one last day with them before we left.  So the next day we all hung out and wandered around Hanoi. We went down to an awesome ice cream shop- expensive but awesome. They had all kinds of awesome ice cream concoctions, some even with alcohol! We also enjoyed Pho 24 with them, which is a fast food restaurant for Pho! We spent lots of time wandering and also had another good night out with them and some of our friends from the Halong bay cruise! We said goodbye to them last night, which was sad, but I definitely see a trip to Vancouver where they live in my future.

Today we just hung out and actually went to a movie since we feel weve seen most things we want in Hanoi. Chelsy and I are headed off to Hue tonight on a night bus. We purchased an open ticket that will take us to five different stops in Vietnam, so most our stops between here and Ho Chi Minh City are already paid for we just have to decide when we wanna stay in all places.  I’m very excited for something new though and a new city!

We had a quick ferry to johor batu, malaysia and then hopped right onto a bus to mersi, the town we had to get a ferry to tioman island from. We didn’t make it in time for a ferry that day and since we were short on time, since we had to be in kuala lumpur in 3 days) we decided to take a 3 am ferry over to the island.  Shalee and Sanoi finally had a great experience with street food and we spent the rest of the evening playing cards in the cheap room we got so we could hang out and possibly nap. We got to the island at about 5 am, and of course nothing is open and it is very dark. Of course Chelsy and I are used to just getting dropped off places, sometimes in the middle of the night, and just figuring it out, but I guess it kinda creeped out Shalee and Sanoi. haha. We ended up finding some tables and chairs and watching the sun come up until our guesthouse opened. Then of course we needed a nap!! So when we finally did get up it was afternoon and we just had a great afternoon laying in the sun and playing in the ocean! That evening we had happy hour and i probably ate the spiciest soup of my life!! It was good, but spicy! The next day we went to the other end of the beach and explored the neighboring town a little, and of course played in the ocean and the sun more. It was really really nice. Tioman island is really cool, and definitely a spot to spend some more time snorkeling or diving.

We caught the evening ferry to the mainland, killed some time and then hopped on a bus to Kuala Lumpur. We got in very early in the morning again, thank goodness we can all sleep on buses, and got some sleep before getting up to head out to an elephant conservation camp. Now, Malaysia is definitely not the place to do an elephant thing, as it is very short compared to Thailand and all, but the girls had never ridden an elephant so we spent the day there. The elephant ride was very short, but we also paid to bath an elephant and it was Awesome! We got in the water with about 30 -40 other people and we got to swim and play and bath with 2 baby elephants. It was really really cool! That evening we spent hanging out at our hostel enjoying the great view of the petronas towers from our rooftop.

The next morning we had to say bye to the girls so we had to leave them at the airport. It was great having Shalee and Sanoi come out to visit and we had a blast! They are both hilarious so we definitely did lots of laughing!! Malaysia was a very cool country. It is similar to Singapore but not quite as clean. But as soon as we got there I knew that I would want to spend more time than we had, so it is definitely on the list as a place to return to!

We had an early morning flight to Hanoi so we were pretty tired and spent the first part of the morning just hanging out in the hostel. That afternoon we headed out to the old prison. It was cool but the museums here tend to lack a little bit in explanation, but that might also be because they are very biased as well. That evening we just hung out and it was an early night as we were so exhausted after the early mornings the last couple days. Yesterday we spent some time walking around the old quarter and checking out all the shops and good things they sell, and trying out the street food! We also went to the museum of the revolution hoping to find out more info on the vietnam war, but like I said the museums have lots of pictures but are lacking in information. Good thing there’s wikipedia!!!

The rest of the afternoon we just walked around the old quarter and visited a huge covered market. The market was crazy cause all the stalls are so close to each other you can barely walk through. But you can buy everything from souvenirs, to dried food, to shoes to rolls of fabric. Last night we had a blast hanging out and playing games with people from hostel and spent the night out dancing and hanging out until the wee hours of morning!

This morning we got up and went out to a Vietnamese water puppet show. It was really cool cause it is these rather large puppets that seem like they are dancing on water. They are controled by a person behind a curtain with a long stick. But they can really make the puppets do a lot of crazy things. But a really cool show!

So far we LOVE Hanoi! And we have big hopes for the rest of Vietnam. We also love to be back in the land of cheap after singapore and such! We are off tonight for SaPa where we will do a day of trekking to some local villages. We won’t do too much as Chelsy has broken her toe, so getting around is a little painful for her. Thank god she’s a trooper and so tough! We will then come back and be off for Halong bay right away! I’m really excited as both places are supposed to be beautiful!!

We spent our last couple hours in Singapore at sentosa island which reminded us all of a place Disney might own. But we went to the most southern point in continental southeast Asia. We then ferried over to batam Indonesia where we had a condo for a week. That night we just got some groceries and had fun in our luxurious room! Sanoi had never been anywhere like this before so we didn’t want to shell shock her too much! The next day wewalked around a little and saw some local markets. We Also had Sanoi and Shalee experience their first street food. It was so so spicy and Shalee is allergic to tree nuts so it made for an interesting experience!
While weve been here we’ve also headed to a resort on the ocean to hang out for a day and also headed across some bridges to a couple other islands and went to an old Vietnamese refugee camp and a nice beach. We’ve also spent some time just hanging by the pool. It’s been kinda nice just being in one spot and hanging out with friends for a bit. Yesterday we had a mustache party in our room and just walked around the hotel freaking people out with our fake mustaches! We’ve definitely been having lots of fun! Were headed off to one of the most beautiful islands in the world- tioman island, malaysia!

Quotes: Summer: I think I have a bug in my nose
Chelsy: just shoot a bug rocket!

Jeff: all those photos are the same
Lindsay: no they’re not! 
Jeff: oh – that one’s different…… Same same but different

Chelsy: I am so rude, I just said every swear word in the book…. AND my shoulder is uncovered! 

Chelsy: I look like Rambo I’m so…..
Summer: did you just say you look like Rambo I’m so old??
Chelsy: no!! I look like Rambo I’m so cool!!!

Sanoi: look I just found money
Chelsy: you see those little kids singing and playing guitar- I hope it’s not theirs! 
Sanoi: oh no!
Chelsy: you found money Aka you just stole little kids money! 

Chinese lady: sorry, sorry, sorry (as she pushes summer out of her way)

We headed to koh Tao on the early ferry and got settled in our hotel. We then headed out for yuanang islands. It’s three island connected by sandbars. They have one resort on them and have great snorkeling. We hiked first to the viewpoint to look out over the islands and make sure we worked up enough sweat for snorkeling the rest of the day! It was beautiful!!! The rest of the afternoon we spent snorkeling in all the shallow areas and finding all kinds of tropical fish, plants and coral! It was great!

That evening was st. Party’s day so of course we had to head out and celebrate and the four of us had a great night dancing, singing, drinking and listening to live music! It was a blast! The next morning after breakfast I headed out for two dives. The diving on koh tao is awesome and so cheap! I only paid $30 a dive and it only gets cheaper! My first dive was over an hour long through caves with tons of coral and fish around. The second was not as clear but we found lots of huge groupers and barracuda and more! The next morning we said bye to Micah and Sarah and that afternoon I went out for two more dives. The first one was cool but visibility wasn’t so great and the second one was amazing, with three stingrays!!! Unfortunately there were no whale sharks but I’ll find one someday!

That night Chelsy and I went to have a drink and find Internet and instead of Internet we just found awesome live music. The town also had a pub crawl that ended at that bar half way through, so we just stayed and parked with the pub crawl! It was super fun until someone took my beloved flip-flops that you leave outside the door! I searched people’s feet long and hard without finding them, but I guess st least they left theirs for me!! First world problems!!

The next day we had a LONG journey to the airport in phuket only to find that our flight was delayed! But we got to meet up with our buddy mike from phnom pehn again so all was good! We made it to Singapore safe and sound! The next morning Chelsy and I found the Vietnamese embassy for our visa and got back in time to greet Shalee and Sanoi as they cane from the airport! We are going to spend the next ten days with them! That night we went down to the beach, saw the awesome Singapore skyline and went and saw all the bars and parties at clarkes quay before the girls jetlag set in too much!

The next morning we visited the zoo, which was actually very cool as it is not all animals in cages and in several exhibits you get so close to the animals! That evening we met our hostel owner, Tony, for a food tour. This tour was awesome!! We tried over 30 local dishes and learned so much history and about the way of life in Singapore! It lasted over 7 hours!!!

The next morning we picked up our passports and headed for debtors island, which feels more like singapore’s version of disneyworl. It was cool to see but is mostly for people looking to spend money. We then hoped a ferry to batam, Indonesia, an island only 13 I’m from Singapore. We are staying in Sanoi’s condo and it is very nice! We mostly are just relaxing a day or two before having a bigger adventure tomorrow!

Singapore was cool, but is also expensive and very westernized! It was a bit of culture shock for Shalee and Sanoi last night so were trying to ease them into third world travel slowly!!

So Chelsy and I made the long (30 hours) journey from siem reap to koh samui, Thailand to meet up with our friends Sarah and Micah who we worked with on the ship. It was great to see them since I haven’t seen them in a year! We had a great little two bedroom and spent the first day just catching up. We also rented jetskis for a bit and had a blast trying to knock each other off them. We then spent the rest of the evening having drinks and catching up!

The next day we rented motobikes to get around the island a little. We drove north and saw the big Buddha statue and hung on the beautiful chaweng beach. We then headed down to see waterfall number 2 and all the elephants hanging out. Sarah even got to touch and feed three baby tigers! It was a good day and good way to see part of the island. The night ended with a feast from the night market. The next morning we took an early ferry over to kph phangan. That afternoon we hung on the beach and then by our pool. We had an awesome dinner and then called it a night to be up early for today. Today we went on a great day excursion to ang thing marine park. It was beautiful and a large group of uninhabited islands. We did some snorkeling and hiking. We hiked first to a beautiful lagoon and then did a 40 minute grueling hike to a lookout. It was so hot and we were all so sweaty but the view was all worth it as it looked out over all the islands!!

Tomorrow were off to koh Tao to celebrate st. Pattys day! And them we say goodbye!