Facing our fears and the krabi moto diaries

hello all, welcome to a new and exciting edition of opertaion osaka, with me , your host : JAN!! (applause)

any ways, so we are here in Krabi. we split from mum and tabs on nov 6th and took a small/medium sized boat (the longserm) from thongsala port in ko phan ngan to surrathani. The boat ride to surrathani, started off well enough, and then the waves started to get insanely huge and start rocking the boat. It was mindly scary and we were sittinf on the stern with a really nice world traveller girl named laurie (from beantown). She had been living in china, she speaks chinese quite well. traveked from china, to vietnam, to cambodia, to laos, to thailand, and then to india and dubai and lastly her aim was to settle at a womens health clinic in ethiopia. all we could saw was wow!!

she was really great though, at telling us what we have in store for the next big leg of our trip to cambodia and laos. She honestly quelled a little bit of my fear/nervousness and replaced it with a higher percentace of excitement.

Then the rain started... we were forced off the deck and into the under part of the boat that had the seats. this would have been real nice, except that the seated are of the boat was sooo heavily airconditioned. The temperature was about 4 degrees celcius. it was nuts.Everu one was shivering like mad, and we got going on this rant about fleece and a warm fire and socks. The 3 hour boat ride was really fun, but fridgid. As soon as we saw land, a monsoon rain hit the surrathani area and we were basically drenched. I could hardly see 5 ft infront of me. we got inside the port station, changed into drier clothes, had some fried rice (my new fave food) and then waited for our van to take us to Krabi.

Great scot! the van was airconditioned too. we basically felt like human popsicles. the good news is the ride was only 3 hours and when we got to the Krabi bus station, there weremany good prices (NICE!) guest house sales men to meet us. Score! we found a place called P's guest house and it has been a slice. great room, movie channel, hot water for 350 bhat.

the next day we booked a boat tour of 4 island and a snorkling trip. we were both really seas sick and drowsy from the boat ride the day before, so we took some gravol. bad idea. it made us really sleepy. The scenery was so nice, and we stopprd 1st off to railay beach and went to a cave that had really big sprit house in it. Thai people often belive that good sprits are all around us. They build these elaborate shrines and put them on their property. they put food, water, flowers, money etc.. into the shrine, with the hopes that the sprits will come to live and be happy and comfortable on their property. its great really!

After railay isand we went to poda island and it was a dream. it basically looke d like a movie set for a tropical isalnd. it was everything that i imagined a island in thailand to be. we were still really tired so we slept on the beach until lunch time. after lunch we got back on the boat and saw and island shape dlike a chicken (smartly named-chicken island). Then i thought we would go to a beach to do some snorkling, but the boat stops out in the middle of the ocean and the driver says this is where we will go snorkling.

ummmm... all i saw was really deep water, and i cant swim and am pretty much terrified of deep water. shiv was great! when i told him that i was going to stay on the boat and watch our bags, he was like "no, you have to try this!" and im so glad he made me get in the water and giv it a try. I was sooo scared, but i jumped in the water and i immeidieatly started to cry (very quietly) because i was so scared. the water was so deep and full of so many fish. i think i nearly broke shivs hand because i would not let go of it no matter what.

snorkling was such a distorted mind trip. under water the sea floor and coral looked almost like huge fish condo buildings rising up from the ground. then above water the sky goes on for ever. under water you almost forget you are human, and you feel like a fish in a huge aquarium. it is just wild.

Im so glad we did it. shiv looked like such a natural. It was scary for both of us, but im so glad we just jumped in and did it. go team. we got back in the boat and headed back to the main land. That night we went to a night market and had street vendor food and street meat.

The next day shiv did rock climbing at railay beach. i didnt go, but i saw the pictures from his day and they looked amazing. i will try and post them soon.there was one climb he didnt complete, but he took a picture of it, with the goal to complete i next time hes in thailand. I walked the town and did the internet cafe thing. Great day, and we wended it off with a huge grilled fish, rice and some changs!

Today we watched a supeb movie (aroundt the world in 80 days-with jackie chan) its really good. then we rented a moto and zipped around town. i feel really cool on the moto. but im sure we look more like the 2 guys on dumb and dumber. it so good though. we leave for bangkok this afternoon. 3 hours to surrthani on bus, then another 12 hrs to bangkok. im so excited. talk to you all soon.

big hugs from krabi.
love jan and shiv!