Tours, Tours, Tours

Well we decided to squeeze it as much of Thailand as we could in our last week or two here. As you know, the boys are on a dive trip and Heather and I are alone in Phuket. We didn't want to miss out on some of the beautiful Islands around here so we booked a trip to the Similanisl Islands. A bus picked us up at 6:15 in the morning and we were off on a two hour bus ride to part of the main land to catch our boat. Heather and I were a bit tired since we decided to book this trip at 11 last night, so we slept some of the bus ride. Once getting to the pier we found our group and headed off on our speed boat.
The boat was a bit small for how many people they fit on it, but it was a quick ride. With in 80 minutes we were at some of the most clear, calm water I had ever seen. We were both so excited to finally get to snorkel again. I was the first one to jump in....and the first one to FREAK OUT! I waited until Heather got in and calmly asked her to take a nice good look in the water to see if she happens to notice any jelly fish. Once she did so and came up with the same stroke of fear across her face that I had moments ago, we both began to squirm around and not know what to do. We tried to stay calm since no one else appeared to have noticed them. After swimming around only trying to avoid them and not watching any sea life we decided to calmly swim back to the boat. By this I mean we couldn't get up the ladder quick enough. Heather did not take off her flippers and went first so I had a few more fearful moments in the water.
We watched the group in the water and no one was upset. How could this be!? We waited until our instructor came in and asked him. He told us that they are fairly harmless. They only feel like pin pricks. Deep down I think we knew this, but a few "pin pricks" was enough to keep us out of the water at that sight. Next we went to a beautiful beach with the whitest sand and bluest water. The wound on my knee was feeling a bit sore from the salt water so we laid on the beach a bit. We went to another snorkel place with big fish and no Jelly fish. Much better! Our last stop we went to an island with a rock climbing opportunity. I got about 2 minutes in and realized that I would not make it. My fear of heights kicked in. Heather was a trooper and made it up with the camera. I sat at the bottom and watched everyone hit the sand and cheer for making it down. Not my thing. lol
Just as we thought the day could not get any better we saw the most perfect thing. I pod of dolphins decided to fallow our boat. There was about 15 of them and them loved us. They swam along side and even did a few tricks. They liked to show off. I got some of it on video. It was amazing. We had to leave them behind to get back, but it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The man said that never happens. So I guess we were just really lucky.
Speaking of lucky! We had another tour booked for today and it was to pick us up at 7:30 or 7:15. Our alarm did not wake us up and we woke up at 7:40. We thought for sure we were done for, but just at we went out and sat down a van pulled up. Someone was on our side.
We first stopped at some elephant trekking. It was so cool. Heather went and sat on the neck of Owen (he does have a name) and I sat safely on my sided seat. The elephant was the biggest of them all and was 42 years old. He was so cool. We went to a monkey cave next. There were little monkeys running around every where. They even stole bananas out of your hand if you were not careful. It seemed that most of them were outside the cave. Once we went in there was mostly just there smell left behind. They were so cute!
We took a long boat over to James Bond Island. There were some amazing islands on the way. They all were straight up in the air....Completely vertical. Once at James Bond we took some canoes around the islands and through some tunnels. It was so beautiful. We had to duck sometimes just to make it under some of them. And even better news, we had our own personal rower. Life is good. We stopped for an amazing lunch and then back to Phueket to meet the boys. Turns out this place has so much to offer.
Tomorrow we head to Phi Phi. This is where the beach was filmed. Should be good. Only one week left in Thailand. Miss you guys!
love Ash