bangkok...and beyond

We flew through Bangkok (BKK) when we got into thailand from malaysia...basically a family took us under their wing and brought us out for dinner, drove us around, gave us a tour of the whole city, let us visit their office (they own a gas and oil company), and took tons of care of us...it was amazing...we were only in bkk for one night...but will be back. it looks like a great city, and it's going to be super fun to explore later. Pic (right) of grandma ("meyh") and Pranee, part of the family who took us in.

Currently we are bathing on the beaches of ko phi phi...beautiful white beaches with limestone cliffs. and, also importantly (for me, anyways), lots of fun people our age to hang out with for a while (it's been a while!). The bus ride here was a riot...the bus station was like a cattle range, lots of people crammed together moving in every which way...but then we finally got on a bus, and it was heaven...reclining seats, thai movies (which are surprisingly amusing to watch), thai music videos, blankets...we had no idea what to expect since english is not the forte of the folks here in bangkok. at 11:30 pm we got woken by the hostess, herded off the bus, into a market, and fed dinner...luckily we had a fellow who spoke thai and english sitting the seat behind us, who clearly saw our distress, and helped us with the translations.
we first landed in krabi, then straight to ao nang beach for some R&R. the beach was o.k...but no waves, which are my favourite part of beaches (i'm not much of a sit around and tan kind of person...). mostly walked through the touristy part of town, buying clothes and looking at goods and, of course, eating. dinner included a POTENT drink...followed by thai massage.
Thai massage was CR-azy. with a capital CR. i had no idea what to expect, but it was wicked. it was a mix between active release massage (hitting all the pressure points and knots...really hard), chiropractics, and acrobatics (at one point, she was STANDING on my back...i thought she was going to fly off). they get right on the table with you, and use their feet, knees, elbows...who knows what else. i kept my eyes closed :) anyways, it was pretty awesome (and cheap), and even though it sounds awful, it WAS pretty awesome. definitely going to do it again.

so, i hear that it's going to start snowing at home....

i've been posting all my pics in facebook...enjoy!