Thailand - Part II

I'll pick up where my brother left off...we headed south. THIS was my kind of vacation - sun, beach, giant pools, and monkeys....yes, monkeys. We flew to Krabi for some rest and relaxation. And thanks to a reservation mix-up, we scored the Honeymoon Suite at the resort - a palatial pad with a tub the size of our home bathroom and a view for miles. My parents laughed and said we were probably the only kids who had ever stayed there. Here's a picture my mom took of us in one of the pools. And here's me - my mom says my swimsuit physique is impressive.

We adventured every day and found some really cool shells on the beach. We also discovered the tiny, opaque moving shells weren't actually shells - they were crabs! So we filled their homes/holes up with sand and chased after them. We never caught any but we did accidentally catch a hermit crab (in one of the shells). My mom discovered him in our room after he'd headed back to the big crab heaven in the sky. By the way, dead crabs stink.

We followed a locals' path onto a rock mountain to see if we could check out a different beach on the other side - we'd heard it was only reachable by boat. While I'm only one, I believe a "path" implies a safe route for passage. If so, this was definitely not a path. The steepest parts had make-shift stairs that were put in place before the invention of the television. (My mom tried to capture the intensity of the climb/drop, but this picture doesn't do it justice.)
The best part of the hike were definitely the HUNDREDS of wild monkeys. They were above us in the trees and everywhere on the path. You could touch them if you were crazy enough to do so. One even ran directly at me thinking I was his afternoon snack. My mom chased it away by waving her arms wildly in the air - come to think of it, she kind of looked like a wild monkey too! We did reach the other beach, which was nice, but the adventure getting there is a lasting memory.
My parents indulged while we were at the resort - each choosing their form of relaxation. My dad had more Thai massages than there were days on the trip and my mom...she choose to kick this guy. I guess kicking locals is allowed as long as you are in a class called muy Thai boxing. We watched some of her class and wow, she sure likes to kick stuff. Here are some photos of my dad relaxing...

Once we were thoroughly relaxed, we headed back north to Bangkok to celebrate Easter with our awesome friends the Nelsons. We dyed eggs - I did more watching than dying because everyone was worried I would do a slam dunk on an egg.

And, by some miracle, when we woke Easter morning, that big fluffy (kinda creepy) Easter bunny had found us in Thailand and left us our baskets - score! We even did an egg hunt in the Nelson's house and found TONS of treats hidden in some pretty crazy places.

While we were eating endless treats and playing with the Nelson girls, my parents and their parents headed out for a bike ride before we caught our flight home. Apparently the ride was a real highlight for them. They rented bikes for just over a dollar and rode around a super cool island community. I don't understand money yet, but I know that Bodie has more than a dollar in his piggy bank, so the bike rental sounds like a real deal. The path they rode on was about four feet wide and elevated throughout the community because of the surrounding water. Apparently dollar rental bikes don't have the best (or any) brakes, making the downslopes on the path pretty exciting - if you didn't stop in time your reward was to fly off the path and into the watery marsh below!

The trip was a blast. We got to visit our friends, see new stuff, try new stuff, and eat new stuff. What more could anyone want.