Thailand...at last

So I'm not feeling much into telling a story so what I'm going to do is make a list of everything I experienced in the order that it happened and add pictures where words just won't do it justice.  

• Left Jess's apartment at 6am so I could arrive to the airport 1.5 hours early to make it through customs and baggage check... I waited at the airport for an hour.  Busan Gimhae airport is super quick and small.  Even with it being very busy the lines were moving quickly.
• Went to Bangkok first and had about a 2 hour layover there.  Met a couple from South Dakota that were both teachers.  They were going to Krabi to go climbing.  If only I would have brought my climbing gear with me.  We talked the whole layover and continued talking when we realized the 3 of us were sitting next to each-other. 
• Krabi airport is so small.  If you live in Pittburg,  KS it's about half the size of the mall.  I caught a airport shuttle to the hostel at AoNang Beach.  Air conditioning, shower, bathroom, and a 5 minute walk from the beach:400baht ($12.50) the view from the balcony outside my room: priceless
• First night dinner at an open air restaurant with a  thatched roof.  Red curry was amazing and so was my banana drink of some sort with a Thai Orchid in it.

• Took a walk by the beach, got a massage, walked around in the rain, and got a good nights sleep.
• In the morning I got on a bus to go to the bus station to get on a bus to Trang to get to Koh Kradan.  Took a scooter taxi from the bus station to the mini bus station (with my pack on).  Mini bus station to Koh Mook Pier to catch a long tail out to the island.
• I spent the next couple of days laying in the sun during low tide on a beach by myself and laying in a hammock with water under me reading during high tide.
  

• The last day I was there we (Me, three Italian guys: Fabrizio, Luigie, and Vittorio, and Deah) we took a short walk to another beach on the other side of the island.  To get there you have to walk down the beach during low tide in the late afternoon and up over a hill.  When you get to the other side there are waves and it is so secluded.  I got to see my first sunset in 6 months that sunk under a flat horizon and not mountains.

• On the way back from the other side of the island there was a low tide so there were tons of tide pools.  We saw sea urchins, sea cucumbers, starfish, and tons of crabs.  Deah, the other girl, loves crabbing.  She would just sneak up on them and grab their claws and put them in a sarong.  She caught tons so we had grab as part of our dinner.
  

• Some pictures from Kalume Kradan. 

The view from my bungalow.

My bungalow.
Swing over the water just down the beach.
One of the bends on the Kradan Island.
Me in my hammock.

Sunrise from the hammock.

Sunrise.
Sunrise with the coral wind-chime.
Sunrise from my bungalow window.
The beach just around the first bend next to the one that Kalume is on.

• On the way back to the mainland we stopped at Koh Mook (the next island over) and went to Emerald Cave (Morakot Cave).  This is a cave that has an opening about a meter and a half tall on the sea side that opens up into a cave before turning into an 80 meter tunnel that is completely dark.  Just on the inside the cave has waves that crash into the back that sends and echo of thunder through the cave.  When it opens up words can't describe.  I didn't take most of these pictures because I don't have a underwater camera.  Even then these pictures don't do it justice.

Inside the cave looking into the land side.

The light at the end of the tunnel.
Inside looking at the entrance to the cave/tunnel.
In the middle of the picture you can see a white speck.  That is a rope signifying the entrance to the cave.

The boat ride back to the mainland.

The long-tail boat.
This is only part one but I'm tired of typing so this is it for now... maybe I'll have the rest up in a couple of days.