From the islands...

Hey all!!

John and I have been relaxing on the beach and recovering from our scooter rides around the island today. We rented one yesterday and scooted around last night and this morning. We've been touring around a little, so fun! I drove of course! We've been all over the island and have done lots of shopping, while John seem to have purchased most of the clothing available in Thailand, he basically has a new wardrobe...and we thought I was bad.

We went to Had Rin this morning, the home of the Full Moon party. That goodness we didn't stay there!!! It was gross. There were people still passed out on the beach from the night before, it wreaked of alcohol and just was all around a different vibe than we want. We didn't end up going to the Full Moon party on Christmas Eve. We're fine with that though. The roads here are really windy, and getting there by taxi with lots of people drinking and maybe driving could have been a bad combination and it would have cost us about $40 just to get there from our hotel. When Pad Thai costs $2 a plate, $40 is WAY too steep!! It seems that the idea behind the Full Moon party has lost its purpose, almost everywhere you look there is a sign for a beach party on any and every beach, and we're not ones to get drunk for the sake of drinking, so we're skipping it.

The weather hasn't been fantasic, unfortunately, it's rained almost everyday for a little while but the sun tries to shine, we're in our bathing suit on the net, looking out at the white sand and the ocean as we speak, so we can't really complain.

Tours to the national marine park, that we are hoping to get to, aren't boating across right now because of waves are making the rides choppy. Most of the locals say they think that there are some storms north of us, in the China seas and that is making the weather here iffy. So we are leaving the island, heading to a rainforest park, we'll go to the other side of thailand, hope for better weather and then we think we'll fly back to the island to get to the park. Itwill end up being more expensive for sure, but even the locals say that we should go and we'll regret it for 10 years if we don't go!! It's suppose to be one of the most beautiful places in Thailand. It's where part of the movie 'the beach' takes place. We're crossing our fingers for better weather. We're flying by the seat of our travelling pants right now. We didn't book too much in advance, which has made the sorting out and organising a little time consuming while actually here, but it's working out in our favour because we're changing our minds like we change our underwear daily.

We're leaving the island tomorrow for a jungle area to do some rainforest sightseeing and then we'll see.

We love you guys lots and lots and lots and we'll write soon when we know what we are doing and we can update further! I really want to put up pictures too, but I don't know how right now, and all the computers have Thai writing all over them so I'm too lazy to do it right now, but I'll get on it!

Love ya! cristen and John :o)