Onward Babar!!

So lets see, on my second day on Koh Yao Noi, I was essentially a bum. I woke up, did a quick workout, and spent the bulk of the day either lounging on the beach or reading in my hammock, thinking that life was good.

Then around 4 I got ready to head out to MUAY THAI! I walked down the road about 20 minutes to find this tiny gym (basically a ring with some heavy bags) in the back of a hotel. At first I got there only to hear that class was cancelled since they just got back from Bangkok, but as I was walking out, the girl ran out and told me that one of the regulars just showed up, so class was on! Except I was the only person the guy ended up teaching??? This guy is somthing like a 6-time world champion muay thai fighter, has had over 200 fights, etc. So basically a lean-mean-fighting machine.

I was SO excited. Except I realized two things. 1) My sparring timing SUCKS. 2) My sparring distance SUCKS. The distance, at least, can be explained by the fact that in Muay Thai, contact is to be made with the shin, not the foot, so I wasn't used to having to step into each kick so much. It was also SO hard for me to turn off the Taekwondo kicking style of bringing my knee up and then kicking, instead of just swinging my whole leg around. So he kept hitting me every time I did a TKD kick. And by hit, I mean would give me a hard leg kick. Since this guy has been fighting for a quite a while, he knows exactly where the nerve in your leg is to make leg kicks miserable too. It was not fun, and I'm now nursing a nice big bruise :D

It was so cool getting to train with him right on the water as the sun was setting though! Very Karate Kid. So after practice, I was feeling very contented in my tiredness walking home. I then got cleaned up, grabbed dinner, and passed out!

The next morning, I woke up and hopped on the ferry to Krabi, which consisted of me and about 15 old Muslim ladies. That was comfortable. ....And of course in Thailand, they see a white girl, and think I obviously have no clue what I'm doing or where I'm going, and so just herded me onto a generic songathew into Krabi town, which would have been fine. However, once we got into town, I told them where I needed to go, they said "OH OK!" and herded me onto another bus, which didn't seem right.....

Apparently in saying "PRA-nang" they heard "AO-nang"?? I'm not really sure, but the driver let me off, and I was convinced at this point that something was not right, as we were about fifty kilometers outside of Krabi at this point, and I showed him my print out which had written in THAI where I needed to go. He got a semi-guilty look on his face and said..."oh...um...yeah...it's over that way!".....riiiiiight.

At this point I was just too tired and frustrated to argue, so I got a guesthouse in Ao Nang instead, which has actually turned out quite nice since it's right on the beach! I spent yesterday again just chilling and relaxing, and booked myself a kayaking/elephant trekking trip for today, which was AWESOME!

I got picked up in the morning, with 4 other British travelers, who made for some good conversation on the way to the kayak point, paddled around for a while in the mangroves, which was super-neat, etc. Then we swapped off, with them going with a different guide since they were only signed up for the kayaking, and my guide took me and this couple from Malaysia paddling around a little longer before lunch. We stopped out on this sand-bar and got to look at all the starfish hidden under the sand, and there must have been literally thousands! It was so cool!

We then had a great lunch, and headed out to the elephant trekking place! The first part of it was just sitting on a bench on the elephants' backs while they walk through the jungle, but me being....well....me....had to ask to drive the elephant.....oops? So the guide hopped off and we traded places with him on the bench and I rode the elephant! WHEEE! SO FUN!

Afterwards we got to feed them cucumbers and stuff, which they very happily devoured (elephants have very strong trunks....be warned....). Now I'm back, showered, and quite content, and am going to grab some food and probably a cheap bootleg DVD and will be set for the night!

Tomorrow is my long day of traveling, what with having to get from Ao Nang to Krabi, catch the latest boat from Krabi to Phuket, then get from the pier to Phuket Airport where I will randomly wait around for a few HOURS since I don't feel like paying a crazy amount for a taxi into Phuket town and then BACK to the airport, then get on an 11:30 p.m. flight to Bangkok, get into Bangkok at super-late-o-clock, and finally crash in my hostel. *SIGH* It's gonna be a LOOOONG day.

I can't believe my traveling is almost half over!!!