my mom needs her own blog...

Yeah, right...... Tuesday in paradise! After much cajoling yesterday, Rachel and I convinced Eddie that we needed to go on a 4 island tour on a "speed boat" today. He WAS NOT excited but finally agreed when we said the alternative would be to go rock climbing. So, the van picked us up at 8 a.m. to shuttle us to the port to board our "speed boat" at 9 a.m. The commute only took about 30 mins. so we had plenty of time for people watching at the dock for about 50 "fish tale boats" and 8 "speed boats." Our boast was a 2 Yamaha 200 HP motor boat- speed indeed! We left promptly at 9 with our crew and 18 other passengers on our 6 hour cruise- no one looked like Gilligan, the SKipper, Professor, etc. OUr guide was a very brown, cute Thai girl named Dow. We hit Tup Island to enjoy the emerald colored water and white sand banks. After about 50 mins., we then traveled to Chicken Island for snorkeling (don't look for any of these islands on your map, they are very small and just 4 of many, many off the coast of Thailand). We saw LOTS of little Nemos here along with many other creatures. Rachel had saved underwater camera from our Disney cruise so we took some pictures. Next, on to Poda Island for a picnic lunch that even Eddie raved about (chicken wings, sticky rice and spicy vegetables- Thai food and a small bottle of Coke- the old kind of bottles, fruit and bottled water). Last stop was Pranang Cave and beach- some fancy hotel is there that one night costs around $1000/night- very isolated so caters to the rich and famous- reminds me of the hotel in the Parque Nacional del Paine. The weather really cooperated with us and we had an incredibly relaxing and exotic day. I have many new "happy places" now. Each beach would rival Castawy Cay- just missed Cookie's BBQ and drink service. Eddie story for today- As we got out of the boat at the snorkeling site, Eddie suddenly realized that we couldn't "touch bottom" there and decided to go back for a life jacket. We were all amazed at the lack of safety precautions- no life jacket drill and even show of where the life jackets were, no questions about if any one could swim, no mention if any of the crew could swim or save any of us if need be. Also, FYI there are quite a few Dairy Queens here (more than in Baltimore), so you must know that Eddie is enjoying that. In fact, as we wait for our taxi to take us to the airport, Eddie is anticipating getting a snack at the airport DQ! Maybe Rachel will let me blog again before our trip ends. She has many adventures planned for us in Bangkok now!