Koh Tao and beyond

OH MY GOSH!!! What a great country Thailand is! We have done many amazing things already and still have two weeks to go. We spent 5 days on Ko Panyang at Bottle Beach. A small beach with only 5 hotels and not a lot of people. It was so peaceful waking up to the sound of waves and the sun shinning of the calm ocean. Only had one day of rain. We had a brutal trek that raised about 1500 feet then all the way back down to sea level in 3 km. But the beaches were worth it and it was a great time. We arrive in Koh Tao 5 days ago as well. The plan was to all go diving! I had gotten a sinus infection a couple days before we arrive, so I was not in the best of shape. Everyone I asked said that I couldn't go diving. You can imagine how disappointed I was (but tried not to show it). BUT... we ended up waiting a couple of days before we started the sessions so by the first day of diving I got the doctors ok to go and signed up for the class as well.
The first dive we went to about 10 feet. Our teacher was awsome and the whole class were such fast learners that we ended early and got to go for a dive. My sinus and ears were fine the whole time. Beautiful stuff in the tropical oceans. The second dive we went to 30 feet. I had a hard time with this one trying to equalize all the way down. Lucky for me we had a assisstant teacher with us, trying to earn his teaching license named Robo. He was my personal equalizer the whole trip. It took about 20 minutes to get to the bottom but I made it. We lost JP and the group so we went on our own little dive then went right back to the surface. The third dive was great as well, we went to 15/20 feet and practiced our emergency moves. We had to practice throwing away our resperators and how to retreive them. Everything went great. We were called team America, but due to the fact that we had a person from India and one from South Africa we changed our name to Team SAIUSA, which also made your ears pop when you said it so it worked on so many levels. Our fourth dive we went to 18 meters (60 feet)to an old ship wreck! It was great fun, I got to stay with the group this time and we had a photogropher there taking video of us. Lots of fish! The fifth dive was the final and fun dive only about 10 meters. We played around for the video, did an airband and acted all silly. We also practiced taking our mask all the way and putting back on in 20 feet of water. Lots of huge coral here and different kinds of fishes. The whole thing was just amazing and I higly recommend to anyone who wants to try it.
Now we are maybe going to head across the mainland to the other islands, but we will see due to their rainy season just beginning.

One week down, Three to go

One week down already. Lots of stuff going on in Thailand. We have done so many amazing things so far I can't wait to see what the next three weeks hold for us. Just got back from a small little backpackers town called Pai, pronounced "BYE". We went during the Thai holliday so it was pretty busy, when Monday came around and it was back to work for everyone the amount of people in the town went down by 2/3. Fell asleep many times in the hammocks in the bungalows and met so many amazing people. For example Ming the tattoo artist, who gave JP his first tattoo was great and invited us out for drinks every night. Yes JP got a new tattoo and it looks pretty good I have to say, lets just hope it heals before we get to the islands.
I think I am going to start a new business, Thai fish massage. You sit on a platform and stick your feet in a tank of doctor fish and let them eat the dead skin away. It was the most akward feeling ever and it was very hard to keep your feet still while they nibbled away. After about 20 minutes you get used to it and it feels great, except for the big ones, they kinda bite hard...to quote Lila "OH NO BIG BOY IS ON MY TOE." Great fun!!!

Hot in Bangkok

Hello to everyone, i hope this is in english.
So far it is very hot and humid, lots of water being drank and lots of good food being eaten. Hotel is nice and safe and this is a crazy city. Picture are plentiful and excited to show everyone what we have seen so far/ Getting ready to travel north soon.
Thai foot massage was great and only cost $3. 30 minutes of bliss!!!

Caity's portable toilet for Thailand!

Isn't it glorious?!?!?!?!?!?

Bangkok bound

We are all getting ready for a very busy weekend. First San Diego for OTL on Saturday then pack and leave at 7 am on Sunday. We decided to pack the weekend with as much stuff as we could. Awsome that team Juiced made it to the finals at OTL, pissed it had to be the weekend before we leave. Hopefully everyone will be able to relax on saturday and everything is not rush rush rush.
Our clothes are sprayed with our permethrin which is supposed to keep bugs off and we have our 3 bottles of bug spray packed. No malaria for us!! All the little things are packed. Its been very hard to keep everything to the minimal since I have never backpacked around a foreign country before. Live and learn I guess, just some practice for the next big trip.
We will be arriving in Bangkok at 1am on Tuesday with a stop over in Shanghi (hopefully the ninjas wont get us). As soon as we are sitting on the plane and everything is packed and taken care of I will be able to relax. First thing to do is eat some pad tai!

Its getting Closer!!

Ok everyone I made this Blog so you can follow us on our trip to Thailand. I am not a very good blogger so I will do my best to keep this updated. JP and I have gotten all our shots and malaria pills so the germaphobe in me is feeling better about this adventure. We are getting extremely excited for the 18th to get here and thanks to Jake and Lila's great planning everything feels like it is taken care of. If anyone ever needs a trip planner talk to Lila, she is great!!!

Getting ready for our big trip

We are almost there 19 days and counting.