Goodbye Thailand!  Kuala Lumpur here we come...

Hopefully we can still buy bugs at the food market in Borneo.

 

Snorkelling off our very own longtail boat around the bays of Koh Tao.

Diving at Sail Rock. That's Patrick in front.

Climbing up a hellacious 'trail' to an amazing viewpoint.

Ang Thong Marine Park off of Koh Samui.

And our first wild monkey....



We've made our way back to the main beach in Koh Tao and have really found our groove here. We've got a cute lil bungalo by the sea for 500 baht/ night (~$15) and are spending days eating, relaxing, and snorkelling. We've also been hanging out with some of the folks we've been diving with. Last night our table consisted of people from Norway, Ireland, Denmark, England, and Scotland. We're enjoying getting to know this lil town and are sad to leave, but are excited to head to the larger isle of Koh Samui on Saturday.  Enjoy the pics.

 Clownfish.  Saw tons of these, but missed the classic (Nemo) ones.

View of Aow Leuk bay from the restaurant at New Heaven

Staghorn coral

Christmas tree tube worms that dissapear in an instant if you get too close.

Amy's new favorite thing.

Nudibranch

Patrick was very serious about this meal. Pad thai, pineapple shake, fresh coconut and pad see eiw. We've ordered it a million times but can't spell it...

This is the view from our deck in New Heaven looking over Aow Leuk Bay, we spent 4 sunny days here snorkeling and eating. 



 

Hello friends! Here's a tiny lil teaser of some great underwater photos that will be coming up soon. Love swimming through big schools of fish.  We are still on the lil tropical island of Koh Tao in the gulf of Thailand. We are staying at a dreamy place that is tucked upon a hillside overlooking a gorgeous bay. We simply walk down a million stairs to get to the beautiful waters that are excellent for snorkeling. Check out the pics on the bottom of the webpage for a look at where we sleep  http://www.newheavendiveschool.com/acccommodation/baan-talay/. And yes, that view is from our personal balcony =). Despite the beauty and fun, Thailand has given us some difficulties as well. Small daily things are harder here than we've experienced in our travel before. We finally just got our clothes back after submitting them for laundry 2 days ago! Also, few people speak English to any clarifying degree, even people we're renting rooms from, so that makes small things difficult to accomplish. But so are the realities of travel, so we persevere, learning more about the ways of this place as we go. Below are the 2 massive gecko's that are chilling on our ceiling as we speak. Very cool except that the nasty little present they dropped on our bedsheets alerted me to their presence above! Hopefully we will get a clean sheet before 2 days time...

Diving was really fun, we both fell in love as we knew we would. Our American instructor was awesome as was the American couple who live in Kathmandu,Nepal we did our course with. We went on to do our advanced course which allows us to go to 30m depth and night dive! On our night dive we saw an octopus changing colors as it tried to get away from our lights. We've also seen a lot of eels, blue spotted stingrays, pufferfish and sooooo many beautiful fish and corals. Wondrous.

From here? We know we're spending 2 more nights at our current place then....??? Probably a little more time on Koh Tao doing dives and such then to the bigger island of Koh Samui for some more adventures and for Patrick to pick up his snazzy tailor-made suit. At some point we'll figure out how to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to begin our Borneo adventure. 

Hope summer is treating you all well.

 We are now certified divers.  We'll try for our advanced cert in a couple of days.   They wouldn't let us take cameras underwater while we were in training, but we'll post underwater pics as soon as we can.   Lots of cool things down there. 

 Our first dive

 Cheap delicious street food right from the motorbike. 

 As you might imagine, Jungle Curry is hot. 

Sairee Beach Ko Tao, post dive. 

Rafting was a blast, and West Virginia was...very interesting. Amy's new to redneck culture...

Check out Patricks rafting video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfjBFshUS14&feature=youtu.be

We can't believe we leave in the morning. Bangkok here we come!

Road trip through the VA and WV appalachians. Lush, rolling, beautiful.

Amy saw this in the road and Patrick convinced her to turn around.

We saved it.

Our tent platform at River Expeditions camp, West Virginia.

Rockin' out with our rafting buddies.

Here we are, sweltering in Washington DC, attempting to adjust to the kind of heat that Thailand will surely offer us.  In the past week we've been to a wedding, hiked Shenandoah, toured Luray Caverns, enjoyed a thunderstorm, had a crab feast and haven't gotten poison ivy, yet.  We have been touring the nations capital with both of our folks for the past few days, enjoying fireworks and museums as well as the novelty and sweetness that we get to be with our parents. It has been a wonderful beginning to our summer trip.

3 inches of water in Luray Caverns, VA

Crab Feast in LaPlata.

Amy's travel haircut. Short and sweet.

Hiking in the Shenandoah Valley

Tomorrow we're off to WVA for white water rafting.  Then on to Bangkok, Monday.