Krabi (or Dear Jenna and Chris, Though you have different ideas of the perfect destination, we have created a place that is, individually, the dream location for each of you. Please come. Sincerely, Thailand. And Nature)

Chris and I were both really looking forward to our trip to Krabi, but for different reasons. Krabi is known as one of the world's premier rock climbing destinations, and also has beautiful beaches and plentiful spa/massage amenities. It is also very inexpensive and has great food. Based on these things, there was pretty much nothing to not like about this place. But we ended up liking it even more than we anticipated!


We stayed at the Railay Bay Resort in the area called Railay Beach. The hotel was great, overall, but our room wasn't quite as nice as some other places in the resort. It was a huge place though, and you can't get to this beach by car, so comings and goings were by longtail boats. We were welcomed to the hotel on our arrival by this sign
possibly the first time I've ever been welcomed visually (well, technically it was Chris, not me) to a hotel before...

This is me sitting at the restaurant hotel, with the beach in the background

and this is Chris enjoying himself on the rock

And my favorite (of the 6 massages I tried in our four days in Krabi - each one cost between $6 and $10USD for one hour) masseuse, Mama

The rest of our photos are here

Krabi, Thailand - Thanksgiving 2007

We really did not want to leave Krabi and we can't wait to go back!!

Kalymnos, Greece: Land of over-enthusiastic hotel owners, free coffee-givers and lots and lots of rocks...

Due to my lame internet connection, over the past 3 days, I have successfully uploaded 43 of my 113 Greece photos online. Hopefully the rest will be up soon, and they'll be located here.

In the meantime, you can see even better pictures, taken by our friend Ed, here ...

We had a great time with all of our visitors over the past two weeks, and a super time in Greece, where the people were above and beyond the nicest I have met anywhere.

Some examples are...
George, the most enthusiastic hotel proprieter I have ever met. He ran up and down the stairs of his hotel, Melina's Apartments to show us each and every available room so we could decide which we wanted.

Panos, the above mentioned free coffee giver. Our first morning on the island, we stopped at his place so my caffeine addicted self could get a fix. He has a restaurant, which we later learned was the 'go to' restaurant for all the climbers on the island, which also had the description "coffee bar" painted on the outside wall. I went in and asked for a coffee to go. After an "Of course, dear, why not?" He ran across the street to the minimart and bought some styrofoam cups to take the coffee on the road. While waiting for the coffee, we decided to take a taxi to our climbing destination (or "Crag" as I learned it is called) of the day so we had coffee at Panos' place while we waited for the taxi he called. 2 minutes into the coffee drinking, a large bottle of water showed up on the table, along with a huge plate of delicious homemade cookies. We, of course, were thrilled, and when our taxi arrived, asked for the bill. "No charge!" Panos replied, "It doesn't cost me anything to make coffee!" We were shocked, and ended up going to his place for breakfast (always free, and the last day had delicious pound cake instead of cookes) and dinner (always included a few free beers and dessert!)

Everyone we met was so much fun and so nice, it was like a magical land of the super friendly!

I'll add more detail in the next day or so, but now I've got to get back into the swing of work and prepare some lessons!!