one more flight....

So I'm in jfk airport in New York and just said bye to Garvey and hello to Max (hi max, since I know you're a loyal blog-follower!)
They headed back to the jers and I wanted to quickly jot down some of the rest of our trip.
Our last day in Ao Nang on Krabi island we went on a tour of "james bond island" which, for those James B fans was made famous by one of his movies (duh)which I believe to be the Man with the Golden Gun. Locally it is known as Ko Tapu or Nail Island. (sidebar, can't remember if I mentioned this but Ko or Koh is Island and Hat is beach in Thai). Pics to come. Because the tide was low, we took a "longtail boat" out to the island. It was sort of a gray day and the clouds created this stunny smokey haze on all the jutting out mountains-turned-islands over the past 5000 years. This islaand is not a swimming island or sandy island but it was cool to climb and explore. Our tour also included the reclining buddha in tiger cave which was interestingly in this monkey park where monkeys were just free to run around crazy and wild. Monkeys have these michevious little eyes and we even witnessed some altercations with tourists over bananas and such. Wiley little creatures. Jess and I both love the baby monkeys who travel clinging to their mothers' tummies. So cute!
The last place on our tour for the day was a muslim floating village. It is literally a whole village on sticks just chilling in the middle of the water. You can bet we were surprised to see tvs and computer is some of the "houses" which were really just floating little huts.
The dominant culture/religion on Krabi is muslim and it was fascinating to see the dichotomy between tourist-invaded thailand and religious muslims.
Our last night for dinner we wanted to have a special meal that wasn't touristy or junky and we found a restaurant called "monsoon" that was supposed to be "the best food in Ao Nang.". As always, Garvs and I were dealing with a concierge who looked at us like we asked her if it was raining when we asked where Monsoon restaurant was. Then we showed her the address(hello small beach town) and the google maps of it(which was in thai so we couldn't navigate). She still couldn't communicate with us and two taxi drivers also didn't know. Another hotel concierge from across the street sernt us in a tuk-tuk to where the restaurant was. We get out and pay and there is a huge Mcdonalds. Great.
After wandering around and stupidly thinking we will just happen to be in the right place, I asked an english-speaking (looked like) man in a hotel shiny suv where it was. "Hop in, ill bring you there.". Turns out he was German and in hotel management and after this trip, my sketch tolerance has risen. I think this might be a bad thing.
So he drops us off at this little restaurant which is very cute and run by a very cute man from Scotland who told us he has been in Thailand for 9 years! Diving brought him to Krabi and now he also runs Monsoon--a restaurant that boasts a thai chef and menu but also offers the rare to find goodies that I missed so much (like cheese! Apparently evryone in thailand thinks not only does it make you fat but its not worth having ever becuase it has to be imported!). Eek this means I can never live there.
The restaurant was relatively empty and jess and I ordered a mixture of Thai food (penaang and green curry, tiger cries) and american food (spinach and blue cheese, caesar salad). We ordered wine to celebrate last night and the owner got ON HIS MOTORCYCLE TO GET US SOME!! This was when we noticed he had a prosthetic leg from the knee down. This really got our imaginations flowing...(diving incident? shark bite?)
Hilton, the owner, was sitting outside with a few friends..including Americans and a girl from Holland who had all moved to Thailand. We ended up playing this card game called "golf" with them for awhile which Jess and I were quite good at (beginner's luck??) It was great to have a chill night with people pretty close to our age and get to hear about their experiences living in Thailand. The dive instructors siad they only get paid 6 months out of the year and basically are poor and starving half the year...one guy, from England said he only had made 100 BAHT that day..which is about 3 dollars. Perhaps if Jess and I can't find jobs we will move to Krabi and teach diving....not likely.
love and miss.
last update to come soon when I;m home in New Orleans