Save The Best For Last- Railay Bay

Hey, Allison here. Steve has given me the honor of writing this post. We have been beach hopping the past couple days and ended here at Railay Bay, off the coast of southern Thailand. The island is incredibly beautiful and pretty small. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk across the whole thing. The weather has been less than ideal... it has rained on and off every day. There go my hopes of bringing back a tan. Or probably more realistically a pretty intense sunburn. So maybe the rain has been in my favor. On the plus side, the rainy season brings many less tourists to the islands, which has been very nice. Our days have consisted of alternating spending time outside, walking the beach, sampling Thai cuisine, watching bad movies on one of the 3 English stations, cave exploring, and a little swimming in the ocean. A few nights ago we went to a bar that advertised fire dancing and it turned out to be pretty cool. I don't think there are many locals that live on this islands, more that people come to live here to work. The same guy that was playing guitar and singing John Mayer was the emcee and main performer in the fire show. And we saw other fire people teaching rock climbing and doing carpentry work the next day. Multi-talented fellows.

On to the main event! We leave today to go back to Bangkok via an overnight bus and then fly out to go back home the following day. That meant that yesterday was our last full day here on the beach. We have been wanting to rent sea kayaks and explore the massive rock formations that aren't accessible by beach, but the weather has been less than cooperative. We waited all day for the weather to calm down so we could take them out. When it reached a point when the wind wasn't blow-you-over strong and we thought we stood a chance in the water, we strapped on our life jackets and took the two-seater out. I'll be honest. I thought I was going to die. I am not a strong swimmer. Once we were out for about 15 minutes the wind died down and the waves became significantly smaller, I started to feel more confident. We paddled around for awhile and Steve had the idea to land the kayak on a very small stretch of sand surrounding this giant rock jutting out of the water. The tides are crazy here. The difference between high and low tide is what feels like a football field. We knew from the night before that the beach existed, but at this time you could barely see it. I was hesitant, but Steve insisted so we landed the boat and sat down on the beach to enjoy the view. After about 20 minutes, we decided our kayaks were due back soon and it was about time to head back. As I got up to go back to the boat, he said my name and I turned around to find him on one knee with ring in hand. It all went by so fast. I managed to say yes. It started to rain harder, so we spent a little more time on the island and then headed back to shore. Needless to say, we are both extremely excited :)

I believe Steve is planning on one more post to sum up the trip. We will be back in a couple days and look forward to seeing everyone again!! Much love!