island hopping

we stayed at nakara long beach resort for just 2 nights and then moved to our next place down the island. jacq and i loved this place way more than nakara! it was really small and felt a lot more personal. it was called anda lay boutique hotel. we stayed there for 4 nights and 5 days. we had a huge room and it was right on the beach.
my schedule looked like this: wake up, eat breakfast and drink my coffee while watching the waves roll in, lay out by the pool all day, maybe take a walk, read a magazine... and i knew it was time for dinner when the sun began to set :)

we did this same routine every day other than one day when we decided to take a tour of 4 islands: Ko Ngai, Ko Chuek, Ko Mah and Emerald Cave at Koh Mook.

we started out pretty early in the morning and boarded a big speed boat. we rode with about 30-40 people to our first snorkeling drop off. i was so excited! the water was so clear and you could see fish swimming all around. for any of you who know me, i am pretty scared of fish. i have been since i was a little girl and got bit by a huge fish in lake! yuck. so, snorkeling for me was conquering a pretty big fear.
i looked out on the water, mentally crossed my fingers and took a big jump! i was so amazed at what i saw. i really did feel like i had jumped straight in to the movie finding nemo! if only i had an underwater camera.

 i saw some beautiful fish and swam right through the middle of many schools! the whole time i had to keep thinking "these fish are scared of me. these fish are scared of me" even sometimes when my flipper would touch my leg i would basically jump out of the water and twist my head around to see what it was. i even ran into a few bigger fish in which i swam away as fast as i could and focused on the little guys again.
next, we went to a 2nd snorkeling point where there was a huge underwater drop off. a few times i got the courage to dive deep down into the water and hold my breath. i saw even more fish and literally swam right through the middle of a thousand baby fish.

amazing.
we also got to visit an island and eat lunch, as well as just swim around and walk in the sand. this place had the most amazing views and i also found a hermit crab!

lastly, we went to emerald cave. we had to swim about 100m through this cave to the other side and at least 50m of it was in the PITCH. DARK. we were swimming where we couldnt touch, with 30+ people, in a cave. nuts. i was honestly scared. i kept grabbing jacqueline's arm :)
once we got to the other side, it was like we were in our own oasis. we were surrounded by huge rock faces with trees all up and down. the pictures don't do it justice.

the ride back on the boat was awesome as well! we got to drive by many islands. i know i was smiling ear to ear.
that day tied with the elephant training were the best experiences i've had in my life. i can't wait to have some more, which i know the next 100 days living in Asia will bring.