So. Thai

Oi, Oi, Oi....(in a punk way.)
I just got inspired for my little punk prologue by one of the couchsurfing profiles I just read. We have been looking hard to find a place to crash in Shanghai while we are there for the Expo. We have just spent 3 nights couchsurfing on Lamma Island in Hong Kong and had an awesome time, so we are looking to continue our trend.
I guess I will start by wrapping up our trip to Southern Thailand. We flew in to Phuket about 17 days ago, and ended up getting an awesome couch to crash on at an american expats' place named DJ. He is a really awesome, totally high energy guy. His creative vibe is staggering, and he excels at photography, music, painting as well as talking! we had a great time crashing at his little house in the Katthu neighborhood of Phuket. The area was really local, and he lived just a couple blocks from a really nice little market with tons of great food, which was a total bonus. We chilled at his place, got some thai massages, rode around on scooters, explored southern phuket, ate tons of cheap thai food and ice coffees and just relaxed, while also talking to DJ for hours each day!
From there, we hopped a bus to the town of Krabi, where we spent a quiet night wandering around the small town, eating at its awesome night market filled with food, and just enjoying the really small town style of the place. The night market was awesome, and we had some great fried oysters mixed with scrambled eggs with bean sprouts as well as a seafood Rad Na. Rad Na is a mix of vegetables, meat or seafood or tofu, with crunchy yellow noodles all stir fried in a clear gooey gravy that is really good!.... it took us a few tries to appreciate it, but now it is one of our favorite thai dishes. We were going to chill in the very dull town of krabi and just soak up the mellow thai town vibe, but woke up and got motivated, so we decided to hop a long tail boat to Railay,
Railay is a series of beaches edged and flanked by the magnificent cliffs of Krabi. It can only be reached by boat, so it basically feels like an island. It is a mecca for rock climbers as well as rasta thai hippies, so the vibe is extra chill. There is no cars, scooters or much of anything there. The only real negative one can say is there is basically nobody that is actually from Railay... It is just a little series of hotels, restaurants and bars for tourists that want to get away. We chilled there for a couple days, hiking around the paths, checking out the cliffs, beaches, watching the rock climbers and just taking it easy. There isnt really anything to do there anyway, so i guess that qualifies our visit as "productive!"
Ok, i'm running out of town. The lamma island ferry comes once an hour, and we have 14 minutes to run over there, so i'm gonna jet.... More to come soon!
we are headed back to mainland china as of now.
next time you hear from me i will be peaking out over the "great firewall".... wish me luck
peace and love
ben