Kayaking!

Kayaking was AMAZING! We got a boat taxi to Railay where we rented a kayak. We kayaked through small caves and in holes in the limestone cliffs.We saw other people with rented kayaks mainly sticking to the beach we were at yesterday and the limestone cliffs around there. In the distance we saw a few islands and decided we could kayak to them. They looked much closer than they were! No wonder the other kayakers weren't headed in this direction. Boats full of tourists were passing us hooting and hollering...cheering us on. I was beginning to think this might be much farther than we thought. Of course it was. When we finally arrived it was totally worth it! The clearest ocean I have ever seen. It was truly breath taking, absolutely gorgeous. I never wanted to leave. We later found out it was Pudu Island. We enjoyed simming and lunch and then continued kayaking.
We later kayaked to Tup Island and Chicken Island. They were both amazing. Crystal clear waters. On the back side of one of the islands we saw rock climbers. The area is famous for rock climbing due to all the limestone cliffs. It was fun to watch them climb up the side of the rock until they would turn around and jump off into the water.
We were just starting to kayak back across to the main area when we heard thunder and saw a storm in the distance. Mark wanted to wait it out, I thought we could make it. Obviously I do not know much about the weather, storms, etc. so I thought we could barrel through the rain, no biggie. Mark, more experienced in this sort of scenario, was worried about lightening and being caught in the middle of this open area with no where to go and holding metal rods. None of this occured to me so I convinced him we could do it. Bad choice. The wind was blowing against us and we were pattling into three foot waves in our little kayak. Luckily, the stormed switched directions and went the other way. It took us doube the time to kayak back and when we were just about there the wind stoppped and the waves ceased. Note to self wait out the storm in the future, Mark was right! Our arms were exhausted when we finally got back. We etimated we paddled somewhere between 12 and 15 miles.
We decided after a hards day work work we deserved to go eat dinner at a buffet. It was awesome we ate like we have never seen food before. After one too many plates of food and bowls of ice cream we rolled home... literally and hit the sack.