Holiday in Thailand

We spent 12 amazing days on the west coast of Thailand. It's fair to say that we both feel that this was the best vacation we've had. We quickly got to the point where we didn't even know the date or day of the week (a first for Tiff, and a good sign that you've really let go).
We flew directly from Sydney to Phuket (9 hours, not bad ;) We spent our first 2 nights in Patong Beach, Phuket, which is not exactly a relaxing place (it's extremely touristy). There are people everywhere on the street trying to shake your hand and sell you crap you don't need. It's noisy and unpleasant.
This was one of the places that was hit hard by the tsunami, we noticed that most of the beachfront development was new.
We arranged for a mini-bus (basically a craptastic minivan configured to cram 12 people into it) to take us to Krabi (near our next destination, Railay). It arrived nearly 1 hour late and then proceeded to drive around for another 30 min looking for a hotel they couldn't find. After getting on the road, we had to avoid watching through the front window due to the driving.
They have a system of driving that is terrifying to the outsider, but seems to work for them. You can overtake at any time (hills, blind corners, etc), and if there happens to be someone coming the other way they just kinda drive on the shoulder for a while and let you by.
From Krabi we took a longtail boat to Railay (mainland, but not accessible by car).
Railay is the most beautiful place that either of us has been. I (Jeff) was there before in 2001, and could not wait to show it to Tiff.
We met a few cool people there that we kept bumping into (small place). Kendra and Michael from the Gold Coast (AUS), and Chris and Jill and from Cincinnati.
We spent one day taking a Thai cooking class in the morning and then an elephant trek in the afternoon.
The sunsets on Railay East were absolutely stunning. Everyone would gather on the beach to watch it and take photos.
We went to Pranang Beach one day and met a bunch of monkeys that were there stealing food from beachgoers cooling off in the water. Tiff was hungry and bought chicken satay skewers from a beach vendor there. Big mistake... Not recommended.

On 30 Dec we took a massively overcrowded ferry to Koh Phi Phi Don, our next and final destination.
We mainly went there for the diving, which was absolutely amazing. We did 5 dives, including a deep dive (30m, or 90 ft) and a wreck dive (King Cruiser Ferry, crashed for insurance fraud in 1997). At Palong (a sight off of Koh Phi Phi Lei, where they filmed "The Beach"), we saw about 12 black tip reef sharks hanging around for no apparent reason. We saw a Leopard shark and a Cuttlefish on another dive. We got to see a Peacock Mantis Shrimp on one dive, what a strange, yet beautiful creature.

New year's eve was a dive day, and we were extremely tired from it. We napped until 10pm and then dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the Sunflower Bar for NYE celebration, where we met Joanna and Patrick, a lovely French couple on a world tour.
I think we were in bed by 2:30am... we must be getting old ;)

In closing, this trip reminded us of all of the things that we have to be thankful for, but also allowed us to see areas for improvement for a more balanced life in 08.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and look forward to hearing about your adventures and seeing you soon.

Photos here. Videos here.