Nai Yang Beach, Thailand

The entire day after our 4-day diving trip, I felt like I was still on water and the ground was moving beneath me. After being trapped on a boat with a strict schedule, it felt good to walk around, lay and do nothing, and have the freedom to pick a restaurant.

We had two nights left on Phuket Island before flying out. Instead of staying at crazy Patong Beach again, we opted for something a little more quiet and headed to Nai Yang Beach. We rented a bamboo bungalow right on the beach for 300 baht ($10 USD)... what a steal! The hut is hardly big enough to hold a double mattress and a mosquito net, but it was more than enough. We didn't need to spend much  time in our room anyway with the ocean just 20 feet away. 

We decided to take a long walk along the beach one fine day. Towards the end, the sky turned from sunny to black in an instant and dumped buckets of rain. We had walked too far out and there was no where to go for cover but under a tree. The tree didn't do much. We were soaked to our underwear and had a long walk back ahead of us. So much for a romantic beach stroll! I was one grumpy traveler. I blamed Yuriy. Silent treatment on the walk home. It's times like these that most people don't imagine when they dream of traveling.

We didn't take many pictures in Nai Yang because our camera was still broken. These were taken with our back-up compact camera. 

Next up is Singapore, but we didn't take many photos at all (camera issue). Then, Indonesia!

- Julia

P.S. 

Today we posted some 2011 highlights on our wedding photography blog. Check it out to see what we've been up to since coming home from our around-the-world travels. 

The beach directly in front of our bungalow. 

Bamboo bungalow where we slept for $10 a night.

Our sunny beach walk turned dark and wet. Yuriy is smiling but I wasn't.

Most restaurants in Nai Yang are right on the beach, no matter how cheap they are. We almost took it for granted after a few meals. 

Liveaboard Boat 2 | Similan Islands

We just wrote a couple posts here and here about our liveaboard scuba diving experience in the Similan Islands. We were on (or in) the water for 4 days and 4 nights, but had the option to go to shore on a dingy to hang out on a secluded beach one day. Of course Yuriy and I jumped at the chance. 

This tiny island has no civilization and we were the only boat that had pulled up in the middle of the afternoon. It was extremely peaceful and still. The sun blazed down and I had to run on the sand because it burned the soles of my feet. We hiked up a trail to the top of the hill to take in a beautiful view of the Andaman Sea, then laid around with books and pumpkin seeds until we were rounded back to the ship for another dive. 

This is the life. 

- Julia

Underwater!

Being underwater is the closest feeling to flying, and who doesn't dream of flying? You become totally weightless and free to move however you want. You get a bird's eye view of the ocean floor drifting beneath you and it feels like you're parachuting over a beautiful planet. My mind could hardly fathom that the beauty underwater wasn't made by man but 100% natural. The coral and plants often looked like they were designed and built with the help of an architect. I couldn't help but feel giddy every time I bumped into a school of fish. It's amazing to be completely surrounded by so much marine life.   

After scuba diving in Thailand, I wondered why more girls don't dive... there is so much color, sparkle, bubbles, and dancing light. It's impossible not to feel like a mermaid. It's truly magical and there is no way photos can convey the feeling.

We dived a total of 14 times and each time the boat docked at a different spot along the Similan Islands. Some cool things we saw: turtles, manta ray, freaky-looking eels, dragon fish, 4 foot long tunas, puffer  fish (blows up into a spiky ball!), star fish, sea horses, Nemo and a ton of his cousins. We were really hoping to see some leopard sharks that are in the area, but no such luck. 

Scuba diving is truly an experience unlike any other. I have been around the ocean so often but never took the time to think about what is under the surface. It's an amazing discovery and I think every person needs to dive at least once in their life. There's got to be a reason that God made so much beauty and life underwater. 

- Julia

P.S. 

These photos were taken by our dive partner and friend, Steve, who had underwater housing for his compact camera. Light waves travel differently underwater and objects lose their color the deeper you go, so you need to have special equipment for underwater photography which we didn't have. The images look very blue/faded which is not how we saw them with our eyes!

The scariest thing we saw was a bunch of Moray Eels. We usually found them winding through coral or grass or we would spot one standing perfectly still with it's head poking out. Every time I saw one it made me stop in my tracks. These guys were 1-2 meters long. It doesn't help that they have a really mean glare and opened and closed their mouth so you could see teeth inside! 

Liveaboard Boat | Similan Islands

Happy New Years, friends! This blog has experienced some major neglect due to a busy holiday season, travels for work and to see family, shipping out tons of orders for Handle With Care Shop, and most time-consuming of all, a rebranding of our photography website and blog.

We are determined to finish documenting our around-the-world travels from 2011, as much for ourselves as for our readers! Expect to see much more frequent posting from now on. We left off in Phuket and still have tons of photos we want to share from Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia. 

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From Phuket, we joined a liveaboard boat to do some scuba diving around the Similan Islands, a string of islands off the West Coast of Thailand. We were aboard the board for 4 days and 4 nights with about 20 other divers. We went scuba diving 4 times each day (except the last day) for a total of 14 dives! Yuriy had done some scuba diving here in the past, but I was a total newbie. I got certified back in Seattle right before our wedding because I knew it would come in handy during our travels. 

We got our own little private room on board just big enough to fit a double bed with a space for our luggage at the entrance. Couldn't complain because we had windows on either side of the room with views of the ocean. The first night Yuriy and I were both extremely nauseous throughout the night. The boat rocked all night and I had nightmares of drowning.

We woke up at 6 am each morning and went straight to the ocean. The day ended with a dive after sunset, which required a flash light underwater. The trip was very much about routine. The human body builds up nitrogen when underwater, and needs time on the surface to release that build up. You can only stay underwater a certain amount of time before getting sick, and you must stay on the surface a period of time before going in again.  

Daily routine: Wake-up. Dive 1. Shower. Breakfast. Break. Dive 2. Shower. Lunch. Break. Dive 3. Shower. Break. Dive 4. Shower. Dinner. Sleep. Repeat. 

After the first few dives I wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into! I couldn't fathom a dozen more dives!! Each dive required suiting up and getting out of all that wet gear.  I was tired and didn't have a chance to relax before the next dive. Everything felt uncomfortable, wet, tight, salty, heavy. 

It didn't take long to get used to the routine, however. It became so repetitive that some days I started to lose track of time and couldn't remember if we had eaten lunch yet or not and which dive we were on. I began to feel like a fish. I was in the ocean 4 times a day and showering 4 times a day. I was constantly thirsty, no matter how much water I guzzled.

The breaks in between usually lasted an hour or so and were spent reading, sunbathing on the boat roof, or trying to brush out the constant tangled mess my hair was in. The people on the boat were from all over the world and we had a good time sharing travel stories. The Thai food was amazing and it made up for any discomfort of living on a boat. 

We got some underwater photos from a friend who dived with us, and we'll share those next!

- Julia

By the way, our professional camera started dying when we were in Laos, and by this time, it was hardly functioning. All of the photos in this post were taken with our little compact camera. I'm so glad we had it for back-up!

Trying on gear to make sure it fit before the trip! 

Every boat in Thailand lights fireworks on the first night of a trip for good luck.

The dining room and communal area of the boat. 

The top deck of the boat was the perfect spot to sunbathe and enjoy sunsets.

Inside our tiny mint green room.

Looking out the door from our room.

Reading in my down time.

We ate so well three times a day. 

Doesn't get much better than a Thai buffet. 

Endless fruit every day. So satisfying when you're hot and thirsty.

Our dive master -- an experienced diver who was essentially our underwater tour guide.

We shared our dive master with another diving couple, Steve and Lydia. We did all of our dives throughout the trip with the same group.