Song of the South

Have finally made it to Krabi province after a long and nasty battle with Miss Thetis which still isn't quite finished. But seeing as how I was on the verge of losing it completely, I needed to get out of the city. So I am currently on Ko Phi Phi, which despite sounding like a young child's way of asking to use the toilet ("ko" is pronounced more like "go"), is one of the most beautiful places on this planet. This island was one of the places devastated by last December's tsunami. Half of the island is still covered with rubble or is just empty, and the sounds of hammers and power tools can be heard everywhere. They seem to be making lots of progress rebuilding things here, and things will likely be back to "normal," or as close to that as they can be, soon.
Went Kayaking today. It was so beautiful - I could see little yellow and white fish swimming beneath me. However, My arms are already sore. Not looking forward to tomorrow morning.
But they seem to be making progress on it.
I was walking around the island today. on a remote and rocky part of the beach, I ran into an Israeli couple who seemed to be interacting with a family of wild monkeys. It turns out that they were out there (the Israelis) doing some prayers and celebrating one of the Jewish holidays ( I forget what it's called.) While they were praying, the monkeys snuck up behind them and started taking things out of their bag. They ate their anti-biotics, and drank the kosher sacramental wine that they had for this holiday. Being on a remote island in the middle of the Andaman Sea, Kosher sacramental wine isn't easy to find. So I assured them that God probably will understand their predicament. I got a few pics of the monkeys that will be posted when I return to BKK later this week.
Other than that, just relaxing, enjoying, and hailing progress.