Ranong

At our hotel

Well, we arrived safely in Ranong and piled our bags and ourselves onto the motobike to bring us to our hotel.  We stayed just outside the main town, needless to say it was pretty quiet--which was a good thing as Scott was trying to finish his courses.  I caught up on some reading and journaling.  We stayed at Pathu Resort http://www.pathuresortranong.com/gallery.html and had a wonderful time there. 

We read the town was more of a visa run (to Burma/Myanmar) town or to get to the islands of Ko Phayam and Ko Chang of the Andaman sea.  After venturing to town, I was glad we weren't in the bustling town of constant movement of tourists leaving to and fro.  

Fruit Selection in town

We found a lovely little bar that had atmosphere and a pool table which was quite nice.  I had hoped the Lonely Planet would not disappoint, but I really was not a fan of the recommendations...and am glad we went our own way.

Scott went on a gigantic hike to see a temple from the Hot Springs...but he will post those pictures and that story I have no doubt.  

Scott with the Daddy Hot Springs

Linz at the Hot Springs (Daddy Spring in back)

Daddy Spring

Mommy and Baby Spring

There was a beautiful Hot Springs area in which the water was supposed to be healing, so we watched the others and tried to imitate what they did at the springs.  There were 3 springs: The daddy, mommy and baby springs.  In the littlest spring there were eggs being boiled so it was no wonder I could barely get my feet in.  We tried an area that looked like the water may still be cooler, but at the hot springs...yea...there was a gent that looked local that was up to his neck in the water--again, I could get but barely my feet in....oh well.

We walked around the area for a while--taking pictures and enjoying the contrast of Bangkok to this hot springs area.

There was a large heated concrete slab that was actually quite nice to lay on.  There were people getting massages--and an older man looked at me, gave me a thumbs up...and I gently refused his offer across the way, but half thought about saying yes for Scott who was snoozing beside me.  I decided against Scott waking up to an old man walking on his back, but it seemed a good idea....next time...next time.

A, Scott, Linz, and Mai at the ferry dock

We had mentioned that we would probably want to leave the next day to our hotel owner and she smiled and said sure.  I was updating our blog waiting for Scott to get up for breakfast and at 815am she told us that she had arranged taxi and could arrange boat for us.  We were leaving at 9.  Needless to say, blogging was cut short, we rushed to pack up and head to the ferry.  We had missed breakfast, but along we the way we spotted something under Mai's seat...it was a pendant.  She spoke in a very excited and animated manner to her husband A and then turned back to us letting us know she had been looking for it for the past two weeks.  This was a pendant that her brother was wearing the day he got married and had given it to her--and then it had been misplaced.  The curious thing was they hadn't used this car on the day of the wedding and somewhere along the way the red pouch protecting the pendant was missing--but at least we spotted it, under the seat. 

We were asking their recommendations for the islands...we had an idea of where we wanted to go, but were interested to hear what they had to say. Although they had lived there all their lives they had only been to one of the islands...so we told them we would let them know what we thought and we parted ways at the ferry station.