Just another day at the beach

Well we've just concluded our first full day on Ton sai Beach. HOLY COW (I hope that doesn't offend anyone) this is a beautiful place. Yesterday we arrived via Sang tao (not sure if that's the correct spelling). In a nutshell, a Sang tao is like a pick up truck with a rudimentary cover over the top with two benches facing one another. The driving over here is pretty hairy, but our driver seemed pretty safe (its all relative). We went from Krabi town to Ao Nang (again forgive the spelling) where we took a long-tail boat over to Ton sai. We found a bungalow for 200 baht per night (roughly $5/day). Spent the day snorkeling--absolutely amazing here--then we went over to a bar that was advertising Thai boxing and a King Cobra Show. First there was a kid juggling some fire sticks--that was pretty good (complete with a burning ember landing on his back--ouch!). The thai boxing, I hate to say it, was a little boring. I have a feeling the contestants weren't all that serious about beating each other up. The snake show, however, was something else. This kid that was "charming" the snakes couldn't have been more than 18. First; he brought some small cobras out--poked at them and pissed them off for a while--until he could get them to stand up and let him kiss their heads. Then he brought out three non-venomous snakes and charmed them all at once. But for his finally, he brought out the biggest King Cobra I've ever seen (ok, so I haven't seen many of them). It was probably close to 12-15 feet long and as big around as Isaac's calf. The kid was sweating up a storm--when he tried to kiss this one's head the first time he was in for a shock, the snake lunged at him. As is the case in all such stories, though, the kid was finally able to give the snake a big smack on the head. As much as I hate the torture of animals for side show gimmicks, I have to admit, I was pretty impressed. Hopefully the snakes were treated well. Today we got on a 4-pitch climb called Humanality. It was pretty crowded--but we managed to get through. The rock here is so strange--like a cave turned inside out. There are stalactites everywhere. We're trying to compose a plan for the rest of our trip--but I'm starting to feel like sitting on the beach for another week or so sounds pretty good. Thanks for the comments--I changed it so you could post anonymous comments--sorry if you were put off before. Pictures are coming--I hope. (The internet cafes here are great--all have high speed service and they're pretty cool about plugging in cameras and stuff.) Wish you were here Ike and Rita