Spring!

Just a few pictures of all the blossoms in the Pfalz over the past few weeks. We had an early spring here, due to the fact that we never had winter this year ... temps barely got below freezing and we didn't see a single snowflake.











Some of my friends and I on a walk around Gimmeldingen, where there is the highest concentration of almond blossom trees in the area:

Thailand - Coral and Racha Islands

We decided to go on another boat trip to more islands near Phuket; this time to Coral and Racha islands. The really big tourist draw is Phi Phi island, but given how crowded the James Bond tour was we decided to skip the big tourist trap island and instead go to some lesser-known islands where we could just sit on the beach and have some peace and quiet. We booked a speedboat tour to Coral and Racha islands and our boat was not as crowded as the James Bond boat so it was nice. We started the day at Coral island. The boat trip to Coral island only took about 15 minutes but it was quite sporty. There were huge waves and very choppy waters ... the boat was out of the water more than it was in it I believe ... our guide told us he prefers choppy waters because when the ocean becomes still they end up having a tsunami. So noted. I wish I'd taken a picture of the swells out in the ocean but I was too busy hanging on for my life.

We didn't do anything except lie around on the beach on Coral island, so here are a few pictures from that:



We had a group of older Russian women on our boat and here they are taking sexy pictures of each other in the waves:



You can see in the distance the parachute attached to the people who were parasailing. The boats taking tourists parasailing were constantly going back and forth; those guys must make a ton of money. They didn't have a single break the whole time we watched them. And they're crazy too - there's a guy just hanging on with his hands behind you in the parachute.



We were fed a buffet lunch on Coral island - nothing special just some rice and chicken and the usual watermelon. Then we took off to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was really good - lots of pretty colorful fish that just swarmed around you. I'm not sure where we were doing it though - somewhere near or at Racha island I think. We snorkeled for an hour or so, then headed to Racha island to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Below are pictures from Racha island.



There's a 5-star resort on Racha island called "The Racha". It looks amazing from its website and the island is very peaceful and beautiful. It would be a great place to stay, if you could afford it and you didn't mind staying someplace you have to take a boat to get to. I'm not sure there's much nightlife since there are only a few resorts on the island and nothing else but it would certainly be relaxing to spend a few days there. I just went to their website myself and lost about 15 minutes daydreaming about staying there. This is the front of the resort, right on the beach:



The boat trip to Racha and Coral islands was definitely a worthwhile way to spend a day exploring some of the islands of Thailand.