To finish out our Thailand recap, let's talk about Ao Nang. Weird name, but it looks like a this....
Kanhka and Olivia met up with us after they traveled to visit Kanhka's family in Laos. Words cannot express how blessed Chris and I felt the second they got off the plane. Not only did they accept Finley into their family, but they also came to spend some time with us during what could have been a relaxing romantic vacation for the two of them. Just to see their familiar faces, wow....it still makes me smile to think about it. Chris and I have always said, if we lived around Kanhka and Olivia we would have crazy adventures alllll the time. I thought it was a joke until this trip.
Day 1: Deep Water Soloing. What is that you ask? Well its rock climbing over water without any ropes and whenever you want to stop or if you fall, you just jump in. Do I like heights? No. But there are very few places in the world where you can do this, and when traveling with Kanhka and Olivia you just do it.
Olivia was the champion of the day, by doing this multiple times. Sorry the video is sideways....I can't figure out how to change movie orientation, which I didn't realize until I had already uploaded them. Anyway, she jumped from really high.
This is what the rock looked like with all the climbers waiting to go up. I'm about halfway up that big rock and that's as far as I went.
Chris and Kanhka climbing straight out of the water onto some rocks.
All in all, it was an awesome experience. But I think one time was enough for me.
Deep water bouldering might be more my style.
Day 2: Matt and Nicole met up with us on day 2 of our trip. It was a total gift from the Father to have our friends meet and hit it off like they did. Matt and Nicole have been learning Lao since they moved there and Kanhka rekindled his fluency in Lao after just one week so they had fun chatting with food vendors and massage people while Chris, Olivia, and I just chatted in plain old english. But more importantly they have similar concerns for the people of Laos. That was an amazing thing to watch.
Anyway, Matt (who makes friends where ever he goes) had met a local tour guide who told him about a hike to a lagoon near where we were staying. His exact words were "you have to work for it." Should that have been a red flag? Absolutely, but we all decided the day before that we wanted to wear bathing suits and flip flops so we could swim when we got there, and we figured that would be fine.
Here's the hike:
See those ropes and roots that go straight up? Yes, that is the trail and yes, we are starting to question our shoe choices.
At the top of the first climb we find this overlook. Pretty absurdly beautiful right? So we keep hiking.
The actual trail
The trail we made up. They look remarkably similar.
After hours of sweating and climbing and sliding out of our shoes, we arrive at the pristine lagoon.
Wait....its a muddy puddle?! Well, that's when we started getting a little punchy.
Climbing through small crevices.
Climbing across rocks to avoid walking in the mud.
Exploring random caves that may or may not have been lived in.
Climbing to the second layer of the random cave and finding beds.....beds!
This is my favorite picture, we are not that tan, we are just that filthy.
Nicole's face about sums up our day.
This was a picture we really had 'to work for' and I love it
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