Resorts or roaches?

Okay, at the risk of sounding like a total snob, I'm about to get real with everyone for a minute here. Throughout our trip to thailand we have been staying at a mix of nice places, average places and garbage dumps.  I can understand why budget travelers would stay at alot of these places, they provide a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in and for the most part you don't spend alot of time in your room. However, we are not budget travelers, we are 30 year old adults and are only in Thailand for 2 weeks and I'd prefer to go back to Canada without bedbugs and scabies if possible (although it might be too late for that now). Having spent several nights with cockroaches, mosquitos and frogs that sound like they are ribbiting through a megaphone. we decided we wanted some luxury.

this is a video of the sound of the frogs outside our bungalow in phi phi- I now have a serious hate on for Kermit the frog. 

So we headed to West railay beach and found a resort right on the beach. It is beautiful (approximately double the price of the one we are staying in the first night but we cant wait to check in and finally be able to sleep without worrying about our skin touching the sheets. Just for the record: Im glad i normally sleep like a vampire (flat on my back with my arms folded across my chest)- it has come in handy on this vacation. Candice however, sleeps on her stomach, face buried in her pillow (haha, she has probably eaten 16 insects and gotten numerous rashes during her sleeps here).

This is a picture of the stairs up to the hotel we stayed at on day 1 on Railay

We woke up early and checked out of the "bates motel" and ran as fast as we could to our new resort- it is unreal, although i have already found myself not wanting to explore the island (because its so nice by the pool and in our room and we have free wifi). However, we are going to go do some exploring in a few minutes. We wanted to try and hike to a "secret lagoon" this morning but i threw out my runners in phi phi because they were taking up to much room and smelled like cheese. everyone we have talked to says sandals wont be good for the hike (but  i might try it anyway....since when do i listen to peoples advice?). The weather is overcast today and it looks like it might rain but we need to make the most out of our time here so we arent going to let that stop us...off to explore!!!!

this is a picture of our new resort on Railay- notice the clean bed and no cockroaches

Well we are back from our little day exploration and all i can say is that this area is beautiful! We walked along the beach on the west side and the sand is soft and white and looks striking next to the emerald green water. the bay is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs covered in lush tropical plants. We hung out on the west side for a little bit and then made our way to the east side to see "diamond cave" . it costs about $2 to go inside the cave and its definitely worth it. the limestone cave is massive and you walk along a man made boardwalk when inside.  stalagmites hang down from the roof of the cave and you can hear bats chirping as you navigate deeper inside. at a few points in the cave the limestone walls shimmer as if they are adorned with diamonds (hence the name "diamond cave") we took pictures and video but it doesnt do it justice.

After diamond cave we walked to try and find the viewpoint and the access point to the "secret lagoon" (which we will explore tomorrow)- when we got there we were pleasantly surprised by a bunch of monkeys! Finally, some monkeys!!! we must have seen close to 30 of them, they were walking along the top of a bamboo fence along the trail that we were on. They were swinging on vines and jumping over each other and one even tried to pee on candices head. hahaha, but he missed by a couple of feet.  we are going to try and catch the sunset tonight, have a nice dinner and then enjoy our first comfortable sleep in a long time.