in Ranong

I'm now in the town of Ranong, on the Andaman Sea on the western side of the Thailand peninsula (which is the general area that got slammed by the tsunami a few years ago, although I'm not sure of the effects right around here). From here I'll be hopping over to the islands of Ko Chang and Ko Phayam. I haven't decided which one to go to first, as they're right next to each other and both sound pretty nice. So in the morning I'll decide on one or the other and take a ferry over there, unless I end up staying in Ranong for an extra day. Getting here took a 6 1/2 hour bus ride from Hua Hin, which went through a lot of really gorgeous landscapes, extremely green and lush rainforest. So far I feel like the south is more of the "real" Thailand experience. By that I mostly just mean that it's more along the lines of what I expected Thailand to be like; extremely lush, hot and humid, sea breezes, beautiful beaches, palm trees everywhere, etc. Ranong is quite a contrast to Hua Hin however. Ranong doesn't have any real beaches nearby, and it's far overshadowed by the areas of Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and other popular places a little further south, so although there are a few other "farangs" wandering around (foreigners) it feels like a town that's mostly unaltered by tourism. The two islands I'm headed to both sound quite nice, but for some reason or another they haven't attracted much attention (maybe just because there are so many Thai islands, they can't all be overrun). Also according to the guidebook they basically cater to the budget traveler's crowd, which is one of the reasons I settled on them, because it sounds like I can afford them. Plus I'd just as soon not be staring at lines of beach umbrellas and high rise hotels, and the accompanying crowds. But Hua Hin was still a perfect stopover on the way here, so good chance I'll stop there again on my way back north in a couple of weeks. Well that's all for now folks, I most likely won't be posting any messages or checking email until I get back to Ranong from the islands. So talk to you all when I get back here in roughly ten days or so. (Man, the end is really almost near!!) (Of my trip, I mean...) By the way I got an email from travelocity.com, that my flight from Hawaii back to California has apparently been refunded to my credit card. So I'll have to confirm that to make sure it isn't some coincidental spam or something, but otherwise that's definitely good news.