Sure...well go with that

We woke up Friday morning in Bangkok, not knowing where we were going. Only that our check out time was at 12. About 1030ish we started looking at places. It looked like Krabi was the cheap, friendly place. The place to get tickets was the bus station, (off from every other part of the city) only one bus went there, the 507. Our hostel owner wrote it down in Thai for us and we went to wait at the stop. Buses came and went. 30 min past. Is this where were supposed to go? I saw thr 507 on the other side of the street. Ok. I'll take that. 45 min past. I Asked it'd really be nice to talk with someone in Enhlish to make sure this is right. 2 min later- where are you going? A man said ih yes the 507 is the only way.

Man on bus said last stop then walked us to the ticket counter to help us get tickets. He would point at part of it and we would thank him then move on. He would catch up to us and take us further along and repeated it until we got to the counter. We told him tHank you and G bless you and he jerked a little either by surprise or the same sentiment. 

As we waited in the bus station we sat down in the massage chairs until they kicked us out and sat down next to a middle eastern woman with her sleeping child. I smiled and said he's cute. She responded with "thank you."  Her husband showed up and so I got up to offer him my seat. He refused, but I just went on a little walk so he would sit down. When I got back I switched Jordan seats and my new friend offered me chips until I accepted them. Turns out his name is Arif from Pakistan who worked for BP and spoke good English. They were there on a two day training in Bangkok then spending a week in Puket (a family friendly island off the mainland). He asked where we were going we said Krabi "oh, which part?" he responded. We don't know. "Oh you should go to Phi Phi. It's the 4th most beautiful island in the world. " Sounds nice...but expensive. He broke out a 50 page packet of times charts prices for nearly every island in thialand. "wow you're organized." "well, it's because I have a family now and have to be." I felt as if our time was appointed, but we didn't get to share anything.

Sweet lady on bus told us, "get off. There's free rice" in the middle of the night so we scrambled off and got food.

Pr for direction when we got here because were showing up to a hub of islands and beaches with no plan at 6am in the Morning and the driver pulls up and they tell the two foreigners this is our stop. Ok sure. He stops and it's right infront of a travel angency. Nice.

I used the bathroom and when I got out, we found out there was 400 baht to get a taxi to the ferry and the ferry to the island, Phi Phi. We could get a small ferry to the back of the island where it was cheap and away from all the people.  Sweet! So we realized he was lining things up, we should go. The taxi left at 8 and the ferry to the island at 9. So we signed up and met a girl named Laura from Germany whose about our age studying Business Administration in ShangHai going go about the same place.

We got to this fantastic island and became bombarded by taxis and boat offers and etc.  We walked down the beach by all the boats looking for the 50 baht one promised by our travel lady and found the cheapest price at 150 a person up to 400. We kept walking. At the help of an Australian dive guy he pointed out an area of cheaper accommodations. We were shooting for and budgeted for 300 baht a night. We hiked for about 10 min and found The Rock- a backpackers hostel that a few had mentioned. 300 a night but horrible conditions. There were probably babies made there and smoking and drinking all around. We ate lunch then headed out. 
We walked through a barrage of shops and stores randomly asking questions about the other side of he island, if it was expensive, if there were places to eat and such. The prices of local ones were either topping 2000 or were full. The few cheap places were booked and looked like party places. It was hot and we were still trekking around our huge backpacking packs. Laura gave in after about an hour or so as we were leaving civilization. She said, "I want to be back in Germany" and went back to the Rock. 

We decided we should probably just stop and pr again as we had been going at it and the only free spots were over 3500. Our options were: walk back through, try the other side, the Rock, or sleep outside. We decided to trek over to the other side. It seemed as if He had lead us here and navigated us to this spot and was signaling us over, so we went. Singing. "I don't think I'm in enough shape to sing and hike" o complained. Jordan responded with "oh come on. Paul and Silas were beaten and could still sing." so off we went with "Here is our King" by David Crowder echoing through the forrest.

We took a few stops along the way, asked the very few people that drove by, many if them were clueless as to the city on the other side and even more bumfuzzled about if this road we were on lead us there. So again we stopped and asked for directions.
Somehow about an hour in we found the reservoir and the water bottle filling factory.  A man on a scooter wizard by and asked where we were going, we told him the city on the other side. He said we were on the wrong road. We took a wrong turn that we didnt even see.  He said the roAd we were on lead to Long Beach. We asked for cheap accommodations and he said Long Beach is better. He said 3-400! In our price range!  He also suggested Long Beach Resort would have it. Smart man. His name...Solomon. No lie.

After a few more turns we saw the opening of the beach! So beautiful. We Asked for more directions and about 2 min later a man walked through confirming the way we were going.  We saw parts of the island that only a few locals will ever see. So incredibly beautiful. Literally, the more we sang, the prettier the sights got. We passed a field of buterflies.

Jordans foot was hurting (from 2 hours of hiking with a 30-40lb pack on) and the recovery from surgery. We were talkin about how Good He had been to us and how impossible all of this had been apart from Him. We stopped again to thank Him. Then, as obvious as it seemed, "wanna pr for your foot?" "yeah!"  so we did. RecogniZing it was all by His power hat we were where we were, hiking on a remote trail on he 4th most beautiful island on the world, pretty much by accident. Then we asked Him to complete His testimony by taking away the pain in Jordans foot...and He did. "oh man! It feels really good right now" Jordan sId as he took a few steps. "praise G." 

Finally, we made it to the bottom of the hill and onto the beach.  (I remembered when i used to ask that i would be following Him so much that He would take me to places that if He didn't come through I was screwed. ...I pretty much found it. Homeless without really a place to stay on a party island without knowing where we really were. And not enough money exchanged to be able to pay for anything too expensive. But i laughed because i knew he was going to come through.) We looked for the Long Beach Resort (even though it sounded expensive- that's what the messenger said and that's what we looked for.) we showed up and asked of they had any rooms. Just 1000 and 1200. The other 400 rooms were full. One lady sitting nearby stated they were leaving tomorrow and theirs would be free. So we took the 1000 baht one which turns out is for the room and not a piece like the other ones. So it's only a little more and we reserved he 400 one for the rest of the nights so it balances out to less than 300.  Plus, it's on the beach, and we asked the lady next door with scuba equipment and there's a reef 100 yards off the shore with supposedly sharks there that we can go swim with.

We are so over blessed and so overwhelmed. We listened and sought Him. We took stupid acts of f8th, asked for help alot, became very humble, praised Him alot, prayed even more, were very blessed.

I mean you know this isn't us based on the fact that we couldn't make up our mind when leaving the hostel yesterday, to the fact that we took a 2.5 hour hike over the mountain to end up a 30 min walk down the beach. He has been very good to us. Very very good. This trip is an example of His goodness and how He treats His servants. It's all Him. All about Him.  

I'll leave you with this quote: 

A vacation does not mean a break from being a light, it means you don't have to do work and all you have to do is get to love people and focus on being a light and truth to them.