Woke up early due to my Anusara immersion timeclock. Had full intention of an asana practice before breakfast but I really wanted to see the Andaman Sea. So I had some fruit and took a long walk along the beach and the waking village.

Nai Yang is located on the northern part of Phuket island, on the west coast and the beach is a lovely sandy stretch along a cove. There are coral breaks far out so the ocean was very calm and glassy. And bathtub warm. The beach and resort is surrounded by the Sirinat National Park with tall trees that provide shade at the sandy edge. Its strange that smack dab in the middle of the national park is a small strip of development, which includes our hotel and a handful of seafood beach shacks, massage shops and souvenir huts. After my walk I headed back to the room, and was inspired to do some yoga! My body missed the multiple lunges and pigeons and even did a forearm stand for one entire song on my iPod.

Then showered and wandered out to get a much-needed pedicure down the road while I waited for Inna to arrive. Today was Chinese new year and as I was sitting, getting pampered, the owner of the massage/nail shop drives up wearing a bright red teeshirt with gold lettering, white sorts and platters of food and multiple bottles of booze (it was around 1015 am at this point). They set up the spread in the front terrace and then all placed various incense sticks on everything and started to pray. Not sure if the food was an offering or later eaten. The ceremony concluded with super loud firecrackers that sounded like machine gun fire. All the while I am getting my toes attended to!

Inna arrived after a fun two days of touring and shopping in Hong Kong. She has at least twice the amount of luggage I do for 1.5 weeks, haha. We had a Thai lunch of pad thai, papaya salad and spring rolls beachside and started our beach holiday off with a cocktail too (detox be gone?). Then lazed in the sun and swam in the bath-like sea all afternoon with the tourist population that was representing a speedo majority. Nai Yang seems to be a very popular beach destination with eastern Europeans. Many of the menus were is Thai, English and Russian.

When the sun set, Back to the room to cool down and yogify and shower. I taught Inna how to support my full wheel posture with her ankles and timed my headstand/shoulder stand sequence with her hair drying routine. We then treated ourselves to pre-dinner beach massages. It has been 3 days since my last massage, so it was about time! And then dinner on the beach, fresh fish and rice to close the day. There was a sneaky little kitten at the restaurant who came running out at full speed following the waiter deliver our plates. She jumped up next to Inna on the bench, begging like a puppy. We picked her up and dropped her a ways away, but she ran back, jumped on the table and started on Inna's plate! Too quick to photograph... We were rescued by the waiter who put the poor thing in a cage to allow us to finish our meal in peace. It must have been stalking the kitchen line! Early night in, as early departure tomorrow for an all day snorkeling adventure at the Similan Islands.