So let's get everyone caught up. The pictures of the islands you saw last time are just off the coast of Ao Nang about 45 minutes outside of Krabi. We took the guest house up on a package deal that toured the four most popular islands. The tour was all day, and only cost us $18 each, with lunch included. All the islands were so beautiful and we had a blast. The tour had about 12 people and everyone was real nice.
My favorite part of the tour sadly has no photos. We had plenty of time to go snorkeling and we used every minute of it. We arrived to a beach and the tour guides handed out snorkeling kits. With out any explanation on what to do with them we figured out how to where them and hopped in the water. This was my first snorkeling experiences, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. So there I am just floating around, looking at the rocks and coral, finding it all really beautiful, when out of the corner of my eye I see something bright. I turn around and there are dozens of bright yellow and blue fish inches away from my face. I scream like as if it was a shark, drawing the attention of all who don't have their heads in the water. Feeling quite embarrassed, I dip my face back in, and realize why snorkeling is fun. Its things like this that remind me that I'm a city boy, living in a land locked state.
We snorkeled around the beach on Poda island for almost an hour, only seeing about three species of fish. Then we got back in our boat. The next stop was more snorkeling, this time near an under water cave. This place was fantastic. The under water world near the cave, was completely unreal. The coral went down about 50 feet in some parts, and the amount of life was astonishing. We saw hundreds of different fish, sea aninamies, urchins, and other wild critters of the sea. Zoey saw a blue comb squid jelly, or something, that was bio iluminesent. Quite cool. At one point I saw a purple aninamie, about 20 feet down from me on a rock, so I swam down to get a better look. When I approached it three perculia clown fish came out of it and swam right up to my face. They looked at me and darted right back inside their purple home.
The tour was nice from there on out but that was really the highlight of the day. The food was good and getting out of the city was key.
We returned to Krabi, for a few more nights and took it easy. I was finally able to get a hold of my dear friend Lyn and talk about the recent passing of a good friend back in Denver. Rest in peace Chris.
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The last day in Krabi we made it a place called Tiger Cave Temple. TCT is famous among the Buddhist people being a very holy place, and famous among the tourist, because they have thousands of monkeys.
We went for the monkeys. The monkeys were too funny. They run around all day, working in teams scavengerring for food and other goods from the tourist. The monkeys are wild and not at all friendly but so interesting. If they see you have food they will approach you and beg, and if that doesn't work they will yell at you showing all their sharp teeth scaring you into dropping your food. If that doesn't work they will climb your body, violently taking what they want. At one point I was sitting on a bench and a monkey was sitting near me minding its own business. I heard a yell and turned my attention back to the monkey, seeing that he had snatched up my water bottle. Holding it in one had he climbed up a tree, just out of my reach, and proceeded to open my bottle, and drink from it. What a jerk! The first few drinks were quenching to the monkeys thirst, but the last was more of a dump on its head for a bath. He then threw the bottle at me and took off for more monkey business.
Monkeys
We sadly left Krabi, calling it one of the greatest towns in all of Thailand. After 36 hours on a train we arrived in Chang Mai. This is a popular destination for travelers, because it is way up north in the mountains, so the weather is much nicer. Chang Mai is quite nice, not to big, but still has a big city feel, with a good night life.
The second day here we headed off to a place called Elephant Nature Park. This is a sanctuary for abused, and neglected elephants. At one point Thailand had the largest number of elephants in all of Asia. Sadly, the numbers have fallen so greatly, they are now endangered. The park was really fun. We got to be around the elephants almost all day. We fed them, cleaned them and walked around with them. We learned a lot about the giant creatures and had a wonderful day there.
Elephants
Here are some other photos I took. The children are so cute here in Thailand.
This thing was really cool. What we have here is a large stone, that has a perfect imprint of a hand in it. It is said that the rock was discovered while breaking ground to build the foundation of a new temple. The hand print was all ready in the rock. The Thai did however decorate it in gold.
I have been taking lots of pictures of flowers along the way. These are all flowers that come from Thailand.
This is a little bouquet I made for Zoey.
Videos
this monkey took my bottle
this one love boxes
So many monkeys
sensitivity plant
