So much activity

The streets are always so busy and congested. The only time I ever saw them quiet was when the Princess was coming through. The whole street turned dead quiet and then there were about five police cars proceeding her black Mercedes and about five following. After they passed it was like someone hit play again, right back to the noise and traffic...

Abandoned...

There are lots of buildings like this one that started out great and then halfway through they ran out of funding. These buildings are just left here as big cement blocks that have turned into homes for the homeless.

This is a very sad but common site in the Philippines. There are shanties like this one just lining the streets. Welcome to a 3rd world country.

Tobacco Field

I'm sweating just thinking about this lady. She's 55 years old and has been working these fields all her life. She wears so many clothes to protect herself from the sun, which is scorching hot. I think it was about 90 degrees that day. After a full day of working in the fields she has earned about $4 dollars!!

Tsunami

No matter where we went on Phuket or any of the surrounding islands, there were Tsunami warnings and signs everywhere! I'm not sure how much good they are going to do if there's not more of a warning system but at least they show routes to high ground. There was one sign that had a separate route for locals and tourists. Not too sure which was better but we decided we would follow the Thai if anything happened!!

Phi Phi Island tour

We went on a day trip to visit a few of the surrounding islands. This is pretty much what the whole trip looked like. We stopped and went snorkeling at two different locations. The first spot was neat but a lot of the coral was dead. The second spot was gorgeous and we saw a shark! They told us there were black tipped shark but not to be afraid of them. I felt like I was in an aquarium and was strangely not afraid whatsoever. Snorkeling in Canandaigua lake is never going to be the same after that.

The Beach

This is the infamous Maya Cove. The place where The Beach was filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio. The sand was so fine it was like walking on flour. I think when they filmed the movie it used to be a little beach not too many people knew about. Now it's a National Park and can get so crowded that you can't even see the beach! Luckily it was only semi-crowded when we were there.

Koh Chang Beach

There was a storm blowing in on our last island visit and we had to get going to outrace the rain. It was very ominous looking but beautiful.

Elephants

We saw this little bar on the side of the road that had monkeys swinging from the rafters. Being the animal lover that I am we decided to stop and see if we could play with them. Aside from the entertaining monkeys that would look you over for any bugs or lice that they might want to eat, they had elephant treks! Halfway through the ride our guide asked if anyone wanted to steer him. I got to sit behind his ears all the way down the mountain!! A lot different than riding a horse. Awesome experience but wrong day to wear a skirt.

Marriott

The hotel we stayed at in Phuket was gorgeous. They had three swimming pools in addition to being on the Andaman Sea. This little elephant would wander from pool to pool and make friends. You could give him either food or tips. I'm sure he would prefer the food but his trainer always let you pet him a little longer if you gave him a tip! He would even do a little bow and then put the money in his trainer's pocket with his trunk. I wonder how long it took them to train him the difference between edible and non-edible?

Safari World

This was a huge platform where you could feed the giraffes either bananas or leaves. The bananas were most definitely their favorite. We are sitting down but you can lean pretty far over that ledge to try and give a baby some food. You had to watch out for their tongues though, they were about 2 feet long, black, and a little rubbery feeling.

Monkey business

The zoo in Bangkok was amazing! You could get so close to the animals. I actually got to pet a Lemur through his cage. He loved it. I didn't think of the possibility of him biting me until I came back home and people starting asking...The monkeys were cool. Their arms were probably about four feet long! I was just commenting to Ryan about how neat it was to be able to get so close to the cute little animals when this furry arm reached out and grabbed the sunglasses right off the top of my head! No chance in getting those back. They had a ball with them. Tossing them back and forth, chewing the rubber nose piece like gum and looking at me very innocently like "What? Are these yours?" I was laughing too hard to be mad.

Sukothai

We went to a little province (?) outside of Thailand where they farm rice, tobacco and bananas. This is one of the millions of rice paddies. Talk about mosquito's. Actually, I never saw a mosquito but there were tons of birds swooping around eating bugs that I can only assume were of the blood sucking variety.

Don't ask...

This was at an open market in Sukothai. Aside from selling fresh fruits and vegetables they had some delectable items like smoked fish, pig heads, and this lump of what I can only assume is cow innards? Yummy.

McRice Burger

There are actually tons of Western resteraunts in Asia. Of course McDonald's is one of them. I suppose being in Asia they thought if it's made out of rice, people will eat it. Despite the catchy name I only saw foreigners trying it. After deciding what the heck, may as well join in, I figured out sometimes it's best to follow the locals. One bite is enough to know why it hasn't made it to the menu in the US.

Museum of Anatomy

We decided to stop in and visit the Museum of Anatomy at one of the local hospitals. They had some pretty graphic stuff on display. This was the least disgusting (hard to imagine, huh?) and the most hilarious. For us, not for him. Not a good thing to get Elephantitis of...Ewwwww. Or should I say Oww?

Awwww...

This was the best. Getting to feed baby lions and Tigers. Their paws were huge!!

Temple

This is one of the many temples scattered throughout Thailand. The population is 95% Buddhist so there are lots of Monks walking around. This particular temple is no longer in use and is now a tourist spot.

Rahzal

Ryan and I standing in front of a statue for the National hero of the Philippines. When the Spaniards came in and enslaved the Philippines they set up a "city of walls" called Intramuros. Rahzal was the rebel who eventually freed the Philippines from the Spaniards cruel ruling.