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.