Baan Chang Elephant Park

So - OH MY GOD! This was such a highlight of our entire trip! We spent a most fantastic day hanging with elephants! What was especially rewarding is that this park rescues elephants from "shows", "hard labour" and any other number of poor situations where elephants might find themselves. The owner of this park used to be a tour guide and saw how horrible some elephants were treated. He was also a monk! He finally succeeded in his dream of creating his own refuge for elephants. So they now lead the life that an elephant should! What is also great to know is that Thailand has now made hard labour for elephants illegal (although it still does happen, especially with logging in the jungle.)
So now all day all they do is eat, frolic and spend time with their "mahout" (the caregiver of the elephant). The elephant's only daily chore is to take tourist's for a jungle walk, but it is all bare back, not those horrible box seats that typical "elephant rides" provide. The owner said these are quite uncomfortable and painful for the elephant. Oh what a magical experience!
This park has 9 adults (2 of whom are preggers) and 2 babies! They carry for 24 months! No thanks! We first got to meet all the elephants personally and their mahouts. In this park they are very strict about each mahout having only one elephant. They bond with it and take care of it all day, 7 days a week - no holidays ;o(. To see the relationship each elephant and it's mahout have is just so precious! They goof around together, play together and have such a wonderful connection.
We next got to feed them all bananas and sugar cane. They were so friendly and you would pop like 8 bananas at a time into their mouths or hand them off to their trunk. Those suckers can chew like the dickens!
After we bonded a bit, we then learned all the words to go left, right, stop and straight and how to get on and off. Then it was practice time! It was so much fun, especially when they actually listened to you!
So after a quick once over, we were off! Our elephant was called Mayupie and she was 8 months pregnant! We led the pack with two elephants behind us. We were lucky to have only a small group of 6 in total - 2 girls from Holland and a couple from Germany. They all spoke English and were lovely! We were all happy to get to be so close and intimate with the elephants who followed their mahouts quite happily! There was no need for a lot of instructions on our end. There was only one naughty 5 year old elephant in our group who just wanted to explore. The poor girls from Holland were thrown about like crazy!
After we got back it was straight to the water hole so we could wash them. They LOVED this! We got soaked (as you will see in the video). Matt got the brunt of it - ha ha - but I certainly got my fair share!
Enjoy the pics! And don't fret about the chain around one baby. It is chained to it's mother while it is still feeding and also for protection, as one of the older abused elephants does not like babies. It goes along with it's Mom everywhere and it's grandma also lives in the park too! They are such a happy family. When we got back it charged ahead, dragging it's mummy behind to see it's grandma and then came with us for a swim!
Man - if you ever get the chance to do this DO IT! It is something Matt and I will NEVER forget!
Many hugs!
xxoo

Phuket - Karon Beach and Hotel

So, just to give you a sense of the hotel and beach, here are some photos. The first couple are just of us hanging in the pool. The other two are of Karon beach (one of which we took on a long hike up the side of the hill). Not much to explain here...

Phang Nga Bay

So Phang Nga Bay ("Pang Na") is pretty awesome. We visited four islands on our tour there. First was Panak Island, where you canoe through meter-high tunnels (essentially lying down) into an incredible lagoon filled with mangroves and surrounded by 200 meter-high sheer cliffs that still amazingly support trees! Next was Hong Island (hongs are the actual rocks that seemingly shoot out of the water) - same deal here, just more of it. Third was "James Bond Island" (of Man with the Golden Gun fame) - which is unfortunately overrun with tourists (what's new?) but still pretty beautiful. The name of the fourth escapes me, but it's mainly just for swimming or canoeing on your own - we chose the latter.

Good-bye Phuket, hello Chiang Mai!

Well today is our last full day in Phuket as we leave tomorrow for Chiang Mai. I must say Matt and I will not be sad to leave Phuket. We thought having a week in a nice place and in a more westernized area would be a lovely break - but in all honesty we have liked this period the least in our entire trip!
The throngs of tourists, the package tours - it's just too overwhelming and not a lot of fun. We have certainly had some great moments and enjoyed ourselves for the most part, but we are ready to get back to exploring, trekking and a LOT less tourists. Plus - I know this will sound shocking - but after many weeks of beaches, they don't hold the same appeal as they initially do in the beginning. The new sites, cultures and experiences are what you REALLY crave!
Thailand is stunning though, and Chaing Mai is mainly jungle so we are excited to see what it has in store for us. We have 6 days there and then we move on to Bangkok. To think, in a few days we will already have crossed the halfway mark of our trip! Time flies - but we do feel like we have been away FOREVER!
As always we miss all of you like crazy. We have luckily had the chance to speak with Matt's parents on skype and yesterday we spoke to Paul, Ashley and Willis! It was simply wonderful!
Anyway hope you are well and until the next time!
xxoo

Ko Phi Phi Pics

Yesterday was our first of two day trips while here in Phuket that seemingly came out of a "tour factory".
We went to Ko Phi Phi which, on it's own, is simply magical. The problem is, you're enjoying it with about 600 other people.
You start with a long minibus ride to the speed boat terminal, with each boat carrying up to 50 people (we had 45 other passengers, including four of the fobbiest J-Pop girls I've ever seen). The one-hour ride to the island is bumpy ("the sea was angry that day my friends"...), but actually a lot of fun. The trip included swimming, awesome snorkeling, a decent lunch, and a great boat tour of the islands. Oh and feeding some monkeys too. All in all, not a half bad day.

100% Tourist!

Well we are in Phuket Thailand and we are officially tourists!!! You SO feel like a tourist here, almost immediately after leaving the airport! Not 20 minutes in we were taken to a government tour office where we were suckered into two tours (well they were places to go on our "to do" list here, so....), then we passed through Patong Beach which feels like an explosion of college Spring Breakers.
One of the tour operators was very curious as to how we even managed to get a place to stay here as all the hotels are full here for Chinese New Year. So you can imagine how busy it is. Matt was brilliant in his planning though and secured our stay at a much quieter beach around 5-7 minutes drive from the main one. Thank God - as even this beach is quite busy.
We have also splurged a little and are staying at a nice resort. There is a beautiful roof top pool, spa, restaurant and many more vacationers. It is quite a change of speed for us, and I almost feel like I am breaking some sort of "travelers code" but it is a rather nice luxury, so we are going to really soak it up and enjoy.
Today we just relaxed on the beach and got our bearings. Matt also got a much needed hair cut and I finally had a real pedicure - yay! We then just chilled on the beach.
Tomorrow we are off on our first tour to Ko Phi Phi Island, and a couple of surrounding islands where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We are going to do some snorkeling, and site seeing, and well perhaps I will run into Leonardo DiCaprio who could perhaps be visiting his old haunting grounds!
Our next tour is two days later where we go to another grouping of islands, with one of them being a back drop for yet another James Bond movie. I must confess between Leo and Daniel Craig, I am REALLY rooting for Daniel to be making a return viz.
Other than that not much news to report! We will fill you in if any scandal should arise.
Missing you all, more than you could possibly know,
xxoo

Farwell Langkawi

So, it's our last morning in Langkawi, and it's half-time in the Superbowl (first one I've missed since I started watching football 18 or 19 years ago!) Not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of sports bars here in Langkawi, in which life goes a little slower than home. (There is an "Irish Pub" that shows the other football.)
Life here has been great. Full of adventures, relaxing, good eats, beautiful scenery, and heat heat heat.
To demonstrate the life in Langkawi, I've cobbled a "daily" story. First photo is as we walk out our room door. Second photo is of the road we take to the main road. Third photo is us on the scoots (albeit on another part of the island). Fourth is of the "busier" Pantai (beach) Cenang. And fifth is of the beach closest to us, Pantai Tengah. (How many Veronicas can you see?)
Next up is Thailand!