Elephant Shrine

Crusing around the island

On Thursday Jon and I rented a motorcycle for the day. The island is pretty small - we kept driving by our turns! Here are a few snapshots from the street.






A tuk-tuk - we never actually took one, but they are common to use to get around. (We really just hung out on the beach most of the time!) Just a local taxi.

The King and Queen are highly respected. I thought it was interesting that they have these monument/shrine things all over.

Monkey Island

I felt a bit bad participating in photographing these monkeys - these little guys are kind of exploited. They get thrown some fruit (and the big rotting piles of peels attract lots of nasty bugs), and then people leave their trash on their little tiny beach. I just can't believe how people will throw beer and soda cans on a little tiny beach on an uninhabited island. Who do they think will pick it up??

My favorite boat photos

Boat to Phi Phi Island, Maya Bay, & Khai Island

Unfortunately the only way to really get to the other close islands is on an organized tour. They really speed you around. At each stop we heard, "Swim for 20 minutes!" or "Photos and beach for 45 minutes!" It was great to get out though. The boat ride was super bumpy and the next day both of us were really sore.

Swedish food

We were surprised at the amount of Scandinavian food! One night we even had meatballs with lingonberry jam. Apparently a LOT of people retire in Thailand, from all over the world. We only heard American English a couple times. The only other Americans we met lived in Hong Kong and were vacationing over Chinese New Year, just like us.

Phi Phi Island

This was where some of the scenes from the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Unfortunately, because of that, it is swarming with boats loads of tourists who don't really leave it in pristine condition.

The hotel pool

The first few days were spent just lounging on the beach or out by the pool just a couple meters from our villa.

Jon attempted a huge splash via "the cannonball" manuver. I think he succeeded. We hear that they are going to make this an Olympic event soon.

A new favorite beer - it costs less than $1 when purchased on the beach.

Karon Beach

IOn Thursday, Jon and I booked a trip to Phuket, Thailand. We left Saturday. (It was a bit last-minute.) Because it was so last-minute, we just got a package flight/hotel deal, which we'd never done before. We're usually the cheap back-packer type. It turned out well. The hotel was very nice and we had our own little villa, with a porch that opened up to one of the pools. We were right on Karon Beach, which is the 2nd busiest beach but considered the quieter, more family-oriented beach.