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A BIG HELLO FROM THAILAND!!
Really hope you are all well! Just to give you all a quick update with where we are and what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks!
When we last wrote we were just about to leave for Phi Phi. We took a boat from Ao Nang over to Phi Phi and stayed there for two nights. Luckily the weather was brilliant so we chilled out on the beach on the first day and then took a longtail boat over to Maya Bay the following day. We managed to book a cheap trip that took you to some of the bays where you could do some snorkelling before going over to Maya Bay for 3 hours. Maya Bay was absolutely gorgeous and we arrived there before tons of tourists arrived so was able to get some pics and chill, a very beautiful location! Phi Phi was a lovely island, however a little over-run with young westerners getting trashed every night, we decided to get a few alcoholic buckets ourselves and join in on the beach whilst watching the numerous fire-dance shows. We then left Phi Phi and took a boat over to Ko Samui where we stayed for 5 nights, purely because the island was nice and chilled and we had our own little beachhut which was located right on the beach so we had a really relaxing time there, (and the weather was great!). We did an island tour which took us around the whole island taking in the major sights, we even got to see some of the working monkeys and had one sit on our shoulder! After Ko Samui we decided to get moving again and took another boat over to Ko Tao which too was very lovely (the most relaxed out of them all) and stayed there for two nights. We did'nt really do any exploring, just decided to make the most out of our beach time before we left the islands. From Ko Tao we then took a boat and coach to Bangkok just so we could then get to Chiang Mai from there. We arrived in Bangkok at 9.00pm and just crashed in a guesthouse by the train station as the following day we had a 'sleeper train' booked to take us up to Chiang Mai which was a 14hr trip!! Luckily the train departed at 6.10pm and we arrived in Chiang Mai the following morning so was able to sleep most of the journey. We arrived here on Friday and are staying at Kavil guesthouse which is so lovely and the owners are so friendly and welcoming. So...friday we just got our bearings of the city and had a little explore before getting a good nights sleep as we had booked a day-trip to Bannchang Elephant Sanctuary for the following day! We were up having our free breakfast at 8.00am (the owners gave us a discount for the trip and a free breakfast for booking it with them which was handy!) before we got picked up at 8.30am. On our way to the Elepahnt Park, our guide took us to a place where Elephant Poo is used to make paper.....yes paper! It was so interesting as we got to see the process in which it begins as huge lumps of poo and ends up as colourful paper! I had to buy a souvenir card, it was so lovely! We then arrived at the park and got changed into our Mahout clothes before having our briefing with the park owner. We then had a feeding session with the elephants which was brilliant, you could just walk around feeding whichever elephant you wanted, even placing the fruit directly into their mouths! We then had our training with the guides which involved learning how to get up and sit on an elephant, to directing them whilst riding them! Boy was it hilarious!! After lunch we then had our jungle trek with both of us sitting on our elephant called Manoi. Darren decided to be the Mahout first and sat on the elephant's neck with me on the back. It had rained during lunch so when we were travelling up-hill i honestly thought the elephant was going to slip and we were all just going to fall off but as darren kept saying "Babe their huge mammals, there is no way they are going to fall down"! Ha!! We then came off our elephant and learnt more about them whilst the elephants had a break, before going back on them with me guiding the elephant this time and darren being the passenger. Our jungle trek ended with us going into the river and bathing them! We were just climbing on them and brushing them whilst pouring buckets over the elephants and eachother, a truly brilliant experience, the whole day was just an amazing experience!! We then arrived back late afternoon and decided to visit Tiger Kingdom the following day! So.....this morning we took a taxi with these two canadian guys who are staying at our guesthouse to Tiger Kingdom. Once we arrived we decided to visit the big and smallest tigers in which you get to spend 15 minutes in their enclosure. We were taken to the smallest tigers first where they were only 3 months old and were up playing with eachother which was great! Because they were still being trained they kept wanting to climb on us which was very amusing and darren had fun teasing one with a wooden brick! We then got taken over to the adult tiger which was huge!! There were three tigers in this particular outside pen which we were allowed to spend time with, and the guides were just like "yeah you can lay next to them, cuddle them, rub their bellies" just crazy! Beautiful animals though and it was definitely worth the trip! We have got some brilliant photos of us and the tigers and at the Elephant Sanctuary so will try and get these all on here a.s.ap along with the island photos!
Were off to the Sunday markets now!! I am LITERALLY addicted to markets, every other stall sells the same stuff but i just love walking around them, seeing people barter and looking at all the hawker stalls, lots of fun! And Chiang Mai is a shopper's paradise! ha!
We will probably be leaving to go to Laos on Tuesday or Wednesday so will write again soon to fill you all in! Take care, love us xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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