One of the first places I went to in Chiang Mai was 'Tiger Kingdom'. I went with a group from my hostel and we were able to hang out with the large tigers, as well as the cubs. They large ones were awesome and the small ones, well they were adorable.
6 week old tiger cubs!
The owner of Spicy Thai Backpackers Hostel, Noom, took a group of us to Doi Suthep, a reknowned wat on the top of a mountain. It's quite high and we were told that it is one of 5 temples that Thai people try to get to within their lifetime. This picture is of a part of the temple where you can pay a certain amount of money and be immortalized into the stone of the temple when you die.
This is the 'old city' in Chiang Mai, which is bordered by a wall. The picture doesn't do it justice though, as the wall is quite immense.
Ko Phi Phi! It's a gorgeous island and had some of the most beautiful landscapes I saw when I was in Thailand.
While Ko Phi Phi boasts beautiful sandy beaches and terrain, it also boasts one of Southeast Asia's biggest (free) beach parties. There are three bars on the beach and each one has it's own promotions as well as it's own fire show. This is one of the Thai men doing the limbo (we're talking about a foot and a half off the ground) and lighting a cigarette. Astounding. And something I would never do.
While on Phi Phi, I went with a group from my hostel to Long Beach, which was about a 45 minute walk from the main pier. It was much more calm and quiet, really peaceful. This was on our way there, passing all the boats rolling into Phi Phi.
Monkey Beach! Notice how this guy (I called him Grandpa Monkey) has a pepsi bottle.
Cliff jumping! Such a rush :).
Sunset on the boat after going to Maya Bay, where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed
I took a day off of the beach parties and craziness to go rock climbing on Railey Beach after several days on Phi Phi. It was a wonderful decision, and I ultimately ended up going back to take a rock climbing course. The area is actually one of the top 10 rock climbing area's in the world, which I didn't know when I started.
One of the cheapest ways to travel between islands in Southern Thailand is to take night ferries. Basically, they are cargo ships that cram as many beds/ mattresses on the top floor as possible. They generally leave around 9 pm and get to the islands at 4 or 5 am. I can't say it's one of the most comfortable things, but it's definitely an experience. Each boat is a little different too, so you never really know what you are getting into. I think on this boat there were 60 people lining each side. I was traveling from Surat Thani to Koh Phangan
I was on Koh Phangan for about a week which gave me plenty of time to explore. Just one of the beaches on the other side from where I was staying.
I met a really great group of people in Phangan, and some of us rented a Jeep for the day to see the other parts of the island. That's Justin, Mijke and I hanging on in the back!
My own little secluded beach! Okay, not really, but it was fun to pretend. In any case, there were hardly any people out here.
Of course, we ran across some elephants. It's a strange thing when seeing elephants wandering around doesn't surprise you anymore. This happened to be an elephant camp of sorts that one of us knew about. They let us take pictures and feed them (for a price of course).
Travel pals in Koh phangan! There was a group of 8 of us or so that got food and went out together every night which definitely made the week.
Mijke and I traveled together for about a week and a half and had a blast. She and I were both traveling alone and wanted to make sure we knew people on Ko Phangan. Turned out to be great - we had our own room (with A/C) and didn't have to do the dorm thing.
The full moon on the night of the full moon party on Koh Phangan!
After Koh Phangan, I went to Koh Tao, just a couple hours north. This picture is from a viewpoint on an island right off of Koh Tao.
To get to the viewpoint, I kayaked out with two guys I had been traveling with. It took longer than I thought it would and was much farther than it looked. But we made it and it was well worth it.
After a few days on Koh Tao, it was back to the other side of Southern Thailand to go rock climbing again on Tonsai!
Rapelling out of a cave.
The view from the cave - you can see both Railey West (right) and Tonsai beaches.
Climbing...notice there is no rope above me!
Sunset on Railey West...I don't think I will ever tire of taking sunset/sunrise pictures.
This was something called Deep Water Solo - you climb on cliffs above the water with only climbing shoes and chalk - no rope. It's relatively safe. I had taken a pretty hard fall a few days before so I only went up a couple meters but this guy in the picture is hanging off of that stalagtite in the picture. He was an amazing climber and a little nuts.
Viewpoint on Tonsai
The group I spent most of my time with on Tonsai (minus a couple key people). My and Linda (on the left) did the rock climbing course and then would meet up with the others for dinner and drinks afterwards. Every night we went to a bar called Small World to hang out. Incredibly relaxing and a lot of fun.
This is Songkran - Thai new year. I was under the impression that it lasted for 3 days in Phuket but it was only one day so I got all of two pictures. This was the view from my van as I arrived in Paton Beach. It was, in one word, insanity. But the best part was that it was a holiday celebrated by Thai's and foreigners alike. Everyone had supersoakers and was just tossing buckets of ice water on each other.
So if you didn't read the captions, hopefully you enjoyed the pictures. More on Vietnam and Cambodia in the next few days, as well as school life. I'm off to lesson plan. Goodnight!
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