In the morning I was up early and booked myself in for elephant trekking with Nosey Parker's tours. I was picked up and taken to the elephant sanctuary where I was introduced to my elephant Ka Ka.
We went for a trek through the jungle where we also saw monkeys:
Afterwards I said thank you to Ka Ka with some elephant size pineapple treats:
...before the elephants relaxed and had a nice cool bath:
The next day I went off to the 4 island boat trip:
One of the islands we visited was known as Chicken Island:
We went to a third island, had lunch on the beach then dashed back on to the boat as a storm started. The rain was pouring down and our guides didn't want us on the water so we went to an island with a restaurant we could shelter in to sit out the storm. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the final island on our schedule but instead they took us to Railay beach where we found caves with some surprising fertility shrines:
Once we were back in Krabi town I finished off my visit with the local temple:
In the morning I took a bus to my next stop; Phuket where I stayed with Magda, from Poland, and her boyfriend Nick, from Ireland. We had a relaxing afternoon by the pool before they took me to a couple of bars in town with their friend Jason, from England. The following day I went in to town and since it was raining again I experience my first Thai massage. In the afternoon I took a tuk tuk to Wat Chalong, Phuket's biggest temple:
and in the evening I took a night bus to Bangkok to finish my Asian Adventure!
I had set off to Bangkok a day earlier than expected due to a last minute decision that there wasn't much else to see in Phuket so when I arrived at 7:30 in the morning I needed to work out how to get to an area with backpacker accommodation and then find somewhere to stay. Luckily a local helped me out and took to the nearest metro station so I could head towards Khao San road. I found the MOM Guesthouse and booked myself in for the next three nights.
I went for a wonder around the local area and found the Grand Palace:
...which was exactly as the name suggested. I just and so made it all the around the palace without collapsing from the heat! Next I went to see the massive sleeping Buddha. On the way I definitely learnt never to trust a Thai person as one of the tuk tuk driver bare face lied to me telling me the sleeping Buddha temple was closed now and only on that particular day and did I want to go to see something else, obviously with the use of his tuk tuk. Luckily I knew different and continued on my way in a slightly worse mood for being interrupted by him.
When I got to the temple it was pretty obvious why it was a popular attraction:
After some searching around for the best price I booked myself on to a trip to the floating market and tiger temple so the next morning I was up bright and early to set off on a bus to the floating market:
where people were selling everything from souvenirs to clothing and even fully cooked meals from their little boats:
Then after some driving, lunch and some more driving we came to the bridge over the River Kwai, built by prisoners of war:
Then after yet more driving we arrived at the tiger temple where got up close and personal with some of the big cats!
and some of the little ones too:
The next day I went on a trip to the old capital city; Ayatthaya to visit temples:
...and some ruins from the wars with Myanmar (Burma):
and, of course, we saw some more Buddhas:
In the ruins most of the Buddah's heads had been removed and in one case a tree had grown around a Buddha head:
On my last day in Bangkok, Thailand and Asia I simply enjoyed relaxing and doing a bit of shopping then after a night at the airport, a flight to Delhi, another flight to London, a night with my friends Olivia and Malky, a mega bus, a train, a coach and finally another train I eventually made it home to see my family. What a trip and what a relief to be back in the UK... but there's definitely still plenty more out there to see!
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