Koh Yao Noi

After Chiang Mai, we headed to Koh Yao Noi. This was a small fishing island off the coast of Phuket, but it's very untouristy - in fact, while we were there, sometimes we were the only people in certain restaurants, and walking around, there wasn't many tourists. It was a mainly backpacker type travelers here, because it's mostly bungalows. The beach was nice during high tide, but it was very rocky/muddy during low tide. Also, there was a ton of mosquitoes, but still, the peace and quiet was nice, and the scenery and having almost the whole beach to yourself. Priceless.















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Chiang Mai, part 1

After China, we traveled to Thailand for about 2 weeks before heading back home.

First we stayed 6 nights in Chiang Mai, and had a ton of adventures there.

This is our $14/night hotel. Not too shabby huh? It even had a very nice balcony and a view!






One of the days, we went to Tiger Kingdom, where you can take pictures of you with big tigers. They were pretty big, and kind of scary, because you know how powerful they can be, but it was pretty neat and a little adrenaline pumping to be hanging out with these big lazy tigers.








After Tigers, there are also elephants! We did a program called "Elephant Keeper for a Day" at Patara Elephant Farms, which was AWESOME! We were given a ride to the farm, in the morning we bathed our elephants, and then we rode them to this stream/pond area and had a yummy picnic provided for us, and then we rode back to the farm and relaxed. It was a great experience and a bit scary, because when you are on top of the very tall elephant, the only thing keeping you from falling to the ground is your legs squeezing the elephants' head, because there wasn't really anything to grab other than its head bumps. Nevertheless, a fun experience.

Here's a video of me getting on my elephant

As for the rest of the days at Chiang Mai, we went to the zoo (they have pandas!), went to a few markets, and some temples. Nothing was really as exciting as the tigers and elephants, but they were all fun anyway.

Some pictures of the zoo:







And finally, here's a few pictures of chiang mai's temples and marketplaces.








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Chiang Mai, part 2

For the second part of Chiang Mai, we went to wat phrathat doi suthep, a temple on the top of a mountain, and the nearby phuping palace, which was actually known for the gardens around the palace. The flowers were absolutely beautiful there!







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