Girls' Cruise- Part 3

Ok, I know. I've been a bad blogger lately. We've been really busy with getting ready to move to a bigger house next week. I also started grad school this week, very exciting! I wanted to finish blogging about the cruise though while it was still on my mind.

So, after Malaysia is where I left off. The day after that we woke up in... PHUKET, THAILAND!!! The land of great food, beautiful beaches, elephants, and very interesting people (aka trannies)!

We had to tender to the dock at Patong Beach. Here is a picture of Andromache grinning on the tender boat...

Once we got off the boat, we immediately saw this beautiful, um, person to the left of us...

We had scheduled a tour, so we hopped on our bus and the first stop was this beautiful temple...


This is me outside the temple, I was excited for the elephants we were about to see!
We drove to the elephant park and watched them dance and do tricks before we got to ride them. It actually made me sad to watch them being forced to perform, but they were really talented and cute! I don't think I will be doing that again though. MAINLY because riding them was TERRIFYING! Two people ride at a time and you can probably tell by looking at the seats that they are not the sturdiest contraptions. I felt like I was going to fall the whole time, especially when we went downhill or uphill.

Notice how Charity is happily snapping pictures and I am grabbing the bar for dear life? This is the BEFORE WE GOT REALLY FREAKED OUT picture...

We each bought a bag of small bananas or what he called, "monzooms" or something that sounded like that. Here is Andromache and Leah's elephant who was behind us sneaking all of our bananas. He was a little fatty!This picture pretty much sums up how you feel on the elephant. WOOOAAAAHHHH.

Ok, you HAVE to click on this picture and see our faces. We all look like we are on a completely different elephant. I look like I want my mommy, Charity looks relaxed or bored, and homeboy on the front looks happy as a lark. That wasn't even the "after" picture. We don't have any after pictures because we were both too busy grabbing the bar for dear life to get our cameras out. Eventually Chairty joined me in the "I want my mommy face" when our elephant decided to run up and down a hill chasing his friend and smacking trunks with it while making the LOUDEST noises. It freaked us out a little to say the least. Glad we got that checked off our lists becuase we will NOT be riding elephants again!

After the nice homeboy on the front whisked us up to the front of the line to get off the elephant, we were happy to be back on a bus and headed back to Patong Beach.

We walked around Patong Beach where they had lots of food, tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws), tourists, pirated merchandise, suit salesmen, and "massage" offers. We got tired of the salespeople and the haggling after about 30 minutes and stumbled upon the BEST Thai restuarant! I was too hungry to take a picture of the food, but I did get a picture of Charity and the most amazing pineapple dessert!


Thailand was my favorite stop, despite the crazy elephant. I would love to go back and see Chang Mai and Bangkok. I've heard great things about Chang Mai. If I do have another elephant encounter, it will NOT be on their backs. It will be here: Elephant Nature Foundation. Check it out, it is really cool!