Wanderlust

Today was our super exciting, awesome Elephant Sanctuary day. We woke up early (although we always do) and got breakfast at our hotel. The breakfast wasn't as good as at Railay but it was included in the room so we couldn't argue with the price. The elephant sanctuary tour is one of the most expensive things we'll do in Thailand but we have been looking forward to it ever since we booked the tickets. The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary company was started in 2015 with just 1 camp of elephants in Northern Thailand. Now there are 9 camps in the North and 3 camps in the South. They help over 150 elephants. All I'm saying is that it's a great cause and we're happy to pay whatever it takes. A pickup truck outfitted with benches in the truck bed picked us up at our hotel at 7am. We drove around the area and picked up some other people from other hotels as well. There was a youngish couple from Norwich, England who were super nice and fun that got on right after us. W...

Our favorite smoothie bar We woke up in our hotel bright and early (we always wake up early) and both of us were feeling much better. Lacey slept much better and I was ready to restart and get cracking on our travel plans for the day. We got the breakfast buffet again. It was the same pretty good food and same amazing view of the beach. After breakfast, we got another smoothie from our favorite stand. Our main morning concern was figuring out how to get across the bay to the big island of Phuket for the next leg of our journey. There were 3 options for us to choose between: a short boat ride/loooooong minivan ride in the morning, a medium speedboat ride and short van ride in the morning, or a short boat and van ride in the afternoon. We had discussed doing an island boat tour in the morning and then doing the afternoon boat and van but the cost of those combined was very, very steep. We also didn't want to spend all day in a minivan so we chose the speedboat option. It ended ...

For most people this won't be that interesting to read about but I wanted to post the planned schedule for where we'll be each day for family or friends wondering. This is the longest trip I've done since Europe in college (Lacey went to Europe this summer for 5 weeks so this is old hat for her).  Sunday, December 31 - Fly to Chicago at 3:55pm Monday, January 1 - Leave Chicago at 12:20am Tuesday January 2 - Land at 10:40am, find our hostel, explore a little, and rest up Wednesday January 3 - Bangkok (historical sights, canal tour, lots of food, khao san road) Thursday January 4 - More Bangkok, fly to Krabi at 6:15pm Friday January 5 - Beach Time, Phi Phi Island tour? Or other tour? Saturday January 6 - Ao Phang Nga National Park (Boat tour and canoe trip) Sunday January 7 - Beach Time, take boat to Phuket Area Monday January 8 - Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, more beach time Tuesday January 9 - Fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia at 6:20am, find hotel, explore temples? Wedn...