Krabi, Thailand: Ao Nang

The second half of the trip we spent in Ao Nang.  We felt very disappointed when we first got there... It is very frat boy beachy and touristy compared with our secluded fully serviced basically private island that we were coming from. 

We did get in our groove there and enjoyed the beach, jungle elephant trek, and swimming!

We stayed at the Ao Nang Orchid Resort.  It was nice enough and we had a great view from our rooms. 








This is where our boat docked when we arrived back on mainland.... egads!  Wife beater t-shirt man was our driver... who was a crazy driver....

Saying good bye to our beloved Jay from Piman Pu

On the wall of the hotel.......After we explained this to the kids they asked if we should pray in that direction as well?!

View from rooms

Anxiously awaiting our elephant trek at Nosey Parker's!

Alice cried almost the entire way....  Greta was on the fence and ME... not so much.  I felt very cynical about the whole idea at first ...... since it is so hyped but I had so much fun!  I LOVED it!

Giving our elephant a reward at the end

Ao Nang Beach

Krabi, Thailand: Early Morning Walk -Koh Pu

We had lots of time to go for runs and nice long walks.  I swear we were the only foreigner's on the island!  One think that I learned on our trip was that rubber is a commodity... did you know that?

 Check out the pictures of were all your tires come from.

I have been so surprised to see where my stuff comes from (factories in China or even closer to the beginning of the trees that make my rubber).  Seeing the beginning of my stuff has changed the way I consume..... that and moving away from all my favorite places to shop!

This was the main road on Koh Pu

Koh Pu was hit by the tsunami several years ago but had no loss of life because according to the locals, "someone was on their hand phone with someone in Phi Phi and they told them that they saw it coming... this person warned everyone and they ran to the mountains."  They still don't have any way to warn citizens about tsunami's.  Made me feel a little nervous.....

Real live house.....

Rubber grove.  Once the trees mature they can be tapped for rubber for 20 + years if taken care of.

They create these channels on the tree and the cups fill up with the rubber.  Men come in the middle of the night (because that is when they weep the most) and empty the cups and start producing sheets of rubber...

A machine that they still use to roll out the rubber sheets

Rubber drying... you see this all over the island

Rubber camp in the grove... there were a lot of these little processing camps

A home near a grove... People would not let me take pictures of them :(   So I resorted to snapping photo's while the rode past on motor bikes!

This lady comes after the rains and tips the cups and starts a new channel for the rubber to come down.  She was the only person that would let me photograph her....

1,2,3,4,5,6?!

4 plus laundry!  Wow.....

Krabi, Thailand: M's Birthday Part II Island Hopping

If you're have going to have a birthday... there is none place better than Krabi.  We spent the day snorkeling, eating fresh fruit, playing on the beach, eating fresh fruit, boating around... and eating fresh fruit!  It was so much fun. 

So much fun that I am even going to post a few bathing suit shots... proof that I was there :)

And the day begins by.....Jonette getting fried at the bow of the boat :)

Lunch at Koh Phi Phi Island

"birthday cake" provided by the boat man... It was a funky coffee cake!

Maya Bay

Maya Bay.... Would use this as the Christmas Card photo but M insists that it is too revealing :)

Maya Bay

Not the best photo but the best we got at Bamboo island