Ahhhhh!  Back in Krabi again.  So the second side trip with Ronny and Marisa was to Krabi, Thailand and this time Ronna came with us.  We actually made a long weekend out of it.  I said hi to all my friends and they did remember me.  There was a few new faces and a few old faces were gone.  On our first day we booked our tours and explored the town.  We had lunch in the town of Ao Nang and walked around a little bit.  We then did the monkey trail, but unfortunately the monkeys must have been on vacation.  We didn't see or hear a single monkey.  Oh well.  It was a nice walk and we swam at the nice beach at the end.  The next day we booked a island hopping snorkel tour, but it was raining in the morning so they cancelled the tour (although it ended up being a very nice day in the end).  So we went to the spa instead.



 We had trouble with the spa too at first.  The power was out in town.  So we had to reschedule for later.  The power came back and we went to the spa in the afternoon, but 2 minutes later the power went out again.  So they took us to town to shop for an hour and then we came back.  Luckily the power was back and stayed for good.  I was used to this as the power would go out occassionally when I was staying there before.  So we got our massages and even spent some time in the tiny cold jacuzzi.  The next day we did an elephant trek.  I had mixed feelings going into this as I didn't want to support the exploitation of animals, but they elephants seemed to be taken care of and treated pretty well.  I mean as well as caged animals can be cared for.  To be fair though I don't know the whole story.  Maybe the elephants were orphaned or captive bred?  Maybe the rehabilitate elephants or care for elephants that have no place to go?  I didn't ask because I was afraid to know the answers.  So I just tried to ignore all these concerns and just show the elephant love while riding it.  I spent the entire time rubbing and massaging Honey (the name of our elephant.)

 

 So here we are riding Honey.  She was 48 years old and cute as could be.  Here is Ronna feeding Honey after the trek.

 

Next Honey cooled off in the river and then I feed her some more.

  

It was such an amazing experience and I will always remember it.  Being so close to Honey just reminded me why I want to work with animals and conservation.  I just love animals so much and want to help them out any way I can.  Anyways, after riding Honey for about an hour we went to Railay beach.  This picture is of East Railay.

  

As you can see it is so beautiful over there.  After spending a few hours in Railay we took the longtail boat back to the hotel.  That night we went out for a nice dinner in town.  We ended up eating seafood next to the beach.  Here is the girls in front of the restaurant.

  

I originally ordered a basil chicken, but it tasted like it was marinated in urinal water so I ordered a fried fish that Ronny had ordered.  It was a garlic and pepper fried fish and it was delicious.  Ronna ordered like 4 dishes.  She had squid, rice, mango salad, and I can't remember what else.  All I know is we had a very nice meal and really enjoyed ourselves.  Then I drove us home in my pimped out tuk-tuk.

  

Ok it wasn't my tuk-tuk and I didn't drive, but it was pimped out.  It had rims, a loud stereo system, a custom paint job, fancy neon lights, and more.  It was like a little club on wheels.  The next day we got up, ate breakfast, and left.  It was a fun weekend.  We spent a few more days with Ronny and Marisa and then they left.  It was really nice to have them visit and we enjoyed ourselves.  But it is also nice to get our room back.  :)  Well back to normal life now.  I am starting to look for a job, we just celebrated our 4 month anniversary, I will meet Ronna's family in June, and we are visiting San Diego in September.  That's about it for now.