We Rode an Elephant!

 We have absolutely loved Ko Lanta. Our resort is picturesque and very lush. No signs of fall here! Our room is on the ground floor and our balcony opens to a garden.The picture below shows the layout of the resort-a garden in the middle, bungalows on either side, and the ocean and pool at the front.

Here is one of the sunsets from the infinity pool. It truly is breath-taking!

Here is our beach. It is practically deserted!

Yesterday, Barrett and I started our morning with a mountain bike ride. This included going through some towns, getting a flat tire, going somewhere in town to have the tire fixed, riding across the Andaman Sea on a ferry, seeing some rice paddies, going through some mangroves, and back on a long boat. It was an amazing way to see some of the variety of Thailand, as well as a great way to build up a ridiculous sweat.

View while crossing from one island to another.

Rice Paddies

Our long boat driver

The afternoon included elephant trekking! It was quite the experience. I should mention that the elephant man (guide? trainer? I can't think of the name for him) did not speak any English what so ever, and when I asked the girl that took us there and worked there if she had ever rode the elephant her eyes got big and she shook her head "no" repeatedly. This is right before I climbed on top of the massive animal, which had a surprisingly large amount of super-course hair. When our 40 year old elephant decided she didn't feel like going, and instead would like to just relax and take in the views, there was little anyone could. The elephant man would yell something in Thai, but thankfully did not use his horrible-looking prodding stick. Anyways, our elephant took us through some pretty steep parts of the jungle for about an hour. We were convinced at first that our bench would just flip completely over with every step the elephant took. After a while we decided we weren't going to die and were able to enjoy the experience and views. Speaking of views, we saw several monkeys! They don't like posing for pictures, but we managed to get one sort of good one. So, riding an elephant is now crossed off the bucket list, which I have yet to write.

Can you see the monkey?