Elephants, beaches, and spa's OH MY!

Elephant Trekking
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This could be the most beautiful place on earth!  We planned on staying a few days and have found ourselves unable to leave.  We will definitely return to this area over and over again in the future for vacations.  You all should for that matter!

We started our visit with an elephant trek.  We have mixed feelings about this experience.  It was a solid elephant camp that took good care of their elephants and they were very welcoming and friendly people.  But, it was horrifying when we were riding the elephant and the guy on the elephants head hit him with a stick.  I gasped very loudly and disapprovingly and he never hit him again.  Still, I didn't like it.  It was also a bit scary...especially crossing the river on elephant!   We rode the biggest elephant at the camp (the only male).  We got to feed the baby elephants (it was so sweet and pretty) of course, she hated the pineapple we gave her and wouldn't eat it, then she pouted and they went to the store and bought her bananas (her favorite) and things were all better!

Railay Beach from the top of my climb
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The next day, we took a boat to Railay beach (AMAZING!!!!) and went rock climbing all day. (If you are interested in seeing just how spectacular this beach is - rent the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio...it was filmed here).

At one point while climbing, we were belaying each other from knee deep ocean water!   The limestone rock faces we were climbing were right on the beach.  They were spectacular and Carrie topped her first climb!!!  She's so tough.

We spent the afternoon climbing a cliff above the beach.  I climbed with the camera and took a few pictures from the top.  You'll see!   The rest of the day was insane!!!  We headed into the darkest cave ever with one flashlight between the three of us (carrie, me, and our guide)  We were climbing up ladders in the pitch dark cave forever, listening to the bats that we could not actually see.  We finally made it out of the cave, on the other coast of the penninsula and abseilled down the side of the cliff.  Then we hiked/climbed through the jungle and mangroves down to the beach and made our way back to the boat which took us back to Krabi town.  We were so dirty and so tired!  It was fantastic.

The Andaman Sea at Sunset
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The past two days its been raining.  We decided to cancel our scheduled kayaking/snorkeling trip and go to the spa instead :)   hehehe

First, they put us in really hot disposable underwear and shower caps!  Sorry no pictures of that but boy was it hilarious!  Then they locked us in a very small sweat box (steam box).  This was follwed by smearing  us in mud and zipping us into heater bags where we sweat and prayed for relief for 30 minutes.  This was followed by the coldest shower in the world (except for China's showers) and finally a facial.  It was all wonderful!!!!

We have now booked a bus to Khao Sok National Park where we plan to sleep in a tree house!  YIpee!!!  Good bye air conditioning hello mosquito net!