Bangpae Waterfall

We quickly climbed to the top of the Bangpae Waterfall just long enough to get some pictures!

Loy Krathong Part 2

In addition to floating krathongs, we also released 2 hot air balloons. This was truly an amazing sight that pictures could not capture (well at least not with my camera)! While we were eating dinner we noticed that the sky was filled with floating lights. It was beautiful! After dinner, we walked down to the beach and found Thais (mostly children) selling these balloons. Once we decided on a price, they helped us light the flammable piece and we held the outer part of the bag and waited (fingers getting hot ;-)). When there was enough hot air inside the bag, we released our bag, now a balloon, into the air! It was truly amazing to see thousands of these lights floating by.

Loy Krathong Festival

We were so lucky to be in Thailand for the annual Loy Krathong Festival!

On the night of the full moon of the 12th lunar month, Thais throughout the country gather by rivers, canals and streams to pay homage to Mae Khongkha, goddess of water. In Thai, loy means "to float" and a krathong is a little lotus-shaped boat made out of banana leaves bearing offerings of flowers, incense, a candle and a coin. The focus of the festival is for everyone to launch a krathong both as a gesture of homage to Mae Khongkha for the gift of water and as a symbolic sending away of ill fortunate.

This was truly an unplanned treat for us! The beach was full of Thais making, selling and of course floating their Krathong. Of course, the hotel offered complimentary Krathongs and we places those into the pool.

Can You Pick Out The Monkey?

I know this is hard, but concentrate and do your best! While in Phuket we saw a monkey show, LITERALLY! (I am so glad that I write these!!! lol)

Elephants!

In Phuket we went elephant trekking! We were loaded off of a platform and onto an elephant. There was guide who sat on the elephant's head to lead us through our journey. It was a lot of fun but a bit scary as we went up and down some hills!

We also got to see a baby elephant play the harmonica and dance!

Midnight Munchies!

If they can make it on a cart, then they were serving it in Thailand! The best food cart we found was the crepe cart! These were so yummy. Michael's favorite was Nutella and bananas and mine was Nutella and peanut butter (this wasn't on his menu, but I am sure he added once he saw what a great combination it was!)!

The second picture is...you guessed it...DEEP FRIED BUGS! Yup, meal warms, crickets, grasshoppers...YUMMY! We would see the bug cart every night and yes, we even saw individuals ordering off of it! We asked before taking a picture and you could tell by her response that we weren't the first ones to take a picture! Enjoy!

Holiday Inn Phuket

Our hotel was lovely, just like in the pictures. We stayed at the Busakorn Wing which was primarily an all suites wing (mostly adults). Not only did we have pool access, we also had bar access! Mai Tais were served poolside as well!