Thailand

We recently returned home from an AMAZING two weeks in Thailand and Singapore to celebrate our 4^th anniversary.  Seriously, this was one of our favorite trips ever!  I could write 10 posts just about Thailand but I will instead write one about Thailand and one about Singapore.  This long post (sorry) will be about Thailand.

Can you tell that I love Thailand?  I love, love, love it!  We had the best time.

We first arrived to our hotel in Bangkok, Amari Watergate.   I loved this hotel, it’s a 4 star hotel located in the heart of Bangkok.  The hotel is very modern and luxurious, the employees are wonderful, AND they have the best breakfast I’ve ever had.

We did all the touristy things in Bangkok….

We visited the Grand Palace; this is the biggest tourist attraction in Bangkok.  This was the residence of the Kings of Siam and Thailand.  Now, it is being used for official events.

The Grand Palace is beautiful and there is so much to look at, here are a few more pictures:

We then walked a few blocks to see the Reclining Buddha.

How cool is this?  It was huge, this is only half of it!

I placed money in 108 bronze bowls which represents the 108 characters of Buddha.  This is supposed to bring good luck and the money also helps Thai monks.

The final temple that we visited had the Golden Buddha.  I expected this to be bigger because it’s worth $250 million but it was still pretty!

You probably noticed in a few pictures that I had interesting clothes on, if you don’t have long enough clothes to go in the temples then you have to rent clothes.  It was 100 degrees there so I did not pack long clothes so we paid to rent clothes.

We then rode in a tuk-tuk!

This was a must- do in Thailand!!

My favorite day in Bangkok was a day tour that we took!  Honestly, not only was this one of my favorite days of this trip but this was one of my favorite days ever!

We first went to the Floating Market Dumnoen Saduak!

We hopped into a long-tailed speed boat and off we went to explore the canals.

It was quite amazing, there are hundreds of people selling things from canoes: fruits, clothing, and artifacts.

Once you get to the end of the market, you can get out and do more shopping on foot.

 I got to hold the cutest lemur.

How adorable is he?

And Judd held this scary guy!!!  Ick!

While we were there it was over 100 degrees!

While shopping, I heard a noise and looked down and saw this dog hanging out in this fridge! He obviously wasn’t a fan of the heat and decided to cool off!  It was adorable!  I couldn’t blame him, it was HOT!

After the market, we headed to lunch.  We ate lunch at a floating restaurant that happened to be right next to the Bridge over River Kwai.

This is the railway that Japan’s POW in WWII built from Thailand to Burma.  It is known as the Death Railway because thousands of people died while building this.

Next, was our favorite part of the entire trip!  We rode elephants!  I did a ton of research before this excursion because I did not want to ride elephants or give money to a place that abused elephants.  I learned that it is actually illegal to mistreat elephants in Thailand, they will be thrown in jail if caught. 99% of Thai citizens worship elephants and would never harm them.

When we first arrived to the elephant camp they  put on a little show for us.

I got an elephant massage.

We both got kisses <3

Then it was time to ride elephants!

We took turns riding on her back.

It was an exhilarating experience and at times scary!

BEST DAY EVER!

We ended the day and our time in Bangkok by going bamboo rafting down the Kwai River.

It was really fun!

At first I wasn’t going to get in the water because I was worried about how clean it would be.  I realized after a couple of minutes that it was clean and since it was 100 degrees I wanted to cool off!

After 5 days in Bangkok, we took a flight to Phuket.  Phuket is considered the “pearl of Thailand”.  It has the worlds most beautiful beaches!

We stayed at the Novotel Phuket Kamala Beach.  This hotel was very modern, the staff was wonderful, and it was right on the beach!

This part of our trip was very relaxing!

We spent most of the week relaxing by the pool and beach! I read a lot of good books , took some long naps, and soaked up some Vitamin D!  The sun was very intense but luckily neither of us got sun-burnt!

One day, we took a boat tour to Phi Phi with Phuket Sail Tours.  This was an incredible day!  The company picked us right up from the hotel and took us to the pier for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed out on the speedboat.

Our first stop was Maya Beach in Phi Phi.  How beautiful is this?

This is where they filmed the movie “The Beach”

We then headed to Monkey Beach where we got to feed the monkeys from the boat.

Next, was a snorkeling stop at Phi Phi Le and then Phi Phi Don.  I love the water and snorkeling, I was the first one off the boat each time!

We then ate a delicious lunch on Pi Phi Don Island and then went swimming and relaxed on Bamboo Island.  I was very impressed with this company, they went out of their way to make sure the guests were having fun!  They had tons of food and drinks and even had extra things to make our trip enjoyable, such as mats to lay on at the beach.  I highly recommend Phuket Sail Tours!

What a fun day with my favorite person!

On one of our last days of vacation we went to Tiger Kingdom in Phuket.

I got to play with two tiger cubs!

They were so cute!

Judd and I then took a few pictures with 4 big tigers. This was really fun and scary!

Cheers to an AMAZING time in Thailand!

Also, during this trip we went to Singapore.  I will write about Singapore in my next entry!  I hope you enjoyed reading about our Thailand adventure!  It is an adventure that we will never forget! 🙂