After a pretty hellish trip (2 buses, 2 layovers, one really long hot walk, riding in the back of truck and then another realllllly long hot walk) we got to our hostel in Krabi. Krabi became our base for all the fun trips we took everywhere in south Thailand.
Our first day was mainly travel and exploring our cute little town, so we decided to make up for it we needed to go big the next day so we signed up for a excursion with our hostel. It would take us to hot springs, an emerald pool and jungle trekking on elephants. Riding on an elephant has seriously been a bucket list item of mine for forever.


Our first stop was the hot springs. Although it was insanely crowded with tourists, it was pretty awesome. The hot springs were all at the top of this waterfall, so it was pretty fun to stand in the cold river and feel it mix with the spring above.


There was also a pretty fun rope swing. It wasn't deep enough to jump in, but everyone had a lot of fun skimming the water on it.


Chad and Brittany in the hot springs
After the hot springs we went to a place called the emerald pool. It was really pretty and kinda in the middle of nowhere. It was a 15 minute trek to it from the road, so I always wonder how people find these places! It was super pretty, but the water was so warm and crowded, it kinda just seemed like we were hanging out at a pool somewhere. It also wasn't more than waist deep so it was weird to swim around in,


This ledge is covered in moss so I kept slipping down off it
Fun story here... I almost died getting this picture. I was walking very carefully and knew it would be slick, but I still underestimated it and almost fell. I had nothing to grab onto so I really did think I would go down. Obviously my first concern was my phone, then my head. But my reflexes astonished even me and I remained upright.


After those swims we went to the elephants!!!!! It was so much fun! I pretty much loved every minute we were there. And they treat them so nicely. Our driver here (I forget his name) told us he's been working with his elephant, Po, for 5 years now and that they are best friends. I really truly believed it too, he was so sweet with him and even when he didn't do what the driver said the driver was still so kind.


Brittany got to ride solo 

Goup shot!
 The elephants would go to this lake and spray water on the people riding... but Po wasn't having any of that... he took a drink and was ready to go on,


About halfway through the trek the driver asked Chad if he wanted to drive the elephant. We both thought it would be for about a minute, but Chad got to drive the elephant the rest of the way. It was pretty cool and I'm pretty sure no one else got to do that!




After we got back you could buy bananas as a tip for your elephant, so of course I had to do that! So now you get to see pictures of us feeding elephants! 


Sometimes I feel like a very large 5 year old... and sometimes it's caught on camera

Me and Po BFF
 They had a BABY ELEPHANT show. It was cute, it did yoga poses and walked back and forth. Then it would give you a KISS... he put his trunk on my cheek and make the smack sound of a kiss!



Brittany can also look like a 5 year old
 And... because I'm a sucker I bought the babies (there were 2 of them) bananas too... it was super fun to feed them, they would grab them with their trunk and put it in their mouth and they were so greedy and kept trying to take them from each other and me! (Edit: I left this run on as such just to demonstrate the level of excitement that pervaded everything surrounding this event - Chad)


See! That's my, "Hey you can't just take those" face!

5 year old Michelle strikes again! 
 After our adventure we decided to trek out to the beach that's close to Krabi, it's called Ao Nang. And it's incredibly beautiful as you'll see from the pictures below.


Can you get more classically Thailand??


Oh man, so we swam for a while, then while Brittany and I tanned a bit (slept) Chad went exploring down the beach. Good thing he did because he found monkeys!! Just sweet non aggressive wild monkeys hanging out at the beach.


You may recognize this picture from all forms of social media, but seriously how could I not?
 So this cute lil pup reallllly thought the monkeys were there to play with him. It was so adorable! He would run at them and they would all run away and hiss, but he thought they were playing and weren't actually mad so he kept running at them. I was a little worried I would witness monkeys kill a dog. 


After that we decided to watch sunset on the beach and we were given some super amazing views! Like postcard, print it and frame it views.



After a wander around town and getting some incredibly yummy western food (don't judge- we needed a break) we got on the "bus" and went back to our hostel. The bus btw is a small pickup truck with a cover on it. You just hop in the back and sit on a bench... as seen below:



Our way there about a million (slight exaggeration) school kids rode on the bumper holding onto this pole like it ain't no thang. 

I love all the lights all over Asian towns and cities.
 The next day we decided to check out one of the local islands, Rai Leh or Railay (I've heard it both ways) the only thing we knew about it was that it was a boat ride away and you could get a boat at any time instead of on a set schedule like other places. So we were game. 



You can't see unless you look close but there were a ton of climbers there and we would have done some climbing if it weren't for Ms. I Just Had Knee Surgery but I would probably still climb if we went over there. But just having BiMF made up for it.
 It's a pretty cool area, and we were one of the last boats to come in before low tide so we had to trek a bit before we got to the island.


Mangroves!
 There was a pretty cool cave there so we went to check it out and for some reason we decided this was a fun picture to take.



After exploring that side of the island (actually a peninsula, but you can only access it by boat because of some mountains) you can walk down a cute little path and go to another side of the "island".


Here's where the majority of the swimming happens :) it was quite fun
 After swimming for awhile we were starving and wanted to trek back to where we passed some restaurants. My decision to get a cold fruit shake for our walk was heralded as one of the best decisions I made on the trip. The food at the restaurant we went to was yummy, but it was a bit ruined by some European (I'm going with Eastern) family who not only kept adding to their order and demanding it come out first thus delaying our food but also the 150 old mother decided to turn her bikini top into a tube top and really there are just things you will never be able to un-see. 

The last boat back to Krabi left about 4:45 so we had to head out but here's a parting shot of the lovely Railay area. 


After getting back we decided to go on the never ending quest to find food and wandered through Krabi again. Even though we aren't paying attention, here you see us at what is called the "Origin of Man" intersection. 

We just wanted some delicious foods.
After a long wander not finding anything we headed down a road that seemed promising. Turns out a lot of the town closes somewhat early. After stumbling upon what we believe is Krabi Town's red light district, we found a woman selling food who was really excited to serve us. We were excited to eat so we sat down and ordered a few items.

This was probably the best fruit shake I had on the trip...I think... we had a lot of fruit shakes.
 We ended up ordering the Tom Yum Soup, Pineapple Fried Rice and a Curry. The soup came out and was pretty spicy, but even Brittany managed to eat a bit. Then this curry came out:


I do not think I have ever had a spicier food in my entire life. It was one of those things that when you first taste it you're like "Yum, it's a little hot" then about 5 seconds later you're like "Wow! Dang that is spicy". Then 15 seconds later you're just like "Why??? Why won't this burning stop?" Chad and I powered through and ate most of it with the assistance of 2 fruit shakes, a plate of plain white rice and some of the pineapple fried rice. It just burned my mouth completely. Like I would have thought I had just placed a hot coal in my mouth, not eaten some curry. But the old lady was so sweet and just kept coming over to us to see if we were enjoying it.

Even after finishing and eating more rice I told Chad that I needed my OWN ice cream cone to put out the fire in my insides. It sure was memorable though!