• After flying from Tulsa to LA on 6/27, we left LAX at noon for a 13 hour flight to Shanghai.

• We ate at oumami burgers in the airport, and it was delicious! Last American meal for a long time. We were really nervous about that!

• We were also a little worried about our flight bc we were seated on the very last row. It worked out great though!

• We broke out the new donut pillows, headphone splitters and eye shade thingys. We got absolutely nothing done! We slept and watched tv/movies the whole time.

• First time in China! Kind of.

• Our lay over in Shanghai was just long enough to get through security and chill in the airport while we waited for the next flight.

• We did eat at a Chinese restaurant inside of the airport though!

• From the air, it was nothing like we expected. I guess the airport is a long ways from the city? All we saw was really pretty farmland and maybe a college?

• Arrived at the hotel!

• We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel (about an hour) and arrived at 3:30 AM.

• Our room was on the first floor and it was awesome!

• After they got us checked in and settled into the room, we ran straight down to the beach to check out the ocean.

• Our sleeping schedules were all messed up! But we eventually managed to sleep for about 5 hours until we woke up around 9:30 AM.

• We went to the breakfast buffet just before it closed. It was delicious! And super pretty with a view of the ocean.

• After that, we spent the day at the resort. We were at the pool most of the day, where we went hopped back and forth from our chairs between our chairs and the water. We also walked on the beach and Cody got in the ocean for a little while.

• We started the morning with a quick breakfast back at the buffet

• Then we took a taxi over to kata beach for surf lessons

• Waves were huge and we were able to catch the waves early and ride down the wave a bit— no pics cause we were both in the water!

•then we came back to the hotel and ate lunch

•that afternoon we rented mopeds for 300 Baht ($10ish) and drove up to the Karon/Kata Viewpoint, and Promthep Cape Viewpoint

•on the way back we stopped at a restaurant overlooking Kata Noi beach and we could see our hotel, we ate ice cream and sat in the shade!

• We took a taxi over to Kata beach again and rented surf boards for about an hour

•After surfing, we came back to the hotel and had lunch by the pool

•

•we were picked up from our hotel around 8:30 and drove about an hour to the marina

•we boarded a speed boat with about 30 people and headed to Phang Nga Bay/James Bond island

•we sat in the very front were it was super windy and crazy bumpy! Fun though, best seats on the boat!

• 1 : our first stop was an island with really cool rocks sticking out of the water with tons of people and boats around- we snorkeled but the view wasn’t great, just the rocks!

• 2: second stop was James Bond island and we had about one hour to walk around and take pictures (most good ones are on camera). The rock/mountain was so neat and had small caves running through it that you could hike through

• 3: third stop was lunch at Ko Panyi which is a Muslim community that lives on the water! Super crazy! Lunch was really good and then we explored their little “island” until it was time to leave

• 4: fourth stop was at Hong island where we got in inflatable canoes with a guide and took a tour through the rocks/caves/mountains! It was amazing and the views were crazy!

• 5: fifth stop was at /// island where we walked to the opposite side of island on this small trail, no one was over there and we got to hang out in the water and play in the sand and with seashells by ourselves. We skipped rocks and then ended up finding hermit crabs and playing with them!

•just being on the boat was really fun and we got to see so many small islands and pretty views from there

Pics

1:

1. Shark Point

2. Koh Bida Nock

3. Phi phi Leh Wall

We saw:

Squid

Nemo

Lion fish

White, yellow, and purple Star fish **

Bannerfish**

Striped shrimp

8 or so Pufferfish

Sea cucumbers

4-5 Eels

2 Sea snakes

Lots of schools of yellow and blue fish**

Trumpet fish

Angelfish**

Rockfish

Giant and colorful coral

•after the breakfast buffet we got dressed and went about 10 minutes down the road to an elephant sanctuary

•first we watched people get on the elephants while we petted some that were close to the fence, then it was time to get on ourselves!

•we started by sitting up in this chair that sits up high off the elephants back while the guide sits low on his neck

•our elephant kept stopping to eat and one time we thought it was going to go down this steep hill right by the road which was scary!

•after about 20 minutes we asked the guide to take a picture for us.. he jumped off the elephant with our camera and had us move down to sit on the elephants neck and we rode like that the rest of the tour while our guide walked beside us and took pictures!

•we got to feed the elephant small bananas while we were sitting on its neck, it would reach all the way up with its trunk and grab the bananas

•when we were finished riding we got to go walk around and see the baby’s elephant they were showing

•we bought more bananas and I got to feed it and play with it! It loved the bananas and then put its trunk around my neck and gave me a kiss on the cheek. A very banana filled kiss that suctioned to my face! The baby elephant was so cute!

•after the elephants we went back to the hotel for lunch and got ready to go to Kata Beach to surf

•the waves were better and bigger today than Tuesday

•we both caught some waves and we got some fun videos/pics!

•we walked back to our hotel after we were finished and spent the afternoon by the pool

Elephants:

•we woke up, ate a quick breakfast and caught the ferry over to Phi Phi for our last night in Thailand

•we paid 600 baht to move to first class and got to sit on these comfy red couches!

•when we got to Phi Phi they stopped a ways from shore and a long boat came to pick us up! It took us to the shore of our hotel and we literally got out in the water/sand

•our room was amazing! It was a villa with a private pool and off the cliff we could see the ocean

•we called room service for lunch and ate by the pool

•that afternoon we took a long boat to Tansai Bay and we hiked up to Phi Phi Viewpoint

•the hike had a lot of stairs and was really steep and hard, we were soaking wet by the time we got to the top

•the view was crazy beautiful and we sat in the shade and ate ice cream while we looked all around

•when we were back to the bottom we did some souvenir shopping at the markets around, it felt a lot like Kenya and you could negotiate price with them the same way

•the long boat took us back to the hotel and we laid by the pool for the afternoon

•for supper we went down to the restaurant by the beach and we took some pictures there. The food was really good! Cody always gets “gai phad med menuang” which is chicken with cashew sauce

•our last day in Thailand!

•we woke up and laid by the pool for a while until we had to get ready to leave

•we had breakfast at the buffet and then took a long boat over to Tansai Bay to get on the ferry

•throughout the trip we made a list of the people we met from different countries from across the world: Russia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, South Africa, China, and from the US we met people from Utah, Florida, Boston, Georgia, and San Diego