Thai for two...

 

You may notice in the London pictures that we are both sporting a bit of a suntan.  Before London, we took a week off around Easter and traveled to Thailand-to Khao Lak.  It was the perfect quiet get away.  Khao Lak is north of Phuket by about an hour and is a rather remote beach location popular with Swedish tourists. Khao Lak was covered by 4 miles inland by the wave of the Boxing Day Tsunami, but they have done a lot to rebuild quickly in order to keep their main source of income of tourism going strong.

The Hub's dream vacation has always been Thailand...snorkeling, SCUBA diving to see clown fish, Thai food!  All it took was 10 hours on Air Berlin direct from Munich to Phuket and we were there! Here he is enjoying one of his favorite dishes-Chicken with basil (and baby corn):

For this trip, we decided to just go for a week-to give Thailand a try.  We needed to get away and relax, so we took it easy-no blackberry, no work, no worries.  Thailand is beautiful and HOT!

We took a snorkeling trip to the Similan Islands. We stopped for lunch and hiked up the rock to an overlook.  To get to the top, we climbed up plank walkways and  through rock tunnels to get to the top and  were rewarded with a view of breathtaking turquoise waters.

 

Another morning we took an elephant ride through a rubber tree plantation.  Riding an elephant is not necessarily a comfortable ride, but it was an experience that I will not ever forget. And we got to feed our elephant some bananas after the ride, which she really seemed to like! Our guide made me a grasshopper out of palm fronds.  

I couldn't believe how strong her trunk was!  I kept dropping the bananas...but it was cool to get to put bananas right to her trunk and watch her scarf them up.

Our second snorkeling adventure was to the Phi Phi Islands-and we stopped where they filmed the movie "The Beach".  I didn't see Leo, but the scenery was again breathtaking!

We had a great time, and I am certain that we will return to Thailand again.  It was a good first trip...and we absolutely want to take advantage of being this much closer to so many places by being located in Munich.  So many places to visit...I posted only a few pics here of a few things we did...if only the relaxation that you feel when you are on vacation could linger a little bit longer in the real world when you return.  We are now back in the swing of Munich and our day-to-day lives.....