March 28: Is Mickey the Mouse?...or is that Dumbo?

Today, I got up painfully early in order to catch a cab to the pier where I caught the ferry back to Koh Phi Phi. I had reserved a speedboat ticket which would return from Koh Phi Phi back to Phuket promptly at noon. The ferry ride took a full hour longer than it was supposed to. Consequently, I had to pay a water taxi driver and extra couple of baht to quickly taxi back to the bungalow where I would retrieve the passports. I was getting nervous as to whether or not I would make it to the speedboat before it departed. I happened to get back in just enough time to hop onto the speedboat before being left behind.

On the ride back, I enjoyed a nice conversation with an Irish guy who had put his architecture career in Ireland on hold while he traveled south-east Asia for a few months. He was a really cool guy and helped fuel my own desire to continue traveling and see more of the world.

Upon arriving at the pier, I caught a cab back to the hotel where I met back up with Sarah. We ate a nice lunch and chatted with the owners of the hotel for a little while in the hotel restaurant on the patio area. They were gracious enough to arrange an Elephant trek for us. The shuttle bus arrived shortly after lunch and we were off.

The elephant trek was very pleasant and was must-do for Sarah. We were both happy to be able to say that we had ridden an elephant in the jungles of Thailand. The elephant we rode was a very mild mannered behemoth named Mickey. We slowly stomped through the jungle on Mickey's back. At one point the handler actually dismounted Mickey so that he could take some pictures of us! Sarah even had the courage to climb down onto the back of Mickey's neck for a few poses. Not willing to be outdone, I did the same. Sarah will tell you I only did it once she proved to me that it was safe....maybe there is some truth to that...

After our jungle trek, we went back to the hotel to grab our things before promptly taking a cab to the Phuket airport where we then caught a plane back up to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok, we took a shuttle bus to our five star hotel; the Arami Watergate.

The hotel was one of the nicest hotels we had ever stayed in. And because they had overbooked, we were upgraded to an executive suite. We were glad to be in such comfortable accommodations because we were both feeling a little upset at our stomachs at this point in our travels.

After a nice shower and sinking into our comfortable king size bed, we ordered room service, watched a movie on the giant flat screen TV in our room, and drifted off to sleep.