Two of our biggest highlights from our trip were seeing some crazy Thailand animals. We hired a local fisherman to take us out to Monkey Island one morning. We waded into the waves and loaded up for the 20 minute boat ride out to the island where we spent the next 15 minutes or so feeding the wild monkeys bananas and other fruit. When we arrived, Kevin helped the older kids unload while I was holding Noah. As soon as Karis was on the sand, she got a warm welcome from a friendly monkey who decided to jump onto her! She handled the primate stealth attack well, just giving a little squeal as Kevin came to her rescue. After that, we tried to keep the monkeys at a little bit of a safe distance, but they were definitely an enthusiastic crowd!
The next day we got to go on an elephant trek. We went to an elephant camp that was about an hour away, climbed up a platform and mounted the back of the largest animal I've ever ridden! Kevin, Karis, and Hudson were behind one driver and Eli, Noah and I were on the other. About half-way in to our trek, my "driver" dismounted with my camera to take some photos. I was happy to get the photos, but also a little bit relieved when he climbed back on top of the elephant and resumed his driving duties!
Another cute story--we rode in another tuk-tuk while in town and the driver thought he would help us out by playing some music in English. He turned on a song in which the chorus was "shake your a--". After listening for a minute or two, Karis leaned over and whispered to me, "Is this song talking about Jesus?" I assured her that it wasn't, but appreciated the sweet naievety it displayed.
