This week here in Singapore was our 14th week on this trip. I still can not believe how fast this time has flown by!! It is really sad that we are nearing our last few weeks on the trip.
During the week was pretty calm for me. I spent a lot of time going into work and then wandering around Orchard area after work. Fort Canning park has become one of my new favorite spots to walk to and wander around. They have a really cool tree tunnel here that I like to walk through, especially after sitting in an office all day and not moving around a lot. At work I continued on some work and received a new project to get started on.
On Friday night I headed to Phuket, Thailand with one of my roommates which was so exciting. I have enjoyed my time in Singapore but it was also really nice to have a change of scenery and explore a new are. Thailand was the one spot I have been dying to go and I am so happy I got the chance to head there. Friday we did not get in till late so we came from the airport and headed straight to our hotel to stay for the night. Then on Saturday we woke up early to head to the Phi Phi Islands. Our tickets included pick up from the resort which brought us to a boat pier. There were a bunch of people there but we happened to be on the same boat as two other Bucknell students which was a lot of fun. They brought us around to a bunch of different spots. The first location was Bamboo Island where we got to go snorkeling. The water was so blue and there were so many fish around that we were all swimming through. We then went to a second location where we jumped off the boat and swam around for a while too.
The next stop was our lunch spot. They set out a whole Thai buffet for us. The fruit here was so good and fresh. We all kept going up for more and more the entire time. They even brought us more pineapple on the boat. After this stop we headed to Monkey Island. We were able to hop off the boat to go look at the monkeys. They were all over the island and running up to grab food from people. Our tour group emphasized to not feed them though as it is not great if they get that close to us and we don’t want to disturb wild monkeys. Then we headed to a spot where we got to jump off the boat and swim around for a while.
The final spot on our boat tour was Maya Bay. This was the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen. The water was so insanely blue and the sand was so white. It was super crowded but so cool to walk around on the beach and take pictures for a while. Unfortunately, we were not able to go in the water while we were here but it was just so beautiful to look and take pictures at this spot. After this we headed back on our hour long boat ride back to Phuket. The boat ride was pretty rough as we were going against the wind but still fun and was nothing too bad. Once we got back we showered and grabbed dinner at our hotel before heading into town to explore and meet up with other Bucknell students.
Sunday we had an elephant sanctuary booked for the day. They picked us up at our hotel and brought us to the sanctuary. While we were here we first got to feed the elephants and pet them. We could only touch them on their sides to not frighten them and fed them lots of bamboo. They were super well behaved and patiently were waiting around to receive some more food. We then were taken around the Sanctuary to see where they stayed at night and learn more about the Sanctuary. I was originally worried this spot was not super ethical. And while it may not be the most ethical to have people coming in a touching the elephants it seems they do a good job at making sure they are being treated right and keeping them healthy. After this was the elephant mud bath portion. They brought the elephants into a pool where we could go in and rub mud all over them. We had to be careful not to touch their legs or stomach to not startle them but got to put mud on them which helps with the heat here. Then we went into a second pool where we had water buckets to splash them and clean them off. They all seemed so happy especially since it was so hot where we were to be getting splashed with water to cool off. Finally they had a shower type area where we took brushes to help clean the rest of the mud off of them. This was such an amazing bucket list experience for me!!
The rest of Sunday we walked around Patong beach and explored all of the spots around. We then went back to the resort for a little to float around in the pool and relax before dinner. At dinner we went to a super pretty spot which overlooked all of the beach and town of Patong. It was such an amazing trip and weekend which we got to spend there.