Photo taken from the plane before landing at Phuket Airport.

Soon as we arrived in Phuket, we proceeded for a quick visit to a temple there.

This is the house of one of the most famous monks in Phuket. Quite honestly, I can't tell you too much more about it because I was too busy snapping pictures while the guide was speaking.

Here's another view of the house with the temple in the background. I did not take too many pictures around the temple, mainly because I didn't want to accidently snap a photo of something I wasn't supposed to.

This is the night scene from a Kata View Point. It was late afternoon by the time I landed in Phuket so the sunset was missed. I have absolutely no talent with night mode on my camera. Every picture I took with it in night mode turned out really blur -- like I was having a seizure while taking the photos. Anyway, on that photo, the beach, hotels and other buildings along the coast are the lights on the right. And the few lights on the left are all from boats, anchored for the night.

That's my cousin on Patong Beach. White sandy beaches and clear blue seas. See those jetskis in the background on the right? Yeah, we went jetskiing. 'Twas fun! Damn expensive, though... but then again, where in the world is it cheap to rent a jetski? This picture was taken at about early- to mid-morning so there weren't many people about the beach yet. Because, believe me, there were a lot of tourists there.

For all you non-believers (not that I expect anyone to not believe I was actually there), here's my proof. Took a photo of my leg (and the tip of my shoes) while on the beach. The dog in the photo was walking all along the beach, stopping every once in a while to dig a hole in the sand. Almost fell into a couple of those damn holes too.

You can rent those float thingies all day long for 100 Baht. A pretty good price, especially if you really are going to be using it for the whole day. This photo was taken pretty early in the morning before my cousins (and temporary photographers) got smart and realized the water wasn't cold and wasn't that deep.

They have these Tsunami Evacuation Route signs scattered everywhere along the roadside, just blending in with the rest of the signs as though it is commonly found everywhere in the world. Good to know there is somewhere to go in case of a tsunami though.

Gas/petrol/fuel/whatever-the-fuck-you-call-it-in-your-society. It is not often that I see gas prices go up into the twenties - I was amused. (Yes, yes, I know it probably is the same price as everywhere else once the currency is converted. Just... look at the numbers and be amused with me, alright?)

It would not be a trip to Thailand if there were no... Elephants! Yep, went on an elephant ride. The first part of the ride was really interesting because the elephants had to climb up a really muddy and relatively steep hill in a single file. There was even an added 'excitement factor' when my cousins and I started discussing possible consequences should the first elephant slip and fall and cause a domino effect with all the elephants behind.

And when I say it was muddy, I mean, it was muddy!

Now, I can't be certain of this, but I believe that our elephant trek was through a rubber plantation. Mainly because we would pass through a few rows of rubber trees during the ride.

At one point, my elephant stopped and I reached up to a nearby tree to grab a branch to give to the elephant - a nearby tree bearing offerings of possible discomfort and pain. Good thing I got stopped in time because, lo and behold, directly above me was this ginormous cluster of big, red fireants building their nest.

After the ride, the elephants got a feeding session. It was actually really adorable watching a herd of elephants with their trunks outstretched, trying to grab hold of whatever fruit they could get their grubby noses on.

Stayed in a 'tree top house' on the second night there. It was certainly... unexpected. When I was told about the tree top houses, I envisioned neato wooden huts built in trees where you climb ladders to get into. Yeah, not so much.

There was, however, a nice pretty little stream round back of the house.

This is the balcony around my room. Since it was quite high up, there was a wonderful breeze going through there.

Chillin' on the balcony. Kick yo feet up, whip out a good book, enjoy the cool wind - ah, perfecto!

This stream is the same stream that was behind my room, except it was taken near the reception/dining area. Spent a few minutes there walking of a giant breakfast.

Me at that same stream as above.

Went on a canoe ride too. That's my cousin.

This picture reminds me of that building in New York that I can't, for the life of me, recall what it's called.

Saw some local wildlife on the canoe ride, too. A brilliant blue kingfisher, some amphibian (at first I thought it was a frog, but looking at the picture, it looks kinda long), a snake (I know it's perfectly girly of me and I hate girly but: I no likey snakes!) and a white bird of some sort - an egret or heron or something like that.

I am always blown away whenever I see old-fashion soda bottles. So, seeing a crateful was mind-shattering. Okay, not 'mind-shattering' exactly, but it was cool enough to be in 'Salian's Big Mental Book of Cool Stuff to Take Photos Of'... and that's what counts.

Khao Sok National Park. This is a reservoir. This is a picture of a bunch of moored boats. Originally, before a hydrodam was built, this lake wasn't here and there are, if I heard right, whole villages under the surface of the water. The steep islands seen in this area were actually mountains before the water surface rose.

Check out the motors on those boats. Funky, yes? They are so long!

Stayed in floating rafthouses on the last night. Reeaalllly cool. Reeaalllly fun too. Canoeing, swimming, playing around with innertubes. The rafthouses were about an hour's ride by boat. As it were, it was a very windy day and me, being me, sat up front where I thought all the action would be and ended up getting completely drenched by the time we reached the place.

Now, I am not generally a fan of live fish (they're terribly boring to look at) but there is something incredibly eye-catching about seeing swarms of anything, even if it is fish.

This was the sight from the reception area. It was quite foggy the entire time there and I went back and forth between being annoyed that I couldn't get a really good, clear shot of the distant mountains and getting overcome by this really cool, exotic feeling (fog over a beautiful clear, blue lake surrounded by mountains covered with tropical rainforests -- how is that not out of a movie, I ask you?)

This is a shot of the view behind the rafthouses. Those are the most photogenic boats I have ever met.

These benches are truly magnificent. Perfectly inclined to aid a person further perfect the art of lazing/relaxing/slouching (all three of which, I like to consider myself somewhat of an expert in).

Inside a rafthouse. A couple mattresses, pillows and blankets with bamboo walls, zinc roofs, straw doors, holes for windows (thank God it didn't rain heavily). All combined together with the sound of the lake splashing up against the rafthouse for a great night's sleep.

The rafthouses were I stayed in. My room is the one on the right of the big, white middle house.

Before heading back to the airport for the plane back to Malaysia, we stopped by a mini-zoo. Mostly birds there but they did have a few bears - particularly adorable bears.