My first trip to Thailand included trips to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Koh Samui. When I was staying at the Amari on Chaweng Beach, I looked out and saw the trainer taking this young elephant out for an afternoon dip at the beach (if you end up going to nearly any of the high-end resorts in Thailand, it is quite likely that the hotel will have a resident elephant to entertain the guests during certain times of the day).

One of the reasons elephants are so involved in the tourist trade in Thailand, for better or worse, is that logging activities in Thailand have been greatly diminished to help preserve the little rainforest that is left. As the elephants and trainers still need to eat and work, you will find numerous places where you can take the elephant out for a jungle trek (the best jungle trek I’ve done has been in Chiang Mai).

My wife and I stayed at the Koh Libong Nature Beach Resort when we stayed here over Songkran, 2010. While the amenities at the resort were not five-star, which was a nice change of pace from many of the places we stay at, the view and ambience was definitely five stars. The staff working there was largely family, with the wife running the restaurant and the husband running the long-tail boat, and there were tons of little kids running around. The family was also kind enough to run little errands for us to the local convenience store, which was a harrying adventure on motorbike.

The power at the resort went out at around 8pm or so, which meant that you had nothing but quiet after sunset around 7pm. No lights after 7p made for an interesting experience for a Westerner:)

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This beach in Koh Kradan looks like a little slice of heaven, no? Given that this picture was taken during the busy period of Songkran (Thai New Year) in Thailand, I was fortunate to get this picture before all of the tourist boats started pulling in. Generally speaking, you won’t find any five-star resorts or mega hotels in this area; you’ll find a bunch of bungalow style accommodations steps from the beach.

Nai Yang Beach is the beach closest to the Phuket Airport, which you will fly over when you land in Phuket. A couple of really cool things about Nai Yang Beach:

1. Not nearly as crowded as the beaches in Patong.

2. There are a number of decent restaurants along the beach (my wife recently told me that this may not be the case now, however, because some of the locals may have had some conflicts with the local government).

3 You can go snorkeling at Koh Wei, located only about twenty minutes off-shore by long-tail boat, and check some tropical fish out.

4. The Beach Club is a really chill place to party or just hang out. The Beach Club is pretty slow during slow season, so you can expect to have the place almost all to yourself in the early evening hours.

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Krabi is actually one of my favorite places to visit on a regular basis in Thailand. It was quite windy on this day, with a thunderstorm both just approaching and clearing, so it was one of those times when you had a great mix of clouds and interesting colors coming in from the sunset.

The only post processing I did with this photograph was with Picnik, which included:

1. A slight crop because of some vignetting in the corners.

2. A slight bump in saturation.

3. A slight bump in temperature.

The original is here. As you can see by comparing the two images, nothing too dramatic was done to increase the color vibrancy.

One of the things I’ve got to do better is remembering to use a monopod or tripod. While it may be pure laziness on my part, I generally forget to bring one of these with me to help make low-light images even better.

Krabi, Thailand Sunset

Originally uploaded by dbillian

Since I live in Phuket a decent portion of the year, I have to get away from the slightly faster pace of Phuket to relax. If you’re looking to vacation in Thailand one day, I would personally recommend Krabi a great deal because it is very easy to get away from the crowds.

This particular picture was taken on Klong Muang beach, which is where the Sheraton resort is located in Krabi.