Left Laos and Back in Thailand

Well,  I will have to agree Laos is a beautiful country.  Everyone that we met up with kept on saying how wonderful Laos was and it is.  Only problem...all the smoke.  Apparently we came in the month that they burn their forest for agriculture, next time avoid March and April.
Well, I did go elephant riding.  It was wonderful and sad.  These female elephants have been retired from the logging industry.  They are better off, a bit, some of them still get treated horribly.  For example,  this elephant was waiting with us when several other elephants showed up and she followed, her keeper whipped and stabbed for leaving her place.  All of us that saw that were mad, but everyone said it is okay because she shouldn't have left her place.   That is messed up.  Our guide said that in the jungle they get treated worse, the lift up heavy tree trunks for hours and get beaten worse.  The government really doesn't do anything since those elephants are 'private' property.  Some Lao people and Europeans have taken the initiative by creating eco-tours that will generate enough money to give these tired elephants and place to rest until they 'move on'.
So, we left Laos, now we are back in Thailand.
We headed south and currently located in the Phi Phi islands.  These are the islands that pretty much got wiped out during the Tsunami.  There are a lot of before and after photos around here and it looks completely different.  A lot of vegetation got wiped out and buildings as well.  They are still rebuilding and might take them a while since a lot of these people don't have the funds.  We have done some snorkeling around the island, but it has been painful.  A lot of jellyfishes and weird stingers that just attack your body.  There are times we couldn't take it and had to get out. 
These last few days I have left in Thailand and in my trip will pretty much be spent relaxing and getting burnt on the beach.
Next stop....some other island.

**Have uploaded some new photos.**