Phuket, Thailand

Today was our day to anchor in Patong Bay in Phuket, Thailand.  The dock for cruise ships is on the other side of the island, where Phuket Town is located.  Unfortunately, another ship beat us to the punch and so we were stuck anchoring on the other side of the island where resorts abound. Yes, there are beautiful beaches here; however, being in the middle of almost nowhere necessitating an expensive taxi ride to a resort area for shopping or a meal put a damper on it for me.  It seems like we had a shuttle to town last year, and this year there was no shuttle to anywhere.  

The night before our arrival, Michael received an escort form. Often, we trade excursions that either we don't want or we've already done with each other.  This excursion looked like a lot of on and off the bus, and it didn't sound interesting so we agreed that Michael would take the excursion.  Since it left at 8 AM, and he would be back by around noon, that would leave us plenty of time to go back to shore if we wanted to go shopping or go to the beach.  Therefore, it was a good day to do laundry.

MICHAEL

I was tasked today to escort the "Phuket Discovery" excursion.  I knew it was going to be pretty lame, and it was. After a very long tender ride to shore, we left the pier and drove around Phuket Island for an hour and a half, without stopping.  That was the problem. We had heard about the Heroines Monument, but didn't get to stop. We heard about the big Buddha, but we didn't get to stop.  We drove through a beautiful looking Chinatown in Phuket Town, but they wouldn't let us stop there either.  So where did we stop? Our tour guide said she was going to take us to a lovely handicrafts market, and instead took us to a gigantic jewelry store, with outrageous prices. [editor's note:  Michael didn't take any pictures of these places]. 

I don't want to sound all negative, so let me make some positive remarks.  Phuket is a beautiful island with gorgeous beaches, and is fast becoming a major destination resort for Europeans, as well as Russians and others. The roads are inadequate, of course, and particularly the road around the island reminded me of Route One in California. The twists and turns never stopped, but it was beautiful and exciting.  This is our third time in Phuket and I can say that all the damage sustained during the tsunami in 2005 has been repaired.  It seems to be a pretty peaceful place, and the Buddhists, Muslims and Christians all live and work side-by-side, and get along quite well. [and he didn't take any pictures of these either]. 

Hey, I even learned a little bit about monkey school; yes monkey school.  Coconuts are a big business here, and the Thais have learned that the best way to pick coconuts is to have monkeys do it.  They use pigtail monkeys, who are very bright, and it takes seven months to train them.   Once trained, the average male monkey can pick 500 coconuts per day.

Back to the tour. After leaving that awful jewelry store, we drove to Chalong Temple and had a very nice visit.  This is the island's most sacred Temple and it is huge. You see hundreds of Buddahs including some which are covered with goldleaf. Fortunately, they would let me in here without having  to wear funny looking pants.  

Finally, we drove back to the ship along another coastal road, passing a beautiful beach called Karon Beach, which is particularly popular with the Russians.

BEVERLY

Around 12:30pm I decided to have lunch at the grill on the pool deck.  OMG, it was so flipping hot and steamy.  I could not keep my sunglasses from fogging up.  I was in my bathing suit, ready to grab a quick bite and go to shore and maybe hit the beach when Michael returned.  He still wasn't back and I was watching the time getting later and later.  While sitting there in the heat, I realized that dragging all the stuff you need to go sit on the beach was not worth the effort.  And then there was a part of me that said, "if I don't go to shore, I might miss seeing something and I will be sorry."  Thinking those thoughts, here comes Michael looking like a drowned rat.  His T-shirt was soaking wet all the way through and he was dragging, wanting something very cold to drink.  He convinced me that going to shore was definitely not worth the effort.

I decided I would be happy just to stay on the ship and go dunk myself in the pool.  Well, that did not last too long as the pool temperature was a very uncomfortably warm 93°.  And that is not refreshing.  This heat and humidity is very exhausting, and I am so thankful that we have wonderful air conditioning in our suite.