Phuket is an island in the Andaman Sea and is connected to the mainland by one bridge. This island is covered with tropical flowers and rubber trees. The eastern shore is rocky and the western shore has all the beautiful beaches and resorts (these were severely damaged in the 2004 tsunami). We were surprised at how large and clean the city was. The signage was a mishmash of English, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew. Make no mistake, this is a third world country but yet it had its charm. Our driver spoke passable English and took us on a tour that covered all the highlights.
My impression of Phuket and surrounding areas is that it looks a bit like Mexico, with small open air store fronts with absolutely no zoning ordinances that I could see. There were many thatched roof structures with blue tarps over the awnings. Buildings were not well maintained and there was wild vegetation growing everywhere and on everything. Overall, the place was a lot cleaner than I imagined.
Our driver, Pong, took us to Wat Chalong, a Buddhist temple complex made up of several temples, each one dedicated to a specific entity. The main temple was three stories tall with a very high steeple; very ornate with lots of gold leafing. The bottom floor was filled with life sized golden Buddhas; I don’t know what was on the second and third floors as I did not go inside. You have to remove your shoes before entering any temple and since I forgot my socks, there was no way I was going anywhere barefooted. Michael took off his shoes, and I did have some antiseptic wipes for him to use.
Our next stop took us to the elephant farm. Lenny wanted to ride them, so we all agreed to go.
Other points of interest that we visited were Phromthep Cape, which is located at the southern tip of Phuket Island and offers a magnificent view of the Andaman Sea, and Patong Beach, the famous resort area. The road to Patong Beach was hilly, steep and curvy and the drivers are crazy. It was pouring down rain.
Our main objective in going to Patong Beach was to find a USB cable for my phone (which I will remind you that Michael forgot to bring). Pong took us to a mall – I have never seen anything like it. It was three or four stories and it went in weird directions with moving sidewalks instead of escalators. One minute you are in a grocery section, the next in a clothes shop. There were no walls, so you couldn’t tell where one store started and another ended. There was one store that specialized in facials and partial massages for 60 minutes for $10. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time, and we were, after all, on a mission. We finally found the mobile phone section and there were at least eight phone vendors in one spot. On the fourth try, we finally found the cable for $18. We then had to make our way back to where Pong dropped us off and I will admit, for the first time in my life, I got lost in a mall. It took us several attempts to find our way back, but we finally did.
We returned to the ship, had a light snack and headed back to the room to boot up the computer and try out the cable. Long story short – the computer died. It wasn’t pretty, nor was poor Michael who was pulling his hair out worrying about how he is to run the bridge games without his computer. The IT guys said they would look at it tomorrow and if it was indeed dead, they would give him a loaner until we get to Dubai, where we get to purchase a new computer. Sweet…..
Turned in early again after a lovely dinner in the Prego dining room.
You are right about never complaning about the heat in the desert again!! I know you do not want to have to buy a comptuter in a foreign country but who knows you might get a great deal!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I would have gone barefoot anywhere especially as dirty as it is! Looking forward to more pictures.
Marilyn