Just Phuket

A few months ago we realized that Good Friday is a national holiday in Singapore .  Holidays that fall on a Friday or Monday in Singapore are special because it means a long weekend to go somewhere.  The fact that Wednesday was my birthday made it real easy to justify taking one day of PTO and having a great long weekend.  The “somewhere” we decided to go was Phuket Thailand   .

Phuket was on our bucket list of things to explore in Asia while living here and that was where we decided to go.  I also wanted to get recertified for scuba diving (the first time was 42 years ago and I hadn’t been diving in 38+years—time to start over).  I found a VERY HIGHLY recommended dive center, Super Divers, booked an Open Water Certification course, we booked some reasonable flights on JetStar, got a hotel for the three of us and we were set.

Julie found us a great place to stay, The Palms in Kamala Beach—just north of Patong.  It was a 2 bedroom place with a patio that had steps directly into the pool.  It too was well rated, had a restaurant, and Kamala Beach is much slower that the frantic scene in Patong—especially on full moons—seriously! Since I would be gone for 3 days of diving, Julie and Christopher got to explore Phuket on their own.

Julie worked with the tourist info desk at the hotel via email to line up the three days they had.  A little back and forth and Julie got what she wanted.

For the first day, it was just a car and driver for half a day (not a tour guide which was fine).  The driver turned out to be the same one that picked us up at the airport the night before.  His English was very limited, but much better than Julie’s Thai.  The first stop was the lookout at Karon viewpoint.  The photos you see online can be beautiful, and while it was good, the haze that day took it down a couple of notches.  Still enjoyable.

From there they headed up to Big Buddha.  The Big Buddha is EXACTLY that, BIG! (45 meters high).  It looms atop a mountain and can be clearly seen from Chalong on the east and Kata on the west.  It was built in 2004 entirely from donations.  It’s built of concrete covered with white jade marble squares.  It was a mellow place to be and you could walk around and completely under it.  There were lots of monks chanting and people praying.  People wrote messages on foil hearts that fluttered in the wind.  The messages were for good luck and passed away loved ones in exchange for a donation—the Buddhist version of Catholic votive candles.

Julie wanted lunch and the driver understood her need and found a really good Thai restaurant Baan Poo Doo Lay (for Julie and Christopher that meant not spicy) with a great view.  Food makes long days go better.

Fueled up they were ready for their last stop—Wat Chalong, a Buddhist temple.  It was built in the early 1800’s and is the largest and most popular temple in Phuket.  Locals and Thais from all over visit this temple to pay their respects.  The “compound” had different styles of architecture and was enjoyable.  What Julie didn’t enjoy was the periodic fireworks that were set off in a brick vessel—scared the crap out of her at first.  Eventually she got used to it, but I think that she will have the memory forever.

Julie enjoys seeing locals dressed up for ceremonies—whether it is a wedding or something else.  She was not disappointed at Wat Chalong as there was a couple celebrating something.  Then it was time to head back to Kamala for a dip in the pool.

I got home from diving and after a beer in Taste, the hotel’s restaurant and bar, Julie and I headed to the beach while Christopher enjoyed his down time in his room.  Kamala Beach is calmer than Patong, but that doesn’t mean that it is devoid of activities.  As the sun set, we watched as locals collected jet skis at the end of the day, put them on trailers that they hooked together to form trains of up to four long that were towed off the beach with a 4WD pickup.  Once to the street they break them into groups of three that they tow with scooters with sidecars.  It’s really funny to see these scooters give it everything they’ve got just to get down the street.

Dinner was at a beachfront table at Salt and Pepper—a restaurant owned by a Swede that serves Thai and Italian food.  Good food and location—the price was even better.

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Phuket is an island and Julie wanted to spend some time on the water.  She and Christopher got picked up the next day and got on a large boat at Ao Po Pier on the northeast side of the island for a tour of Phang Nga Bay.

Phang Nga is a national park and is known for its limestone “stacks” and caves.  Julie and Christopher got their first cave experience at “The Bat Cave”.  After getting into inflatable canoes with a paddler/guide, they went into the cave at high tide which meant they were a little too close to the bats hanging on the ceiling and the smell of bat guano.  From there it was off to Hong Island where they got into another canoe and explored multiple caves, which were gorgeous.  Some were so low you had to lay flat on the bottom of the canoe to get though the entrance.

After that an on board lunch of Thai fried rice with fried chicken wings hit the spot (food always makes the day go better).  Once lunch was done they transferred to longtails for the ride to “James Bond Island”, made famous by the movie,  The Man With the Golden Gun.  After that a little swimming at a secuded beach on the Andaman Sea and  then headed back to the hotel.




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Julie saved the best for last, a visit to an elephant rescue, the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary.  Historically being an elephant in Thailand (and many other countries) has not been a great thing to be.  Elephants are used (and misused) in both logging and the tourist trade.  Both industries are hard on these animals and this center “buys their freedom” for ~$35,000 USD per elephant.  They come to this reserve to live out their days.  And since they can live to 80 years that can be quite some period of time.

This is a new organization, less than 2 years old.  Prior to purchase the elephant has their “registration” reviewed for eligibility.  This covers what they did and what their physical condition is to make sure they are truly animals that need and deserve this final rest.

Two elephants were rescued together and will not separate from each other.  The others are more loaners.  Julie and Christopher both got to feed an elephant watermelon (which she really enjoyed) and cucumbers (which she ate only after that yummy watermelon was gone). 

One of the highlights of the visit was to watch the elephants in the swimming pool (aka a mud hole) which the elephants loved.  The pair of elephants enjoyed every minute until the alpha female (the younger one) decided it was time to leave.  And the older one just followed what she did.

Video One

Video Two

Brian got home from scuba diving on Phi Phi (something for another post) and it was time to pack up (in the dark no less due to a Thai power failure—evidently not an uncommon occurrence).  A morning flight back to Singapore with memories to last a lifetime (especially at Brian’s new age).