March 18, 2025 Phuket, Thailand 48 days left of 138

 Today it has been 90 days since starting on this journey. We in 90 days have made it from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Phuket Thailand. Highlights of the trip so far Panama Canal, The Pearl Harbor memorial, The Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand the whole country, Australia, Singapore, and the friends we have made along the way.

Today we are in Phuket, Thailand. You may remember in 2004 this area was hit by a tsunami, and was devastated. I thought we were going to see a very flat area, and see everything built back new. In reality there is a flat part, but hills on both sides. We did see some new construction, and the tourists have returned.

This is a tendered port, and we are using local tenders to transport us back and forth to the dock in the city. Today the tender brought its own dock to assist with the transfer between the ship and boat. It worked very well. The tenders were air conditioned, clean, and very nice.

As close as we can tell this is a party boat or resort barge. It is moored in the harbor, has plants all over the boat, and looked like it had close to 150 people on board.

The view of our ship in the harbor, when we reach the dock and town.

We had a walk along the beach to reach our buses. There were a few people out already enjoying the day, but in reality the town and people were just getting moving. Phuket is known for its night life, so I believe the town comes alive at night. Today it is in the 80's when we left the ship, and 93 degrees when we returned.

I was hoping since the infrastructure was replaced 20 years ago, that they would update the communication and electrical wires. This was one of the better areas. 

This is a working clock. Pretty cleaver.

Below and to the right was seen at our first stop was on overlook Promthep. From here we were able to see views of the Andaman Sea and Nai Harn Bay. the bay is the resort that Elizabeth Taylor stayed at 3 times. We are not sure who she came to Thailand with.

Our first stop also had a shrine depicting the god Brahma as a "Four faced Buddha" surrounded by more than fifty colorful elephant statues. When someone comes and prays to Buddha with a request, they must return when the prayers are answered with an elephant offering thanking Buddha for answering their prayers.

Thailand  80% of the population is Buddhist.

 

From the view point above we could just see this Buddha. Our friend Mike Pizzey took this picture at 60 magnification, I don't know if I said that right, but you get the point. This Buddha is 45 meters tall and 25.45 meters wide.

Next stop was the Wat Chalong, Phuket's largest and most sacred temple. Inside the tall spire lies a splinter of bone believed to belong to the Buddha, and around the complex are three gold-leaf-encrusted statues of former abbots.

There was a lot of work going on in the area tiling the walkways. They put all their effort in upkeep of their temples. 

There appeared to be a funeral going on, or just finished. 

Our accountant told me to ride an elephant in Thailand. This was as close as I could get to the real thing.

Our third stop was a cashew nut factory.

Above and to the right are cashew nuts growing. They are red or yellow when ripe.

Below are pictures of two women working by hand to open the hard shell and remove the raw cashew, one at a time. It was painful to watch.

We were able to taste samples of the different flavored cashews they had available to purchase. Of course we purchased some, I was surprised by one coated in coconut milk, it tasted sweet and very good.

This is a grove of rubber trees. Our guide figures these are about 4 years old. After 7 years, the trees are tapped in the morning when the internal pressure of the tree is at its highest and the rubber is collected in half shell of a coconut. The trees will drip latex for about four hours.

We arrived back to our ship, hot, but happy with our adventure. It was an interesting look at Phuket, Thailand. Until we meet again we must say goodbye.