Thailand, Phuket

NOTE: I’m publishing without photos due to the current difficulty downloading them. Will add later. 

Saturday, May 13 2023, Phuket,Thailand (day 1)

Our first day in Phuket we opted for a tour to the Kinnaree Elephant Camp. This turned out to be an elephant preserve, and the stars of the show were a mama and baby (born in captivity!) splashing in a large pool. The baby was especially having fun. Handlers were there intermittently squirting and scrubbing them. Not as impressive as the river elephants in Sri Lanka, but great to see the unfettered animals. There were others there tethered and tasked with carrying tourists around on a contraption on their backs. Our guide did not endorse paying extra to ride an elephant. 

It was another sweltering day in paradise. Many of the places we are visiting are concerned about climate change. It’s extremely hot for the locals and the animals. Not just the tourists. 

We were able to feed elephants bananas, and even help make food for elephants. Making food for elephants consists of smashing bananas, mixing them with various vitamin and mineral powders, and forming the resulting mash into balls. The elephants love them, as Jill found out when she fed her recipe to one enthusiastic elephant.

Next on the agenda was a stop at a spectacular temple complex. Many devoted worshipers were here—a lot of tourists but also locals with a weekend. There was a brick oven-looking structure where firecrackers would be fired off periodically. Up on the hillside was a giant white Buddha statue. 

Next stop: cashew factory. The main thing I was interested in here was how they crack the cashew shells. I’ve been saving a cashew in it’s shell from an excursion a couple of months ago. The shell is very hard and we don’t have anything in our cabin heavy enough to break the shell. It turns out they use a mechanical press. This was also a shopping opportunity where we bought jars of cashews, postcards, and stamps. 

Once back at the pier, we immediately went back out on our own. There were several taxi drivers interested in taking us on a tour. We just wanted a ride into town. A couple of women passengers from Mexico City were negotiating with a van driver to take them to old town Phuket to pick up a package they’d forgotten when shopping earlier. We offered to split the taxi fare, and got our ride that way.

Old town Phuket is a lively neighborhood with a youthful, friendly population. Lots of shops. We wandered down some alleys off the main drag, then found a coffee shop with decaf and almond-milk lattes. And most importantly, air conditioning! We drank our lattes and wrote postcards.

Our next task was to find a mailbox or post office. No one seemed to know where the post office was. We heard various opinions about where a mailbox might be. Everyone was friendly and willing to help. Young people in the US don’t send much through snail mail. I don’t think they do in Thailand either. We finally found a woman who knew the score. We had to walk down a nearby alley to find one. We knew the alley and headed back that way, continuing further than we’d been before and spotted it across a busy street. Crossing the street in Thailand is not that easy. No one stops for crosswalks. We made it, mailed the post cards and realized there was another temple complex here. Almost as fabulous as the one we’d visited with our tour. 

Heading back to the main drag, we found a guy selling sunglasses for $3 and bought some. Then we started looking for a restaurant. We came to another busy street. One useful strategy is to follow a local across, and we followed a tall, gorgeous black woman who had no problem figuring out the right moment to cross. 

We found a restaurant serving gourmet vegan food. Predictably, we were the only customers. Then a couple young men came in and ordered veggie burgers. They spoke pretty good English and were quite friendly. One of them had an pet in a cage outside he kept checking on. It turned out to be a meerkat. He let us hold it—it was friendly and very attached to him. The owner said he eats there every day, sometimes twice a day. He told us he’s a programmer and has been working from Phuket for a few months.

By now it was dark. The owner called a driver for us. He knew where the cruise port was.

Sunday, May 14, 2023, Phuket, Thailand (day 2)

Today we went on a snorkel trip. We had heard rave reviews about the snorkeling. We were bused to a marina in Phuket and boarded a catamaran with about 20 other people. 

The first snorkeling spot, we had to jump out of the boat. The snorkeling was so-so, and it was not easy to get back on the boat. 

Next, we beached on a small island. It was outfitted with umbrellas and chairs and even had a restaurant. We’d brought our own lunch and settled down under an umbrella to eat. We walked around the beach, and ran into one of the tour guides who said there was a Komono dragon that lived on the island. He was looking for it but didn’t see it anywhere. Probably just as well that it wasn’t around, but we were disappointed not to spot it.

We went snorkeling from the beach. This was much better. Better reefs, more varieties of fish and giant clams that were gorgeous. After a couple hours, back in the boat where they had perfectly ripe melons, cut up and ready to eat. It was a fun group and a good day. The only downside, Charlie refused to wear his coverup the second time we went out. Over the next week or so his sunburned back started peeling and itching. Jill had to "curry" his back with a skin brush to give him relief.