Thursday 03/05/2012

Another hot and humid day in Phuket.  We got up at 6:45 to get ready to go for breakfast and then got fetched at 8:30 to go on our Elephant trek excursion with Siam Safaris.  It only took about 15 minutes to get there and we were met by our guide – Wi.  We went to the “Thai farm” where we were told about tea and coffee, both of which are served with condensed milk – makes it really sweet.  We ate coconut pancakes.  We then watched how the water buffalo plough the land and then went for a ride on a cart pulled by one.

Then we were given a talk on coconuts and watched how they get peeled, then opened, then grated and then squeezed to get the milk out. We also saw how coconut oil is made.

Wi explained to us how rice is planted, grown, picked and then separated for the various uses.

From there we walked up a pathway to see 2 baby elephants perform a few tricks with the one actually painting!

We then walked along another pathway to hear the process of making rubber, from the process of getting the sap from the tree, to putting it through rollers to flatten it, through another roller to put lines on it to help dry it out quicker and then saw the big sheets which weighed about 1kg which is better to work with.   

We then headed off to have our elephant trek.  These animals are amazing.  We went on a trek for about 30 minutes through a pathed plantation.  It was wonderful being taken for a ride on these huge animals.

After our trek we had a typical Thai lunch which consisted of green chicken curry, sweet & sour chicken, stir fried veggies, chicken with noodles, jasmine rice, spring rolls, watermelon, pineapple and bananas.  Most enjoyable.

From there we got into a tractor drawn cart and taken back to the meeting point where we got our taxi back to our hotel which was about 1pm.  It was a really most informative and enjoyable morning and recommended to anyone going to Thailand.

Relaxed for a bit and then went shopping along our street and then came back to the hotel to sort things out.

Wednesday 02/05/2012

In the early hours of the morning I heard serious thunder and got rather worried as we were going on our boat trip today.  We were collected at 9am and taken down to the pier at Chalong Bay for our trip aboard the Merdeka.  This boat is a spa boat and belongs to Neil Dibb who is a good friend of my boss, Campbell Alexander.  We were met by Addy, the skipper, who got us onto a local bus to go to the boat.  We set sail at about 9:45.  The weather was rather overcast and the water quite choppy which did not go down well with me, so I just sat rather still trying to look at the horizon.  At some points the boat was seriously rocking from side to side.  We anchored near a small cove at the back of Coral Island.  We got into the water and snorkeled for a while, but with the water being so choppy and being the first time that I was snorkeling, I was not too happy in the water, so we left and went around to Banana Beach.  A long tail boat came and collected us and took us on to the beach.  After having something to drink we arranged chairs for ourselves and then went snorkeling.

Wow is all I can say!  I have never snorkeled before as I can’t see without my glasses but I recently got contact lenses to wear whilst doing gym and had them on and could not believe the life under the water.  The coral and fish were amazing and if I made a fist the fish would swim up to me thinking I had food and nibble my hand and even my legs – quite a weird feeling.

At about 1:30 we had lunch – Dereck had a Thai chicken curry and I had Thai chicken with cashews and chili – both very enjoyable.  After lunch we went snorkeling again and at about 2:45 the long tail boat took us back to the Merdeka and headed off back to the pier, whilst eating freshly cut watermelon and pineapple.  Once back at the pier we got the local bus to our taxi who then took us home where we showered and relaxed. 

Had an early night – I think the lovely fresh sea air got to us.

Tuesday 01/05/2012

Again another hot and humid day.  After breakfast we headed off to see my tailor for a fitting for the shirts I am having made.  We then took a walk along the road towards the Karon beach area (although we were not planning on walking that far!!).  We wandered around looking at the various shops and the scenery and then took a different road home.  While looking in one of the shops it started pouring with rain.  We waited outside for a bit and then decided to brave the rain and walked from shelter to shelter. We passed a massage house and decided that instead of walking in the rain we should go in and have a Thai massage which we did.  Oh wow, it was quite hectic and they certain stretch and prod your whole body and even climb on top of you to use their feet and elbows to massage, but I certainly felt very revived after the massage which lasted a whole hour.  I would recommend it to everyone.  When we left the rain had stopped so we carried on walking back towards our hotel.

We were trying to take a different route and took what we thought was a short cut but ended up being the wrong way, so had to backtrack and eventually got to our road (and in the heat we were dripping with perspiration) after walking for 40 minutes.  Once back at the hotel we changed into our costumes and had lunch down at the pool restaurant.  We then had a swim to cool off and came back to the room to get ready for the evening.

We went out to Danny’s Pool bar for supper.  While there it started raining again.  I had pad thai noodles with seafood which was really tasty. By the time we had finished eating the rain had stopped so we went back to our hotel in case the rain came back again, but not before trying out a Nutella pancake from a vendor – very tasty indeed.

Patong Beach

Monday afternoon

At about 5pm we caught the taxi which took us to Jungceylon (at huge shopping mall) at Patong Beach.  We wondered around the mall for a bit and then headed down to the beach to watch the sun setting.  Oh boy, what a beautiful site. 

We then headed to Bang La Road which is the main area for bars and “ping pong” shows.  It is a walking only area in the evening and is very festive – some call this the Las Vegas strip in Phuket!  We had supper at the BBA (Bangkok Burger Company) and we both agreed that it was one of the best burgers that we had tasted.  After supper we wandered around a bit more then walked back to the mall to catch a taxi (but not before having a chocolate ice-cream). 

Monday 30/04/2012

Another lovely hot day in Phuket.  We had a late breakfast and then met our tour operator so that she could confirm our flight home.  We also booked an elephant ride for Thursday.   We changed into our costumes and then walked down to the bus stop and caught the local bus to Karon Beach.  We wandered around the area for a bit and decided to go back to our own beach. We walked for a short while and then caught a tuk tuk to our hotel. 

Collected our towels and headed off to Kata Beach.  Got chairs, had a swim and lay back and relaxed and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.  At about 3pm we came back to our hotel and swam in our pool, stopping by the pool bar for a lemonade and a chocolate ice-cream sundae.  We came back to our room at about 4pm to freshen up before heading out to Patong Beach.