Stormy Travels: Around the Island

I woke up early again, before Hunter, and took the opportunity to finish yesterday's blog. Around 7am I woke up Hunter and we got ready for breakfast. Today's breakfast was a lot quieter since it was much earlier than our 9:30 breakfast yesterday.

On the way to breakfast

Snail

We went to breakfast so early because today we have a grand adventure of sightseeing planned! As Hunter and I picked a beautiful hotel in the northern part of the island, we wanted to take a day to visit the southern part which has many of the attractions and beaches you often see and hear about when people talk of Thailand. Since public transportation isn't really cohesive here and it's so hot and humid outside, we decided to hire a private driver for the day who toured us around the island! For around $80 USD we got 10 hours with a driver taking us to a bunch of places around the whole island that we asked to be taken to plus some cool extras the driver knew of along the way. This was such a great deal as it saved us the headaches of figuring out how to get from point A to B to C etc. Plus we had a nice air-conditioned car we could leave things in when we got to the different sites!

After stuffing our faces with delicious french toast again, we went back to our room where we packed our adventure backpack with everything we might need while gone for the day: drinks, snacks, battery pack for phone charging, the drone, binoculars, rain jackets, and more! Once we were ready we headed to the lobby where we met our driver at 9am sharp! He drove an Izuzu MU-X, which is like a 4Runner Hunter said.

Driving

These are rubber trees

The first stop on our journey was to a cute cafe created solely for Instagram - Ma Doo Bua. The main attraction here is an artificial lake covered with giant Victoria Amazonica, which are the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of giant water lilies! We had to buy drinks at the cafe to be able to also take pictures which didn't bother us. We had beautifully made (and so tasty) passionfruit juicy sodas and took many many pictures. The drinks only cost ~$5 which seemed like a very fair trade for unlimited picture taking.

The people at the end of the dock were all dressed up fo pictures

My phone has a tool to remove people. It worked pretty well compared to the photo above this one

After taking pictures and consuming our refreshing drinks, we continued on our travels. The next stop was Monkey Hill behind Phuket Old Town. This hill is a cell phone tower hill that has hundreds of free-range monkeys... Supposedly... When we got there the road was blocked and the driver asked us if we wanted to walk. We thought it would be a 5-minute walk and we would see many monkeys, but it turned out to be more of a hike which we were not prepared for at all. We saw a bunch of dogs but after hiking up a steep hill for 15 minutes and a couple kilometers and not seeing any monkeys, we decided to turn around. It was a nice foresty walk, but the hot and humid air made us so sticky and the incline was quite steep.

Back on the road to the next stop

There were many temples everywhere you looked

There were so many dogs on the road up

This one is looking at me so sadly

The view on the walk

These were the only monkeys we saw on the walk

Dog houses

Walking back down after not finding monkeys

Our next stop was to Soi Romanee which used to be Phuket's red light district but is now home to souvenir shops, fancy ice cream parlours, and small but posh guesthouses which was perfect because we needed some ice cream sugar after our unplanned hike! We found a cute place called Margaret Icecream that had a good vibe. There was also a guesthouse in it as we saw backpackers arrive. Hunter and I ordered milkshakes and enjoyed cooling off. I had a mocha one and Hunter had a coffee one. They were more like an ice frap than an American milkshake, but delicious nonetheless! Once we finished we continued on down the street to the colourful buildings for pictures and then further traveled to the famous Charter Bank, Phuket's oldest foreign bank of Sino-Portuguese architecture. It's a bright yellow building on one corner of the intersection and on the other is a similar styled Thai Police Building, with a four-tiered clock tower.

Cool truck we saw on our drive to Soi Romanee

Time for a cold drink!

"Milkshakes" were ~4usd

Little shrine with offerings

Bright pink building

Colourful shops

Police Station

Chartered Bank

Brightly painted shops

Fabric shop

After exploring a bit we then met up with our driver again and traveled to Wat Chalong which is the largest, most revered, and most visited Buddhist temple in Phuket. The first building we went to is the tallest building on the temple grounds standing at 60 meters and has 3 floors. The building is called a stupa (chedi) and shelters a bone fragment of Lord Buddha. Inside there were beautiful paintings on the walls and ceiling and many large donated golden statues. After visiting the main temple we then walked around the grounds and went into another smaller Buddhist temple. While inside, we heard a loud explosion of firecrackers. Apparently, these come from a brick oven-like thing, and along with the flowers, this is another way to make merit, supposedly to show gratitude when one of your wishes comes true. Hunter and I then went to find bathrooms and came across some cute cats on the way there. One was being tormented by a child but then a few minutes later he was all over the kid happy as could be which was quite cute.

Taking photos as we drive by because I was so excited

These are the lucky number cards

This is the main 60 meter tall temple

Cat

Beautiful paintings

The temple grounds

real elephant tusks

You have to take your shoes off before entering

Found a centiped. Centipedes have legs extending from their body and millipedes have legs under their body.

There were a bunch of cats that seemed to appreciate gentle attention

The cat was not bothered by this

And returned for more love

Our next stop brought us to the 45 meter (148 feet) tall white marble statue of Big Buddha on the top of a massive hill (the mountain has an elevation of 1156ft and averages over an 8% grade) that has views of the whole southern part of the island. We drove up the windy road into a cloud where we could only see a faint outline of the Buddha. We climbed up the stairs where we got a more clear view of the massive structure. As we walked around the statue, the sky started to clear and the sun peaked out. We were met with views of the island below and the beautiful blue Andaman Sea. We left the top of the statue and walked back down a different stairway to a lookout point. Here is where we finally saw monkeys and a monk. After taking many pictures we met up with our driver again who drove us to his recommended lunch spot.

Driving to Big Buddha

Hiding in the clouds

3 head elephant statues

The Big Buddha restoration work

Close up of the back of its head

More offerings

Don't touch the monkeys!

Beautiful viewing spot, but not at this time

The clouds have started to break!

We can see the ocean and other parts of the island

It was so pretty and the pictures don't do it justice

A marina

More cats!

The forest was very green

A beach

Elephants

My phone does a pretty decent job at removing people!

Monkey prints in the cement

Purple flowers

REAL MONKEYS!

Elephants being ridden which sadly isn't very ethical

Elephants

Lunch was at a restaurant called Mountain Breeze near the Big Buddha. Hunter ordered a passionfruit smoothie, while I just wanted water. The smoothie was so beautiful and it tasted just as amazing. For our food, we ordered chicken satay, pineapple seafood rice, and chicken cashew stir fry. When our food arrived, we were amazed by the presentation of the pineapple seafood rice: It was in a pineapple. They really stuffed in the rice to that pineapple as I made a bit of a mess trying to get some on my plate. Hunter and I shared the dishes and really enjoyed a taste from a local restaurant.

Chilies growing upward

Hunter's fancy drink

Pineapple seafood rice presentation

Hunter found a funny sign in the toilet at the resturant

When we were done with lunch our driver then took us to Promthep Cape, a picturesque viewing spot almost at the southern tip of the island. Here the ocean was so blue and made for many nice pictures, especially since the sky started to clear up! While walking about we found a lighthouse and an elephant shrine, aside from that there wasn't much else in the area.

Blue water

It was very vibrant

Elephant shrine

Lighthouse museum

Pretty red flowers

Walking back down to our driver

Our next stop for a couple pictures was the Windmill Viewpoint. It just had pretty views and was a quick stopping point. We then headed to Karon Viewpoint which is pretty spectacular as you can see three beaches. The Thai name is Kho Sam Haad, which means ‘The Hill of the Three Beaches’. The closest and smallest one is Kata Noi Beach. A bit further is the beautiful Kata Beach with its island ‘Koh Poo’, which means Crab Island, and in the far, the very long Karon Beach. We took some pictures looking at the three beaches and then headed back to the car to go to Kata Beach. As we were leaving Hunter pointed out two massive sea eagles. They appeared to be tame and you could pay to take pictures with them.

Driving to Windmill Viewpoint

At the viewpoint

Pictures! Our driver was very helpful

The windmill

Driving to Karon view point

Three beautiful beaches

Sea Eagles

When we got down to Kata Beach we touched the ocean and played in the surf. There were red flags up everywhere, meaning the water is dangerous to swim in, but people were still swimming. The tide was at its lowest point in the day, so there was plenty of sand showing.

Red flag in the background

When we were done at Kata Beach we headed to Patong beach driving along the coastline. It was quite the area with many shops selling anything you could possibly imagine. At Patong beach, we took a picture of the Phuket sign and I found a bathroom to use while Hunter got beach pictures. Since it was already 5:30, Hunter and I were getting really sleepy and were ready to return to the hotel. This entailed a drive of approximately 45 minutes all the way back up and then across the island. Getting to our hotel from the south end of the island means going around the airport which is highly inconvenient from a driving standpoint as the airport basically cuts the island in half. This means any trip from our hotel is a good bit longer than it would be if there were a direct road, but that just means we get to see more of the island!

Driving past Karon Beach

Patong Beach shopping

Phuket sign at Patong beach

Someone parasailing

Gas prices were pretty similar to USD one the conversions were done, around $3.80 USD a gallon

When we got back, we were ready for a quick dip in the pool attached to our hotel room and then I was ready for a nap. Before the nap, Hunter convinced me to order room service. We decided on two traditional Thai dishes, he ordered a Pad Thai-like dish with local shrimp while I selected a rice-fried egg and meat combination called Pad Ka Prao. The food was going to be about 45 minutes and I decided I was going to take a nap. While I was asleep there was a brief 10-minute power outage where Hunter just sat there in the dark not wanting to scare me. The power, fortunately, came back on right as our food was arriving. He woke me up and we had a lovely and somewhat authentic dinner on the daybed in our room before going back to sleep for the night.