Phuket, Playground of Thailand

What an amazing journey to this tiny island on the Malaysian peninsula. Roughly the size of Singapore, this vacation hot spot is home to under a million people. The climate, at least for today, was very hot and extremely humid; 39C in the shade, if you could find any was the average. Safe to say that wet was the accepted look for the morning. We were tendered to the port and divided into groups according to the venue that we were visiting, mine was the elephant safari.

We arrived in a matter of a few minutes in a jungle-like setting specifically designed for tourists. At one time, the elephants were critical to the logging industry of Thailand however, with severe restrictions on logging of endangered species as well as mechanization; these beasts of burden are now rendered as tourist attractions. Their Mahouts, or keepers are very dedicated and loving and the all female troop of elephants seemed quite tame in spite of their reputation for trusting only one person.  The first mode of transportation after the bus was an oxen cart; holding six of us, we lumped along a deeply rutted dirt jungle road taking photos of all the sights. The first stop was a rice paddy with a cooking demonstration highlighting Thai food, in this case a raw papaya salad. The ingredients consisted of raw, green papaya, chilies, garlic, lime, lemon grass, shrimp (paste) and fish sauce. It smelled great but I was not brave enough to sample, we have two weeks of cruising to go and I wanted my digestive system to be in order. Instead, I boarded a water buffalo for a photo op and a wee video in front of the rice paddy.

The original way of the rice paddy

 Off we scuttled to the elephant show which was quite the circus. The two Mahouts with their elephants played soccer, basketball, broke balloons with darts jettisoned from their trunks, gave massages and even danced while playing the harmonica; a great distance from what they originally did. I bought a bag of bananas to feed these girls and boy can they eat. Scarf, scarf and down they went with a huge trunk tickling me for more.

The performing baby elephant and her Mahout

The ride was awesome on top of these enormous beasts. The Mahout steers the elephant with his bare feet snuggled behind her ears as well he talks to her (in Thai of course) giving her gentle prods to stop, turn, reverse or whatever. The ride is similar to a camel ride but not as abrupt, actually rather a swinging, lulling motion. As we travelled the Mahout wove a necklace for my partner of palm into a floral-like necklace.

Lumping along



Miss saucy Gibbon

Upon our return and less than delicate dismount, a couple of Gibbons were performing for us like so many kids on a play structure. Saucy and very nibble, these cuties bounced, skipped, swung and generally cavorted all over the tree that they were tethered to. Very fun to watch.



Lil buddies are everywhere

A visit to the happy room, board the bus and we are off to the requisite shopping venue. This time, as I was alone, I could sail through the exorbitantly priced jewelry to the kitschy tee shirts and souvenirs. Of course I did look at the Thai silk shirts for men, but decided not to indulge.

Home again, home again on a great tender ride to a very cool and inviting ship for shower, lunch and beers to relax.

Devotion for our safe journey on the tender dock

Tomorrow launches four days at sea enroute to the sub-continent of India; I suspect that I will be busy presenting.