NOTE : WE HAVE TAKEN OUR 2000th PICTURE. IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO TAKE AN 8GB SD CARD. IT IS ONLY 2/3 FULL. I HAVE AN ADDITIONAL 12GB WITH THE OTHER THREE CARDS I HAVE. I HOPE THAT IS ENOUGH. I WILL NEED ABOUT THREE MONTHS TO EDIT ALL OF OUR PICTURES AND MAKE A BOOK OF OUR TRIP.
Well, today started out with a little rain just after we were picked up by Is (pronounced ees). He is a local taxi cab driver who offers a full day tour of the island for $50.00. We told him that we primarily wanted to see the famous beaches and a few highlights, including Phuket Town. Fortunately, the rain stopped shortly and we were not hampered by the weather. It was so humid, however, that our glasses fogged up. I decided to wear my new knock-off white D&G sunglasses and they worked very well but I couldn't read a single thing! I sure did feel classy though.
Our first stop was Phuket Town which is filled with every kind of tourist shop both street stalls and high end high end shops too. We visited a big five story department storepartments and goods as we have at home and western prices as well. This is a very big tourist town and we were not very impressed with it, so we didn't spend much time there. Maybe we are just getting tired of the shopping schedule and I, certainly, am not a very good shopper, at least not for myself.
We then visited Wat Chalong which is a very huge Buddhist Temple and we were very happy that we made this stop. The temple complex is very ornate and has several pagodas with buddhas everywhere. There were lots of people praying there, bringing lotus flowers and burning incense. Even though we have visited many temples of this kind before, this one was particularly interesting and beautiful.
A visit to the cashew factory was also very interesting. It is hard to believe that each cashew nut is essentially shelled by hand using a small manual machine to crack the shell. We tasted a cashew drink which was really quite good and also tasted about 10 different kinds of cashews prepared in different ways: plain, garlic, chili, sesame coated, pepper and then we tasted some wonderful cashew candy made with sesame seeds and honey. We purchased a box of them but I don't think that any of them will make it back to the States.
Is then offered to take us to a local Thai restaurant and said that he takes most tourists there. It was a roadside stand with lots of flies and didn't look appealing at all so we asked to try something else, perhaps by the water. He was determined to take us to a place that was for locals and we finally ended up by a small place right on the ocean. We were definitely the only tourists. We sucked it in and ordered a pad thai and a shrimp fried rice to share and prayed that we would be ok after eating this meal. It tasted wonderful and was so inexpensive - less than $10.00 for the three of us including a big bottle of beer and an iced coffee and pork curry for Is. So far, we are ok. I guess this is the difference between having a local taxi driver spend the day with us vs a certified guide making sure that we only go to safe places. Is has a high school education and then studied an additional two years to learn English in order to be a taxi driver. His cab is unmarked and is his personal vehicle. We would not have gone with him except that someone at our hotel had spent the day with him the day before and recommended him. He went out of his way to please us and to tell us as much as he knew about the sites, but this was not much. His English was pretty good. He really wanted to ask us lots of questions and said that he rarely gets to talk with Americans. He certainly knew a lot about Obama and Tiger Woods and also said that his friends didn't like Bush. His wife works as a clerk in the courthouse and in this way, they get monetary help with their apartment rent, daycare for their 3 year old son and healthcare. Otherwise, they would really be struggling.
Along the way, Is pointed out several enormous mansions owned by very wealthy Thai investors. They make Teal Creek in Lakewood Ranch look like small homes. We were amazed to see them considering how the locals live here. Their are also many private homes along the water and in the hills overlooking the beaches which are very beautiful. They are owned by westerners and many Japanese who have investments in Thailand and also some wealthy Thais who come to vacation here. Mostly, however, the living seems extremely poor.
After lunch we stopped at several beautiful beaches including: Ni An Beach, Kata Beach, Kata Noi Beach, Karon Beach and Patong Beach.We were able to see Kata Beach, Kata Noi Beach and Karon Beach all from a high view point. They are spectacular. There are many high end Hotels on these beaches and we saw Le Meridien which is very large. Patong Beach is the most famous beach on the island and is definitely the place to be for tourists. The streets were packed with mostly young people having drinks in outside cafes and bars. There are lots of hotels here and some high end shops and many nice restaurants as well as the typical tourist trap street stalls. The beaches were covered with umbrellas and chairs but few tourists though we imagine they are usually full in better economic times. I have been trying to purchase some Pandora beads for Hannah for her birthday, but I have only been able to find poor reproductions of poor quality silver. In Patong, I did find a shop that had reproductions of the beads made out of 18 carat gold but they were more expensive than the real ones at home. Pandora has a factory in Thailand but they only make them for export so I am out of luck.Our big purchase today was a package of surgical masks to wear in crowded places and in the airport, although, there does not seem to be any threat of the Swine flu here yet. We don't want to take any chances.
The second biggest industry here is rubber. There are thousands of rubber trees forests. The picture above shows the trees and the tap to get the rubber sap.
After seven hours with Is, we were more than ready to return to our hotel and we have decided to stay put now for another two days before leaving for Beijing.
Tonight we ate at a Japanese restaurant in the hotel. The prices are very high. We spent more on one California roll than we did for lunch today for three people. That is the difference between a local places versus a high end hotel. Oh well, it is only money.
Please note that we added pictures to yesterday's blog today. We had internet issues last night.
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