Retired Nomads: April 8, 2013 Phuket, Thailand 9:00a to 6:00p

Phuket is pronounced Pooket, though most Americans say Fooket, as well as another less charming pronunciation. (grin)

We were supposed to dock here, but it turned out to be a tender port, for whatever reason. Other than taking more time away from our touring, tendering is not a big deal. The good news however was that the ship is arriving about an hour early and surprisingly the last tender was scheduled to leave at 5:30 instead of some other much earlier time. This Captain has arrived late and left early at almost every port so this was a pleasant surprise.

Today, we opted to not do an organized tour and use taxis to get around. We wanted to ride elephants here and then snorkel in the afternoon. Marianne, Jeff & Julie, Rick & Janie and Steve and Karen wanted to come along, so we met in the lounge to get tender tickets for all of us and once on shore we bargained for a taxi. We thought we would need to split up and take 2 to 3 taxis, but they had a nice van that could accommodate all of us so it was like $8 each so a great deal. 6 of us (Jeff & Julie and Steve & Karen and us) wanted to snorkel after and Marianne and Rick & Jane wanted to go to town and shop, and the cab driver said no problem.

First off we headed to Kok Chang Elephant Trekking Safari. www.kokchangsafari.com/ We opted for the 50 minute elephant trek (they also have 20 and 30 minute treks). They got rave reviews on TripAdvisor and we were very pleased with our trek.

Here is a description of the tour: “Ride Thailand’s finest majestic animals, the Elephant, through dense tropical jungle trails in the south west corner of Phuket between Kata Noi Beach resort and Viewpoint. The journey begins at the elephant kraal at the entrance to our park where our fully trained handlers (mahouts) will escort you through this magnificent scenery. You may even get to ride on the elephants shoulders with no seat.”

When we got there, there were only 3 elephants and the 6 of us that signed up for the 50 minute trek got to go and the other 3 were taken by the cab driver to another place to ride for the shorter ride they wanted to do and then took them shopping.

We climbed up to the platform and removed our shoes to ride the elephants and each couple was seated on the seats on the elephant’s back. We rode through the jungle and the cicadas were buzzing and we could occasionally hear monkeys. The 3 couples were taking pictures of each other. About halfway through the trek, the mahouts got off the elephant and let us sit behind the head without the saddle. He took our camera and took a ton of photos of all of us. We climbed higher in the jungle until we came to a lookout area where we could see the ocean and some of the town. The mahouts called out to the elephants to guide them or tell them to pose for a picture. What a blast being on the elephants without the saddle. (I said we got a Thai massage!) While riding behind their heads they held your legs with their ears. Our elephant's name was Samoa and Jeff and Julie's was named Pancake. Steve & Karen didn't remember their elephants name.

After the trek we fed the elephants with the free bananas they provided for us. We got pictures of us feeding them and you could touch their trunks (or they touch you). It was hard to get photos of the feeding since they grabbed the bananas quickly.

here we go....

Karen & Steve

Julie & Jeff

The cab driver never came back, but the people at Kok Chang had trucks with benches in the back and a guy drove us the 10 minutes or so to Karon Beach.

Prior to leaving for the cruise I had contacted the Phuket Scuba Club to see if they had a ½ day snorkel trip, but they didn’t have anything that would fit into our time frame, but Chantal said since we had our own gear we could leave our things at their hut on the beach and she would point out the best places at the reef. Phuket Scuba Club (Chantal) www.phuket-scuba-club.com/

It was almost lunch time so we ate at the restaurant next door to the snorkel hut called The Ruam Thep Inn Restaurant. Nice covered but open air place with a large varied menu. Karen got a sandwich, Steve and I got tempura, Greg had a seafood fried noodle dish, Jeff had sweet and sour chicken and Julie had Thai Curry Chicken.

After lunch we went to find Chantal and they were so nice and said “yes she remembered emailing me and please leave your stuff here” Jeff & Julie were going to rent masks, but Chantal said she didn’t want to rent them because the currents were bad and she said the visibility was terrible. 3 of us went out to check it out anyway, and while we could see a few fish, the visibility was poor and the waves pretty strong, so we came in and called it a beach day. We laid out for about an hour and then we split up and agreed to meet at the Starbucks at a certain time and then we’d grab a cab back to the ship together.

Greg and I went back to the restaurant and ordered banana splits made with gelato. Man, were they good! Then we walked the few blocks to the shopping area and I tried to find something to spend off the rest of our Thai Bhat.

a small Gecko on base of flowerpot

Walking through town:

I got a skirt before it was time to leave. 4 of us still had lots of Bhat left so we were going to go to Phuket Town and the other 2 were going to go back to the ship, but when we got to the tender area there were lots of vendors set up there so we all just got off together. We shopped until almost the last tender. I found a white top to go with the skirt and got another green shirt and a couple of dresses that probably will make good swimsuit cover ups, though one I may wear as a dress on the ship. Everything was so cheap here. We joked that you could buy anything here for $6.00 to $8.00. Since we are in the hot places that require covering up for mosques and temples I wanted a few more gauzy type skirts and blouses.