"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report # 77 Phuket, Thailand March 17, 2016 Thursday Partly cloudy & 90 degrees 46 Pictures Part #1 of 2

Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:15:45 PM
Subject: Report # 77 Phuket, Thailand March 17, 2016 Thursday Partly cloudy & 90 degrees 46 Pictures Part #1 of 2

We had made no specific plans for today, because the Amsterdam docked in a port where very little is accessible except by taxi or van. Everyone who has been to Phuket before, remembers the tender landing at Patong Beach. Some did not like the floating pontoon that bounced us to shore, but the beach area had everything you could want in the way of shopping, dining, and sun and swimming. Yes, maybe touristy, but better than being parked where we are.

Anyway, here is some info on the country of Thailand. It has a population of 65,905,410 of Thai-speaking people living in a square mile area of 198,064. The capital is Bangkok, and it has been a long time since this wonderful city has been part of the world cruise. We're overdue. According to Lonely Planet, Thailand has everything……perfect beaches, dense jungles, ruined cities, exotic islands, golden monasteries, and coral reefs. It has cities that are laid back or fast and furious cities with rice terraces, Buddhist temples, steamy tropical weather, and hot blistering cuisine. There are 5 star hotels and resorts…..indulgence on a shoestring, more or less.

The best time to visit is November through April when there is less rain. What is there to see? Try Buddhism in its glory, or take in the ruins of the old capital. A visit to the palace grounds of the King of Siam is a must, although the movie, The King and I is not totally accepted here. The rainforests are full of wildlife at Khao Yai National Park. You can check out the relics of the Thailand-Burma Railway. What is there to do? Try snorkeling or diving at some of the remote islands, like Bonnie and Paul did today.

How about food? Tom yang kung is hot and sour prawns in a lemongrass soup. Satay sticks with every kind of meat or fish are sold everywhere. So is their favorite drink….Singha beer. One of the first times we had visited Bangkok, we were introduced to street vendors selling the most unusual food items. That included grasshoppers, beetles, grubs. Good grief. The only thing to offset that sight, were the streets full of young and old ladies creating flower wreathes and necklaces with bright golden and orange marigolds. More than likely, offerings for the temples. Trademarks are golden stupas, floating markets (food sold from a long boat), curries, monks with bowls. Thai silk, elephant rides, and back packer beach parties are all part of the atmosphere of Thailand.

Now, on to Phuket, a very different type of town. It is full of white sandy beaches such as in Patong, Kamala, and Surin….all party central these days. What made this place what it is, was the tin trade. It had been colonized by the Portuguese, French, and the British by the 16^th century. Today, the biggest industry is tourism. There are Buddhist temples, monks, national parks, elephants, and even lemurs. Some famous spots happen to be accessed by some of the ship's tours. Phang Nga Bay is a tour that takes you to limestone caves and grottos, and James Bond Island, made famous by the movie, The Man with the Golden Gun. James Bond, at his best back in 1974. We have done this tour twice, having a great lunch, and a visit to a floating village. The price was $125 for 8 ½ hours.

Another fun tour was a not-so-nice boat ride to Phi Phi Island. Another famous movie was filmed here, The Beach. Almost hard to recognize the beach, since so many boats take tons of tourists there. The boat ride was in a speedboat that had steep sides and no windows. You rode for two hours, either inside a dark sweltering boat, or sat near the back, and got fumigated by the motors. Once was enough for us. Price…. $160 for 8 hours.

An elephant safari for 6 hours gave the folks a chance to learn about the beasts and have a 30 minute ride on one. Lunch was included, like on the other longer tours, for the price of $160.

Shorter tours provided sight-seeing of the major sights in town and started at $35 to $100.

We do not remember the weather being as hot and sticky as it was today. Not ever. Had to be close to 150 degrees in the hot sun. Not really, but it sure felt like it. Our plans this morning took us in a different direction. We had to deal with procuring visas for Sri Lanka. We had sent our travel agent the necessary information, and she was hopefully able to process the requests. When we tried going online very early this morning, the internet was not working. It was off for most of the morning…..not a good thing when we are dealing with limited time to get this done. To complicate matters, we were dealing with a big time change from here to Pacific time. Morning here is nighttime there.

We did find out that the requests were granted, but it took our agent two days to complete it. She had problems with the Sri Lanka site shutting down on her. It would have been 10 times harder for us to do this from here with the slow speed we have. All the proper paperwork was delivered to us, then we sent it to Peter, the purser, who printed it out for us. Nice to know people in high places. Actually, he needed this information as well to get our passports stamped and approved once we get to Hambantota in Sri Lanka on Sunday. We are now cleared to pick up our passports after the officials clear the ship early next Sunday morning. All good news. We supplied them with a copy of our 7 day itinerary so they know exactly where we are.

It wasn't until noon, that we left the ship to check out a possible ride to Patong Beach, and to look over the many souvenir stands on the pier. Most of the taxi and van drivers had made their deals with groups of passengers already, so the few remaining should have been willing to deal. But no. The one taxi driver we asked about a ride to the beach with a two hour stop for lunch began his price at $65 dollars. Don't think so. He had dropped to $50, but we knew that was still too high. Later, we found out that Barb and her buddies had negotiated a price for the day much less than that by going outside the gate to get a driver. It is possible that the ones that get into the pier area, pay a price to do so. It was probably the extreme heat that changed our minds about the beach, or the fact that one of us may be coming down with the weird cold that is being shared onboard by passengers and crew alike. Sure don't need this now, since we will be going away in a few days.

So, we said no thanks, and went directly to the tented stalls. We found a few things we could not live without, such as a HRC t-shirt, and some silky tops. Later on, we picked up an elephant beach bag….all fun and inexpensive items. At the far end, some food items were being cooked for lunch. All Thai food, hot and spicy for sure. Cheap too. The crew were heading back there all day long.

We did not last long outside. It seemed like our shoes were melting into the pavement it was so hot. Time to go back for lunch, which was sandwiches in the Lido. The dining room was closed for lunch today. We asked Pandi why, and he said it was based on the number of guests that take shore excursions. If that number is high enough, the dining room closes for lunch. The Pinnacle Grill was also closed, leaving only the Lido opened for all. We had sandwiches with a side of pizza. Not a bad combo.

When we headed back down to our room, we passed a fellow in the hall, just coming back onboard, with a wet washcloth over his head. Couldn't help but laugh when we asked if it was really that bad outside? He said yes, it was that bad, even worse. He was not laughing as he limped down the hallway to his cool room. We did the same by watching a movie until it was time for sail away after 5:30pm.

As expected, the participation at the sail out of the harbor was light. No one would have expected that a strong breeze had appeared, helping to make it tolerable to stay outside for any length of time. Earlier in the afternoon, we had made a quick walk back here, finding the area empty of sunbathers. And mysteriously, the pool was full, but netted off. Unusual, unless they had to dump the water for unknown reasons, treat it, then wait until the chemicals did their job. Eventually, a few more people came to the aft area, including the Stein Kruse family (without Stein). The ladies have been going off on overland adventures, and we think that the son has joined the group now.

For a change, we were glad to leave here. Hope to escape the worst of that heat and humidity as we head in a westerly direction towards Sri Lanka. The best treat about leaving, was the sighting of a swooping fish eagle, who chose to hover over the ship. There was only one bird, so he got all of the photographer's undivided attention. We have seen these eagles diving for chunks chicken fat on a previous tour in Langawi, Malaysia a few years ago. Impressive birds.

By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. In order to celebrate this "green" holiday, all of the bars had been decorated for parties later on tonight. A drink special was being promoted at the sail away for a pub crawl, although we don't remember seeing the promotion. Also did not see any takers. Be surprised if the majority of folks recover that quickly from today's oppressive heat, but who knows?

Eight of us were present at dinner, all sharing adventures of the day, as we all did something different. The menu choices were not that great, but the conversation was. Some of our dinner mates had gone to the 7:30pm Call My Bluff gameshow in the Queens Lounge, saying it was hilarious. Joe West, a multi-instrumentalist and singer was the 10pm entertainer. We were so backed up with photo sorting, we knew we would not attend.

By the way, we had been given another Zika warning, since this mosquito-borne disease has been reported in Thailand and probably more places we are to set foot. Insect repellant and wearing protective clothing is recommended. On the positive side, we were given another hour back on the clock tonight.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS We have had a few questions on CC, that we can address. We believe that the statistics on housing, property ownership, and even owning and driving a car in Singapore contributes to the country's reputation of the most expensive city in the world.

We have never considered using pedometers or the new gadgets to measure our walking distances. We simply go and enjoy , walking as much as we can……doing it while we still can.

Sailing into Phuket, Thailand