Phuket, Thailand - Mar 04, 2013

In a word beautiful, in another word incredible, in another stunning, I have mixed emotions visiting this area of the world. Not so long ago my 24 hour relay team lost two of our members and friends to Phuket when the Tsunami engulfed this area back in 2004 - visiting here has shown me why John and Jackie Knill loved this place and why they considered retiring here but unfortunately lost their lives here on this day (December 26, 2004). The last picture in this upload is taken from out at sea where this water surge (Tsunami) would have come in from - my thoughts where with them and their boys at this time in our journey. Phuket is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. It is approximately the size of Singapore and is Thailand’s largest island. It is situated off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman sea. The island is connected to the mainland by way of two bridges. Phuket City is located in the southeast of Phuket Island and is the capital of Phuket Province. The city covers all of the island and is famous for its blend of cultures, shops and beaches. For our short stay here we decided at the last minute to jump onto a HAL sponsored tour taking us into Phang Nga Bay located just north of Phuket over the Sarasin Bridge. This was a great tour as it included many sights that would have been difficult to see on our own - all aboard time was early at 3:30pm so time was a big factor in out decision. We visited an incredible cave temple the “Wat Tham Suwan Kuha” dating back more than 200 years. Here the monkeys were very friendly and well behaved, they are very well fed and accustomed to human activity - taking food right out of visitors hands. The cave is very big, deep and with many alcoves and contains many different Buddhas in the many different positions. We were assigned a half hour here which is not nearly enough time to really see it all. Back on the bus and then headed over to the bay itself where we boarded a long boat for a 90 minutes ride past the James Bond Island, where the movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. Our boat then stopped at the Koh Panyi water village, a village of about 400 houses built on stilts which are all connected by wooden walkways. We then headed for a full buffet lunch at a hotel at the area where we boarded the long boat, we enjoyed great food right on the bay. We then headed back to the ship where we struggled in the traffic not getting back to the ship until 4:30pm, an hour late - this is one of the reasons we decided to do the HAL excursion as we were told to do this one on own would be risky in getting back to the ship on time. We are now headed to Columbo, Sri Lanka, here are some pictures from our visit to Phuket.