Sunday, September 4, 2011

Day 1 in Phuket

One of my favorite things about any vacation is the scrumptuous buffet breakfast served in most resorts . Being a foodie of the first order I love good food and I love exlploring different cuisines as well. My dad used to say that whenever you are on a holiday you should have a very heavy breakfast . That way you will remain energetic throughout the day and you won't need a full fledged lunch . Some light snack would do . I am not sure what a dietician or nutritionist would opine on that one but practically it did work . In a breakfast buffet by the time you explore a little of all that they serve - salads , baked potato , bread , baked beans, cereal, fruits , juice etc you will be loaded for the day . After having a relaxed and heavy breakfast we set out for the day .
We took the help of the lady at the travel concierge at the hotel . She was a very sweet lady who offered us great assistance on all three days of our stay .
We booked a taxi for the whole day. First the driver took us to a souvenir shop as it was slightly raining. But who will be interested in souvenirs in the first leg of the journey ? But my son was ecstatic seeing all the elephant dolls for sale in all shapes and sizes .
You will find elephants in one form or the other everwhere in Thailand. Even the toilet in our resort room had a wall hanging bearing the picture of an elephant. So it was the perfect holiday spot for my elephant lover son!
Our next stop was at a place where they reared elephants and offered elephant treks . There was a baby elephant there and at a price of a 100 bhat u could feed him a basket of bananas . My son squealed with delight and thoroughly enjoyed himself . But as a supporter of animal rights I hated this concept of using a calf for such commercial reasons . He was getting deprived of the freedom he deserved.
Our next stop was at the Big Buddha . They have built a gigantic statue of the Buddha on a hilly terrain overlooking the ocean . The place has some magnificent views of the island .
From there we went to the wat talong one of the Thai temples in Phuket . It consisted of two temples next to each other . Beautiful architecture and a feast for the camera .




























By then my little one was hungry . In our holiday excitement we had forgotten to pack any food. The driver said that he would take us to a wonderful restaurant and drove us to some seafood restaurant which was in the middle of nowhere . Being strict vegetarians that wAs the worst choice for us . We had explained that we were vegetarians but poor fellow got the wrong idea and his attempt to impress us with the wonderful seafood Thai cuisines kind of got totally goofed up . The place was pretty crowded though . Maybe the seafood is really good there but I can't comment . This place was also not like a shopping area or anything where you have a lot of options. So exploring if we got something else was also totally ruled out . Then we explained our predicament to the driver . He suddenly got reminded of an Indian restaurant that he knew and took us there .
Food is heaven especially if it's something like hot basmati rice and rotis and dal in some remote corner in Thailand and the fact about being extremely hungry adds extra effect .
After an awesome lunch we headed to another elephant trek area . By now the sun was out and the weather much better . We decided to go for an elephant .
It was really adventurous as the lady-mahout led the pachyderm through ups and downs in a kind of muddy wet mountainous terrain. My kiddo was squealing with delight though me and my husband were a bit anxious and tensed . After the trek we spent another 100 bhat to feed the elephant . This time pineapple chunks .
The final destination of our day tour was a place called karon view point . Really amazing views .
After returning to the hotel we freshened up and got ready to go to Fantasea at Phuket . A kind of fantasy park mainly promoting it's daily musical show .
There was a bus pick up from the resort and this park is situated on kamala beach . The show was very good and worth the ticket price. It actually combines a buffet dinner which you can choose to opt for or not . The buffet dinner is supposed to be served in grandeur and style . We did not opt for it . The show is a mix of music, dance , magic , tricks and above all close to 40 live elephants performing on stage . Definitely worth a visit one time and enjoyable by both kids and adults . No photography allowed though . In fact they ask you to deposit your cameras and mobile devices and the queue for collecting it after the show was a teeny weeny bit frustrating .
We got dropped back at around 12 and after such an eventful day it took us hardly a few seconds to fall into a deep slumber !

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