Phuket - Initial Observations

Initial observations of Phuket: From Clara and Silas: It looks cleaner and there are fewer motorbikes. The houses look nicer. From Sharon: Wow! We haven't gone this fast in a vehicle since we left Maine. From Hal: There are actual rules of the road being followed here, and our driver is going too fast! Our driver tells us that if you can drive in Phuket you can drive anywhere in the world. What can you do except laugh after that and tell him to visit Ho Chi Minh City....

We're staying at a fabulous resort- The Movenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach. The amenities, rooms, service, food and landscaping here are incredible. Our fellow guests hail from Korea, Australia, France, Germany, and England near as we can tell. The retailers in the small town next to our resort feature restaurants, tour operators, massage, pedicures, manicures, and soap carved into flowers, colored, and displayed in a cute little box. Popular tours include a giant buddha (200' x 300') which sits atop a nearby mountain. You can also snorkel, scuba, ride ATVs or elephants, and visit temples and monkeys. Golf and shopping are also very popular.

The first day on Phuket (pronounced poo - ket) Hal headed off to work and Silas, Clara and I spent the day trying out two of the three swimming pools and spending some time at the beach. So much for cultural enrichment...Yesterday we booked a tour to Phi-Phi Island (pronounced pee-pee). The tour started with a 40-minute speedboat ride out to a group of islands in the middle of the Andaman Sea. We saw the lagoon and beach where they filmed the movie "The Beach", fed some monkeys at another little inlet, passed near the caves where birds nests were being harvested for birds nest soup, snorkeled in several limestone-enclosed lagoons, and ended the day with a rough ride back to a beach to chill for an hour before returning to the marina. Although the day was a little frantic, what can you expect when you are LIVING the discovery channel?