Phuket Day 1

My latest visit to Phuket was a amazing combination of learning about culture abd heritage of Thailand, enjoying the scenic beauty of Andaman see and canooing to spectacular caves. I have been to thailand for 4 Days with my Husband. Below is how we spent our four Days

Day 1: A culture and heritage tour with Chaya

Day 2 :Visit to Karon beach and John Gray's canooing trip

Day 3: Pha Nga Bay by speedbaot with Sail tours and a relaxing Thai massage at Mantra Spa

Day 4 : Elephant treking in the morning and Phuket sight seeing by renting a motorbike

On the 5th of August we left home at 6PM to catch a flight for Phuket. Me and my husband Swapnil were very excited  as this was going to be our firct oversees holiday. Filght was scheduled at 9 and was about to reach Bankok by 6:45 and then we had a connecting flight at 7:45 to Phuket. Both the flights were by Thai airlines. The journey was pleasane but the flight got late by half an hour and we reached Bankok by 7:30. So we missed our connected flight then we took our Visa on arrival as the fnext flight was ay tje vclose timing sxcheduled at 8:30, we took our visa from the fast track counter costing us 200 bht each more. the distance from gate where our flight arrived to the Visa counter is considerably more and one has to literally run if you are running short of time as ours. But a airport attend lady helped us and came a long way woth us showing us the exchange and the visa counter and then taking us back to the gate where Phuket flight was scheduled. Finally we boarded a 8:30 flight to Phuket. A tasty juce and sandwich was served on board.  We arrived to Phuket by 10:45AM. From above in the place we could notice the innumerable islands Phuket has. The green forests were eqully eye catchy. The sky was cloudy and it was raining. Phuket has International airport but it is comparitively smaller. The guy we have booked for airport transafers has already arrived to pick us from the airport and drop us to our hotel in Karon beach. It was an hour journey through some big and curvey roads and sometomes throgh small lanes. i noticed the big electricity cabling on the sides of road. Homes were having slanting roof, i guess this may be because Thailand is a tropical country the chances of rain are more. We reached hotel by 12. We have booked a cluture and Heritage tour with Chaya, immedietly after freshing up Chaya came to pick us at the correct time 1:45PM. Chaya was very interested to share her knowledge on history and culture of Phuket and Thailand. Below a pic with Lovely Chaya.

She asked us about our Arrival and journey, after she came to know we haven't had our lunch she took us to a local restaurant to have authentic Thai food. That was good and cheap. Along with the chicken noodles she introduced us to Thailand's favorite drink, iced coffee. I loved it, sweet and cold. Below is a Thai chicken noodles, the white balls you can see in the bowl are fish and a cold black coffee.

 After which we went see the sino portugeas buildings and a old house build in the fusion stype of European and Thai architecture in Phuket. The building was 200-250 years old and currently 4th and 5th generation of the family are taking care of the building. The furniture was 200 years old and was ordered from Italy. It was good and introduced us how Thai people lived in past.

In every Thai building you will find the spirit house. They beleive that the spirits of the people who were leaving on that land may be some 200 years or even before that are still there, and instead of facing their evil we build them this house so that they can leave there and protect us from the evil. Below is a snap of a typical Spirit house.

After that we went to Gypsy village, Gypsies are taller and darker than other Thai's. There homes are elevated from the ground. They leave at the closest proximity from the sea. They are close to nature and are  not materialistic like other Thai's leaving in town. We do not find fencing to their homes. When Tsunami hit the coasts none of the 2000 Gypsies died, as they understand the sea and nature. When the water was taken a back by sea they understood something terrible is going to happen and this water will come to coast with bigger force, so they just grabbed their children and ran. I could see some expensive cars parked out of their houses. We can get pearl jwellary in this town. Chaya bargained for me and got me a good deal. Also the real fun was when we ate the fresh fried fish here. It was a total delight. Below is Gypsy home.

 After this we went to a souvenir shop where I got some stuff in good price...again Thanks to Chaya for taking us to the local shops. Here the rates are same for locals and tourists. After some shopping we went to a Buddhist temple where some monks were chanting mantras and it was a spiritual experience. Temple had Budha statue in the meditating pose. Below is the pic from Budhdhist Temple.

After this we went to visit the Chinese temple where we saw 100's of statues of Chinese emperor and militants. On the way of course Chaya was sharing the knowledge on this. 

After all these sight seeing we were hungry and she took us to a nicest restaurant at the range hill from where we enjoyed the beautiful view with tasty dinner. Chaya is a very warm person and guided us on how should we spend our next 3 three Days effectively in Phuket. She dropped us back to hotel by 9-9:30 PM. At the end we felt we have got so much in so less time.