Day 62 - March 6, 2025 - Phuket, Thailand

This is day 62, we are now half way through our journey!  We are in Phuket, Thailand.  This is another port we visited in 2015.  Our tour today will take us to some new areas of the island and a few repeats.  Last trip we rode an elephant, this time we will pass on that experience.

Phuket trip in 2015

We are having to tender today, but instead of using the ship tenders, we were supplied with a local ferry service which could move more persons faster.  

I watched as they moved a floating dock into place by the ship.  Once in place, it allowed for faster loading and unloading of passengers.

I remember from our last trip how colorful the harbor in Phuket is.

Longtail boats or "Ruea Hang Yao" are iconic in Thailand.  They are used for transportation, fishing and tourism.  They are characterized by a long narrow hull and a distinctive long-tail propeller engine.  

This is a closer look at a boat, the propeller is in the rest position, facing the front of the boat.  The propeller shaft must 10 or 12 feet long.  This allows for maneuvering in shallow water.

Here is a close-up of the engine.  They are often converted car or truck engines, as this one is.

The Viking Sky waiting patiently for our return.

Information that is good to know!

I am not sure if "Get Drug" is part of the name...

It is easy to find fresh seafood in Phuket

This is a typical street scene.  There were massage parlors everywhere.  A one-hour back or a head massage was about $10.00.  A foot massage was only $6.50.

After about 45 minutes and traveling about 10 miles we arrived at Promthep Cape on the south end of the island.  It is known for its iconic Lighthouse and gorgeous sunsets.  Unfortunately, we won't be here for the sunset.

We made a restroom stop here.

My mother would have said this is very good advice.

I am not sure what the significance of this elephant display is??

The view from near the lighthouse

We later made another stop at the Wat Chalong Temple for about an hour.  We had visited here previously.  

I have more photographs, but alas the internet is again failing me.  If I am able, I will update this post with additional photos.

Update - March 9.  I hope I have resolved the photo posting problem after hours of work and research.  I reduced the photo size to about 250K bytes and then had to change from Google Chrome to Microsoft Edge browser.  This is strange because the blog program I use (Blogger) is a Google app.  But it doesn't work with Chrome.  I think the ships internet server, which uses Starlink must prefer Edge...   We then traveled to the Wat Chalong Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Phuket.  We visited here on our last trip.

Inside the temple is highly decorated...

with many Buddhas in various poses.

The view from the Temple's third level.

Looking down at everyone's
shoes, including ours!

One thing I especially remembered about our previous visit was the firecrackers.  You could purchase firecrackers to honor the Buddha and periodically, about every 15 to 20 minutes. the accumulated firecrackers would be lit.

This photo is from our 2015 trip.  It is the cone kiln they toss the firecrackers into.  This was a later addition to somewhat reduce the sound.  It can be startling if you are not expecting the explosions.

As I finish this update and get ready to post, we are approaching Colombo, Sri Lanka.  In fact, we are now entering the harbor.  We have had two sea days and enjoyed several excellent lectures and presentations and have eaten entirely too much good food.

If all goes well, I plan to post about our two days in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, our sea day as we make our way to the Maldive Islands.