Noon Report:

• Location: N 07° 53.82′, E 098° 16.69′
• Speed: Anchored
• Course: Anchored
• Weather: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: 27º C, 81º F
• Wind: SE 5 knots, 6 mph

We anchored off of Phuket Island shortly before 08:00 and were on our tender ashore before 9:00

We met our guide and bused up and headed out to our first temple.
Here are a few shots from along the way.

Arriving at the Chinese temple we removed our shoes and hats, covered our bare shoulders, and our guide went into fairly extensive detail about what we were seeing. You can ask for help in your life by shaking a wooden tube filled with numbered yarrow sticks in it until one falls out – look at the number then go over to the cabinet along the wall, find the drawer with that number, and take out the enclosed paper that tells you how to make your life better. When your situation is resolved you are expected to give a donation as a thank you.

The second temple we bused to was Wat Chalong – a large (and famous) Buddhist complex because it houses a relic.

We visited two of the buildings (both times having removed our hats and shoes/covered up). You are expected to take in a flower and joss sticks-wrapped into a small bundle with a small paper around the top . Folded inside the paper is a small piece of gold leaf. Once you have lit your joss sticks so the smoke lifts up your prayers to Buddha, and offered the Buddha your flower and prayers, then you unfold your paper and press the gold leaf onto one of the statues of the founders of this temple. After this you can kneel, ask your question, toss the yarrow sticks, and go to the cabinet to find how to make your life better. Outside we could hear fireworks going off intermittently to express gratitude.

Next we went into the Chedi tower which contains a bone fragment from the Buddha’s shoulder. The relic is on the third floor. The first two floors are full of paintings of Buddha’s earthly life with multiple gold statues of the Buddha in various positions.

For our last pilgrimage of the day, we visited the “Big Buddha” on a hilltop outside of town (from the top you can see the Malacca Strait on one side and looking down the other way you can see the Andaman Sea). We transferred into 9 passenger vans to make the steep climb up to the statue.

When this statue was built in 2004, it was the largest Buddha in existence. Work still continues to install marble facing on the concrete structure. New marble is added as funds become available.

Here are a few more photos of the statue and the area around it.

On the way back to town we drove past an elephant-riding opportunity.

Our guide talked about how much healthier the elephants look now (with tourists returning) than they did during COVID when it was too expensive to feed them very much. These elephants have been rescued from work in Myanmar (hauling teak logs down the mountains) where they were at constant risk of being injured or killed from stepping on land mines. (Due to the military unrest in Myanmar, our ship is not going to dock there.)

Our last stop before returning to the ship was a craft and teak furniture mall where we had a short half-hour to browse (and perhaps find something to come back later to pick up).
Here are a few photos.

Back on board we grabbed a late lunch (2:45) and retired to our stateroom to begin the massive project of cataloging our last few days.

We broke at 4:30 for a lecture: “White Elephants, Sacred Cows, and Royal Gift Horses” – an interesting review of royal quadrupeds.

Dinner was “Tomahawk Steak” night – a huge blow-out event.
I tried to get a photo of a Tomahawk Steak but couldn’t seem to find one. They were serving slices of the steak, not the whole piece. Here’s a photo from the interweb:

It was an amazing production that moved all the restaurant tables and chairs into dining positions all over the pool deck and Wintergarden and all other seating on mid deck 7 – complete with live music and bustling waitstaff. We were still full from lunch – so we settled for a quiet dinner in the cafeteria with an excellent fish soup (Randy) and roast turkey (Cheryl) and then headed to the Explorer’s Lounge to meet friends Pat and Denny for a drink, conversation, and a rousing game of Shut Up Orville. (No BBB tonight because of the steak)

Back at the stateroom it was time to reset our clocks (what with DST and all, we’re now 12 hours ahead of Boise) and head for bed.

Tomorrow our goal is to post as much as possible.
We’ll see how that goes.

Until then, R

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Back on Dec 26, 2004, a huge tsunami hit the island (along with most of SE Asia) and thousands lost their lives. The Thais used elephants and dogs to dig through the rubble for survivors.
• The famous almost perpendicular Thai island (created by tectonic fragmentation and fluctuating sea levels) is known as “the nail” or “James Bond island” because it appeared in the recent movie “Man with the Golden Gun”. It’s north of us so we didn’t get to see it.
• Hindus and Buddhists revere auspicious elephants and all white elephants belong to the king. The elephants are not really white, but kind of a pinkish-grey color and finding one during a king’s reign means good fortune for the country. Elephants have been given as gifts to other monarchs – the King of Siam offered a breeding pair to President Lincoln during the Civil War but Lincoln declined saying that the climate was not healthy for the elephants and the country relied more on steam power.
• Elephants spread from Africa and have been domesticated since before 2000 BCE. War elephants have been used in many ancient civilizations, including the Carthaginians (Hannibal crossing the Alps). Elephants were also killed as spectacles in the colosseum (like the lion and tiger killings) until the Roman populous turned against this practice. In SE Asia many countries have fought battles and invasions with their war elephants (also two brothers, fighting over who would become king in the succession, battled so fiercely with their war elephants that both were killed and the third brother inherited the kingdom).
• If you fell into disfavor with the king, he could bankrupt you by giving you one of his sacred elephants (you couldn’t refuse the honor, you couldn’t give it away, and you had to feed it!)