Phuket Town (5th-6th March)

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So we headed back out into the real world once again….

After a 3 hour boat trip (advertised as 1 1/2 hours) and a short bus ride we arrived in Phuket Town, and have to admit that we were a bit disappointed. However, we thought we’d give the place a chance as we had only seen the harbour and a few streets. We got ourselves a room at a hotel called Rome Place, which was nice enough, pretty cheap with t.v., hot water, A/C, fridge and a balcony. We then headed out for a bite to eat and found the place a little bit more modern than on first impressions (shopping malls, neon light and much to Dan’s delight, a McDonalds!) but still nothing like how the Lonely Planet described it: ‘a stylish city of Sino-Portuguese architecture and cultural diversity’…..mmmmmm….maybe we just hadn’t visited the right area yet….

The following morning we headed across town by foot to the bus station….and still we couldn’t see what the L.P was talking about. We booked ourselves on a bus to Bangkok for the following morning and then headed out of town by tuk tuk to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre (GRC) near Nam Tok Bang Pae (what a name!?!). The GRC was opened in 1992 and basically it’s primary goal is to reintroduce captive gibbons (taken from the wild when they were only babies, their parents being killed in the process - at least 10 gibbons die for every one taken into captivity) back into the wild. The process of reintroduction is painstakingly slow (10 years) and is by no means successful every time. Only three families have been reintroduced thus far, and of those only one family have made it to full independence, though it’s obviously still early days. Each gibbon, once confiscated, has to under go a thorough quarantine and medical examination before they are separately housed at the centre (if they have any diseases e.g. HIV and Hepatitis they are put together with like-diseased individuals on islands at a different location). They start off in relatively small enclosures (3mx3mx3m) where they begin to get used to their new ‘freedom’ and discover how to live like a gibbon (e.g. swinging around). They are then gradually introduced to other gibbons and moved into larger enclosures set further away from the public viewing area and receive less and less human interaction. In order to give the gibbons as much chance of success as possible, family units (male, female and at least one baby) are only released. The gibbons call to one another between the different enclosures and by the sounds of the different calls the staff can determine who fancies who. One poor chap was obviously desperate for a mate, but as he had lost the ability to call, he was destined for a life of solitude. There was also a young female gibbon who’d been kept in a small birdcage for most of her life, and as such, her arms had grown backwards, however she still played around with the three other gibbons she shared an enclosure with.

The GRC is desperately under-funded and appears to be engaged in an uphill struggle with the Thai authorities. Due to the corrupt nature of the police force it is very difficult to confiscate the gibbons despite it being illegal to keep them. The only thing that seems to carry any weight out here, as everywhere, is money and as tourism is by far the biggest source of income in the area it is as much down to the tourists as it is the locals to stop this from happening.

After taking in the GRC we headed back to Phuket Town and when we found little else to do, we decided to change our bus tickets to that evening and so at 7.30pm we headed for Bangkok…..


A few pictures to follow.

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