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Published: November 3rd 2010
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Well, I wish had more stunning photos of Phra Nang and the rest of the beautiful coastline for you. I wish I could tell you that the time we spent in Phuket, Thailand's tourism "king" of a resort town, was filled with gloriously sunny days and lots of fun activities. Alas, it was not meant to be. The afternoon after we went horseback riding, it started raining. And it was still raining yesterday when we boarded our flight for Bangkok. Sigh. What a drag. Nothing like being on one of the world's most beautiful islands and being stuck inside because it's pouring down rain.
Soooooo...as you can see from the pictures, we took the ferry across the Andaman Sea in hopes that the weather would be good. I grabbed a few decent shots but they're certainly less than ideal. It was pouring buckets when we got into Phuket and took a shuttle over to the western coast, to a little resort town called Karon. Karon is an interesting little place, in that all of the businesses seem to be run by ex-pat Brits and Scandinavians - there are so many Norwegian and Swedish restaurants, you'd be a little confused if
not for the tell-take palm trees. Luckily, we discovered two amazing restaurants within three doors of our guesthouse - one Thai, one Swedish-owned - and spent our days drowning our sorrows in spicy Thai food, mojitos, and BBQ ribs. Just so we didn't feel as if the trip to Phuket was a total waste, we did the truly touristy thing (forgive us) and went to Phuket's nighttime theme-park/dinner-show - "FantaSea."
Try to imagine a Broadway-style theater that seats 3,000 people, covered in jungle vines and mist. Then envision choreography something akin to "Medieval Times" or "Arabian Nights" - but with elephants instead of horses. Yes, this production, in addition to singing, dancing, magic, and acrobatics, also included over 30 LIVE elephants racing around on the stage, doing tricks and even performing a battle scene. Throw in some horses, water buffalo, goats, and even chickens...and you're looking at the craziest Thai version of Broadway you could ever imagine. It was awesome.
Unfortunately, due to the animals, you're not allowed to even BRING a camera or camcorder into the theater, so alas, you'll have to use your imagination for this one (or check out their groovy website: http://www.phuket-fantasea.com). One of
the most awesome parts of the night was the opportunity to bottle-feed a baby tiger, whose paws were arguably larger than its head already. It was soft and cuddly and impossible to imagine that the thing would one day be the massive equivalent of the two full-grown white tigers they also have on display (and not available to feed ha ha).
So!! Yesterday morning we caught a taxi (in the rain) and hightailed it to Phuket airport, where we sat on a lovely flight (in the rain) an hour north to Bangkok (where it was not raining, but hazy and overcast - sigh). An hour later, we were sitting in my friend Kate's lovely 26th-story apartment right smack in the center of downtown Bangkok. And here were are!! I'll have a Bangkok blog for you in a couple of days, once we see the obligatory Royal Palace and innumerable temples...
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Joe Smuin
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lSunburns & snow.
It's hard to believe how short a time ago you were snowboarding. Now, here at our place, we are looking at fresh snow on the mountain tops. It's cooommminnngggg cloooosseerrr!!!