Thailand 2012 - Day 5

Day 5 Phuket

Tuesday 2012/04/03

Getting it down to a pattern now, wake up about 7:30, down for breakfast 8:30, hit the pool 9:30. Its a tough life....
The girls went shopping and i just stayed at the pool for the rest of the morning.
We go picked up a 1pm for an Eco Safari tour in a big truck with no windows which was great as all the trips so far have been in Hi Ace vans and the windows are too low to see out properly. Mum reckons the driverust have been at the Melbourne Grand Prix!
Anyway up and over the hills again and then up into the mountains which was a bonus as it was a bit cooler. As we get off the truck we are introduced to our guide for the day. A short wait in the gift shop area and then we are off on a short walk, the first stop is to see coconuts opened where the farming and use in Thai cooking is explained, they also demonstrate how they produce coconut oil a by product being coconut chocolate, very nice!
A short walk on and we get to see green curry being made and all the ingredients explained and we get a small bowl of rice with pineapple green curry, yum.
The next station was about rice, we got to see an ox plowing a rice paddy and the husks removed by pounding them.
The last station was about Thai coffee and tea, where it came from etc etc and we got a cup to try, I had coffee and it was much better than what I had tried in Melbourne.
Then we were off on a tractor trailer ride up this steep track to go for a half hour elephant ride. Off we went me in one and Grandma and Mum in the other, it was really good once you got used to the rocking and the track was fairly hilly, so a bit of a challenge for the elephants. They took us past a lookout point where you could see down to the nay, very pretty. When we got off the elephants they took us to see 2 baby elephants (2 and 6 years old) and they did a little show and we got to take photos with them.
The last demonstration was about rubber trees, we got to see how they mark the trees and turn the cups of collected rubber into these big flat sheets that they sell to the factories.
Then it was back into the trailer to the gift shop where you could by a souvenir photo (yes we did) for a short time then the truck took us to the port for a sunset cruise and dinner.
The boat looked as though it was all made of teak and very beautiful. Drinks and nibbles as the dinner was prepared it was a great way to end the day.
Although it was a bit cloudy we still got a good sunset and got back to port about 7:30, home by 8.
A really good day.

Eco Safari Tour

Elephant Ride

Baby Elephants

Sunset Cruise