PHUKET, THAILAND

Sunrise as we arrive in Phuket. Yes it really is sunRISE and yes, Arleen took the picture. Amazing isn't it ! And beautiful. We have seen some wonderful and beautiful sunsets, too. This is the group of adventurers that climbed steep trails, with roots and rocks and mud. See, age is only in the mind.
These are rubber tree plants. There are little black buckets collecting the sap on the lower trunk of the trees. (hard to see on such a small picture)
Banana tree, with bananas and we couldn't rescue any of them, (like we did on Raratonga....the birds would have eaten them if we didn't :)
We were hiking through the rain forest jungle.
The little plant the ranger is holding is a fruit that you can eat, and of course we tried it. Very interesting, and we liked it.

Stream in the jungle
This picture just doesn't show how high up the canapy of the rain forest really is. It is the best our cameras could do.
These next 2 pictures are of the White Palm. It is found nowhere else on earth.


This picture is probably self-explanatory. This is a squat toilet. You stand over it with your feet on the thatched portion of porceline, squat and hope for the best.

Then you take a bucket of water from the overflowing tank, here, and pour it into the toilet, flush.

March 17th

Happy St. Patricks Day. We just visited the island of Phuket, pronounced without the "h" (Puket) It is another tropical island. I know, how can we be so blaise about it. Because, we are amazingly lucky. We took a tour to the Khao Phra Taew National Park near the north end of the island. We landed on the southeast corner of the island and rode by bus up to the park. The trip was mostly thru populated areas, but we saw some rubber tree plantations and some pineapple plants. Of course we saw some temples. Everwhere you go in asia, you see big temples, ornate temples and small personal temples in front of homes and businesses.

At the park, we went on a trek. We thought from the brochure, that it was a walk thru the rain forest. It actually was a hike thru the rain forest. A single width trail, that was mostly like climbing stairs over rocks and roots, which made the stairs. We had all kinds of people on the trip, some with new hips, new knees,etc, who were not expecting a strenuous trek, but a nice walk. They all did very well on the trip, but we don't know how many ended up at the doctor's office. We know one did. She slipped on a very steep incline and hit her head on a rock. She insisted she was ok, and continued on. She ended up with 5 stitiches, a sprained ankle and some bruises. We think she is really ok, since after her stitches she left the ship to do some shopping.

We really enjoyed the trek and made some more new friends. The difficulties seemed to bring us together as we had to work together to help each other over the obstacles on the trail.

We did not get to the west coast of the island, where all the luxury resorts are. They are all fixed up since the tsunami. The side we were on, is not luxury at all. It is still pretty primative but with lots of traffic.

As usual Arleen had to buy some stuff. Duane got a new silk shirt and she got another blouse. We finally got rid of the leftover 50 baht, that caused so much trouble in Laem Chabang. The show was wonderful, a hammer dulcimer player. Very unusual. Oh, last night's entertainment was fabulous. She doesn't belong on a cruise ship, she belongs ....wherever she wants to be. Her name is Jamila. If you get the chance to see or hear her, do.