Clear, hot, 33 degrees, real feel
37 – I don’t believe it…I think it is about 45 degrees with 100% humidity.
Hot, hot, hot is the theme for
today, with a sprinkling of wet, humid and damp – WOW! When we head out in the
morning around 8:30 it is warm, but holy cow…by the time mid-morning rolled
around it was full-on HOT.
Today’s events
are a tour of Phuket island. First we stop at Patong Beach. This is a very touristy
area with a huge white sand beach. Phuket with its development and tourism
focus is a huge contrast to Myanmar where we’ve just come from. The stop here
is just for a few photos and a toe dip in the sea. We’re not drenched…yet.
Phuket has its
very own Sea
Shell Museum. This is a quirky place with a ton of really quite cool shells
from all over the world including a massive 550 pound shell clam shell. We do a
bit of shopping here and find a shell for our Christmas tree.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM0rQNySmFjCObex8BC79sDiA643Zv0jJDMDwMdK422FrpPVY_vEyttgNpQf7D11JM8VMALqvRmbxJDc2Efq5gzFmGU2dfWy7EKQpbge7BIPsDcsMKMO5TyoXv7gSALw_V7AyhNg/s320/IMG_6552.JPG) |
dried fish - can you spot the eyeballs?? |
The most
fascinating stop we make today is the cashew nut factory. It’s not actually the
cashews that are fascinating, but the rest of the food for sale here. In
addition to cashews in more flavours than anyone could imagine there are a ton
of dried fish and shellfish. The best part is that everything they have for
sale is also available to sample. I have no idea what half of what I try is,
but I loved it. It was all dried so I figured how bad could it be…none of it
was bad at all, some better than others. I particularly liked the teeny-tiny
dried fish with very visible eyes. The one thing that I probably wouldn’t try
again is the dried durian fruit. This fruit is supposed to taste wonderful, but
smell like a baby’s diaper or raw sewage - there was actually a sign on the
Singapore subway that indicated a fine for bringing one on the subway. I’ve
never tried one, but the dried version didn’t thrill me, Chris felt a bit
bamboozled I didn’t tell him it wasn’t wonderful – oh well!!
Our last stop is to visit a Buddhist
temple, Wat Chalong. This is a complex of temples and hawkers. This temple is
different from ones we’ve recently visited in Myanmar in that we actually visit
inside and the buildings are much smaller. Apparently in Thailand a way of
making a sacrifice is to set off fire crackers…every so often we hear very loud
fast banging sounds…the fire crackers. They actually have a brick or cement
structure constructed for setting off the first crackers.
We spend the rest of the day on
the boat – I spend it inside, it is just sooooo HOT!
3 comments:
Mmmmm... cashews...
Did you eat them? Eeeek
I have also yet to try durian... the smelll....ugh... But supposedly really tastey I hear!
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