Thailand - Part 3

On Wednesday our day was jam-packed.  We started off by going to Kata viewpoint but it was so hazy that the pictures of the bays visible from that high point were not very good.  Then we went to see a Big Buddha that has been under construction on the top of a hill since 2007. They expect to have it finished by 2020.

The girls thought it would be a good idea to imitate the hand positions of Buddha.

It is impressive now and is going to be even more so when it is finished.  I hope I get to come back again and see it when its done.

Then we went to the Chalong Buddhist Temple.

 Then we went to a place that advertised itself as having Elephant Trekking and a Monkey Show.  They started off with baby elephants doing some tricks.

And then they let us feed the elephants who could be pretty determined about getting some food; getting right up in Hannah's face with their trunk.

Hannah got pieces of banana to hand to the elephants who would pick up the pieces with their trunks and then bring them to their mouth.

Kaylee was brave enough to feed the elephants too.  Macy was hanging back though.

They let each of the families pose with the baby elephants although not everybody did so after seeing what the elephants do with their trunks when they're posing with you.

 Here is a close up of the picture above.   I don't know whether you'd really call it a kiss or what but the elephant on the left is planting its huge, wet, very bristly snout on my cheek right next to my lips with such a strong sucking action that I thought I was going to have an elephant hickey on my face.

Then we went to the Monkey Show where they had about 5 different monkeys of different ages doing tricks and again we got to pose with the animals; but they didn't try any monkey business.

 Then we got to ride elephants for about 20 minutes.  Most of the time the mahouts were on the elephants with us but about halfway through the ride they got off and took pictures for us on our cameras.

The markings on the elephants' ears and trunks are a sign of their age.  I think they use the older, less frisky, elephants to carry the tourists around.

The Thais really have a thing for elephants.  We saw them many times in our drive around the island, saw elephant crossing signs on the road (but I was never able to stop and take a picture because we were being driven around to the different places in a van), and saw statues of them all around.

That evening we went to "Phuket Fantasea" for a buffet dinner and a show.  We weren't really quite sure what to expect because it is the only overtly touristy/theme park thing on Phuket that we saw.  It turned out to be a mash-up of some staff walking around as cartoon characters, other staff wearing traditional Thai costumes, a few animals on display in various fantasy settings, elephant rides, retail stores with Thai decorative items (including of course elephants) some of which were high quality and some of which were cheesy kitsch, a giant buffet dinner and a live theatrical show.

I wasn't expecting much quality from the buffet especially when I saw the size of the dining hall which can seat 4000.  This picture shows only about a fourth of the dining hall and shortly after this picture was taken it filled up quite a bit.

  However, the food was actually pretty good and I was surprised given the volume they had to prepare for the crowd.

Afterward we went to the auditorium you can see behind the family for the live theatrical show.

 I can't show you any pictures of the show I took because they are adamant in insisting that you check any cameras with security before you take your seat in the auditorium.  I had my camera in my bag and was just going to go in with it even though I did not intend to take any pictures. My daughter was going to do the same but one of the many guards confronted us about our bags and we had to check them.  I thought it would be a real hassle to retrieve them afterward but the system they had was so organized it was not a problem.

I was able to find a couple of pictures of the show on the internet however.

The show is about an hour and a half with song and dance from different regions of Thailand telling the mythical tale of the "Kingdom of Kamala".  In addition to the dancers and elephants there were chickens and goats running across the stage, doves flying across the stage, a rain storm at the front of the stage, and trapeze artists above the seats performing in black light with glowing costumes.  The show starts off with 16 elephants being ridden down to the stage through the audience and Carol turned to me and said, "Well, they're starting off with a bigger bang than Lion King".  The show could have been over the top and cheesy but it was actually very well done.

We got back to our hotel at about 9:30 and all went to bed by 10:00 because we got up at 4 a.m. so we could catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur.