Harmonie - Phuket Town and the Big Buddha - Nai Harn (again), Phuket, Thailand

Phuket Town and the Big Buddha - Nai Harn (again), Phuket, Thailand

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Sun 27 Mar 2011 00:56

07:46.534N 98:17.961E

February 24, 2011 - February 26, 2011

(My dad asked me to make the dates each blog entry pertains to more prominent so it's easier for him to collate the printouts my mom reads. He says the printout stack has reached a thickness of 8 inches. I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed.)

After Phi Phi (Pee Pee) Don, we mostly motored 35 miles west back to the bay we anchored in (Nai Harn) when we first arrived at the big island of Phuket. The big, heavily tattooed, unsmiling Russians were still there looking hostile in their tiny bikinis and speedos, but there were fewer of them since the end of high season was approaching. We didn't spend much time on the beach staring, instead the four of us took a taxi to Phuket Town for the Maloney's last hurrah.

Kathie admiring one of the quaint lanes in old Phuket Town. The architecture was influenced in a big way by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries when they were drawn here by the veins of tin found underground. Now the multi-colored, narrow, two-story buildings have been renovated to their original decorative glory, and house trendy restaurants, traditional Thai, Malaysian and Indian fabric stores along with lots of other stores stuffed with odd assortments of stuff.

One of the stores stuffed with an odd assortment of stuff.

Lunch stop. Well, not really. We aren't that adventurous. Instead of eating at this food cart, we went to a trendy restaurant in one of the renovated Portuguese buildings. You have to love these street food carts though. The food is probably good....we just haven't quite gotten over the street-food-cart squeamish factor yet. Anyway, the beauty of these carts is they are generally attached to a motorcycle, so when it comes time to pack up and go home, the proprietor simply packs up and motors away. All good until you're the one in a rental car trying to zip by street food carts motoring in the wrong direction down the motorcycle lane on the highway. To put it in more familiar terms, picture yourself driving I-90 through Buffalo at rush hour and having to suddenly avoid a motorcycle equipped with side car, deployed picnic table umbrella and several large cooking pots coming at you going the wrong way in the breakdown lane. Now imagine doing the same thing, but driving a rental car on the opposite side of the road while simultaneously looking out for street food carts and 'lane wanderers' (defined as those with a tendency to drift from one driving lane to another for no apparent reason). That's Phuket driving in a nutshell. That, and no apparent speed limits - or at least none that are enforced. Don has had occasion to drive a rental car in the weeks following the Maloney's departure, and has found it to be...let's see, how would he put it? Challenging.

Ahh, now there's the photographer. We have so few pictures of Bill that it's only fair we post those we do have. Here's Don and Bill at the entrance to the Big Buddha.

This, is Big Buddha (and Kathie and I). He's big...and still under construction. The building of Big Buddha has been going for 20 years at a cost so far of around $2 million. He is seated in the lotus position, on a lotus flower base, all of which is constructed of reinforced concrete covered over with tiles of Burmese alabaster. He is really quite stunning. The sun was shining relentlessly on the day of our visit, and although this photo doesn't quite capture it (not the photographer's fault), the light was radiating off Big Buddha's white skin causing him to literally glow. Perfectly fitting as the little bit of research we've done on Buddhism indicates Buddha had a glowing complexion after he reached the state of enlightenment.

This billboard shows a model of what Big Buddha and his surrounding temple base will look like when finished. Wow. If it's finished in our lifetime, we'll have to come back and see it. We contributed to the construction (as did Bill and Kathie) by donating ~$10, which bought us a square of alabaster tile and the ability to write a message on the back. Our tiles will eventually be incorporated into Big Buddha's lotus flower base. About a week ago, we heard a news story on the radio about the mishandling and possible corruption associated with donations to the construction of Big Buddha. Ah well, this is Thailand - you can't always expect your baht (money) to go where it's supposed to.

Farewell to the Maloneys. We ended our day of Phuket land travel at the elephant shrine and the restaurant we like so well because it overlooks Nai Harn Bay with our anchored boat floating in it.

The next day we ferried Bill and Kathie and their small luggage in the dinghy (two trips) to a nearby bungalow resort so they could catch a taxi to the airport. Everyone and everything arrived on the sandy beach mostly dry, which is commendable given the choppy water, small dinghy size and necessary beach landing through small breakers. Kudos to Bill and Kathie for surviving the dinghy beach delivery, not to mention two weeks on Harmonie with very little land or marina time in nearly the hottest conditions we've ever experienced. They've since completed their Southeast Asia travels after spending another week in northern Thailand and Bangkok before flying home via Hong Kong. We've once again had to deal with the empty boat syndrome that haunts us every time our guests leave. Having guests aboard is like being on vacation for us - we generally don't do boat jobs (unless absolutely necessary), we eat a lot, drink a lot, do more sightseeing than usual, and most importantly, enjoy the company of our guests. For us, guests provide excellent entertainment, as opposed to the other way around. Thanks to the Maloneys for traveling halfway around the world to sweat and laugh with us in Phang Nga Bay.

Anne