CRUISE 2011 DAY 4 - PHUKET

 Day 4 is Phuket Day! I love Thailand and I love Phuket! Sabrina loves it too. So, here she is, ready with her straw hat. She says first stop should be the elephant ride.

 Still waiting for our group to be called to get out of the ship, Sabrina poses with her Mamita.

 After at 10 minute boat ride, we're finally on land. There's the ship...a few hundred meters away.

 The kids wanted to swim already but we said we'll take them to the see the elephants first.

 While the kids rode the elephant, I waited by this area and spend a few hundreds to see what the elephant can do.

 Hoola hoops for this elephant.

 Of course, after she performed, I had to give her some treat...sugar cane. Ok, by this time I'm so liking this elephant and I'm wishing that I had her as my pet.

 After feeding her plenty sugar cane, here she is...she kisses me with her trunk to say thank you!

 This is the area where the ride starts and ends.

 Here's baby zoe feeding the elephant also.

 There's this restaurant we told the driver to take us. It's called Lotus. He took us to this place instead. The quality is nothing compared to the Lotus at all...but what can we do, we're here already.

 This is my view from my seat.

 This is the menu...

 Here's the food...soft shell crabs with garlic,

 Stir fried squid with vegetables,

 Fried calamari with garlic,

 Seafood fried rice,

 Shrimp with red curry,

 Pad thai, not really good for Thailand standards,

 This one was good. Steamed fish with chillies and lime. 

 After the lunch, we headed to a shop where they sold cashew and other Thai food products.

 Here's how they get to crack the shell open and still keep the nut whole. 

 Here are shelves of cashew products that they were selling at the store.

 After the cashew store and before heading to the big buddha, we went to the Jim Thompson store. Of course, we bought our cute bags, hats, cosmetic cases etc. Ok, after that, we headed to the Big Buddha.

This Big Buddha is made of marble. There's a walkway to go up to the buddha but I personally decided to not to walk up to it. it was too hot that day. Even the cats slept due to the heat.


We wish we had more time in the island to explore but we needed to head back to the ship already. We had to get ready for the new year's eve dinner. Time to get ready for the count down!