Sorry for being MIA the past few days! We were without WiFi on our long flight home from Singapore where I had thought I would have plenty of time to get some posts up detailing the last few days of our trip. Cramming in most of the highlights that Phuket, Thailand has to offer into one day made for quite the adventure!
Day 8 was action packed and this post contains a ton of pictures! We got so many great shots that I had a tough time pairing down to this many. I hope you enjoy them!
We filled up at the hotel’s buffet breakfast before taking in an elephant excursion to start things off. There are many different elephant excursions on the island, ranging from some that I would bet could be easily deemed inhumane to some that call themselves sanctuaries and do not allow riding of the elephants. The bottom line is that they are all in it to get your money. We tried to read between the lines to find one that would allow as much interaction as possible, but where we were comfortable with the care and treatment of the elephants.
Kokchang Safari in Phuket, Thailand
We ended up at Kokchang Safari and were happy with our choice. For about $90/person you could do a 30 minute elephant trek, interact with a baby elephant and bathe an elephant. We had experience with ‘bathing’ an elephant the year before in what we were certain was bacteria-laden stagnant water, so we opted to play it safe and skip that part, which ended up saving us a considerable amount of money. It cost about $40/person for our experience. This also included the taxi ride to and from our hotel. There was also an option to add a Thai cooking lesson and tapping a rubber tree, which is a big agricultural commodity on the island, for a 5-6 hour excursion in total. I am not sure the cost of that excursion package.
Our experience started with an educational talk on elephants, their past agricultural use in Asia and their current use. It is my opinion that these types of hands-on excursions help in the long-term preservation of the species because once a person has been up close and personal with an animal they are much stronger proponents for saving/protecting that species.
We were allowed to feed and pet Milo, their three year old baby elephant. He was quite playful and happy to interact with us. Milo’s mother came to the safari pregnant. Milo already has his own mahout, who spends his whole day with the baby elephant. Milo no longer nurses from his mother, but they are still very bonded to one another. They are separated from each other during the day, but they ‘talk’ to each other all day through calls and vocalizations.
Elephant trainers are called ‘mahouts’ and come from north of Thailand. Kokchang Safari has 11 elephants, all of which have their own mahout. We rode an elephant that was 45 years old and whose mahout has been with her for ten years. He sat perched on the top of her head for our trek and soft spoke direction to her, which she understood and followed, most of the time. There was a time or two that she seemed to want to take a break, which was allowed and we moved on once she was ready. Elephants are intelligent, aware, majestic creatures.
Tiger Kingdom
Lexi Dark Wash Distressed Denim Shorts (Great fit and only $40!)
We made a pit stop back at our hotel to change clothes, then hit Tiger Kingdom. It was busy! The park only allows people over 16 to interact with anything bigger than the ‘smallest’ tigers. They charge $1300 Baht/person ($45) for about ten minutes of interaction with the smallest tigers. Dale and Dawn also interacted with the ‘medium’ tigers, which I would call very close to full grown.
Part of me struggles with the ethics of this operation, but I go back to what I said above about these interactions leading to stronger proponents for saving the species. My kids were aware of the treatment, housing and general care of the animals and had their own opinions of the operation and facilities. I am proud that they were able to look past the obvious excitement of interacting with baby tigers to take in the depth of the whole thing.
Monkey & Snake Shows
There is no question that the Thai people are open to making a living any way possible, including interacting with deadly snakes for show. We have watched a snake show on all three of our trips to Thailand. Usually the ‘charmer’ is not wearing shoes or a shirt, has on shorts and is missing a fingertip or two from the venom effects of past snake bites. Our charmer this time, I would like to think, was slightly more intelligent. He was wearing a shirt, pants and shoes.
The snake ‘show’ only lasted about ten minutes, but included a python, a jumping snake, three ‘small’ cobras and a 13ish foot King cobra – who the charmer first kissed, then proceeded to open his mouth and put half of the snake’s head into!!!Eww, yuck, oh-my-gosh!
20 yards away was the monkey show, which consisted of five different Macaques. The first was named Jimmy and he was very well-fed. I’ve lost track of which ones did what, but between them one sat on our lap and posed for pictures, one lifted weights and showed us how monkeys are trained to harvest coconuts, one was able to do addition and find the number tiles that were the correct answer (???) and one rode a bike amazingly well and retrieved items from the bottom of a swimming pool. The one that had to jump in the pool was not happy about it and tried to avoid it.
Pool Time at Avista Grande
The kids were ready for some pool time after a full day of excursions in the Phuket heat. Swimming and a poolside snack refreshed us all for an evening of Night Market shopping end exploring.
One Piece Monokini (Only $16!! This is coming from China, so will take several weeks to arrive and the sizing does run small. I am wearing a medium. It is very flattering.)
Malin Night Market; Phuket, Thailand
We tried a different night market this time. It was filled with smaller food vendors and chincier tourist trinkets. We all grabbed something to eat, warily, then the kids spent 15 minutes at the fish foot spa. Both raved about ‘how soft!’ their feet were afterwards.
Leith Ruched Tulip Hem Dress (THIS one is 40% off) // Bauble Bar Tassel Earrings
We decided this market wasn’t so much our style so we grabbed a truck-cab to take us back to the market from the night before. We hit the ‘secret’ purse shop and added to our pile of loot before wandering through Bangla Road where all of the bars and clubs are located. There were also a couple street performers, but our kids were not happy to be there and wanted out of there as quickly as possible. I tried to explain to them that it was culturing and that Chase would want to be there in a few more years, but they wanted no part of it! Homeward (resortward) bound it was before we all turned into pumpkins.
The hotel courtyard in the evening was quite peaceful and inviting!
Read more about our Thailand trip here, here and here!
