This being a day of light activity, a trip was planned to the some sights and then the Old Town in Phuket which was a quaint part of the town with a market and food and stuff. I didn't do any research this trip, being in some kind of a daze and just followed the others like Mary's little lamb. So the taxi van came at 10 and we got our breakfast done by then and hopped on. It was a longish ride.
The first stop was at the 19th century Wat Chalong temple complex (aka Wat Chaiyatthararam) which had many beautiful temples. It is Phuket's largest temple and most visited where people come to pay respects to several monks - chiefly two monks Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang who helped the citizens fight against the Chinese Rebellion in 1876 by helping out the injured with their knowledge of herbs and so on.
People come and pay respects to the monks in what I presumed was the main temple. There are signs that tell visitors to dress appropriately. I could not follow the rituals they did but it did look like they were praying. Outside there is a small enclosure where they burst fire crackers when their wishes are granted.
The huge, most impressive building is called a 'chedi' which is three floors high. You can walk right up to the top floor. There are many statues of the Buddha, paintings of his life on the walls and the ceiling. As we go to the top floor, it has a glass enclosure which has a splinter of the bone of the Buddha. From the top floor one can also see good views of the complex. There are many other buildings, all of them beautiful but we neither hired a guide nor knew enough so we headed out.
Next stop was some view point which was quite scenic - one can see the sea in the distance. Its green, quiet, a few monkeys around, one man playing some serene music like a DJ. We wandered around, got some pictures of the panaromic view, enjoyed the quiet and left. From there we could see the famous Big Buddha statue on a nearby hill and wondered if we had time to visit that and still go to the Old Town. But time was short and there was some heavy rain predicted so we looked at the Big Buddha from far and headed to Old Town.
Old Town was beautiful. We entered it through a flea market which had all sorts of stuff - clothes, knick knacks and so on until we stepped out onto the main street in Old Town. It was really quaint with a lot of Sino Potuguese sturctures, many buildings that remind you of old British archiecture or of some Goan buildings.
We shopped around a bit - I bought myself a toy scooter. Outside on the street Rajesh and I tried some interesting ice creams. One nice feature is that they serve chilled coconut water. I tried something which had ice apples in the mix. We wandered in and out of ships until we ended up in a restaurant that was suggested by our jovial taxi man Charlie.
The food was great, beer chilled, service warm, decor quaint, so no complaints. There was an antique gramophone, type writer and many such. We finished our lunch and headed back. Rajesh and Nisga had some work back at the resort so the rest of us got off at the Premium outlet which has all brands. We shopped a bit and got a cab on their reliable app Grab. The heavens opened up on our lunch ride back home and it took an hour to get back.
An evening of fun and stories and celebrations and we were done for the day. That pretty much ends the trip.
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