March 4, 2025

Phuket (pronounced Pookette not Fookette) is a small island off the west coast of Thailand. Sadly in 2004, it was decimated by a massive tsunami that killed 5,400 people including 2,000 tourists. It rebuilt and continues to be a huge tourist destination from all countries with tops being Russia by far, then India, China, Germany and Australia. Most everyone speaks English which is pretty much becoming the common language of the world luckily for us. It’s quite a small island, half the size of Oahu but it has a population of ½ a million.

We decided that perhaps we needed to pace ourselves after all our adventures and we hadn’t really gotten over jet lag yet to boot. We opted to just take a tour bus into the Old Phuket Town where we would remain for 3 hours on our own and then we’d catch the same bus back.

We stepped out into another gorgeous day and although it was quite warm, it was nothing compared to the heat and humidity of Malaysia and Singapore. Or maybe we were acclimatizing? Anyway, on to the bus we climbed and headed to our usual seats in the back. The main reason we like sitting in the back is that when we come to a tourist stop, there’s no rush to get off. Some people are in such a hurry for whatever reason, so if you’re in the middle seats you get the major stink eye if you don’t dive off in short order.

We had a lady tour guide for a change and as usual, very good English speaker. On our ½ hour ride to town she talked about the island and the history of Thailand, and she was proud of the fact it had never been colonized. Considering every other country nearby had been over-run by the Portuguese, Dutch, British or French in at least one point in their history, Thailand remained independent and strong. She said it was because of the great kings. I couldn’t help thinking of Yul Brynner as the King of Siam (old name for Thailand) in that old movie musical from the ‘50s, “The King and I”.

She also told a few fascinating stories about tsunami survival, and one grabbed my attention. Apparently, there was a lady who was running for higher ground when the water started to catch her, and she grasped a tree root which was the only thing she could find to grab and held on for dear life. As the water climbed higher and higher and she was sure she would drown, the tree root started moving and pulling her toward the higher ground. She continued to hang on until she got to safe ground and then realized she wasn’t holding a tree root at all. Turns out it was a 20-foot-long reticulated python just trying to save his own skin and took her along for the ride. He slithered off, she was safe, and the rest is history.

By this time, we had arrived in the Old Town which was indeed old and a little run down for such a popular resort island in my opinion. The street wiring which I have pictured below is a complete crack up. Heaven knows where all the wires go – looks like work by PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric – our power company). HAHA

The town is on the east side of the island and it’s the west side that took the brunt of the tsunami, so not much new construction here. We got off the bus, back into the heat with a mission to do 2 things. We wanted to get postcards to send to the grandkids and we wanted an authentic Thai lunch as both of us are huge fans of Thai food. They dropped us off at a small 2 story shopping mall that was air conditioned, as our first stop. We got a few Thai Bhat (the currency) from the ATM and found an intriguing drink seller and picked up a couple of lychee sodas. Revitalized, and with local currency in hand we headed back outside to find post cards. I spotted a young guy in the same red shirt our lady tour guide wore, so I figured he was a safe bet to ask where we should go. He had a long stringy goatee of about 10 hairs, and he reminded me of an Asian version of Shaggy from Scooby Doo. “Excuse me,” I said politely. “Can you tell me where I can find postcards?”. He gave me kind of that ‘oh good, another white-haired lady asking for something weird’ look and responded, “a WHAT?”.

“A postcard”, I replied. He looked blank. I continued, “You know, one of those square cards that have pictures of Phuket on them that you send in the mail back home when you’re on vacation?”, gesturing the size of a postcard with my hands. He looked over my head as he responded, “Oh no, we have NOTHING like that in Phuket!”. Thanking him I walked away with Tod and remarked that it just isn’t our world anymore.

Undeterred, we walked over to a crumbling wall in the shade and sat down. I pulled out my phone, went to google maps, entered “souvenir shops” and immediately about 20 popped up in our immediate vicinity. So, we walked 2 blocks and came upon a souvenir shop with a huge display of postcards. Go figure. The proprietress was very kind, and she even sold stamps! We picked out the cards and asked her if we could just write them there. She gave us pens and directed us to a tiny table near the till where we furiously wrote short sentiments and handed them to her for the stamps. She grabbed a bottle of water that she used to dampen the stamp – no licking allowed apparently. We picked up another couple of trinkets and at the cash register asked her where the nearest mailbox was, and she frowned. She said it would be best if she just took them home and mailed them the next day on her way to work. Sure, I said and thanks. Heaven knows if they’ll ever get them but hey, we tried! I think post cards will be vanished from the earth in the next couple of years.

As luck would have it, right across the street from where we were to be picked up by the bus was a restaurant called “Raya”. I recognized it from being featured by a guy we follow on You tube (Mark Wiens) who travels the world to eat different foods and films about his adventures. This is perfect I told Tod and although it was a bit early for lunch at about 11:15, it was open, so we went in. Very friendly and beautiful ladies met us with the typical Thai greeting of folded hands and a bow of which we responded in kind. One led us to a table and handed us a menu that was the size of a small book. Although all the items looked very tempting, I suggested we just go for the classic dishes we can find at every Thai restaurant in the States to see if we were getting the real deal. Tod just loves the fact that Thai people eat with a spoon and fork, his favored utensils. We ordered: pineapple fried rice; Pad See Ew (thick rice noodles in sauce with pork and Chinese broccoli); Tom Kha Gai (Coconut chicken soup); and Green Mango salad along with 2 Thai iced teas. Scroll down to see the look on Tod’s face and you’ll see how pleased he was with the meal. It was absolutely fabulous! We like spicy food but we’d asked for no spice because sometimes, even if you say mild, it’s so hot the meal is ruined and I wasn’t taking any chances. She brought us the typical Thai condiment (Prik Nam Pla) that is basically fish sauce, lime juice and garlic with sliced chilis floating in it, so we could add as much heat as we wanted. What a great experience! Afterward one of the beautiful ladies brought us a sliced-up mango and said, “compliments of the chef”. Admittedly, neither of us are huge mango fans so we grimaced. The ones we get at home always seem to be under ripe or over ripe so we dejectedly looked at the plate knowing we should eat it as to not offend the chef. After taking a small bite, all I can say is WOW – what have we been missing! Apparently, there are over 2000 varieties of mangos and 19 are commonly found in Asia. This was definitely not what we were used to eating at home and had no problem polishing off the entire plate.

We walked out completely stuffed and were thrilled to see a bus that was returning early to the ship so we climbed aboard and started a snooze that would be continued in our stateroom when we got back on the ship. Another awesome day.

Looking forward to slowing down and having 3 days at sea as we chug to Sri Lanka.

Phuket, Thailand

Sea Day #1 - Bay of Bengal

Langkawi, Malaysia