We were docked in Phuket, Thailand, by 8am. We shall remain here over night. It is forecast to be 90 degrees and humid again today.
Historical/Background Info:
We
were here in 2013 & 2017. Phuket city is on Phuket Island which is the
largest island of Thailand and is about the same size as Singapore. It is 30
miles long and 13 miles wide. Phuket City, with a population of 80,000, is one
of the oldest cities in Thailand. There
are another 32 smaller islands nearby and lies off the west coast of Thailand
in the Andaman Sea. The island is connected to mainland Thailand by two bridges
on its northern most point. Phuket Island is mostly rainforests and
mountainous, but again, the 2004 tsunami rendered several damage to its coast,
killing 250. Today, tin mining, rubber, and tourism is the basis for their
economy. Forest, rubber, and palm oil plantations cover 60% of the island. The
island population is a half million but there are 10 million tourists visiting
here annually. Fortune Magazine in 2005 voted Phuket as one of the world’s top
5 retirement destinations. There are thousands of Americans living in Phuket,
many of them retirees.
LAST EVENINGWe enjoyed a private bar while most everyone was in the theater for the Captain's Welcome Reception.
Salim is a new bar waiter from Goa.
Our "bar fly" friends, Pat and Mary.
Manuel Jr is another new assistant waiter in Sette Mari. He is from the Philippines.
Helen from Honduras is the new waitress who replaced Skinny in Sette Mari.
I Gusti is from Bali and also new in Sette Mari.
Marlon from the Philippines is also new bar waiter. Seems everyone is new in Sette Mari around our table.
There were several fishing boats out last evening like this one with green lights to attract the fish.
The veal parmesan we both shared.
TODAY
Picture of the cruise terminal and all the tour buses as I was heading down to the theater to get my tour bus assignment. Later as I was heading to the bus I passed through the terminal. It was completely empty. There are several shops set up next to it however. May check them out tomorrow.
What a fiasco! Over 400 going on tours at the same departure time. It actually went about as good as it could have. I had a "Phuket Landmarks" 5 1/2 hour tour that departed at 8:30 and was back at the ship by 2:00pm.
Thailand is a beautiful country with very nice people, but unlike other countries, internet wifi is hard to find. There was none at any of our stops today so I am having to use the ship's snail wifi to upload today's photos. So far it has take a half hour to upload 6 photos. 41 more to go!!
I doubt that I will be able to get all of them uploaded, put on today's blog post, and add captions today. I am not touring tomorrow so will put them on tomorrow's post.
Today is Palm Sunday and there is an interdenominational church service that we will be attending at 5:30 this evening.
Dinner will be in Compass Rose. There will be a special cultural folkloric show by a local group on the pool deck at 9pm. Not going too humid.
Not departing Phuket until 2pm tomorrow.
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