Pictures added soon!
We decided to do some sight seeing since we have been laying low most of our time here. We got up a little early, got ready and then grabbed a taxi to Phuket town. We went to thalong road which is the main road. We walked along the road and saw quite a bit of cool street art/graffiti. It was so colorful and artistic. I love graffiti that is art instead of just tagging.
We then stumbled across this adorable bookshop/coffee shop! Ty needed to grab some coffee and we sat down for a minute taking in the hipsterness of it all. We found a tourist book in English that we looked at to find a place for lunch.
Before lunch, we explored around town a bit and did some window shopping. He place we ate at was a Thai/Italian fusion place so we got a pizza and some smoothies. It was pretty good!
Our next stop was wat chalong, a temple. There were beautiful buildings and a bone fragment of Buddha himself.
We also walked around here to a small lake where people were feeding the huge catfish. And then ty was fascinated by a dog playing with a dead cat. It was like watching a train wreck...
We walked around a bit then decided to get a grab taxi tot the big Buddha on the hill but it was going to take about a half hour to get our taxi. We decided to see how much it would be to find a taxi. One person offering taxis said it would be almost twice as much to use his taxi so we started wandering around and soon noticed that the taxis that were in wat chalong were waiting for people who were at the temple. We found another group that were also trying to get a taxi so we hooked up with them and got the expensive taxi. It was cheaper with all of us. I soon noticed what a steep and winding road it was up to the Buddha and hoped we would be able to get a ride back but figured we would just have to wait longer for a grab taxi... no big deal.
On the ride up we saw lots of elephants. It was sad to see them being ridden by humans and kept in small cages.
Once we got up to big Buddha, we said goodbye to our friends and went to explore. It was a little drizzly and overcast but we were still able to see some of he amazing view up top! You could see almost all of Phuket and the boats in the ocean. Then the view of the top of the hill was wonderful as well. The Buddha was glistening and so regal. We had to climb many stairs to get up to him and there was chanting that was being amplified over speakers.
Once we walked around and took in the sights, we went back down to where the shops were to catch a taxi. We tried to walk around to find one up at the top but when we asked for "taxi" they all laughed at us. All the taxis up there were waiting for people who were up at the Buddha already. So we looked up grab taxi the app that is like uber in the states. There were no taxi's close but we were willing to wait, so we looked them up and no one would come to get us at the top of the hill. This is when we switched between walking the parking lot for a possible taxi (again, getting laughed at) and looking at the App. We were getting no nits from the app again and again and I was starting to get worried. In the Virgin Islands, we would hitch all the time so we thought maybe we could hitch down the mountain but we didn't know the protocol here or if we would get picked up at all. Finally, we asked the security guard for a suggestion and he did the same thing the taxi drivers did, laughed at us. A gentleman overheard us and then told us his friend might be able to take us down but to wait ten minutes... so we waited, what else could we do? But then, the woman who must have gotten off of work or something and overheard our conversation asked us if we wanted to catch a ride with her. We were so grateful and jumped at the opportunity.
We got in the car with four other people and were squished in the back. All were older Thai women, except the male driver. They were very sweet, making sure we had enough room to sit and asking us where we were headed or figure it out, in Thai, how we could get a taxi. The way down was winding and it was raining. The woman up front kept reaching over to flick on the windshield wipers when the rain became too much on the windshield. It was so funny to watch. Even though they were speaking Thai, we could tell when they were taking about us because we heard the word taxi a lot!
Finally, we made it down to the bottom of the hill where they pulled into a grocery store. After sitting in one of the isles for a second, the man rolled down the window and I'm assuming, asked the men outside if they could taxi us to Kathu. After a minute, we all started getting out of the car and the nice woman took us over to the men and organized our ride. She was so so so nice for helping us out and her English was pretty good. After she left, we spent the next few minutes letting the guys know where we needed to go in Kathu. Finally, they figured it out and went over to his car where he removed the cone behind his car. I guess he was supposed to be off duty?
It was rush hour and it took us awhile to get back, and little bit more money then we had expected, but after about two hours of trying to get home, we were happy to step into our small condo.
We decided to do some sight seeing since we have been laying low most of our time here. We got up a little early, got ready and then grabbed a taxi to Phuket town. We went to thalong road which is the main road. We walked along the road and saw quite a bit of cool street art/graffiti. It was so colorful and artistic. I love graffiti that is art instead of just tagging.
We then stumbled across this adorable bookshop/coffee shop! Ty needed to grab some coffee and we sat down for a minute taking in the hipsterness of it all. We found a tourist book in English that we looked at to find a place for lunch.
Before lunch, we explored around town a bit and did some window shopping. He place we ate at was a Thai/Italian fusion place so we got a pizza and some smoothies. It was pretty good!
Our next stop was wat chalong, a temple. There were beautiful buildings and a bone fragment of Buddha himself.
We also walked around here to a small lake where people were feeding the huge catfish. And then ty was fascinated by a dog playing with a dead cat. It was like watching a train wreck...
We walked around a bit then decided to get a grab taxi tot the big Buddha on the hill but it was going to take about a half hour to get our taxi. We decided to see how much it would be to find a taxi. One person offering taxis said it would be almost twice as much to use his taxi so we started wandering around and soon noticed that the taxis that were in wat chalong were waiting for people who were at the temple. We found another group that were also trying to get a taxi so we hooked up with them and got the expensive taxi. It was cheaper with all of us. I soon noticed what a steep and winding road it was up to the Buddha and hoped we would be able to get a ride back but figured we would just have to wait longer for a grab taxi... no big deal.
On the ride up we saw lots of elephants. It was sad to see them being ridden by humans and kept in small cages.
Once we got up to big Buddha, we said goodbye to our friends and went to explore. It was a little drizzly and overcast but we were still able to see some of he amazing view up top! You could see almost all of Phuket and the boats in the ocean. Then the view of the top of the hill was wonderful as well. The Buddha was glistening and so regal. We had to climb many stairs to get up to him and there was chanting that was being amplified over speakers.
Once we walked around and took in the sights, we went back down to where the shops were to catch a taxi. We tried to walk around to find one up at the top but when we asked for "taxi" they all laughed at us. All the taxis up there were waiting for people who were up at the Buddha already. So we looked up grab taxi the app that is like uber in the states. There were no taxi's close but we were willing to wait, so we looked them up and no one would come to get us at the top of the hill. This is when we switched between walking the parking lot for a possible taxi (again, getting laughed at) and looking at the App. We were getting no nits from the app again and again and I was starting to get worried. In the Virgin Islands, we would hitch all the time so we thought maybe we could hitch down the mountain but we didn't know the protocol here or if we would get picked up at all. Finally, we asked the security guard for a suggestion and he did the same thing the taxi drivers did, laughed at us. A gentleman overheard us and then told us his friend might be able to take us down but to wait ten minutes... so we waited, what else could we do? But then, the woman who must have gotten off of work or something and overheard our conversation asked us if we wanted to catch a ride with her. We were so grateful and jumped at the opportunity.
We got in the car with four other people and were squished in the back. All were older Thai women, except the male driver. They were very sweet, making sure we had enough room to sit and asking us where we were headed or figure it out, in Thai, how we could get a taxi. The way down was winding and it was raining. The woman up front kept reaching over to flick on the windshield wipers when the rain became too much on the windshield. It was so funny to watch. Even though they were speaking Thai, we could tell when they were taking about us because we heard the word taxi a lot!
Finally, we made it down to the bottom of the hill where they pulled into a grocery store. After sitting in one of the isles for a second, the man rolled down the window and I'm assuming, asked the men outside if they could taxi us to Kathu. After a minute, we all started getting out of the car and the nice woman took us over to the men and organized our ride. She was so so so nice for helping us out and her English was pretty good. After she left, we spent the next few minutes letting the guys know where we needed to go in Kathu. Finally, they figured it out and went over to his car where he removed the cone behind his car. I guess he was supposed to be off duty?
It was rush hour and it took us awhile to get back, and little bit more money then we had expected, but after about two hours of trying to get home, we were happy to step into our small condo.
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