Phuket, Thailand - The Great Motorbike Tour

Today I rented a new motorbike - 230 TB (Thai baht) or $7 for 24 hrs. I had no real itinerary and just took off - the only plan being to stop wherever something interested "appeared" AND trying to remember to drive on the left NOT right side of the road!. I could not believe what I first stumbled upon!

.Elephants were the first thing that I saw - positioned on the roadside to advertise an "Elephant Trekking" enterprise. Of course, I immediately stopped. For a rip-off 100 TB (about $2.50) they would allow you to take pics. This is me with 1 of 6 elephants they have. She was a darling and like all elephants I've met up close, she had those soul searching eyes. Too bad the mahut put his finger over the camera lens - it's the only pic I had - so decided to keep it.

And she so happen to be the mother of this 9-month old baby girl. This little girl explored my entire body with her trunk. Her trunk was most fascinated with my mustache and nose which she explored incessantly with her trunk. She also enjoyed me blowing in her "nose" making a high-pitched shriek each time I did so! I spent about 30 minutes "playing" with her and her fuzzy little body!

The big tusker in the background is "Daddy Elephant" - a very unfriendly and un-neutered bull kept solely for breading purposes. One of the nearby females was in estress (sp?) and big guy was going crazy - and having him where he was probably dangerous for anyone nearby.


Karon Beach is one of the many beautiful beaches on Phuket Island. I stumbled upon this viewpoint after seeing the elephants.
Btw - that's the "Big Buddha of Phuket" on top of the highest mountain in this pic - see next email for details.


Karon Wat is one of the many Buddhist temples I visited on my motorbike tour. As was the case in Buddhists wats I visited in Vietnam and cambodia - the monks invited into their temple to listen to the head monk's chants and prayers - which I did for about 20-30 minutes. Anxious to hit the road and explore, I reluctantly declined their invitation to join them in one of their meditation sessions.

The Big Buddha of Phuket" (that's really its formal name!).was erected based on the dhamma "To see him is to know him." Standing approximately 120' tall and constructed of relatively small (6"x8-12") pieces of white marble, it was erected on the highest mountain top in Phuket - so that all can see and therefore know him. It is terribly difficult to get all of the big guy in a pic with someone standing near the statue. This is the best I could do.

Here's another pic of the big guy by himself. The white marble against the bright blue sky was quite imposing!

Thai Buddhism is founded on "3 jewels": Buddha, Dhamma (teaching), and Sangha (monk). Thai (and perhaps all) Buddhists' Dhamma (teachings) say that "To see him is to know him". It is because of this dhamma that you see so many, many Buddha statues.

It was nice to see protected rain forest in the mountains on Phuket Island. Teak and mahogany were prevalent - even included some ancient ones on the unharvestable hillsides. Unfortunately, I saw no wildlife except minabirds (sp?) Which are as prevalent as pigeons in the US.


I was also surprised to see many rubber trees being harvested. They are harvested just like maple trees in US except here they use baggies!