29-Feb-2024 Phuket, Thailand

For our visit to Phuket, we had a Celebrity excursion booked "Phuket - Panoramic Tour". This would take us around the island, from the beaches of Phuket town to "Wat Chalong" to see the temples, a visit to a Cashew Factory and then the Chinese Temple "Kio Thian Keng Saphan Hin Shrine". We also had a stop at a souvenir place to buy...souvenirs (and stuff).

We were tendered to shore at this port, and passed some fishing boats making our way to land.


The beautiful beach of Phuket. This was the sight of the devastating Tsunami in 2004, but is mostly restored and remains a popular tourist spot.

Our first stop was at the grounds of the What Chalong or "Wat Chaiyathararam". The Temple Complex contains many other different buildings, all of which are aesthetically influenced by all corners of Thailand.

Entrance to the grounds.










Off in the distance we could see "Phuket Big Buddha" [The Buddha statue depicts Gautama in a sitting position and is 45 metres (148 feet) tall and 25.45 metres (83.5 feet) wide. It is made of concrete and covered with Burmese white marble. Facing towards Ao Chalong Bay the statue is the main Buddha of the Wat Kitthi Sankaram temple (Wat Kata).] No time for us to visit it this day.

Our next stop was a Cashew Factory, where they made a lot of products from cashew nuts. All at a reasonable price, given what it takes to grow and harvest the nut.

Outside the factory was this specimen of a cashew apple with it's one cashew nut attached. Not sure if it's really a cashew tree though, given the apple is wired to the branch.

We made our way back through Phuket town on our way to our next temple. This area of town was much more built up than the beach area we had tendered to.

Our next stop was Kio Thian Keng Shrine a colourful Chinese shrine that is set on the seashore inside Saphan Hin public park in Phuket Town. It’s a place of worship for the local Chinese-Thai community and it plays an important role as the site of the final farewell to the gods during the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival.

After the Chinese temple, it was time to make our way back to the tender dock, past the shopping district and back to the beachfront.

Our tour of Phuket was interesting, but I'm sure most of the tourists come here for the beaches. And the night life. It was a hot day for our tour, and the restaurants and bars we saw looked like they expected a lot more people when it cooled off later on. We did a bit of shopping, then headed back to the air-conditioned ship.

Hambantota, Sri Lanka <  Phuket, Thailand  > Penang, Malaysia
[Asia Adventure - Spice Route Cruise 2024]

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