Today we didn’t mess around looking for a new driver, we decided to use the guy we had on our last trip out to Old Phuket Town as he seemed like a decent enough sort of guy.

We wanted to go visit the Big Buddha which is supposed to be the biggest Buddha image on the island of Phuket. It sits high on a hill overlooking what feels like the whole wide world.

Other drivers over the weeks have all had a whinge about going up there to the Buddha and because it is up a hill, they try to get extra money from you. To avoid getting into a whole negotiation about this we agreed straight up to let the driver take us to one of  the places he would get a kick back from so he was very happy and we had no negotiations to make. I was so sick of haggling for everything. So like a man on a mission our driver drove us straight to the Gold and Gem factory at warp speed.

It was huge and had many buses parked outside, it was a real tourist shopping destination by the look of things.  We were greeted with a nice refreshing fruit drink and then ushered into the factory for bit of a look around at the jewellery being made. Of course after the tour of the factory is was straight into a mammoth show room where we were greeted by a well dressed man offering to show us around. He was like our very own personal shop assistant. OMG talk about shiny things if you were in the market for ‘real’ jewellery this would be the place to get it. I was wondering how we would get out of here without buying something and was trying to give our Guy the slip but he was sticking like glue. There were hundreds of people there mainly Chinese buying up big and all with their own personal assistants. This place was a very big business.

I had a bit of a look but really wasn’t after anything, but then a beautiful elephant statue took my eye, it was covered in crystals and bling and I had to have it. I think it set us back about $100 in Aussie money. I was pretty happy with it but it took about 1/2 an hour to get it wrapped and paid for and that was frustrating. It now has pride of place in the lounge room at home.

After that we called in to the butterfly farm to have a look and we were seriously disappointed it was pathetic. I actually wanted to go there and to be honest we have much nicer butterflies in our own back yard. There were some beautiful orchids though but these things grow wild in Thailand so it was really no big deal. They had a display of big spiders and I hate spiders but I made myself face a fear and look at them, these were the size of small animals. I was slightly brave because there was a thick piece of perspex between me and the spiders. It would have been a much different story if they had have been out on the loose, I would have been out of there fast!

So after the disappointment of that we went back to our driver and next stop was to be the Big Buddha. Then he started to have car trouble. I thought here we go, he doesn’t want to go up the hill, I was nearly about to get cranky but the car came good and up the hill we went.  It was a very slow trip up I think the driver went up in the lowest, slowest gear the whole way oh and no air conditioning, definitely petrol saving going on. We passed real elephants along the road and interesting villages it was actually nice being out of the hustle and bustle and it would be a magic part of the world to live in.

Finally we arrived and gee this Buddha was seriously big. We had to pass through a gift/ information kiosk and there was lots of information on the reconstruction of the statue. It has been a work in progress for many years. It was made possible by many donations. The whole statue was covered in tiny white about 10cm X10Cm square tiles, I think it was marble or quartz but not really sure.  People could buy a tile and write their name or a message that would be incorporated into the construction of the refurbished Buddha.(Click for Big Buddha Gallery)

To have a good look at the Buddha we had to climb many stairs to get to the base of the massive monument. The higher we went the better the view of the Island and it was magnificent; you could see the whole coast line of Phuket. It felt so close to heaven!

There were so many things to take photos of, lots of smaller statues is varying poses. Not sure what the story was with them all as it was all in Thai but the beauty of them spoke to all languages.

We were able to go under the big Buddha and there was a devotion area inside the base.  It was very beautiful in a rustic Thai sort of way.

The gardens were also bordering on Jungle and contained private little devotion areas with incense filling the air.

On the way back down we stopped in the main pavilion and there were two monks there blessing people and dabbing them with their devotion water. I am sure it has some Buddhist name but I am not up on what it’s called so pardon my ignorance. We got ushered over for an audience with them. I knelt before a happy young monk he was so full of joy he took my hand asked where I was from and sprinkled me with water and placed a friendship band on my wrist. He wished me good luck, health and happiness. Robbie got the same treatment so double blessings for us!

On the way back to Patong we traveled through the beach side resort towns that seemed to go on and on. There is no shortage of places to stay that’s for sure. We then stopped at the viewing point along the way and again a great spot to take a photo of Phuket.

There was a guy there with two huge Falcon/Eagle birds. They were scary looking creatures that had talons that looked like they could rip you in half. He offered for us to have a photo taken with the birds for a fee but that was one thing I was definitely not going to do. Way too scary. I tried to get a photo of them but my hands were shaking too much, dare devil dude Robbie got a couple though 🙂

We didn’t hang around there for very long as we had to get back into Patong as Robbie was booked in to do a cooking class, so it was straight off to Pum’s cooking school. This school is owned by Pum, a celebrity chef in Thailand and she has published a number of books as well. Robbie had wanted to do a Thai Cooking class ever since we visited two years ago so he was pretty excited. The extra good thing was Pum was actually there so that was an unexpected bonus for Robbie as she lives in Chiang Mai which is up in the mountains on the mainland of Thailand so nowhere near Patong. For those that know me, cooking is not my thing so I left him to it and I told Robbie I would come around later and see how he was going. I wanted to have a rest as climbing all them stairs at the Buddha had tuckered me out.

After about an hour of rest I walked around to see what was happening at the cooking school. I found Robbie laughing it up with the teacher making some yummy food. He was sharing the class with two other ladies and they were all making different dishes of their own choosing and sharing them so they all got to sample and watch each other cook. The kitchen was so clean and they learned the correct way to prepare the ingredients and everything was mega fresh.

I stayed and watched for a while and it was amazing how a couple of simple ingredients can make such delicious food.  Robbie learned how to make Thai fish cakes, Chicken and Cashews and Pad Thai. He has made these dishes many times over since we got home and I must say he has perfected them. Gee I am hungry thinking about it!

Robbie said that they also got a lesson in all the herbs and spices and what goes with what and about balancing flavours like, sweet, sour, salty and spicy and not to forget the power of chillies! I was invited to stay and eat with the class but decided to head back to the hotel as I could see that it was about to rain. Robbie looked like he was having so much fun at the class.

By this stage of the holiday we were not being hassled by the street hawkers around our hotel area any more as they knew us now and we were just like locals they would just say hi and share a joke which was so much nicer than being hassled all the time so I was quite comfortable wandering the streets alone.

Robbie’s cooking class went for a good 4 hours so by the time he got back it was dinner time so we just went for a leisurely stroll and had some dinner, Robbie didn’t need much as he had been feasting all afternoon.

We decided tonight we wanted to go to Bangla road to take some pictures of the madness rather than engaging in the madness. We wandered around snapping pictures and trying to capture the feel of the place which is so hard to do as it really needs to been seen, smelt and heard to appreciate how crazy it is. Taking Pictures with so many neon and flashing flights is a bit of a test to the photography skills also but we both had fun looking for that one perfect shot!

There is never any shortage of things to photograph. We still had to run the gauntlet of people trying to convince us to go and watch a ping pong show. Hehehehehe we managed to give it a miss but never the less had a bit of a giggle when the spruikers showed us the agenda for the shows, hmmm won’t go into details but there are some places that I don’t think a live budgie belongs which takes the phrase budgie smugglers to a new level. Ewwww definitely didn’t want to see how that all happened!

After the photo taking we wandered off for a little bit of night shopping as Robbie needed a shirt for the next day. When we arrived in Phuket our cases were pretty much empty we only had one change of clothes with us and the essentials like underwear and a tooth brush. So we both bought clothes along the way to wear on the next day. We managed to have full suitcases on the way back though :). Last call for the day was to get a banana and chocolate pancake off one of the street venders. Made fresh while you waited and boy was it yummy.