HISTORY & TRAVEL
Please note the statue behind the Big Guy. It’s actually
very beautiful itself.
Hopefully by now you are starting to see that Phuket has
so much more to offer compared to its first impression.
The place is amazing and has so much to do OUTSIDE
of the towns and villages. One could easily rent a
scooter and travel around for an entire day or two easily.
However, if you do this please be very careful to take
great care especially in the villages. As I mentioned
earlier the towns are also dangerous for pedestrians,
partly due to the fact that there are very few paths
(sidewalks) so you may end up walking in the street
itself with vehicles zooming past you and secondly
because traffic is all over the place and not necessarily
in one lane or even going the correct direction. Sadly
we witnessed the potential danger of Phuket village
roads first hand.
The next day started with great expectations. We
were collected early from the hotel and driven up
high into the mountains. The road in was beautiful.
Green mountains filled with cashew and banana trees.
There was a gentle breeze blowing through the trees
making the weather right for a very special jungle
safari. I didn’t know much about elephants. I only knew
that they were considered smart creatures, they are
poached illegally for their ivory tusks and that they
are big. That about sums up everything I knew about
elephants. So to experience one up close and personal
seemed like it would be a pleasant experience. Once we
arrived at the elephant refuge, we were shown around
and explained a few different things regarding local
customs and the like. We had the local style coffee
and were shown how to make Red Thai Curry – I love
cooking so that was fabulous! However everyone
was truly there to see one thing and that was the
elephants. Then we saw one, a young female elephant
around 6 years old. She was playful and loved being
touched. So I grabbed my daughter, as you do, and
she touched the elephant too. It was amazing. Now
my wife is pretty much petrified of every creature that
isn’t human. Despite constant reassurances that the
elephants were friendly she was petrified. Still she did
her best to get a selfie with the baby elephant and
was eventually successful at her goal.
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1961 Magazine Fall 2016