Day 13: Island Touring and Fantasea Show

There's nothing like a nice sunrise, especially when it comes up over the ocean.  We were on the eastern side of the island so sunrises were better than sunsets at this resort.  Since we wanted to get a lot of sightseeing in during our short island stay, we were up at a decent hour to enjoy our breakfast at the beach.

Here is the nice view.

Cute way to get over to the dining room.

The picture is awful, but at least you can see that they had eggs on the menu.  You could also order an omelet.

Different breads to choose from for toast.

Many hot food options, some Thai and some American.

Salad bar

Juice bar

And lots of fruit options

Here is what I decided to try.  I was glad I could have a few rambutan.

I discovered they offer cooking classes, but the timing didn't work out for us.  I really like that idea, though, so hopefully others are able to take advantage of this.

Our driver for the day was the hotel driver.  He spoke limited English, so we had the hotel front desk staff tell him what places we wanted to visit.

First up we went to visit the Big Buddha.

It's still under construction, but we still went to check it out.  It is up high so you have access to really nice views.

If it wasn't so foggy, it would be easier to see, but the ocean is out there.

You can see a little better in this picture.

The back side of Buddha.

There was also a golden Buddha up there.

Our driver had obviously been up here a few times because he took us over to another location to get better views.

This is seriously one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen.  Ryan nearly walked into it.

Then we came across some wild monkeys.  We saw them playing down below, but then we went to go to the bathroom, we were met by this little guy.  I never thought I would say this, but a monkey stopped me from using the bathroom.  We just didn't know how he would react when we went by, and despite the lady cleaning in the area telling us it was fine, we opted to not go near the monkey.  But I did take pictures.

On the way down we passed by an elephant.  It was actually a stand for elephant rides but we had already checked that off our list.

Next we went to Wat Chalong.  It's a very beautiful temple and said to be the most important of all the temples on Phuket.

This different building was also on the property.  We went in and I think it was supposed to be a memorial for some monks that had since passed away.

They also had some shops there that we looked at.  In case you are wondering, this coconut costs $1.

More pictures of the temple grounds.

The classic Buddhist temple serpent as a railing.

Always remember, do no hug the Buddha!

Here I am inside the temple.

Look closely.  You can see Big Buddha in the background, high up on the hill.

Beautiful paintings depicting the story of Buddha, which is typical for the temples.

The next stop on our tour was at a shopping market.  They didn't have much there we were interested in, but they did have a lot of local food options.  I didn't eat anything, but I did take some time to explore.

Juice options

Still not sure what the pink eggs are.

Appears to be sugar cane soda.

The last stop for the day was not an easy.  I had a dream a few weeks back that I was not able to go to the Hard Rock on Phuket.  I looked it up online and I knew it was no where near the hotel.  But I knew it was in a touristy area.  I was really convinced my dream would prove true and I would not be able to get over there.  I know, it's not the end of the world, but when deciding on beach locations, Phuket was a good option because there was a Hard Rock there, so all that planning and never getting there wasn't an option, haha!  Yes, my collection is crazy, but it's still my thing.  Needless to say, with the driver, it would be easy, but it turned out he had no idea where it was.  After a few phone calls and the use of someone that speaks English, he was able to find it and I could get a shirt (or two!).

The views on the way back to the hotel were beautiful, but I wasn't really able to get too many pictures because we were driving.

When we got back to the hotel we discovered that it was high tide now and the ocean came all the way in now.  With the shallow waters it was a awesome shade of blueish green.

This is the walkway/fountain that was at the top of where our room was down below.

We were starving by this time, so we headed to the restaurant at the resort for some lunch.

Bread, just like last night.

Ryan started with a salad.

I enjoyed the tomatoes and mozzarella.

Ryan had a pizza, which he said wasn't the best.  It was the first time I have seen cauliflower on a pizza.

I had a giant smoked salmon sandwich.  It had some sort of mustard on it.

From there we walked along the beach all the way back to the area where our villa was located.

Here is the pool area, which consists of infinity pools overlooking the ocean.

You can see that now the water comes all the way up to the grass area.

After a short rest, we headed to the spa for reflexology.  If you aren't familiar with this, it's a fancy word for foot massage.  We did a couples foot massage, which started with a foot soak and scrub outside overlooking the ocean, and then moved inside for a leg and foot massage.  Very relaxing!

Afterwards we were brought back to the lobby and enjoyed some tea and cookies.

Dinner that night was at a show/theme park called FantaSea.  It was a major touristy thing, but having lived in Vegas this type of touristy, cheesy show is right up our alley.  Plus, we like elephants, so it sounded fun.

Inside was a koi pond.

Wow, that was a lot of koi!

This was a theme park, but we didn't really plan or know that we could spend time looking at all kinds of displays and that they had games with prizes.

This is the hall where the show was performed.  They were having elephant rides all around in this area and it was really just an insane scene of people coming and going.  With two shows nightly and a dinner buffet to go with it (and other a la carte restaurants), people were everywhere.

This was the building where the included dinner buffer was held, but in the end, the food just wasn't that good.  The vegetarian options were all too spicy.

I still took pictures of some of the choices, and I put plenty on my plate, but I didn't really like too much of it.

At least they had kiuh for dessert!

After dinner we headed to over to see the show.  They check your cameras at the door (and camera phones), so no pictures inside.  The show was really great.  We definitely enjoyed it.  The story and performers all did a great job and the elephants were amazing.  I would definitely recommend the show, but maybe plan to go on your own, without the organized tour and buffet.

QUESTIONS:  Are you a fan of touristy shows?  Ever been disappointed with a buffet or included dinner for a show?  Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?