Phuket: Tourist Haven

Whoa! If you're a true-blue tourist, Phuket is tourist heaven. Phuket is the center of the universe of tourism in Thailand. It attracts a truly international crowd. There’s a reason for that. Here, get pampered with manicures, pedicures, facials and massages until you’re so relaxed you could melt. Zip lines, ATV and Sea Doos, scooters, bikes and go karts are here to rent. Snorkel and dive in clear blue waters of the Andaman sea. Tours of every description were hawked by tour operators on every street counter. Shop until you drop, eat to your heart's content and/or drink the night away. It’s hard to consider abstaining from anything…it’s exhausting, really.

Then, after contemplating the previous day's indulgences, you hop into a tuk-tuk for a journey to a Wat high on a hill above Phuket. There you can find solace for the excesses of the past few days and a Monk will even say a prayer and bless you. This can help with finding a way back to some sort of harmony and balance. What’s a relief. Then, you can steady yourself and move on to another day of, well, more excesses. With so, so many choices, why not?    

Room, Marcella, Terry and I, high on a hill.

Here we are looking for the monk.

Speaking of eating, trying to zero in on the perfect choice for dinner where the choices seem limitless, it’s a target-rich environment. There are so many varieties of foods that it’s a bit overwhelming. Food vendors line the streets in every direction. We favor the street food, but the restaurants here offer a diverse collection of international fare. We dined in a Croatian restaurant one night, relished seafood at a night market, indulged in curry for a lunch, and started each day with a breakfast buffet. Thankfully, we're getting plenty of exercise; otherwise, buying a size larger swimsuit on an “active” vacation was never part of the plan.

We visited another shrine and Wat in Phuket that had a meditation center, a building housing statues of revered monks, and another with a statue of the Buddha. All with the same theme: the calm and reverence to the Buddha and Buddhism as a way of life. I entered the last shrine before we left and looked up to see a monk sitting in a throne. I removed my hat and bowed out of respect before I realized it wasn’t a living, breathing monk but an authentic-looking statue. 

With so many things to do and so many ways to experience life here in this tourist mecca, it’s not surprising there are constant reminders of Buddhism. Buddhists believe that human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana, (from National Geographic). I’m convinced that the Buddha never envisioned this type of Nirvana as do some of the guests of Phuket think it might be. Which makes me wonder, could part time enlightenment work out ok?

All for now. You’re welcome to leave comments if you wish. Happy Holidays to everyone. 

Ed, out.