I woke up about 9am and updated the diary. After an hour Greg was still sleeping, so I decided to go for a walk. I headed north. It was less touristy up this end. Some of the shops looked like they would cater to the locals. There were a few that looked like $2 shops. Walked through another market area with all the same things on the stalls again. The market was under a tarpaulin in places. Some of the shopkeepers looked as if they were only just opening. There were a few desultory attempts to get me to buy something. Further on there was a shop with mismatched clothing on a rack out front. It took me a while to realise that it was a laundry.

I turned down a crooked lane towards the beach, Chalerm Phra Kiat Rd. There were nice resorts on either side of the road, but not much else. A hole in the footpath had a palm leaf stuck in it to prevent accidents. Just before I got to the beach there was a walled off area that was strangely empty. I wondered what had been there before the tsunami until I saw a sign that said Muslim Cemetery. I believe the emptiness was because Muslims don't use headstones.

I headed back along the beach past food vendors. Some of the carts were selling barbequed meat and fish. They had chicken legs, whole fish, crabs and all sorts of other things. The smells made me hungry. I eventually bought a some papaya in a plastic bag. Just then my phone started ringing, but I missed the call. Then I got an SMS from Greg asking where I was. I replied that I was on my way.

I asked what Thai breakfast I could have. They offered fried rice which I enjoyed so much I had it for the rest of the stay there.

We ask a tuk tuk driver if he can take us to Wat Chalong and Phuket Town and how much. he said shopping and we said yes. We agreed on 500B. He drove us back the same way we went to the cruise until we reach a roundabout where there is a sign. We turned off here and went a bit further to get to the wat. I had guessed that this was where the big buddha I saw was, but it was up on a hillside above this.

As we arrive a string of firecrackers goes off in a kiln. I think this may have been part of a funeral, as we saw something similar in Ayuthaya.

We head for the largest building, wrap sarongs which we brought with us and take our shoes off before going inside. The fence is painted a beautiful gold and bronze combination. The staircase is decorated with a dragon. Inside are a number of Buddhas arranged around a centre area and wonderful paintings on the wall. Everything is very new. We read in a display case that this chedi was built in 1996 to house the Phra Borom Sareerikatat relic that was brought from Sri Lanka. It is claimed to be a piece of the Lord Buddha's bones.

We climbed a flight of stairs to the next floor with more Buddhas and a large Buddha in the centre. Some tourists asked us to take a photo of them with the Buddha. We said no, it is not respectful. We admired the paintings and decorations on this level before ascending to the balcony. From the balcony we can see a peaceful sculptured garden with a fountain. A woman is relaxing there while her dog drinks from the fountain. The tiles are hot on the balcony so we try to stick to the shaded parts.



We go up another flight to the centre structure where the relic is held. It is in a beautifully shaped glass vase with a smaller dish inside. On the dish is about 1cm of bone. The vase is surrounded by eight other vases each containing bone or some other item. I think these may have been from the temple's abbots.



We walked across the courtyard, past the market stalls and a smaller temple to the teak building sipping water on the way. I took my shoes off again, climbed the stairs, stepped over the sleeping cat, opened the teak door and went inside. It was dark, cool and peaceful. There were three sections, each with a statue of a former abbot.

I only half put my shoes on before heading to the next building, a single story temple with a balcony running around it. First I walk in a side door and look at the paintings on the wall here. I decided it would be better to enter from the front, so walked around the balcony. There were a couple of people kneeling and praying before the Buddhas. I join them and watch, making sure my feet are pointing away from Buddha. A man takes a squeeze bottle to wet one of the Buddha statues before applying his gold leaf. A woman reached high to put her gold leaf on a shoulder. There is also gold leaf placed on some of the paintings. Safes with combination locks and a slot in the top are there for offerings. An older woman came in and removed the lotus buds from the two urns. They made one enormous armful. The ceiling was tiled blue and silver.



We returned to the market stalls where Greg bought a t-shirt and I bought a white cotton shirt with an embroidered dragon.

The tuk tuk driver then took us to Phuket Town. He dropped us off outside Robinsons where we were immediately harassed by a taxi driver. We fled into the Robinsons building, past a supermarket and up to the first floor where menswear was.

I immediately spied a range of shirts that I liked. I had a difficult time deciding which one to buy but eventually chose the brightest one. It was bright pink had a picture of a parrot on it. Greg bought a pair of beige shorts that would go with anything. We then walked out the other side of Roninsons, avoiding the taxi driver, and looked for somewhere to eat. There was not much on this side of Roninsons, so we ended up walking around it back to the other side anyway, but on the other side of the road. On the way we passed an empty market.

Lunch was pork and swamp cabbage and tod mun pla and cans of sprite. They brought the food from somewhere else, possibly another shop. Over lunch we looked at the map to work out where the old town was and decided to walk there. There is not much traffic, just tuk tuk drivers looking for fares, around as we walk past shops. What appears to be blocks of apartments are being built. The scaffolding is bamboo.



As we round a corner we see an enormous dragon in the distance. The park was named Suanchalermprakiat 72 years Queen Sirikit the Buddhist Era 2547, which pretty mush explains it. The park is dry and dusty, but well presented. Next door is a colonial building that has been recently painted.

We head back across a bridge lined with boxes of flowering marigolds. There is a knife switch attached to the railings of the bridge that seemed to be for lights in the park as well as the bridge.

Across the road and we are in Th Thalang the old part of Phuket Town. We were the only farang around. In fact there were only a few others, women carrying their shopping. Both sides of the street are lined with two or three terrace houses. Some have been restored. Many have decorative touches. The lower floors are general stores, fabric shops, restaurants, galleries. Some of the fancier places look closed. The arrival of a few school children brings a bit more life to the heat of the afternoon.



It was time for us to head back to Patong to make our pick up for the evening. Just then a tuk tuk comes along and we say yes. We negotiate how much to take us to Patong Beach. He says yes to 350B. We get in and he drives a short distance and then stops at the bus station. He motions that we should catch the bus to Patong from there. It is obvious he is not going to take us any further so we get on the bus.

There are a few people on the bus, but no driver and no one to take our money. We wait a while. I buy some more water from a shop next to the bus. We wait some more and eventually the driver starts the bus. This turns on the fans so it starts to cool down. The bus has a long bench down each side and another bench in the centre with steps at the rear. Eventually it departs when it is closer to full. We head out of Phuket Town back into the country side, past a large shopping centre, through some villages, and then up and down the steep road that leads into Patong. The trip costs us 20B each.

We have half an hour to shower and change before our bus is due at 5:25pm. It arrives 5 minutes late, but it is air conditioned so gives us a bit of time to recover after the day's heat. The bus took us north along the coast of Phuket. There we some lovely looking resorts along the northern part of Patong Beach. The next bay around Hat Kalim appeared to be mostly rocks with not much sand. We then went up another steep hill and down again. A few shops here and not much else until we turned off at Phuket FantaSea.

The box office area set the tone for the rest of the evening. It was amazingly decorated, covered in gold, paintings in panels on the ceiling. Even the signs were in theme. Greg nominated me to line up to get our tickets. Eventually I got to the window and gave my details. They offered an upgrade to the Gold section in the theatre, but according to the map our seats were great anyway. They were also selling a souvenir programme, with our without a DVD. I decided to buy one with the DVD. Greg also bought the one with the DVD. The ticket was a sticker with our table number for dinner and our seat number for the theatre.

Before the entrance was a pond full of sculptures and gold fish. They were selling food for the fish for 20B, and whenever someone fed them they would jump all over each other to get at the food. You had to stand back to make sure you didn't get splashed.

Once scanned for metal and through the gate the park was even more amazing. There was so much happening and so much to see that it took a while to even get our bearings. In front there was a stage with a band playing, there was a garden and tables and chairs. All around were amazing buildings. "I can see Angkor Wat!" I said to Greg, pointing above the surrounding buildings.

We started wandering around, past the stalls with games of skill and into a china shop with a beautiful tea set out front. We wandered through enjoying window shopping and avoiding looking at too many prices. We exited into the next hall which was fluro and underwater theme, much to Greg's delight. This had all sorts of games for kids. Back outside we wandered slowly through the rest of the village past the amazing shop fronts. Many of the shops were souvenir or kids shops.



We eventually arrived outside the Elephant Palace, an enormous structure built in the Sukothai style. It was starting to get dark, so the lights were on as well as the colours of late afternoon. In front of the palace was a pond with a bridge across it. There were elephants all over it (999 according to the souvenir programme). After staring at this for a while we noticed the courtyard we were in was studded with poles sporting red lanterns and cages containing phoenixes and other birds.



We watched the elephants for a while. First carrying fat tourists, then being fed. First the elephant picked up a hand of about 10 bananas with his (or her) trunk and put the lot in his mouth. Then the trainer fed him individual ban nanas which he also picked up. The end of the trunk was very dexterous and the elephant must have had good sight to see where to put his trunk.

Then it was time for dinner at the Golden Kinnaree Restaurant. It was enormous! We were shown to our table C83 which we shared with others, but there were empty seats between us all. Greg asked for a wine list, he absolutely had to have a bottle of wine with dinner. He chose an Australian one for only 1800B (over $70). It wasn't cold when it arrived, but the ice bucket managed to cool it down by the last glass. The buffet had food from all nationalities. I chose various Thai dishes, but they were only OK. Best was the coconut dessert. There were special stations with roasts, sashimi, duck, etc.

Once we got our food and drink we had a chance to look around. The restaurant was enormous, about the size of the Horden pavillion. There were murals on all the walls of various scenes. Even the toilet hadmurals on the walls. Giant chandeliers made of cloth and leds over the buffets, of which I could see about 8. There were statues of kinnaree over the bars. There were clouds and angels and stars in the ceiling.

After dinner we wandered around the park some more taking in the sights. There was a lot more happening now with the everything lit up, music and singing, all sorts of sights and even creatures. Do you know why they are called Siamese twins?



It was time to go into the theatre. The Palace of Elephants was lit up spectacularly, though we didn;t manage to get a photograph to capture this. (It really needed a tripod.) The colours on the outside were changing reg, gold, white.

We followed the signs and ended up in a queue. They were checking for cameras and camera phones, they all needed to be cloaked. We got to the head of the queue and were checked, but not patted down. We cloaked Greg's camera and my phone into a velvet bag and proceeded to the next section. Here you could be photographed with baby elephants, adult tigers and even baby tigers. Next were some souvenirs, then into the theatre. We entered about half way down and headed down to our seats in the third row just a few seats awat from the premium section. The theatre was also enormous, it was supposed to seat 3000. It was decorated as if we were in a jungle with trees and carvings.

The show started with a parade of elephants through the centre of the theatre, then down the side and onto the stage. Kamala Boy, the Prince, emerges on his magical elephant (?) surrounded by an amazing laser show. The story proceeds with fluro acrobats directly above us, a rural scene with trained chickens, goats, buffalo and doves, a love scene, a battle using shadow pupets, a snow storm. There were four traditional dance troupes: umbrellas, the fingernail dance, the candle dance with lotuses shaped plates and dancing between moving bamboo poles. The magic show, an interlude for the kids compered by Chang and Eng, was fun. The fight scene had too much going on to be able to see everything. There were demons and monkeys and traditional weapons and thai boxing and amazing costumes and moves. Eventually canons are brought out to destroy the fortress where the heroine is imprisoned. Lots of pyrotechnics and loud bangs. A couple were taking their baby out right as the canon went off very loudly very close.



Kamala Boy and his people saved the heroine, leading to the grand march of the elephants and a number of elephant tricks: standing on hind legs; getting up on small platforms; joining trunk to tail in a circle; resting on the hindquarters of the elephant in front; and more. A wonderful show with so much packed into a short time. Amazing lighting, laser effects, pyrotechnics and other effects.

We head our past the souvenir stands and photo collection counter to the camera collection. Greg just has to buy himself a stuffed toy elephant (which he ended up giving to his neice Jasmine). Then it is time to head home. We take a few more souvenir photos on the way out.

We are directed to a mini bus going our way. Being the last on we get to sit up front next to the driver. One of the people in the back, an Australian, starts complaining how boring the show was. He makes a racist remark but fortunately his wife tells him off. We keep quiet hoping no one thinks we are from such an intolerant country. We are let out near out hotel. We go in the back way to avoid seeing the boys from the night before, and straight to bed.