Phuket - Saturday

[Saturday September 15th]
Saturday we all got up to enjoy our 'American' Breakfast, none of that Continental crap ;) We had eggs and bacon! Fruits, breads, the whole nine yards. Our big planned event for the day? A Jungle Trek riding Elephants! Before the Elephants though we went downtown for some shopping!

To get downtown we took one of Thailand's famous Tuk-Tuks (pronounced took-took). They're basically a little Daihatsu van with benches in the back. Everyone load up! Now no matter where you are in Phuket, there an absolute ton of these things around. And everyone asks you if you want a tuk-tuk... Very novel at first but trust me, it wears on you, more on that later ;)
Once we got downtown we strolled over to the main street shopping street. Quite an exciting and happening place during the day (and at night, more on that later)... There are shops everywhere! They all have tons of trinkets, t-shirts, purses, cloths, etc. Some even have dvds. Jeff and I got curious about one store's 'back room' selection. They pulled a rack away from the wall revealing a hidden door. Silly and naive us went into the room and they shut the door on us. We'll we're trapped, could have been real bad but nope. Just a hidden room with an absolute ton of boot-leg DVDs! They had practically every movie under the sun there. It'd put Net Flix to shame! Well we didn't get anything, must to the consternation of the shop owner. We told them what the prices were back in Penang and he didn't want to come near those prices ;) Jeff lived here now so he's building a small collection.
While we were shopping the biggest things we heard were the requests to get a tuk-tuk, there are also tons of shops with women wanting to give you a foot or body massage. If that isn't enough there a even more shops selling suits, I guess Thailand is famous for its tailors. They keep asking, do you want to get a suit, good price, just $50USD... We make for you.
This leads me to the funniest T-Shirt... "I don't want a F-ing Tuk-Tuk, Massage, or Suit!". I should have gotten one, but no one would understand it ;)
All in all, nothing to remarkable out shopping, I did end up getting a couple of things. Did you know Red Bull is from Thailand? I didn't, now I do. I now am the proud owner of a Thai Red Bull shirt. The Coca Cola logo is quite different here too, so I just had to go and get one of those shirts too.

Eventually it was time to go Elephant Trekking. Woohoo! I was very excited for this ever since I had heard about it. It was a mere 1500Baht, chump change right? So we got picked up at our hotel in a open top Land Rover. It was like we were headed to boot camp! We all piled into the beast of a truck and started our 1 hour road journey to ride the Elephants. It started pouring on the way, we frantically pulled down the plastic sides of the truck. Sure was some excitement trying to get those down in the deluge ;) We eventually made it to the Elephants though.

Wow, amazing. They gave us a little show with the young elephants. They were so cute. Yeah, I know, paying money to have elephant do tricks and carry people around in the jungle doesn't sound very humane. Well these elephants don't have much choice. Their habitat is gone, the Government now makes it illegal to use them for doing work such as construction, clearing, etc. There is no where for them to go. Quite sad really. So these tourist facilities are their last refuge and they do take care of them well. The trainers live with the elephants and spend nearly all their time with their elephant. Its a great companionship.

After the Elephant show we walked up to the loading station and hoped on our Elephants. These girls are big. They're all female, that way they're more docile on the treks. The Males can get stubborn and mean. Riding is pretty much what you'd expect, but more! The lumbering giants walk slow and steady, On second thought, steady isn't the right word... Boom goes the right leg and you along with it shifting right in your 'seat'. Boom goes the left, and there you go left. Constant swaying. Boom, boom. Such power. Each elephant having its own personality. Mine for example just loved stopping and picking up things. It always had to have something in its trunk. We carried umbrellas due to the rain but the Elephant 'operator's wore their wicker type code hats. It was really neat.

All too soon the ride was over and we headed back the hotel.

Later that night we tried to find Thai Kick Boxing but there were no fights that night. In lieu of the fighting, we strolled through down town. First we headed out to dinner. Believe it our not we had Mexican for dinner, yes Mexican in Thailand, who would have thought? At it was great too! Very authentic, the nachos had a ton of topping. We actually ran out of chips before the toppings, when does that ever happen? And the Chimchangas, mmm.

[Child disclaimer, don't read the next passages if you're under 18, sorry to post this but it was part of Phuket...]
After Dinner we went strolling through town shopping again. What we found there was, well 'different'. As you walked down the main street it became quite evident that the exotically dressed women standing along the side of the streets were not there just for the heck of it... They were clearly Ladies of the Night... More over, many of the bar tops were now adorned with scantly clad dancers, not all of them female but all intending to look like it... Quite different. People approached us asking if we were looking for any, 'services'. In one instance a guy suddenly appeared and put one of those wallet fold out picture things infront of my chest. Looking down to see what the ruckus was about, I clearly saw his photos. The pictures he had... How to tastefully express... In a nutshell faceless unclad pictures of the 'goods' 'spread' out for your selection... Shocking in and of itself but also shocking was the perceived age of said 'goods'... I saw first hand Thailand's underground 'trade'... Once we got off that particular street the night scene cleaned up to normal and all was well.
[end child disclaimer]

After shopping we took everyone to Rock City so they too could experience the Metallica tribute band... We tried their Nachos, terrible. Oh well, can't get 2x good nachos in one night so far away from Mexico! We called it a night at a mere 2am.
One more day in Phuket.