We started the day looking for a laundry mat and we found one that did two loads of laundry for 160 baht which is the bargain of the century! The laundry mat is Dr. Tiger Laundry if you’re in the Phuket area, they seem to be a chain with some laundry mats in Bangkok too.

Next up, we came across the only parking lot we’ve seen in all of Phuket in a nice shopping center with a Starbucks and grocery store so we stopped by to look at prices and have some coffee.

It seems beef is very expensive everywhere in Thailand as much of it is imported from Australia or elsewhere.

After our coffee we headed to the Elephant Sanctuary. There are NO elephant rides or animal exploitation here. This sanctuary exists to treat and save abused animals or animals that need care.

The tour consists of viewing elephants in their daily routine. It’s possible to pet the elephants and feed them. The image below shows how some of the food is made by mixing and meshing rice, watermelon and banana into a ball.

The elephants also eat watermelon and bananas.

After the elephant visit we were hungry so we chose the closest restaurant on the map and it took us up a mountain to the View Cafe and boy did it have an amazing view. It was good to have rented a car or we would have otherwise missed this place.

Food was great. Pineapple stir fried rice.

Pad Thai

The view

Headed back to the hotel to reflect on our last day here.

Categories: Phuket
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We left Bangkok a couple of days ago and between traveling by car, boat and plane, it’s been hard to catch up on this blog with all our movements.

Upon arriving in Phuket, I checked the Grab app (the “Uber” of SE Asia) and it was going to be about 1200 bhat ($36 USD) to take us from the airport to our hotel. Given that we would need to repeat that same trip, we were already at $72 so I checked with the local car rental and we could have a car for 4 days for $150 so it made more sense to rent a car.

Phuket is a fairly large and our hotel was on the outskirts in an isolated part of the peninsula. We checked in and it’s an amazing hotel (more on that in the review). We got upgraded to a nice suite with a huge balcony overseeing the ocean to the west and the mountain and jungle to the east.

This morning we took our rented car and headed to old Phuket town. Driving there and parking were a nightmare but we checked would a Grab would have cost and it would have been 600 baht ($18 USD) each way so we’ve already paid for most of the car rental.

Our first stop was the Phuket Museum which showcased the history of Phuket from fishing village to Chinese immigrants moving in to mine tin then blending in with the local population and ultimately turning to tourism.

Our second stop was a massage place where we couldn’t help but get an hour long foot massage to sooth our aching feet and legs. An hour long foot massage for two people were a total of $30 USD.

We then stopped and had what we’ve both been longing for since we got here…a really good burger and this place delivered. It was a market street stall and the burgers were cooked fresh to order.

Our third stop was a temple but it was closed and we weren’t dressed properly to enter anyway so we walked down the famous market street and did our own street walking tour.

After that with storm clouds billowing we headed back to the hotel where we hit the pool and beach for a couple of hours.

Categories: Phuket
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