Day 5 in Phuket

Today we hired a driver for the day to take us around the sights of Phuket (this might sound a bit swish but it is very cheap to do and only cost us £40 for the day).  Our first stop of the day was an elephant trek around the jungle!  When we first got there I wasn't sure if I was going to be brave enough - it is a long way up sitting on the back of an elephant and it didn't help when Peter said to me we would break our backs if we fell off! 

Peter feeding one of the elephants

"How do I get on?"

Us admiring the views - the poor elephant looks knackered!



After our elephant trek we went to Kata view point where you can see the beaches of Kata, Karon and Patong.

View from Kata Viewpoint

We also visited Wat Chalong, which is the most important of the 29 Buddhist temples in Phuket.  Our driver Pele took us through how to make an offering to the Buddha - we had to light two yellow candles and some incense sticks and offer them to the Buddha - Peter managed to get wax all down his shorts and I burnt myself on the ash falling from the incense stick so it wasn't the most serene moment for us! 

Temples at Wat Chalong

We also visited the Big Buddha which is perched on top of one of the hills in Phuket - you can see it from most points in Phuket.

Big Buddha in the distance

And close up!



After a hard day sightseeing I decided to have a massage in one of many massage places down the street near our hotel. Who can resist a 1 hour massage for £7!  I asked for a shoulder and back massage but this somehow got lost in translation.......Now I like a firm massage at the best of times but not with your full body weight and elbows! I worked out quite quickly that I was actually getting was a full body Thai massage and that I was in for a pretty brutal hour! Not only did she massage my back so hard that at one point I had to ask her to stop massaging my lower back because it was hurting so much (she asked if I had problems in that area - I thought I do now!), she twisted and contorted me in to all these different shapes, pulling my legs right back, pulling my upper body off the bed etc but at one point I thought she was feeling really heavy and I looked over my shoulder to find her walking on me........In the end I thought I am at this woman's mercy and I was just waiting to see what she was going to do next. I staggered back to the hotel and Peter asked me if I had a nice massage "no I haven't, I have just been brutalized for an hour" and he couldn't believe some of the things I was saying - we looked up Thai massage on the internet and it pretty much described what I had been through.  I am either going to feel like a new woman tomorrow or hardly be able to move - I fear it will be the latter! 

My bruised back from my massage!