Phuket, Thailand, April 12

Phuket is an island 1 mile off the west coast of Thailand, now connected to the mainland by a causeway.  It is famous for perfect, white sand beaches, cashew plantations, rubber trees, and, of course, tourism.
 
No beach for us! Instead we visited a cashew plantation, processing plant and store.  No wonder cashews are expensive.  They grow on trees.  The fruit is about the size of an apple.  Each fruit has only one cashew on it, attached in a hard case hanging on the bottom of the fruit.  See picture.  The cashews are removed from the hard case by hand, and scraped clean, also by hand.  Again see pictures.  Then they had free samples available, which were so good we ended up buying a bunch of different cashew products.  Very good marketing. 

Then it was off to another Buddhist temple.  This was like all the other temples we have seen, except for the firecrackers.  These temples have a large chimanete full of firecrackers that practically exploded in our faces as we came along.  Even though we had been warned, you should have seen the people jump. 

Then off to a Sea Shell Museum, with all kinds of shells including a 550 pound clam shell and a 160 karat pearl, the world's largest.  No, I did not buy it for Peggy.

On the way back to the ship we went by Patong Beach, which is Thailand's equivalent to Daytona Beach, including the upcoming Bike Week.  See pic.  Matt & Hubie, how about this for a destination?

Weather today is still very hot, but not so muggy.  Much more pleasant.

Here are some pics.