On our second day in Phuket I decided to take a tour of some of the island highlights. Our first stop was Karon View Point also known as Three Bay View Point because you can see three bays from this spot (very clever).

 

In the fourth picture, just above, you can see the Big Buddha, our next stop, on the right at the top of the tallest hill. The construction of Big Buddha was started in 2007 to commemorate the King's 80th birthday. The structure is about 90 feet tall and atop one of the highest points on the island.

When we first arrived at The Big Buddha we visited the monastery where the monks were having lunch. It was an interesting scene with monks in line to get their food, then sitting down on an ornately decorated stage of sorts where one monk was giving a lecture or sermon. Throughout our trip, especially in Myanmar there was often one monk talking and it always seemed that they were giving a "sermon" and once we asked what the monk was saying and we were told he was telling the monks where to get their rice. We were kind of surprised.

 

I then climbed the stairs to see the Big Buddha up close and along the way heard a sweet chiming sound which I realized were hundreds of small bells left by visitors.

 

They are still working on the Big Buddha and setting up the inside. It was interesting to see the process.

 

The next stop was Wat Chalong, the most important of the 29 Buddhist temples on Phuket. It's a vast site with many different extremely ornate temples.

 

The final stop on the tour was a Cashew nut factory. The cashews are first processed in Bangkok and then sent to the factory in Phuket for the final processing and packaging. I hadn't seen a cashew tree or fruit before and found the fruit pretty humorous.

 

The guy above is shelling the cashews one by one. Talk about tedious! The cashews are delicious, of course and they make many different flavors. My favorite was the Tom Yum flavor.

After a short ride I was back at the hotel and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Tough life.

If you'd like to hear some commentary about the sites I visited check out the videos below.

Thanks for reading!

Best, Kristin