Phuket: Sunday, Funday

What’s the best way to start a Sunday? Sleeping for 14 hours. Turns out it is also an excellent remedy for jetlag. Which is a good thing because out schedule was very full.

First on our docket was Sunday brunch with the Hackings. Manda explained the usual Hacking schedule involves working on Ocelot six days a week; Sunday is their boat-free day. But on Sundays they have brunch and end up talking about the boat anyways. Since Monica and I are de facto members of the Hacking clan now, we joined in the brunch.

The brunch place was a ten minute walk from Manda’s apartment. We got to stroll down what I assume is Chalong’s main drag. It was early enough that the sun and humidity weren't so oppressive that Monica and I were running for aircon. So we got an opportunity to check out life in Chalong.  Even at 9 am on a Sunday is was full of little cars, trucks full of smelly fruits and chickens, not to mention scooters. Scooters everywhere! Shops are already open. To my surprise they aren't tourist related at all. Before coming here I imagined all of Phuket Island to be like the postcards: sun, sand, booze and a lot of tourists. It is one of the best known tourist destinations in Thailand! Turns out most of the "touristy" life is in Phuket town, not Chalong, and it's also the off season.

Brunch was surprisingly american. The restaurant served combos named after different countries. I imagine they just picked well known countries because the food didn't feature any specific regional dishes. For example, I had the Swiss combo. It was hash-browns with ham and bacon, which I'm pretty sure isn't a Swiss specialty. They did get the american combo right though. It was the biggest, offering twice as much food as any of the other options. The food was excellent, but the coffee didn't come in a big enough size. It was like drinking out of a thimble. 

The view over the bay and Chalong

Once we stuffed ourselves we piled into the rental car and headed for the Phuket Island aquarium.  We passed some excellent views on the way. The best was the view over the bay, which the Big Buddha barely visible on the far hill. Now the aquarium, all I have to say about it is, if you want to see a real aquarium go to the Seattle aquarium. The only exhibit that I thought was interesting was the one with sea turtles because I've never actually seen a sea turtle before. Then I realized they were swimming in a tiny glass cube, which is the zoo equivalent of a bare concrete exhibit. Back to being disillusioned. 

Manda and I on the bow of the R/V Chakratong Tongyai

But it wasn't a total bust! Because the aquarium has a research vessel. The R/V Chakratong Tongyai. Manda and I, being Oceanography majors, went a little batty when we learned that we could get on for free and check it out. The ship was fair sized, at least 30 meters long. There was a very clean chemistry lab, which hadn't been used in a while. No sign of any type of geological equipment, but they most likely packed that away when they're not out. Overall I was pretty impressed with the ship and her layout. It wasn't what I would have expected for a third world research vessel. I've heard some pretty interesting stories about research equipment from Africa.

Probably wasn't actually allowed up there...

There was no one about when we got out on the main deck. So I took a climb up the mast for fun. Manda did not approve, she's such a stickler for rules. But Sue was all for it, she even took some very nice pictures of me. Once I climbed above the main body of the ship it got very windy, very fast. The wind felt lovely because by this point is was getting pretty hot out. At least the sea breeze kept the humidity at bay.
             
Manda and I were eventually forced to leave the ship.

Taking our Sunday in a completely different direction, Sue and Jon decided to use the rental car for a much needed grocery trip. Apparently they were running very low on chips ("our daily sodium intake" says Jon) and soda pop ("for the workers" Sue says). But since Monica and I were with them, they decided to give us a little culture shock. Instead of going to the local Tesla Lotus grocery store for these items we went to SUPER CHEAP, the local mega-mart type place. And it ended up being an adventure.

Manda, in the middle of SUPER CHEAP

SUPER CHEAP is indeed a grocery store. And a hardware store. And a clothing store. Electronics store. Toy store. Pet store. Really an everything you could possibly think of store. It reminded me of a cross between a Costco and Uwajimaya, except with more chaos. The store is actually a giant warehouse and definitely not air conditioned. As far as I can tell they sell anything you could think of; groceries, animal food, plastic containers, electronics, clothing, designer knockoffs, toys. But this place wasn't like your average Costco warehouse. The aisles crossed and intersected each other randomly. There was no order or numbering. I imagine the birds eye view looked like one of those mazes you find in a newspaper. The products weren't stocked with any order either. On our quest to find chips we passed a cookie aisle, followed by a lot of plastic containers, followed by dog toys and then we ran right into chips. Maybe it's an alphabetical system, but since it's in Thai I can't follow it.

Once we found the chips Sue took us to the produce section. It was full of fruits and vegetables I've never seen before. The smell was terrible. Apparently it comes a very specific fruit called the durian, a spiky brown fruit. It smelled like cat pee but somehow stronger. It was really terrible. She, of course, found our reactions hilarious. That's why she brought us to produce in the first place. 

Once the Hackings had procured their chips and soda pop we headed back to the apartment to pack up our stuff. Tomorrow we get on a bus and head for Khao Sok National Park for some hiking adventures of the outdoorsy sort.