The Last Few Hours in Thailand...

So yesterday we woke up early and hit the morning market. It was your standard fresh food market, but they did have Thai springrolls fresh out of the hot oil and although it was only like 8:30am, I thought I should partake. They were quite good.

The morning was spent shopping. Asian tours have arrangements with certain establishments and I think the tours get a commission from everything purchased. We went to a cashew factory (yum!), a bird's nest "cave", and a store that sold products made from Andaman stingray skin (rather ugly stuff).

Back to the bird's nests: there are very few edible bird nests (unless you like to eat twigs and whatnot). Swallow's nests are made from a sticky substance the female swallow generates in her beak. Yes, it is essentially bird spit. The nests are considered a delicacy in Asia and are rather expensive. My mom and aunts love to eat that stuff. You cook it in liquid and eat it like soup.

More massages! We went to this fancy spa, sauna-ed ourselves, then got oil massages. Very relaxing, and much less painful than the Thai massage. Good times.

Then we went to Wat Chalong. The main religion in Thailand is Theravada Buddhism--it's the school of Buddhism that draws scriptural inspiration from the Pali Canon (or Tipitaka), which is considered the oldest record of teh Buddha's teachings.

Wat (temple) Chalong is Phuket's most important temple and is revered for its healing powers. The prayer hall contains statues of three of the temple's most venerated monks.















And at end the day, we went to FantaSEA, the mulitimillion dollar "cultural theme park" which was voted Best Tourist Attraction in Thailand from 2000 to 2004!!! It was rather gaudy and what I imagine to be a little Vegas-esque. There were no rides, but cheesy performances (fire juggling bartenders!), games, gift shops and LOTS of flashing lights. The main show was a little bit like some sort of Asian circus with acrobats, tigers, elephants, a magic show and even fake rain. At least that is what I gathered--I actually fell asleep while waiting for the show to start (damn narcolepsy) and woke up intermittenly during the show.


So today is our last day and our flight back to Taiwan is this afternoon. I am ready to get my mosquito-bitten self back to a cooler climate. I've been gone a week and it feels like I've been away for much, much longer. I guess that's a good thing?