We were booked into a hostel called Ananas backpacker, it was slightly hard to find maybe that's because I was directing and I always take short cuts which end up being longer. Also who would have known that the British are awkward people and decided to name a pineapple a pineapple. Everywhere else in the world call them Ananas. Well I clearly didn't know this until I turned up at the hostel and asked why there were pineapples everywhere, sounding like a novice.
Ananas hostel is great I really recommend it, it's simple and I really appreciated the staff. He was an old little Asian man and he was full of facts and wisdom about Thailand. When you walk into the hostel there is a big wall with photos of all past travellers. I thought this was a fantastic idea, and I didn't realise there was a photo of literally every person who had stayed here, either in he photo album or on the wall. So I was thrilled knowing our photo will be added to the collection in a few days times once the photos are printed. Also I feel this hostel had some of the best WIFI I've come across in Thailand, there were two computers that were super fast, they were so helpful.
Before going to see Buddha the owner showing us around asked Dan and I if we wanted to stop off at a cashew nut factory. I don't like nuts and dans not a fan either so we both said no thanks but he drove us there anyway. It was free of charge so we didn't mind. I've never known someone to know so much about a nut haha he was so enthusiastic and so excited to share his hobbie of nuts with us it was great. Well worth a stop here there are a million flavours of cashew nuts to sample and cashew nuts are surprisingly interesting nuts to know about.
However much I wouldn't of wanted to stay in Phuket Old Town as there is nothing there. You kinda have to stay there if you want to see Big Buddha. We thought when we were in Karon we could get transport from there to Buddha. But the way the roads are built you have to travel from Karon into old Phuket town, even though It's technically nearer Karon. So this stop over was purely to do some touristy things. Our first stop was big Buddha which was really amazing too see. It's 45 meters tall and you can see it from most places in southern Phuket. I had a lovely view of Buddha from my hostel balcony. We asked the owner to book us a taxi to go to Buddha and he was so sweet, he knew how much it would cost so for less of the price took us personally in his car. This was much more useful as it meant we could also stop at Phukets Bird Park.
As your going up the big hill to get to Buddha you pass Phukets elephant trekking, please don't support this industry. You saw baby elephants chained up looking sad and disorientated away from the mothers, with the smallest perimeter to walk in. Also I met a English girl in my hostel in Karon who did this and she said you had a first hand the experience of what these poor elephants went through. She also went on to mention that the tour guides are really sexist and when they aggressively wash the elephants they make all the girls in the group get in their bikinis whilst the guys in the group throw water and mud at you. So if the animals cruelty doesn't put you off hopefully the sexist tour guides will. She felt really exploited and really expressed this to me, it was sad to listen to.
When going to visit Buddha it's funny, all the men will get away with being in shorts and tank tops. I knew you had to be respectful so I went in trousers and had my shoulders covered. However this wasn't enough my whole arms needed covering so they provide material for the girls. It didn't annoy me just made me question there morals. There aren't tours you can do round Buddha and there is little reading information so thank goodness the owner was telling us everything he knew. He was so knowledgable that other people thought he was a tour guide and started gathering round asking questions. There is a different Buddha for every day of the week which was interesting and whatever day you were born on, that's like your Buddha. Dan and I were both born on Sunday so we were Sunday Buddhas. One thing you don't expect when visiting Buddha is that there is a wall of currency here. Where it has every currency in the world, a couple had been stolen which was sad as I'm sure some are worth quite a bit. This was the first time I'd ever seen a £1 note! Another memorable fact about visiting Buddha is that they have these gold leafs you can buy to write on a hang near Buddha as a sign of 'good luck and health'. These leafs help make the golden Buddhas, because after enough time has passed they melt these leafs down and make them into statues of individual Buddhas.
After visiting Buddha 10 minutes away is the bird park. Show times are 10:30, 1:30 and 3:30 everyday. We got there just in time for the 1:30 performance and went straight in it costs 500B to enter the park. The show was great, and so was the park. However, me being a great animals lover I'm always vigilant on the surroundings these animals are kept in and some here are most certainly not humane! I saw a beautiful vulture an incredible bird to see, but it was in such a small cage and lonely. I don't know if these birds are very sociable and like being with other vultures but I always hate seeing lonely creatures as I know not socialising with your own kind mentally depressed animals usually. But because of the rare birds that are kept here it's worth going to see.
This sums up most of our time at Phuket old town, but for any other travellers visiting Phuket. Do no make this a base place, it suggests online that's it's a good place to transport out of to visit places on Phuket but it's really not. It's also harder to haggle down the prices of tours, Patong is definitely more of a Captial now. Phuket museum is also situated here but it looks similar to my museum back in my hometown, Worthing. Small with not much to see but if any one has been please comment on my blog letting me know of your experiences here.
Read the lot! You sound very expert and wise xxxxxxx
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