Travel Adventures #4 | Surin Beach, Chalong Temple & Big Buddha
Welcome to Travel Adventures Part 4 - Our second day in Phuket visiting Beaches, Temples & Big Buddha
Day 2 of our holiday in Phuket was our first full day in the beautiful country of Thailand so we wasted no time and decided to tick a few things off the typical Phuket tourist bucket list.
Surin Beach & Surrounds
We started off our day with a very fulfilling breakfast at our resort - a full buffet breakfast with a huge range of Western and Eastern breakfast foods, breads, fruits, and drinks. We then explored the whole of our resort and then walked to Surin Beach, which was a short walk away in front of our resort. As we walked toward the beachside, we were greeted with clear, blue skies and a calm, inviting ocean. There were a few locals that have set up businesses where the dirt road meets the beach, offering massages, food and drinks for all the tourists.
Surin Beach
While there were a few tourists (including us) already at the beach, it was by no means crowded and was relatively quiet and enjoyable (compared to other beaches in Phuket). The sand was nice, the beach was clean and there were so many shady and sunny spots to choose from. We had to find a spot that had a bit of both as Ben loves the sun, while I prefer to stay in the shade most of the time.
We stopped to take our tourist photos and selfies and then treated ourselves to some refreshing coconuts while we took our surroundings in. After this, we stopped off at the local 7-11 to pick up some snacks and made our way back to our hotel for our driver to pick us up and take us on our tour of Phuket.
Mandatory tourist selfie at every location
Street Vendors
Refreshing ice cold coconuts
Tourist Time - Feeding a Baby Elephant
I've never fed a baby elephant before so we tried to feed bananas to this baby elephant we came across during the day but he didn't want anything to do with the fruit. Maybe he was sick of being fed bananas. So we fed him a bottle of milk and poured it down a funnel and into his mouth. His eyes just lit up at this point and he knew exactly what to do - he pulled the end of the funnel tube into his mouth and began suckling on it, waiting for me to pour the milk for him. He was so adorable and his little tuft of hair was surprisingly wirey.
Wat Chalong a.k.a Chalong Temple
Wat Chalong is the largest and most popular temple in Phuket, Thailand to both tourists and locals alike. The temple grounds had about 4-5 separate buildings and pergodas but the most prominent building was the 3-storey Grand Pergoda. This temple was decorated with paintings about Buddha and housed many gold statues. Climbing all the stairs to the top level terrace grants you a nice bird's eye view of the entire temple grounds.
Grand Pergoda - Photograph from GoPro
Inside Grand Pergoda - Photograph from GoPro
Statues inside Grand Pergoda
Big Buddha on top of the hill
The best views for the day were seen from the top of Nakkerd Hill, home to one of Phuket's most well-know attractions - the Big Buddha. Many parts of the grounds were still undergoing maintenance and building to improve the area, but still offered amazing 360o views. The statue is 25m across at the base, 45m tall and is covered in beautiful white marble tiles. We stayed here taking many photographs, explored the grounds and found other small statues, and watched in awe as the sun set.
It's amazing that such a significant landmark was built purely through donations and raised money. There were many wishing bells and hearts that you can purchase via donation to write your wishes on and find a place to hang your wish near Big Buddha. You can similarly donate money to receive a marble tile to write your wish or name on it, which they use to continue building the interior of the Big Buddha.
Wish Hearts under Big Buddha. Donation tables on the left under Big Buddha
More Wish Hearts
White Marble Wish/Name Tiles
I always wish for peace, love, prosperity and happiness for myself, my family and friends. I wish this for all my fellow Steemians and thank you for taking your time in reading my travel post. Hope you've enjoyed my Travel Adventures for today with my hubby, Ben. Looking foward to sharing the rest of my trip with you all!
-Frankie
[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 7.827628 lat 98.312745 long Big Buddha Statue d3scr)
This was an amazing post! Your presentation was great and it was interesting throughout. One of the best travel posts out there - seriously!
I would like to input some slight constructive criticism, which sometimes I struggle with too, don't worry. Be careful of the tense you're speaking in. E.g. if you're speaking about the past, "We have to find a spot that has a bit of both", it would make more sense to say "We had to find a spot". Other than that, the post was excellently written, so I felt obliged to say this. I like helping people grow and learning, and most of us don't speak English as first language (and even those that do, we all do mistakes).
Fascinated to know that the Buddha was built solely on donations! The power of society is remarkable!
Wow thank you so much for the compliment and feedback! I’ll edit the tense of the post when I get home. I guess I must read it a little differently in my head when I review my post. So thank you for your feedback, always trying to improve my writing.
Thank you so much for stopping by and helping me out! Greatly appreciated!
It's my pleasure! I can truly see that you care about your writing and travelling! And congratulations on your curie vote! That should help you out a little :D
Thank you, I've definitely become rusty in my writing and grammar over the years as I haven't written anything since I was in University. I feel like I am improving though and hope to keep improving as I continue to post more and more on Steemit. Thanks for the feedback, I really do appreciate it!
I was really excited when I saw the response to this post, including an upvote from curie. It's a great little moral booster.
It's more than a little moral booster ;) Yeah, keep heading the right track! I'm glad that steemit is helping you re-engage in writing and improving. Keeping our brains active in all the ways possible is the best way to keep it healthy :D
Wow this post very awesome!
Thank you so much for stopping by!
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STOPReading your blog post brings back memories of my last trip to Phuket which was ages ago..Glad to see the Big Buddha on the hilltop is ready. I still recall the magnificent 360 degrees view of Phuket from the temple. It is such a far cry from the noisy and touristy Patong
It was quite amazing seeing it up close and almost finished. How long ago did you visit Phuket?
Yes the views were stunning. We probably stayed there for close to 2 hours watching the sky completely change from day, to dusk, to almost complete darkness.
It was definitely a nice change from the noisy Patong. Although we only visited Patong a couple times during the day. I’m sure the night life would be a whole different world to experience.
Thank you for stopping by!
It was easily more than 3 years ago. Phuket is too touristy for my liking particularly Patong where the clubs are lined with travellers who are looking for one night stands. I prefer the northern tip of Phuket though where it is a lot more quiet and serene.
Nice trip thailand..i hope i can go to there
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