Cashew factory and other spots on our private tour

The sand on the beach in Phuket near our hotel is prettier than the sand at Pattaya, not quite white sand yet, but getting there. We walked on the beach this morning before the day became hot, although we did need to stop and get bottles of water.  David is certainly enjoying the beach! We didn’t swim this morning, as we wanted to do some activities instead. We stopped at a tour vendor and arranged tomorrow’s excursion.

After a brief stop back at the hotel, we started walking to the bus station, planning to ride the bus to another town to see a cashew factory. We stopped at the tour vendor again, and Miriam mentioned where we were heading. The tour lady offered to get us a private driver for four hours at a very reasonable price. Dang, our driver arrived in less than five minutes, in her new, air conditioned car, with lots of padding on the back seat! This is important to me as I always end up in the middle of the back seat, where the skimpy padding is even skimpier. Dang proved to be more than just a driver. She’s on the left in the picture with Miriam. We had our own private tour of Phuket. She took us to a pearl and gemstone shop where we saw a video of how saltwater pearls are grown and harvested. They had a huge showroom of beautiful gems in gorgeous settings (no photos allowed there, unfortunately).

From there, we went to a cashew factory and watched as the nut was removed from the shell. Notice the worker’s gloves… the gooey stuff between the shell and the nut is poisonous. Good reason not to have a home cashew grove! In addition to the demonstration, the cashew factory had all manner of coated cashews to taste and buy. Wasabi coated, chocolate coated, honey, barbecue, garlic, over a dozen different flavors. They also had cashew juice, bottled ready to sell after they gave us a taste. It’s the pinkish-orange stuff in the shot glasses and pitcher. Cashew juice is good stuff, hard to describe, but sweet and savory at the same time. Yes, we bought a bottle. It can be mixed with soda water or vodka or other spirits, even used to flavor wine.

After the cashew factory, Dang took us to a muay thai shop. I’m sure there is a word for a place where people practice muay thai, as this place had the exercise area and ring as well as a shop. All open air surrounded by trees and flowers. Robin would so love to do her muay thai here.

It was time for lunch, so Dang stopped at a pier where the locals bring in their catch. Because of the time of day, we only saw one fisherman come in, but we saw fish, shrimp and oysters for sale. The fishermen use these long boats. Little kids playing in the water and around the vendors. We ate noodle soup at a restaurant just across the road from these boats and kids playing. I say restaurant instead of food vendor because a metal roof covered the seating area, not a tent.

For our final stop, Dang took us to a lighthouse overlook where we could see quite a bit of the eastern coastal area on the south end of Phuket island. The green of the vegetation and the blue of the water rival scenes from Hawaii. On this overlook, I came across a shrine that was covered with elephant statues. Hundreds of them, put there when it was built and brought by people. Four foot tall ones to four inch tall ones. I thought of our elephant-loving granddaughters when I took this picture.

We bid goodbye to Dang until Wednesday afternoon, as we arranged another trip with her then. Back at our hotel, we hit the swimming pool. This is Phillip underwater, making a Kacie face!

Time to head out for dinner, and maybe more adventures this evening…..