07:20am and I jolt out of bed like a stray bullet as the hotel phone rings. It’s the lady at reception asking if we are ready for our trip today. I had only managed 4 hours of sleep, having arrived at 3am from Bangla Road; this street is really going to be the death of me .
A quick shower, teeth brushed, packed and I storm out of the room. The time is now 07:45am and I am terribly late and hungover. I should stop drinking those Long Island cocktails. We then embark on a two hour drive (a chance to get some much needed sleep and deal with the hangover) to the Monkey cave and other adventure activities. This package is also a full day session for 3 200Baht (equivalent of LSL1 440) and includes hotel pick up, lunch and a number of activities.
Our first stop was 20 minutes brief where we could see the temple and monkeys. At this point my hangover was aggressively killing me, but not even that would slow me down. This day was everything Adventure!
We started with ATV and my excitement levels went through the roof. I got so excited and overconfident driving the quad bike that I accidentally crashed and got stuck, so much for being a pro. We also met a people from China and Israel who were very friendly and chatty; traveling really does open up your mind.
As if this wasn’t exciting enough, next on the line was elephant trekking. At first I was scared and felt a little bad for the elephants; BUT what an incredible experience!! This elephant started training at the age of 2 and is now 20 years old. It listens to its caretaker and responds when you say hello. The ride was smooth and it knew the track very well.
The elephant also had a sense of humour, it splashed the couple in front of us with water twice. My phone was off (consequences of last night) so I had to ask one of the Chinese travelers to take pictures with her phone and she did! Breathtaking moments
From elephant trekking we went to see a 150m waterfall- how disappointing. This was disappointing for me because our waterfalls in Lesotho are so much better. We need to be very intentional about promoting our country and monetizing our iconic landmarks, but that’s a story for another day. We also went river rafting and zip lining- again wasn’t much of a highlight. I’ve had a better experience in Clarendon, South Africa. Well I suppose we met a couple from the United Kingdom (UK) and we had a great chat but that’s about it.
As we wrap up our stay in Phuket and head to Bangkok, I smile. Phuket is a very lovely destination, has friendly people and they understand the importance of tourism. My highlight on this journey is Phi Phi Islands, never disappointing. Done with the beach and islands, ready for the city!
