By Bob Van Leer

(PHUKET, THAILAND, Sunday, March 26, 2000) - Today we took a grand tour of this island just off Thailand's southwest coast on the Andaman Sea.

   Our ship anchored here this morning after a short run from Penang, Malaysia. Again we have to be taken to shore by lighters as there is no space for our large ship.

   The island has a population of about 200,000 and the country as a whole has a population of 61 million (1996). Phuket (pronounced poo-ket) is in the remote southwest corner of the state and the main action is in Bangkok, a city of 9 million on the coastal plain along the South China Sea.

   We saw a number of elephants and our guide said there are more than 400 of the animals on the island. She said there used to be only 15-20 of them. The others worked in the logging woods hauling logs, but she said logging in the tropical rain forest has been shut down for environmental reasons. So the mahouts brought their elephants into town to try to make a living entertaining the tourists. Somehow this sounded familiar.

   Thailand is the only country in the region that was never colonized by European powers. The population is 85% Thai with Chinese the largest minority of about 12%. Chinese seem to dominate the commerce of the whole region. The population is 95% Buddhist with 3% Muslim.

   We saw some unfinished construction and our guide said this was the result of the downturn of Asian business in 1997. Thailand and the other the other nations in the region seem to be recovering from this.

   The island does not appear to be as prosperous as the Malaysian island we just visited, Penang. A good indication is the proportion of motorcycles to cars seems higher here.
Our first stop this morning was a cashew nut factory. This is an odd nut which appears as a hook growing out of the end of a pear-shaped fruit. The nut is inside the hook in a hard shell. Factory workers have a tool that looks like a drill press that they lower to cut the shell. The nut itself is picked out of the split shell with a tool similar to an ice pick. A half-dozen operations go into the removal of each kernel. There must be a better way.

   We toured the main Buddhist temple on the island. These temples are extremely colorful with bright red paint gold and really brighten up their area. Those worshiping in the temple had no objection to tourists wandering by and taking pictures of everything. Buddhism seems to be a very relaxed religion.

   Thai education is similar to Malaysia with nine years of school compulsory and literacy at 93%.

   We have traveled 625 miles since leaving Singapore and have averaged only about 200 miles between stops. This is now to change. Tonight we get underway for Cochin, India, 1501 miles away. We will be at sea for three days. We rather welcome the sea days. The last week has been rather full. After a while we get a sensory overload. We experience so many different sights, sounds and smells in a short period. Relaxing for a few days sounds good.