Thailand - Part 4 - A Little Culture

Before arriving in Thailand, I had images of us spending lots of time in town.
But it turned out that our resort was in a fairly remote area and going into the town of Phuket would have meant an hour in a taxi each way.

So instead, we chose to spend most of our time by the pool and the beach, taking one day to head out and eat some local cuisine, shop at a grocery store and visit a Buddhist temple.
We didn't head into downtown Phuket, but stayed in the northern district that is called Thalang.

Our trip was timed during their typical rainy season.
I think while we were at the Marriott we had one day with some rain, but basically it was clear skies.
That wasn't the case on the day we went out and about.
We left our umbrellas in the taxi and about 2 seconds after we walked into a museum, the rain came down.
And by "came down", I mean dropped down in solid sheets!!

So we hung out with Buddha and waited patiently for the rain to end...which it did fairly quickly...and walked over to the temple.

In the temple (a Wat) the main Buddha is a half buried statue.

There are many other statues of Buddha all around.

Buddha prayers/offerings (Wai Phra) are typically made at the statue of your choice and involve three sticks of incense and gold flakes...and sometimes flowers.

The three sticks of incense represent Buddha, his teachings and the monastic order.
For a quick and good read about the Buddhist offerings, go here!
A monetary offering is made that goes to the upkeep of the temple.
Each statue in this temple had a different day of the week and what a person could expect to receive if they worshipped at that particular Buddha.

There was a monk at the temple and I didn't want to take his picture straight on because I had read that was inappropriate.
The woman selling the incense said it was okay, but I decided against it and took this instead and loved it.

After our visit to the Wat, we stopped at a grocery store for a few things to take back to the villa.
Before we reached the resort, we ate lunch at a local place called Kin Dee that was recommended by the concierge.
It was wonderful!
The people were so incredibly nice and the food was beyond delicious!

And that was our day out!
Time to get back to the grind of laying around in the sun!