World Cruise - Day 79 - Mar 31 - Phuket, Thailand

We did a Bible study and video sermon, then went to see some of the area around Phuket.  Krissie loves animals, so I tried to work in some more animals today.  Today the animals in most of my photos are monkeys, both tame and wild.  We were greeted by a couple dressed in a traditional Thai outfit at the pier:

Lots of different sights on the road along the way.  Coconuts are a staple local food:

Phuket is an island in southwestern Thailand.  We drove across the island to the west side of the island to this lookout point:

I saw a small lizard that I tried to photograph nearby:

A little better closeup:

Our group that traveled together today—me, Krissie, Jim and Pat Wilcox and Roberta and Dennis Beckman:

We then went to a local place that offered elephant treks:

Jim and Pat and Dennis and Roberta did a trek, since they had not done one before (and we had already done one a few days ago in Laem Chabang):

Got this pic of a local boy gathering some food for the elephants:

This family lived on the elephant trek trail:

Krissie discovered the monkeys while I was off photographing our elephant trekkers and asked me to come over to take some photos:

The littlest monkey was quite attached to Krissie, quite literally:

He was very curious, reminded us of Curious George:

He loved climbing all over Krissie and really enjoyed playing with her:

Krissie was having a lot of fun with him:

Then a bigger monkey came out and introduced himself to Krissie with a handshake:

…then he politely bowed, a traditional Thai greeting:

Krissie got a kick out of his bow:

Krissie got a posed shot with the bigger monkey:

One of the medium sized monkeys, not the prettiest creatures I’ve ever met:

Then Krissie was feeding them some bananas, which got them all pretty happy:

The big monkey made his bow when he saw that Krissie had a banana for him:

He was very thankful and Krissie enjoyed feeding all of them:

The little monkey just kept coming back for more loving:

You can see two of the middle sized monkeys literally stuffing their faces with the banana while Krissie is in the background still playing with the baby:

Krissie and the baby became great friends:

Then Krissie offered him a drink out of her water bottle:

Dennis came back from his trek and was immediately greeted by one of the monkeys, who liked his hat:

The little monkey seemed to like his tennis shoes:

Pat got a delousing by one of the monkeys, who eventually certified her as lice free:

We went up near another overlook and caught this pic of a little girl talking on a cell phone.  OK, she was only listening, but it was a live call and there was a person talking to her:

When we came back a little later, she was being rocked to sleep in a hammock.  I got this pic before she put her head down to go to sleep:

Krissie at lookout point #2:

Then we got to feed the wild monkeys in the mountain jungle, which was pretty wild.  Krissie was a little afraid of them, but did eventually give some bananas out to them:

I was able to feed this mother with a baby hanging on to her tummy:

More photos on Phuket tomorrow, I still have more, just tired and ready for bed.  We have a sea day tomorrow (#1 of 2 on our way to Chennai, India), so the extra photos will spice up my sea day posting.