We were officially released at missionaries when we left the mission on March 3, 2017. The next few blogs will documents our adventures getting home.
American Cemetery Manila
After we left the mission office, the area driver took us to our hotel in Manila. We stopped by the American Cemetery on the way. It honors the thousands of soldiers who were killed in the Philippines during the 2nd world war. After the war, the remains of soldiers spread all over the country were moved to this cemetery. The marble walls show the name of each brave man or women who perished.
Morecea Resort Phunket
Saturday we flew from Manila to Bangkok to Phuket where a driver picked us up and drove another hour and one half to Morecea Resort in Koa Lukland on the west coast of Thailand. It is a great resort on the beach.
Sight Seeing
We spent a day sight seeing about Phuket including the great budda. We stopped at McDonald's to see how they localized the menu. Gary tried to enjoy the curry chicken and rice but it was super hot spicy and couldn't finish it. We also went to the Cashew factory where we saw cashews growing on a tree out front. The ladies were shelling them by hand. Then of course you sampled all the flavors and bought some to take with you. After we left, our guide explained that they don't grown cashews on Phuket island. The factory was created as a tourist draw and they ship the cashews down from the mainland. That and the fact that McDonald's doubles the prices in tourist areas tells you that tourism is the #1 industry in Phuket. Most of the tourist are europeans since the flight is only 10 hours.
Pha Nu Bay
Monday we visited Pha Nu Bay where the incredible limestone mountains stick straight up. In many places, the rain washes limestone down and creates stalagtites on the outside walls. The most famous island is "Jame Bond" island. It was featured in the opening credits of James Bond The man with the Golden Gun. They milk it for millions of tourist dollars each year making boat trips to see it. Our guide brought a great picnic which we ate on a sandy beach.
The boats are called "long tail" boats. They have a big engine mounted on the back without any cover. The long drive shaft extends out with a propeller on it. They can maneuver through shallow water by raising the drive shaft. At first we thought this will never fly, but our boat had a 400+ horsepower V8 and was outrunning almost every boat on the bay.
