Costa Fortuna - Day 4 - Tendering at Phuket

Day 4 – Phuket, Thailand

We woke up early in the morning and as always were super excited to see where our cruise has stopped today. When we peeped out from our cabin balcony, we could see some small passenger boats marching towards our cruise and they were later being connected to exit gates of our cruise. So, we were little curious to know why since previous day our ship docked at Langkawi port where this huge vessel was tied to the pier. We got to know later that cruise ships like Costa which are too huge would require too deep of a draft to access ports and water is too shallow for ships to get closer to such sea shores. Hence such cruise ships will anchor in the deeper water offshore and use smaller boats to get passengers to and from shore. This is called tendering. Interesting!

We quickly freshened up, had breakfast and headed to exit gates with our group. It was very thrilling to step into these boats from our cruise since the wooden planks were different. Once the boat was filled with capacity, first boat started towards the Patong town of Phuket. As our boat started moving, we could see our magnificent cruise standing like a king in the middle of an ocean. 

We got down from the boat and started walking towards the parking area where our sight-seeing buses were parked. Patong is a typical quaint beach side town and you will get the same feeling as you walk past this town.  

We were told that sight seeing duration will be short today of only 4-5 hours since we had to head back to cruise terminal by 3 PM. So we thought to explore the town later and hurried towards the parking lot, hopped onto our bus and started towards our first stop.

Wat Chalong

This is the largest and most visited Buddhist temple in Phuket. This temple is built on three floors and there are multiple golden colored Buddha statues in each floor. Please make sure you visit all the three floors and climb to the top to get a beautiful bird view of the temple area. Before entering the temples, we have to take off our shoes. The walls and ceilings are decorated with beautiful paintings that show the life of the Buddha.

The temple next door has statues of 3 monks that people come to pray to. You shake a jar of sticks and have a wooden rod drop out with a number on it, you go to the corresponding box and take a piece of paper with your future prediction on it. Something a little fun, please do try it out.

There are some more beautiful temples in the same campus. You can visit them and then on the way to parking lot you will have to cross a bunch of souvenir shops along with rest rooms.

Promthep cape

This is one of the most photographed locations of Phuket. We had to drive on the hilltop to reach this spot. 

Upon reaching there you have some nice spots to click pictures and its worth taking since you are going to get a spectacular view of nearby islands like Phi Phi Island etc. Make sure to reach during sunset to enjoy the breathtaking views. It is really worth it.

Once you come out to the parking lot you will find some shops where you can have some refreshments and also shop for souvenirs.   

Our last and final stop of the day was a local tax-free store (factory outlets). I am not able to recollect the name of the shop and also stuffs were not that great for purchase. Hence not worth the mention.

Lunch Time - Lunch was arranged at Moti Mahal, an Indian restaurant. The buffet looked amazing with lot of options and food was very tasty.

Post lunch we hardly had an hour or so to stroll along the beach side and reach the pier to get into the boat. Guide asked us to explore the beach town on our own and make it for the cruise terminal by 3 pm sharp without fail.

Patong Beach

So we thought we will take a stroll along the Patong beach. As you walk, you will see a row of coconut and palm trees separating the shore from the main road. And, the slightly cooler areas are lined up with stalls selling eateries, drinks and off-course foot massage parlors. They literally invite you to get massage done for one/two/both the legs (half an hour per massage). Please try it out if you have time. We then entered some shops to buy some souvenirs back home, but stuffs were expensive. So bargain kings and queens, please try the best of your talent here. I honestly did not find stuffs worth buying for the price.

Far across the beach, we could see our gigantic Costa Fortuna standing in water and waiting for us.

So, we started heading back to pier point to get into the boat. 

Boat was almost getting full. We quickly hopped onto the boat and reached cruise on time.

Upon reaching the cruise, we spent the rest of evening with similar set of activities as mentioned in my earlier blogs – lots of recreation, music, dance, good food and sound sleep with satisfaction of the day well spent and excited about where we would be docking next.