Surprisingly, the cruise ship has a very nice, large and modern fitness center (gym). Lots of equipment, free weights, treadmills, etc. The only disappointment is the gym is only open from 7 AM to 10 PM. You cannot get up early for a workout before an early breakfast if you want. As an alternate, we found, as runners, you can get a decent run around the ship on deck 7. You do have to run up and down some stairs at the front of the ship, but if you treat the ship run as a track workout, the stairs make a nice slowdown interval.
It is kind of fun as a GPS watch records your pace around 3:00 minute miles! 🙂
95% of Thailand is Buddhist, so we ventured over to see the giant Buddha known as Wat Phrayai.
He is not huge, but he is the landmark on Fan Island which is an island connected to the island of Ko Samui. He is about 30 feet tall and you can get some views of the water and beaches from the top.
Now, I have to admit that one the COOLEST elements of this area is the sci-fi metal artists. They have some AMAZING pieces of characters that they have made from various metal parts and welding.
I almost wish we could have purchased something and shipped it home…but my partner would have killed me to have a giant terminator statue in the living room…
From there, before heading back to the ship, we stopped by Wat Plai Laem which is an extension of the Buddha Temple and is best known for its famous (large) statue of Kwan Yin who is the 18-arm Buddhist avatar of Mercy. (sorry, I did not upload the giant avatar picture yet)
You can also actually find some western toilets versus the local holes in the ground…
We escaped the Thai Navy flotilla and we are now headed north towards a port that will enable us to reach Bangkok (blog posting now live). We also did some diving near Phuket Island while in Thailand (blog posting live).
Running around the world is always fun. Some of my other favorite spots:
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