Phuket is a lot busier and dirtier then I thought it would be. I’m not sure what I was expecting, other than the commercial versions of the islands, lovely tropical colors, completely secluded.

Of course, the biggest tourist town in Thailand is busy and dirty; it’s a town. So our planned two days ashore turned into one and we are under way for the islands off the eastern side of Phuket in the Andaman Sea.

Before leaving, though, we spent a day ashore. Gary Skinner of SuperYacht Logisitics found us a charming guide and driver and we toured the island. My most memorable part was a visit to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, one of the only green spaces in Phuket. It’s not really a rainforest, but it is certainly jungle-like, with a nice trail and a waterfall and locals enjoying the water.

Gibbons are small apes that live in rainforests in Southeast Asia. Sadly, in the past 25 years or so, they have become extinct in Phuket because of poachers and, indirectly, tourists. The apes can be seen on the beaches and streets of Phuket, and their handlers will offer them for photographs for a fee.

But since gibbons live in the upper canopy of the rainforests, the only way to get one is to shoot the mother and get the baby when it falls to the ground, if it survives. And since the apes are monogamous, when the mother is killed, the family unit is destroyed, leading slowly but surely to extinction.

“No matter what the owner of these gibbons may tell you, what they are doing is illegal,” the GRP says.

Walking from the dirt parking area into the GRP, we heard the caged apes calling to one another, a piercing, howling call. What are they saying to each other? We found out later that we were lucky to arrive just before meal time so that explains what they were talking about.

The GRP has named them all, photographed them, and make them available for “adoption” until they are rehabilitated and released back into the wild. We spoke to a young Dutch woman volunteering at the GRP who explained the volunteers have limited interaction with the animals so as not to interfere with their rehabilitation. She could have been a yachtie; I didn’t ask.

The GRP urges visitors not to take photos with the gibbons they might encounter on the street. As I listened to the howls and thought about how these critters ended up here, I couldn‘t help but wonder how many tourists on the beach -- or charter guests -- ever get that message.