Phuket: Phi Phi Island

October 08, 2010

Now, it was the time for the real experience in Phuket. A tour to nearby islands. The city offers several options when it comes to the island tours. We chose Phi-Phi island tour because of several reasons. Bf went to Phuket once before and he picked the “James Bond” island tour. All he got to see was a cave with bats dangling from the ceilings. Hell no I’m going to let myself IN that cave. So… we got ourselves the most attractive package of all; A one day trip to Phi Phi island. That covered other small islands as well, including Maya bay where The Beach movie was filmed.

The minivan picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 AM. We spent an hour journey from Patong to the pier. There, we hopped on a speed boat after a guy from the tour agency took our photo one by one at the port. On the boat, we were briefed once again on our tour itinerary. The journey to the first island took about an hour. A good, bumpy one hour journey. I was almost convinced that the boat driver intentionally made it a rough ride just to wake us up :p

 

We stopped at the first island, Phi Phi Lei, for about 30 minutes before heading on to the next island. Here we jumped from the boat to the water below, as the boat didn’t stop at the beach but between cliffs. O.M.G. Never before in my life I jumped from a boat, let alone swimming in between cliffs. Not to mention a picturesque scenery of blue sky, cliffs vertically rose from the water, an emerald green, crystal clear water!! And I got to swim with so many fish also swimming alongside me. It was downright the best, THE BEST experience I had in my more-than-20 years living. It was almost felt like heaven on earth. Oohhh the weather was also superb. Not too much sun, otherwise I would have thought twice before exposing myself under the bright shining sun. ha ha. Too much UV is not good for skin ya’ know.

Our 30 mins of pure joy was up. Next stop would be Maya Bay. To venture the island, we were given 1 hour time slot. Not much we could do here, as the beach was jam packed with tourists. After that, leaped back to our boat and off we went to Phi Phi Don to have lunch. Yes, we were starving! But there was one more stop before lunch. I forgot the name of the island. I threw myself into the water again there and enjoyed being floated back and fro by the waves.

Welcome to the Maya bay.

Eva was here

Ahh… the lunch. It was an international buffet with a mix of spaghetti and local dish. Not too bad *or I can say: we were too hungry to bother much*. In this island, there are local shops selling souvenirs just beside the dining hall. Sun dresses, hats, shell crafts, and clays. I got my hat here :) We spent an hour to have lunch and already we were rushed back to the boat. We were going to the most crowded beach, Khai island. But, along the way there, the boat stopped at Monkey island. Off the boat everyone, we were going to feed monkeys, yiihaa!

Warning: Monkey bites

That monkey ignored me!! He *or she* didn’t seem interested at all, while the rest…mind you I tell the truth, fighting each other just to grab whatever thing the tourists offered them. ckck.

 

We had a chance to see Viking Cave (a name of the famous cliff) and Bird Nest.

Arrived at Khai island, we helped ourselves with pineapples and watermelon. Refreshingly sweet.

Never liked pineapples before, but that pineapple was GOOD

Hmm nice beach, nice weather… a good time to doze off

  

Ah, the day trip was over. We headed back to the marina and claimed our previously taken picture. It was 5 PM and we needed to go back to hotel as fast as we could, coz we had to be there when the shuttle bus came to pick us up to the Fantasia Show. Well, a long but needless to say, an awesome day we had. The highlight of my Puket trip.

Phuket: Simon Cabaret Show

7 October 2010

Oh Never before I thought this time would come, when I sincerely say: “I L.O.V.E Phuket”. For me, Phi Phi is the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen so far. Yes, even more beautiful than Bali/Lombok. I lived in Lombok for 9 years. As far as I remember, my family spent our free time playing, swimming at the beach. I thought there wasn’t any beach that could match the one in Lombok. How wrong I was. You need to go and visit Phi Phi and I let you decide :p

Well, how it all began? I took 2 days off work on 7 and 8 October and jumping on a plane to the next getaway, Phuket. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this holiday, coz me never been a great fan of Thailand, despite never being there, really. What I could think of was anywhere other than Singapore would be just perfect. I didn’t really care where I was going. A sign of overstressed, perhaps?

Anywho… we did buy a packet of free and easy travel to Phuket. And I tell you this: I’m glad we chose Phuket. We were flying with Silkair at 9 AM. The flight took more than an hour and we arrived around 10 AM local time. A minivan from the travel company were there to pick us up along with the other 8 Singaporeans. Since our check in time was at noon, the travel company gave us a half day city tour to visit some tourist spots, or I’d rather say, stores, along the way from the airport to Patong beach area where our hotel located. First stop was a local shop selling T-shirts and claiming to be the only one offering the best deal any tourists can get on good quality T-shirts. Bought 3 shirts for Pa.

After that, off we went to the gem store. It’s – based on the marketing video they made us watch – one of the biggest in the world. The building, is indeed big. Sadly couldn’t buy one, so damn expensive.

 

Next destination, Pornthip Phuket. it was time to taste local delicacies. For all of you who like durian, this is the place. They sell durian chips, dried durian, and durian paste. Also a various type of Thai sauces. Yummy.

Next: Honey store. Not much I can tell about this one, since they explained all there is to know about honey in… CHINESE!! The old man kept on mumbling about, despite the complete bored looks on our faces.

Final destination for the half day city tour: Kinnaree activity center. Here we can ride an elephant (elephant trekking), go-kart, shooting. We hang out with the tour guide and ended up buying tickets for the Simon Cabaret show later that night. Got to feed the elephant and posed with it. Gosh, elephant trunk freaked me out.

 

 

Then finally it was time to go to Patong (kind of like Kuta area). We checked in, ordered room service for lunch as the hotel is located at the hill (10 mins ride by car from Patong) and there’s no way you can walk to the centre of Patong unless you’re willing to walk for hours. Ahh… had an authentic phad thai noodle *sluuurrpp*

Felt beat up, I slept until 6 PM and quickly got ready for the night: Simon Cabaret. The minivan picked us up at 8 PM. Simon Cabaret show is basically a musical show performed by local ladyboys (transvestite). Hmm… it was like watching a concert. They all lipsync tho, singing popular songs from all over the world like Lady Gaga, Korean Wonder Girls, Beyonce. Geez, I saw one ladyboy, played a role of Beyonce, who look a bit like Beyonce. Trust me. Maybe it was the makeup. The props… wow!!! you should see all the props and costumes they’re wearing. They really go all out on it, very glam. I wonder what they’ll do with the costumes once they’re not using them anymore, coz I’m quite sure they keep changing costumes according to the artists they mimic.

Took some shots with the ladyboys. You’ve got to give them money if you wanna take pictures with them.

That was a wrap for today.

PS: You might want to keep an eye on ur bf, ha ha, coz gee, they look like the real deal, well, at least a number of them.