Phuket

It all started with winning two free Air Asia tickets to Phuket at FlyFM birthday bash. In the end, we got our own tickets after we failed to redeem our prize from Air Asia. Finally, my first trip overseas. I have never been outside Malaysia (not even Singapore) and this was my virgin plane ride. It turned out just like another bus ride, only that this time it was flying. So much for my anticipation and excitement.

So, we touched down in Phuket and took a cab to our hotel, Royal Crown in Patong.


A scene at Phuket airport


The cab dropped us at this tour agency so that we could book our activities to Phi Phi Island the next day. We didn't have much choice as we didn't do enough research (for my case, zero research)and had no idea what to do in Phuket.


The lady that talked to us at the tour agency. Her name was Oil. Yea, minyak.


Walk to Patong Beach

Checked in to our hotel and we started to walk the streets down to Patong beach. Armed with only a map, we started walking about blindly. Luckily it was straight forward enough and soon enough, we reached the beach. It was kinda fun being lost in translation where the locals there hardly speak any English. We even had problems ordering food where we just pointed to whatever we wanted. I tried my luck by choosing randomly from the menu, but in the end, the food that I got seemed pretty normal. Disappointment.


Welcome to Patong Beach


They had lots of people peddling food around like this. In one end, they have a wok with burning charcoal in it. They mostly sell sausages, jerkies and meat balls which they'll barbeque upon purchase.


The moment we reached Patong beach, the gals started shopping for their bikinis. Girls will always be girls and girls always take forever to buy something. During that infinite ammount of time, this was what they missed:


The sun set at Patong Beach. It was a fantastic feeling seeing the sun slowly drown into the sea and it felt good being carassed by the soothing ocean wind. People were jogging, swimming in the sea, playing fetch with their dogs, and enjoying the magnificent scenery over a mug of chilled beer. For a moment there, I found peace within my soul.

Here are more pictures of the sunset for you gals.


Sunset view. Breathtaking.


Another sunset view. Magnificent.


Marvin attempting suicide. Spectacular. Brilliant.


Bought some beef jerkies and roasted pork intestines from this dude.


Close up of the food selection of the stall.


Roasted pork intestines with their special made sauce. A delightful snack.

We had dinner after that at a cozy Thai restaurant. Having dinner in a foreign place somehow felt good. It was our vacation mood that stirred up our stomach juices. We had some decent "normal" food like:


Pineapple rice


Tom yam


Chicken soup. My first try at the sourish Thai chicken soup which tasted pretty alright.


Kiwi enjoying her dinner


Gals posing after dinner



We took a walk around the area after that which was basically filled with restaurants, souvenier shops selling beads and clothing, and lots of foreigners. I really loved the lights and life in the area.

Somehow, not even one of the locals there guessed that we were from Malaysia. Japanese, Korean and China were their main guesses. Later on, whenever we were asked where we were from, we said that we were from German which caused a bit of uncomfortable silence.

Prices of stuff there are normally hiked up real high where you are supposed to bargain. The conversation there usually goes something like this:

Lay Yean: How much?
Peddler : 1000 bath.
Lay Yean: Too expensive.
Peddler : Okay. You name your price.
Lay Yean: 500 bath.
Peddler : Okay. Deal.

I totally suck at bargaining. My conversation went something like this:

Me : How much?
Peddler : 1000 bath.
Me : Too expensive.
Peddler : Okay. You name your price.
Me : 200 bath.
........uncomfortable silence.........


After roaming the streets, we decided to chill at some Live house. The street was filled with Live houses playing different genres of music - jazz, techno and rock. We chose Rock City and it was a good choice. The music there was really good and got us in the groove.


Rock vs Metal


The music got to the guys sooner than the gals.


The pose was pretty addictive and soon spreaded.


Real addictive


A bit too addictive to some.

That was it for the first day. Took the tuk-tuk back to the hotel and got a few hours of sleep. The air con that night malfunctioned turning the room into a furnace. Luckily, exhaustion took over soon enough.

................................................................................

Woke up early the 2nd day for Phi Phi Island. The tour agency picked us up and brought us to the jetty at Phuket. Didn't prepare anything for breakfast and we were soon starving.


The person in charge at the jetty. We asked him some questions in plain English and to our big suprise, he replied in good English with a British accent. It just doesn't seem right hearing it from him.


They also have Jamaican Thais there.


Our guide for the day. He behaved like a normal Thai.

We soon departed to Phi Phi Island and a couple of other islands. We did the normal beach activities like snorkelling, sun bathing, fish feeding and checking out babes in bikinis. The sceneries there were beautiful, but similar to other islands. They look just like the ones in Langkawi. There weren't much corals around and it was a bit overcrowded for relaxing.

Some of the shots taken during island hopping:






The Magma Bug, a venemous bug that's closing in to extinction.


Serenity




Tsunami Evacuation Path




Welcome to Krabi Island


Lay Yean in Krabi


The lonely kiwi


Marvin giving his shot at being a bitch


Marvin giving his shot at being a Yakuza henchman.


A group with no chemistry at all


The trademark play dead at the beach pose


Parasol seats that cost 150 bath


Coconuts and watermelons tasted heavenly when we were dead hungry


A floating Lay Yean.


I love the beach


We stopped by at some island where the monkeys were the main attraction there. The guide advised us to be careful as the monkeys can bite. I was a bit reluctant to feed the monkeys with watermelons as I was really hungry myself.


Monkey feeding


Kiwi didn't take the guide's advise seriously and the monkeys started attacking her when she got too close.


Monkeys that drink Coke and Beer






Viking cave. A place where they harvest bird nest a couple of times yearly.




I was dead tired and soon found myself sleeping comfortably on the shoulders of a Scottish. When I woke up, I was the laughing stock there. And later on, people went "Careful with that guy. He's gonna sleep on you."

Reached our hotel in the evening, took a dip at the swimming pool, washed up and headed out again to Patong. We needed food. Stopped by some local hawker and had some mixed rice. Hawker food here is pretty cheap. We later came upon this hawker stall where they speak a little English. We tried their Thai Salad called Som Tam which made our lips and toungue numb from the spiciness.


Preparing the som tam


Som tam ingredients


The prepared dish that burnt out tongues.


Friendly Thais


Mini gas station


Tickets to the Muay Thai boxing ring was kinda expensive. Managed to take some picture of them while they were parading around town.

We shopped around for souveniers and then headed for some Thai massage. Even in Thailand, I get fat jokes from the locals here. My masseur saw the other 2 gals and thought that it was a group of gals. She opened my door and saw me and went "Holy shit." Marvin's masseur kept laughing at her colleague who was giving me a massage. She made it sound like she's never massaged a big guy before. Our conversation went something like this:

Masseur: You run every morning?
Me : Err, no, why?
Masseur: Your legs very strong and hard.
Me : Hmmmm....
Masseur: You like ice cream?
Marvin : He likes to eat everything.
Masseurs: Muahahahhahaha
Masseur: Just joke joke. Don't angry.
Me : Hehe joke joke.
Masseur: You so big. Need at least 2 hours to finish massaging.
Masseur: Sumo. You sumo.
Me : -_-||

And that was only the conversation in English. They spoke a lot among themselves in Thai and kept laughing. Well, at least they had fun I guess. I just paid 250 bath anyway. I bet my masseur felt underpaid.

Went back after that and had a good night's sleep.

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3rd day.

Didn't do much that day. Just walked around the other side of town and shopped around at a mall. And we headed back to the airport soon later.

3 days 2 nights just isn't enough for a good vacation. Due to the lack of time, it was pretty rushed trip. An extra day or two would have been perfect.


Sino Phuket


Ladies


Gents


I didn't know that acrobats were considered handicapped here in Thailand


Good bye Phuket