Phuket Getaway - Night Life at Bangla Road [Part 5]

24 April 2011 @ Phuket, Thailand

It's after dark and our tummies were rumbling. We got out of the hotel and hunt for food. Saw this decent shop along the road and decided to try it out.


We were a little greedy that night, ordered 5 dishes for only 4 of us - Pad Thai, Pineapple fried rice, BBQ Squid, Fish Cake and Mixed Vege.


After dinner, it's time to walk around the happening streets at Patong. We stopped at Jungceylon Shopping Mall to take some photos. Didn't really go inside the mall coz I reckon the shops will be about the same as those in Malaysia.

HanChin, WoonLee, JooLi & Me @ Jungceylon

A display at the mall

We then headed down to the hottest, busiest, kinkiest street in town, the Bangla Road. It's so happening that the noise will not slow down before 3am.


Saw this banner at one of the pubs - Husband Day Care Center. Leave your husband with us! We look after him for you! You only pay for his drinks!


While you walk down the road, don't be afraid by the swarms of people asking you to go for the "ping pong show". I think I was stopped by quite a few of them by just walking from one end to the other end of the road.


One of the interesting scenes you'll see along the road are girls doing pole dancing, but most of the girls were just standing there lazily. Perhaps you need to slip a note into their panties to get them moving.

The end of Bangla road led us to another road along the beach. We walked on find a massage parlour.

Bought a Mojito at roadside

There were plenty of massage place but we walked miles to search for the cheapest and decent one. Not easy aye.


Finally found one. WoonLee and HanChin did foot massage while JooLi and I opted for Thai Traditional Massage. Geesh it was good! And it's only 200Baht only.

Aunty giving a goodbye hug

It's late and we hungry ghost roamed around Patong again to look for food. I wanted to try some street food while the rest had another round of pork burger from 7-11.

Varieties

*nom nom* supper time

It was quite a relaxed night, except for all the walking until my fibula almost crack. We went back to hotel after supper and call it a day. City tour is next in line! Billy, out.

Note: Credits to WoonLee & HanChin for some of the photos.

Phuket Getaway - Phi Phi & Khai Island [Part 4]

24 April 2011 @ Phuket, Thailand

By noon time, we stopped at Phi Phi Island for lunch. We sat at a table together with 2 other Singaporeans and a Israeli family.


Lunch was good. We had 7 types of dishes - chicken, fish, vegetables, onion rings, pasta & tom yum kung!


We then walked along the little lane along the shore. There were quite a few shops that sell clothings and food stuff. Nothing much that you can see or do at that place though. Maybe we didn't explore that much.

Drink responsibly

While waiting to board the boat again, we saw this resort that has quite some nice deco around the garden compound. What else? Photo time!

JooLI & WoonLee with 4 Apsaras

4 of us with the little exercising statues

We were on the sea again at 2pm and headed on to Khai Island, which was the last stop of the tour.

a tree among the rocks

Khai Island is a very small island you can walk around it in just 10 minutes. Yup, it's THAT small! But the beach and the rock formations (aka stacks) were beautiful.

crystal clear water

Stacks & me

So many fishes in the shallow water

We walked one full round around the island and ordered a cup of ice-cream to cool ourselves down. The sun was really melting us away.

Forgot how much but it's very expensive ice-cream

We left the island at around 4pm to go back to Phuket, where we took our luggage to check into our second hotel - Palmyra Patong Resort.

Kids playing with sand near the jetty in Phuket

When we reached the hotel, it was already 5pm something. The receptionist told us that all the standard rooms were taken up. So, we were offered the family villa.


The kind receptionist took us to take a look at the villa and we're all more than happy to stay there. There was a living room, equipped kitchen, 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms and it's 2-storeys.

Villa 104

Our bedroom

The swimming pool is just a few steps away from our room. And the pool is lovely. It's long enough for a swim, plenty of chairs around it, there are also platforms for you to sit and drink in the pool and a jacuzzi at the other end.

I heartz the pool!

So after we checked into our villa, dumped our stuffs in our rooms and dived into the pool! Oh the feeling of soaking in the pool after a long sweaty day is so good.


We rested a while at the pool before we went to bathe and got ready for our night out exploring the streets of Patong. And that shall be in the next post. Billy, out.

Phuket Getaway - Maya Bay [Part 3]

24 April 2011 @ Phuket, Thailand

We woke up really early on our second day in Phuket 'cause we had to pack, take breakfast, check out and head to the jetty for our Phi Phi island hopping tour.


The driver picked us up from the hotel at around 8am, we dragged along our luggage and arrived at jetty in 30 minutes or so. We had to wait for the other passengers to reach before embarking the boat.


The boat fits around 40 people and it's a little cramp. Nevertheless, we took off from Phuket to our first stop - Maya Bay.

HanChin, WoonLee, JooLi & me @ Maya Bay

thousands of people visit this place everyday

What can I say about this place? It's packed with people but the view is stunning! This is also the place where Leonardo Dicaprio filmed The Beach (2ooo). I have no idea about this movie though.


The water is clear and calm because it's mostly surrounded by land and cliffs. However, there're rocks in the shallow water so you gotta walk carefully in there.


I wished we could have stayed longer but there are other places to visit. We took a dip into the cooling water for about 10-15 minutes and headed back to the boat for our next stop - Viking Cave.


It's not really a stop because we didn't get down from the boat. We were only allowed to see from far. Our guide said that this cave was once lived by the vikings, that's why it's called the Viking Cave. Nothing interesting.


Moving on, we stopped at a place for snorkeling. There were some fishes and corals but Pulau Perhentian's snorkeling area was still much better.


Then we fed the monkeys at Monkey Beach. They were having so much food already that they didn't want anymore bananas. Instead, they were looking for other things besides fruits - like peanuts and Coke.

Want some banana?

At this point of time, the girls were a little nauseous as the slow ride on the boat were making them sea sick. Luckily, our next stop was at Phi Phi Island to have lunch. Then they had more time on land to rest.

It's only the first half of our Phi Phi Island Hopping Tour. I shall continue the rest in my next post. Billy, out.

Note: Credits to WoonLee & HanChin for some of the photos.

Phuket Getaway - Simon Cabaret [Part 2]

23 April 2011 @ Phuket, Thailand

We were walking around scouting for good cheap Thai food around Patong beach for our first meal in Phuket.

Quite a number a shops we passed by and most of them have their waiters/waitresses trying to lure customers into the shops with the menu in their hands.

Green curry chicken, omelette with pork, fried morning glory & tom yam kung!

We decided on a not so fancy shop and the price was reasonable. It's more like a food court with tables and chairs sandwiched between 2 rows of stalls located along the Patong beach.

Right after dinner, we head to the meeting point for our driver to pick us up for the show. Yes! The one and only Simon Cabaret Show!


The tickets was 800 Baht per person (you can get it cheaper through other sources). We were lucky to get the tickets considering that we bought the tickets just 3 hours before the show.


When we reached the theatre, it was packed with people. Upon collecting our tickets, we only had few minutes to snap a few photos.

If you didn't know what Simon Cabaret show is all about, it's a ladyboy performance. There're lots of lip-synced-singing and dancing and definitely no kinky stuff in the theatre.

look at her sexay costume!

I was in awe with all their performances and their backdrops. It's really amazing how fast they can transform the stage from Dreamgirls set up, to Jungles environment, to the Egyptian Pyramid. Even their costumes blew me away!

HanChin was the fastest to grab a "girl"

The performance that I enjoyed the most was the comedy performance, where a plump girl dance along "Barbie Girl" and letting some of the audiences on the front rows to touch her fake pointy boobs.

WoonLee and the star performer.. and someone who wanted free tips

After the show, we went out to the alley to take photos with the performers. Taking their photo is FOC, but if you want to be in the photos with them, make sure you have some loose change in your hands for tipping.

We tipped 40 Baht per girl. So even if you are taking photo with 5 girls, make sure you have 200 Baht of small notes for them to share.


Some of the not-so-attractive girls will try to get into your photos when you're taking photo with another girl so they can get some tips from you too. Sometimes it's quite difficult to get rid of them. Exhibit 1 is shown above.


I went to the far end of the line as it was less crowded. And I decided to take a photo with the last girl in line for remembrance that I had a photo with a pretty ladyboy in Phuket!

But when she opened her mouth and said "Faster! Faster!" in a manly harsh voice to speed up the photo session... it was quite a turn off.


It's amazing to see how men transformed into beautiful ladies with such nice body figures that was so unbelievable. I think Thailand is the only country that you'll be able to see all these so openly and it definitely opened my eyes.

We headed back to our hotel to pack as we'll be checking out the next day to move to another hotel. Till my next post is up.. Billy, out.

Note: Credits to WoonLee & HanChin for some of the photos.

Phuket Getaway - Arrival [Part 1]

23 April 2011 @ Phuket, Thailand

Hotels checked!
Itinerary checked!
Flight tickets checked!
Passport checked!
Thai Baht checked!

And off we were off to Phuket!! Wheeeeeeee~~~

JooLi queueing at LCCT

Had brunch at Marry Brown before boarding

We touched down at Phuket International Airport around 1pm local time. The first thing I saw is a booth giving out free SIM Card. I quickly took one and later found out that we need to top up minimum 300 Baht from 7-11 before you can start making any calls. Geesh!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Free SIM cards for all!

Making our way out from the airport is a little tricky, as the locals were swarming at us with "Cheap Taxi" & "Cheap Limosine".

One of them trailed us and he looked kinda sincere, so we decided to hire him for 650 Baht to bring us to our hotel. I think the prices are quite standard unless you are taking the bus or metered taxi.

As expected, the driver, Jimmy stopped at a travel agency and invited us to take a look at their tours. We went in and after a really looooong negotiation, we signed up 2 tours with them, afraid that we wouldn't be able to find any tours by the end of the day.

Oh my we were wrong! There were hundreds of tour booths along the streets of Patong. You can easily get a cheap tour (~1,000 Baht) at any of the booths. *smacks forehead*

First hotel - Patong Lodge Resort

We checked into our first hotel in the late afternoon, and the sun is starting to set already. We booked this hotel through Dizzygoat.com as they were having some promo price (~RM100 per night).


The room was clean and the facility was good but the hotel is a little old and it's up on a hill and far from the happening Patong beach.

If you don't mind hiring a tuk-tuk to go in and out of the hotel, you can consider staying here. Or else, you will walk up and down the hill till your leg patah. Luckily, we only stayed there for one night. *Phew*

Some weird welcome drinks

We dropped our luggage in our rooms and started walking towards the beach. The beach right outside our hotel is called Kalim beach. Not many people in that area and the beach is kinda rocky.

First group photo @ Kalim beach

We walked down the hill a little more and found a 7-11 shop. I spotted the burger section and there was a Pork Burger in the menu! Very excited to see Pork in 7-11, all of us ordered a Pork Burger to fill our growling tummies.

HanChin, WoonLee & JooLi & Porkie Burgers

The burger only costs us 200 Baht each and you can put in as much lettuce, tomatoes, onions and sauce as you want! *slurpz*

Nyam! Nyam!

After satisfying our hungry stomach, we head on to the beautiful Patong beach, the most happening beach in Phuket.

The sand was fine, beach chairs and umbrellas everywhere, some people were sunbathing, some were playing in the water and some families even brought their house pet to the sea!

Doggie playing with a ball at the beach

Walking along the beach was very relaxing, feeling the cool water splashing to your feet while the sea breeze gently touched your face. Plus, the beautiful sun was setting at that time...

Too bad we had to rush for dinner and catch a show later of the day, so we didn't stay to watch the sunset. Ladyboy show in the next post. Billy, out.

Note: Credits to WoonLee & HanChin for some of the photos.