Monday, June 23, 2008

Phuket - Patong Beach 14-18 June 08

The fun-loving and happy people going for the Phuket trip.
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We arrived at Changi Airport around 11a.m on 14th June. All of us hung out at Starbucks Coffee while waiting for time to pass.

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Our plane flight was delayed till about 2-ish. It was a really short flight. Just enough time to sit and relax, have a meal and buckle up for landing. Everything ended in less than 1 half hour. Not enough time for me to get airsick. Ha ha

Once we've landed at Phuket International Airport, someone came to pick us up. We went on a short city tour before going to the hotel.

First stop.
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Some cheap Phuket garments. I wanted to get some baby clothes, but they were too huge, suitable for 4-5 years, at least. =(

Then we went on the the world's largest gem factory.
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Mind you, the GM of the factory is Nanthaporn.
So of course the assistant GM has to be SAMAporn.

Next we went on to this.
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Basically they have many Thai dried food that i wasn't very interested in.

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After a long time at the place wondering around aimlessly, we finally left.

On the way to the hotel, we saw this motorcycle and a little kid.
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How adventurous for a little boy huh.
If it was any Singaporean child in that little thing, i think the parent would freak out and faint on the spot.

We arrived at our 'hotel' around 7/8pm. Settled down a little and went for dinner hunt.

4 years after the tsunami that took place in 2004. They placed the signs along the streets along the entire coast of the beach.

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And a unique sign like this is fascinating.
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The streets teeming with tourists. Mostly caucasians. Quite an amount of eye candies. But the constant "Tuk tuk!" called out by the tuk tuk drivers along the streets was annoying.

Then, there were live bands playing at open-air restaurants.

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We ate at this Mexican restaurant twice during the entire trip.
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The next morning we went down to Patong Beach.
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The double beach chairs that cost 100 baht each for a day. It's ridiculous to pay for beach chairs -.-

Every of our night along the streets of Patong Beach, we'd see this vehicle.
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Then, there would be a stereo playing a recorded tape that goes like "Tommorrowwww night! Tomorrowwww night!"
They are advertising for the Muay Thai fights held at Bangala Boxing Stadium(I didn't make the name up) nearby every week on Mondays and Tuesdays.

On the 3rd day of our trip, we went on a 1 day tour to Phi Phi Island.
We had to get up really early in the morning and leave the hotel at 7.45am for the Pier which was a 1 hour drive away. It was a nightmare. My stomach was screaming and tumbling, fighting a war in there while i scrunched my face throughout the journey, breaking out in cold sweat, praying very hard that i wouldn't have to diarrhoea halfway. Finally after what seemed like eternity, we arrived at the jetty. I went to the toilet and out came everything. Feeling much better, we boarded the boat for a 1 hour ride to this island.

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When we arrived, there was a filming of a commercial. Heh...
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Another of the Tsunami sign on the little beach there.

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We waddled around in the waters for about 40 minutes before setting off to another island for snorkelling.
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My first experience! I can't believe i actually plunged into the waters excitedly in the snorkelling gear without my spectacles, with zero knowledge of snorkelling. I struggled and fear crept into my heart. I saw a hundred fishes swimming around me when i was in the water. It was terrifying because i don't dare to touch fishes, and the reason why so many fishes were attracted to me wasn't because i was 'fish-food', but Wayne was holding onto 2 slices of bread and he soaked it into the water. It was really one of a kind experience. After about 10 minutes of struggling and kicking around hopelessly, i calmed myself down and managed to learn how to breathe properly through the snorkelling gear all by myself. Once, i panicked when someone shouted "Oh my god! This fish is huge! It's so hugee!"

That was the funnest of the entire trip. The coral reefs were really beautiful and the aquatic life was just amazing. Not long later, we got onto the boat once again and headed to another island for lunch.

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Stayed there for about an hour, the sands on the beach is silky soft and smooth.

The last stop was another island for a 2 hours rest & relax + snorkelling. We were actually supposed to visit Monkey Beach, but sadly there weren't any monkeys coming out, so we had an additional hour at the last island.

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I heard one of the tour guides speaking to another group of tourists that he was going to bring them around the island, swimming in their snorkelling gear.
"Please always look ahead. There may be sharks around. When i say there are sharks, PLEASE look ahead. There was once, i stopped and told this guy there were sharks, he immediately looked down and around him. If the sharks are so close i wouldn't be telling him anymore already."

I laughed out loud when i heard that. Though i don't know if he was really speaking the truth that there may be sharks around. But i snorkelled for a good hour and my vision started blurring and head started hurting a lot. I got out of the waters and went to get some biscuits and laid on the deck chairs.

When it was about 4.30p.m, we headed back to Phuket. Another 1 hour boat ride. Once we arrived at the Pier, we finally saw a monkey!

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Looks like me right? Ha ha ha

We got fetched back to our hotel again and everyone changed and went for dinner.

This is just a random photo taken during dinner of my younger cousin, Stephen.
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After the dinner, we went shopping along Bangala Street. I think that is where all the night clubs and drinking spots were.

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We had a good offer, 2 glasses of Chang beer for 40 baht equivalent to S$1.70. It's dirt cheap.
Then we played a game of Jenga as well.

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After that round of drinks, we went to check out other places. We got convinced to watch free shows as long as we bought drinks, but none of us bought any, and so they didn't wanna perform the really exaggerated Ping Pong show for us.

Finally, we decided to head back to the bar that was just outside our hotel.
The bartender's been waving to us every single night when we went back to the hotel. And finally we found out that one of the guys was interested in Teresa! Ha!

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There you go, young and innocent little chap. He was really shy. He reminds me of Jia Yi too.

Now it's time to go visit this!
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I'm sure it has beautiful sand and sea too xD

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