Phuket 10-13June2010

This would be a long write-up. Photos would be on the next post, yes just photos only. Mummy better put up the post before the story became too outdated…

We decided to go for a short and budget holidays in June2010 instead of December 2010 because JL would be going to Standard 1 in 2011, so we would like to keep the month empty in case any orientation etc.. Besides that, it would be cheaper to travel in June2010 than in December 2010.

We started our plan since November 2009. Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong decided to join along with us. We were busy hunting for a cheap apartment and also Sam Yee was fantastic because she managed to almost all the tickets under grab-a-deal online.

Since the plan started last year, we also started to save money. However, we were happy that we did not spend much for the holiday. We decided to keep as simple as possible without having to rush everywhere. It was impossible to do everything due to time and cost. Sam Yee came out with the itinerary and also she was the one managed to get us a nice 3-room apartment at a cheap price. Good thing food in Phuket was quite reasonable.
Day 1: Thursday 10June2010 – Arrival + Free & Easy at Phuket Town
We left our apartment at about 7:15am on a big van because KongKong, PohPoh, Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong were with us too.

We reached airport and checked-in. After checked-in, we had breakfast in McDonald.

The flight was quite full. The breakfast was either nasi lemak or murtabak. We ordered food for the kids and JL got kid’s meal. As for AL who was short of one month to her 2nd birthday, she was given baby jar food which we ended up packing in the bag. AL ate some food from kid’s meal and some from the adult’s meal.

The dessert was a surprise when each of us was given a small tub of Haagen Daz ice-cream.

We landed at Phuket International Airport and after collecting our baggage, we met with Dave Chang (the travel agent introduced by Mummy’s colleague) who would be arranging our Island Hopping (Day 2) and Island Safari (Day3 half day). He gave us a short briefing and also gave us on loan a handphone so that we can call each other on local rate. Then we boarded the van from the apartment.

Everyone was impressed with the apartment. We got the biggest apartment which was 3 rooms. The apartment had 3 rooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 kitchen. 1 living room, 1 dining room and 1 big balcony with a Jacuzzi. The master bathroom was big including a bathtub and a shower room. Besides that there were 2 LCD televisions where one of it was located in the master bedroom. The kitchen had electric stove, microwave, toaster, coffee maker, 2-door side by side fridge, plates, pots, cups and etc... The master bedroom came with one king sized bed where all four of us slept on one bed for 3 nights. The apartment could fit in another 2 persons because the living room sofa could be converted to queen sized sofa bed.

The place was known as SurinPark and it was good thing we went during low season that the 3-room apartment rental per night was about RM410.

Mummy’s Cousin, Ah Ching (who had been working 10 years in Phuket) arranged her friend to fetch us from SurinPark to have local lunch in Phuket town where we ate noodle and otak-otak. The otak-otak was good that we wanted to order more but it was already finished.

After lunch, we were taken up to Rang Hill to view the Phuket Town. From there, we went to visit Kata Beach, Karon View Point and Phromthep Cape View Point. We were supposed to stay back at Phromthep Cape View Point to see the sunset but upon checking the time, it would be another more than 1 hour of waiting time. We decided to leave early and were brought to a shop selling all the Thai’s unique dried titbits.

From there, we requested him to bring us to the shop which had lots of fireworks and real big ones. The price was cheap. PaPa and Sam Yee Cheong bought a few so that we could play for fun at the beach because we were not allowed to bring any fireworks back to home country.

At last, we had dinner with Ah Ching together with her Aunty and Grandaunt. Ah Ching was busy working but she took some time that night just to have dinner with us. It was not just a dinner but it was actually a big feast where Ah Ching really ordered so many delicious Thai’s food. We ate and ate and ate… That was not the end, after dinner, we went to a roadside hawker to get some Thai’s sweet dessert. Again we were spoilt with choices that Ah Ching and her Aunty decided to choose for us. The dinner or actually feast was ‘belanja’ by Ah Ching and the dessert by Ah Ching’s Aunty … so ‘pai seh ‘ with them…

The driver drove us to nearby hypermarket where we got some water and also a cake for us to take as breakfast on the Day 3. He sent us home after the half day tour and we gave him THB 1500 for his service.

Then it was home zzzzz…..

Day 2: Friday 11June2010 – Island Hopping
We woke up early and had our breakfast at about 8am at the café in SurinPark. It was a simple breakfast and enough to share with the 2 kids without having to add (most of us were small eater). The rental of the 3-room apartment included breakfast for 6 adults.

The agent, Dave arranged for a nice, comfortable and big van to fetch us at 9am to Boat Lagoon Marine where we would take the speedboat for Island Hopping. We had chosen to go to Phi Phi Island which would be towards the South of Phuket. Since we had 6 adults and 2 kids, we decided to have private speedboat. Dave gave us a good English speaking tour guide who graduated from International school. There were 2 drives and 2 trainees who joined us, so in total we had up to 5 people assisting us in the speedboat. Cool drinks were provided free flow in the speedboat.

It was first time for all of us doing snorkeling. PaPa and Mummy enjoyed it. JL refused to go and was happily feeding the fish. It was beautiful and the tour guide took some us around further from the speedboat to explore the beauty of the fish and corals. Then, PaPa and Mummy got cotton soak with white vinegar to rub our itchy skin because we were bitten by small white jellyfish without realizing. It looked like small, thin plastic bag floating.

Lunch was at Phi Phi Island while Sam Yee was recovering was sickness due to drinking in too much sea water. The tour guide was great in giving tips to overcome sickness and also told us where to sit to avoid sickness. We learnt that by sitting at the back end corner really helped. Besides that, by going into the sea and wet our head with cold water would help to reduce the motion sickness.

After lunch, all of us except the kids and KongKong, pop-in motion sickness pill because the sea was expected to be rough. We went to visit a beautiful island than another one where we rented 2 chairs plus a big umbrella to laze around while PaPa and Sam Yee Cheong continued to snorkel around there. Sam Yee Cheong saw a big pink cotton candy which was actually a big jelly fish. JL was enjoying playing and making sandcastle.

We arrived back to Boat Lagoon Marine just before 4.00pm. The only regret was we should have bought the disposable camera to be used underwater. The scenery underwater was beautiful that Mummy wished we had taken some photos. We went back to rest. PaPa, Mummy, Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong went to relax at the private Jacuzzi in our balcony.

Late in the evening, we took a walk to Surin Beach to check out dinner area. We had our dinner by the beach at Twin Brothers Restaurant. The food was just ok and not as good as our previous day dinner. AL decided to take her nap during dinner that we pack some fried rice for her to eat. After dinner, PaPa and Sam Yee Cheong went to light up the fireworks while the rest of us enjoyed seeing the show. After the fireworks, we felt we should have bought more.

Then it was home zzzzz…..

Day 3: Saturday 12June2010 –Island Safari & Patong
The Island Safari driver fetched us at 8am. We woke up early that day to have cake which we bought on the 1st day as our breakfast. Agent Dave specifically told Island Safari to arrange 2-way Private transfer. We have chosen Safari Program C which was ½ day program. Agent Dave gave us 10% and one free child for JL. Children who were below 3 were free, so AL was FOC. We had the following activities:

• Elephant Trekking for 30 minutes
• Monkey Show
• Rubber Tapping Demonstration (from tree till the process of making the rubber sheets)
• Rice Farming Demonstration
• Buffalo photo
• Thai Boxing
• Ox-Cart Riding
• Nature Canoeing – good thing PaPa had license in kayaking that he was the one canoeing Mummy, JL and AL back. Sam Yee Cheong, Sam Yee and Kong Kong were initially going round and round at the river trying to pick-up the trick to canoe.
• Thai Cooking – Papaya Salad
• Elephant Show – which include baby elephant massage
• Fish Spa

Agent Dave met us just before we went to the Fish Spa where we paid the balance of the money and also we returned back his handphone.

We went back to SurinPark and we managed to negotiate to use our breakfast voucher for lunch. The breakfast voucher was THB 150 for each adult. KongKong, PohPoh and the kids went up to take bath. While the rest of us ordered our lunch and at the end we just needed to top up less than THB 120 for the lunch. We went up to take our bath and rest while waiting for our lunch to be delivered to our apartment. Yes, we had our simple Thai lunch in the apartment.

It was JL’s turn to have fun at the private Jacuzzi in our apartment’s balcony.

At about 4pm, we walked out to the main road to get a tut-tut to send us to Patong area. At Patong, our first stop was Hard Rock Shop. Then we walked around and took a light bite at McDonald Pork Burger. Each of us took only ½ of the burger for tasting purpose. We went to look for the restaurant Ah Ching was mentioning to us and we found it. We walked by the beach.

After beach, we walked along the road to check out and did some shopping. We had our expensive dinner at Savoey. PaPa, Sam Yee Cheong and JL went to choose some fresh seafood while AL enjoyed herself on the highchair because she had never sat on that type of highchair before. After dinner, we continued our walk along the roadside and did some shopping for souvenirs.

We got a tut-tut to go back to SurinPark.

Day 4: Sunday 13June2010 –Free+Easy & HomeWe woke up and had our breakfast in SurinPark. PaPa and JL joined us after a session in the swimming pool. Then we decided to walk to 7-11 which was not that near after all especially under the extreme hot sun. Sam Yee Cheong wanted to buy Pork Snack but it was not available in that particular 7-11.

Just next to 7-11 there were small hawker stalls. We decided to pack some BBQ Fish, and etc. We wanted to get Mango Glutinous Rice which not available at that stall. The lady requested one of the guy customers to take Sam Yee Cheong on his bike to the next place just to buy Mango Glutinous Rice. After a long wait for Sam Yee Cheong to come back with not only Mango Glutinous Rice but also other delicacies. We started a long walk back to SurinPark, maybe it was not a long walk but it seemed to be long due to the extreme hot sun.

We ordered some other dishes like rice, vegetables and Tom Yam from SurinPark to add onto the food we bought from the hawker as our lunch. Again, the food was being delivered to the apartment. We took our bath, lunch and started to pack our bags to go home.

The advantage of this apartment was the check-in and check-out time was not too rigid. We were allowed to check-in in the morning when we arrived and as for check-out, we only check-out at 3pm. We had a lot of time in the airport that we took a slow walk around the airport before we went aboard to go home.