Phuket 2016

Phuket is indeed a place where you have no reason for not visiting at least once in your lifetime. This is yet another time that I visited Phuket, but definitely with different travel mates, my best friends. We planned to travel around Phuket for 5 days 4 nights. Many people would ask us, “what are we going to do in a small city?” when they heard that we planned to go Phuket for so many days. Nevertheless, it is always insufficient for us when comes to traveling.

Our trip started on 21/6/16 and ended on 25/6/16. We departed to KLIA 2 at 2am, and boarded on our flight at 7am. Due to the one hour of time difference between Thailand and Malaysia, we reached Phuket around 745am. We queued up for immigration, collected our luggage, bought a simcard for data and looked for the best choice for transportations to our hotel and return to airport during our last day. At the same time, we also got a great deal for the tour to Phi Phi Island for the next day. It costed us 1800 baht for each of us on the tour and 200baht for the transportation to airport on our last day. We did not have to pay a single cent for the transportation back to our hotel. In total, we actually spent 2000baht before we even left the airport. We lived in Bel Aire Resort Phuket for the 4 nights. The room was spacious and the location was good.

We were really tired on the first day because we did not sleep before we departed from Malacca. We felt dizzy and our stomach were not feeling well too, so we ended up walking around our hotel after dropping off our luggages. We went for breakfast around our hotel and loitered around the hotel because we still couldn’t check into our room. Once we got our room key, we were totally exhausted and we literally slept for 2 hours. After having a proper and short rest, we went to BIG C, which was a stone threw away from our hotel. BIG C is one of the famous hypermarkets that located in Jungceylon shopping mall. It is basically the second-largest hypermarket operator after Tesco Lotus’s Thai unit, which offers most of the affordable and cheap groceries and goods. We could not resist those cheap groceries and we actually shopped like a group of aunties. We bought too many of snacks and instant noodles as the price was crazily low in comparison to the price in Malaysia. We wanted to go back by a Tuk Tuk (their so called taxi), but the price was not affordable. Thus, we ended up walking back with bags of snacks. We then settled our meals by having an instant yet scrumptious foods from 7 Eleven. We planned to rest early on the first day as we had to get up early on the next day.

On the next day, it was all about island hopping kind of day. We woke up at 6am, but I was clueless how we could end up being late when the mini taxi was already waiting to pick us up. We left our hotel at 745am and embarked our journey to Phi Phi island. On our way to the pier (a place where we boarded a speedboat to Phi Phi Island), we met an accident where a car from behind bang us. We got no choice, but slightly delayed our journey before the driver placed us to another mini taxi in order to reach the jetty. When we reached the jetty, we were being briefed by the tour operator on the whole day activities.

After a brief introduction by the tour operator, we proceeded to board the boat that carried about 30 tourists from all walks of life. Due to our enthusiastic, we chose to sit right in front of the speedboat to get a picturesque view of the sea despite the tour guide who warned us that the sea would get very choppy and made it really uncomfortable to sit in front. Once everyone is seated in the boat, the tour guide warmly greeted us while the boat set sail for our first stop of the day - Koh Yao Island. Koh Yao Island is one of the largest islands that situated in the middle of Phang Nga Bay. At here, we successfully crossed one of our bucket lists, which was swimming in the sea. It was indeed scary and it took me so much time to jump into the arm of the sea. The moment when I jumped into the sea, I felt so unbelievable that I actually jumped into the sea. Even though I drank a lot of sea water, but the feelings were totally hard to describe. It was indeed a great experience.

After swimming around Koh Yao Island, we proceed to our next destination - Khai Nai Island. Throughout the journey to Khai Nai Island, we encountered sea motion sicknesses as the ride was a little bumpy. We took some sea motion sickness pills to minimize the sea sickness. Khai Nai Island is the biggest island and has a beautiful white beach with crystal clear emerald green water, which is suitable for swimming and snorkeling. We stopped there for about an hour for some activities and we had our lunch in a beach restaurant. The food was included in our package; hence, we did not have to pay for any extra on our foods and beverages throughout the tour.

After Khai Nai Island, we passed by Tham Phaya Nak. Tham Phaya Nak, or commonly known Viking Cave is a cave that located on the eastern side of Phi Phi Leh. Unfortunately, this cave is not open for tourism purpose because they need to protect the paintings and the swift nests that are in the cave (bird nests). Majority of the tour boats operators would only stop close to the entrance of the cave to look clearly and capture some photos. After taking some photos, we continued our journey to Monkey Beach before our last destination, Phi Phi Island.

Monkey Beach is located on the west coast of the larger island of Phi Phi Don. There are wild monkeys that do not fear of people; hence, we were asked to take care of our stuffs when chilling at the beach. We were allotted for about 30 minutes to hang out on Monkey Beach. I enjoyed wading in the cool and crystal clear water, while also taking some ‘valuable’ pictures of the two ‘models.’

Phi Phi Islands is one the hot topics of conversations for travelers across the world especially all over Thailand.  Phi Phi archipelago consists of six islands, but the major ones are Phi Phi Don, which hosts the main town of Phi Phi Islands, and Phi Phi Leh hosts stunningly breathtaking bays and beaches, which includes the world-famous Maya Bay. With the white powdery beaches and emerald green waters, Phi Phi Island has always been the best choices of relaxing life. There is no hustle and bustle, and there is no reason to be in a hurry. We spent about an hour in Phi Phi Don before ending our one day tour.

After Phi Phi Don, we were totally exhausted and we literally slept throughout the journey return back to the pier. The journey took us about 45 minutes. Overall, all the experiences that we had were indeed overwhelming to describe. We had probably missed some of the must-do attractions such as snorkeling to see corals and fishes, but frankly, we were so satisfied and smug with our one day trip that we had no regrets. It was a pleasant trip, and I would return to Phuket some day later.

After returning back to hotel, we went to have our early dinner and took turns to shower as we were all wet and dirty. After cleaning ourselves up, we went to massage to relax ourselves after a long day. It is a must to go for thai massage when you are in Thailand. The price was so much cheaper in comparison to the price offered in Malaysia. We went for a thai massage for an hour, and we paid 200baht for it. After massage, we actually loitered around the area and grabbed some snacks before returning back to our hotel.

It was another brand new day, and we actually planned to tour around Old Phuket Town. We were supposed to try on their public transport to Old Phuket Town, but the bus looked old and it might take us a long time to reach there. Thus, we ended up taking a taxi from Patong Beach to Old Phuket Town. In between the journey to the town, we were told to stop by a few shops such as souvenirs and jewelry shops. After reaching Phuket Town, we had our brunch at one of the cafes named KOPITIAM to try on their local foods. The foods tasted normal, and the price was affordable too.

After having our brunch, we loitered and explored Phuket Town as what a typical tourist always does. We enjoyed their street arts and heritage buildings while wandering around the town. Phuket Town basically features an exciting combination of both old and new, simple and sophisticated, peaceful and pulsating environment. While wandering around the town, we could also see a lot of arty coffee shops, bright textiles stores, old-designed restaurants and many others.

The weather was scorching hot on that day, we were all sweaty and we decided to head back to our hotel and go to Patong Beach. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs when we were on the way back to hotel. Hence, we cancelled our plan, and chilled in our room until the rain stopped. Once the rain stopped, we went out to have our dinner in one of the famous seafood restaurants - 99 Seafood Restaurant. The foods were mouth-watering especially the seafoods were so fresh and scrumptious.

When we planned to explore the night city life after dinner, the weather turned bad again. We had no choice but to head back to our hotel as we did not bring our umbrella and raincoats. We went back and showered while waiting for the rain to stop. Nevertheless, we felt tired once we showered. So, we ended up resting in our room and slept quite early on that day.

On the next day, it was a free and easy day. We woke up to Patong Beach as the day was sunny and perfect for a better shot. Even though we passed by Patong Beach for a few times, the weather wasn’t perfect enough for a picture to be captured.

After Patong Beach, we went to grab a pork samurai burger from Mc Donald’s. After that, we went to Jungceylon again to have Swensen’s ice cream. After having dessert, we went to Malin Plaza by Tuk Tuk because we were too lazy to walk and the distance scared us out. Nevertheless, it was just a few minutes of driving journey to reach Malin Plaza. Malin Plaza offers fair prices of foods and slightly expensive prices of souvenirs. The main highlight of the market is the impressive array of food stalls range from crepes, fresh fruits, and local thai foods.

As we were still full at that time, we did not try on much foods and slowly walked back to Patong area. As we gossiped and walked back, we stopped by the famous Bangla Street. Bangla Street comes alive once the sun sets. The road is often closed to vehicle traffic and filled with neon lights, loud musics, cheap beers and definitely sexy girls. It is quite lively place to walk around as the bars and clubs compete with each other for customers.

And finally.. It is our last day of our trip. We woke up early to grab our breakfast from 7 Eleven. After that we brushed up and checked out our hotel. We left our luggages at the lobby, and went to Big C AGAIN! We assumed that only Feli would buy something from there, but we could not resist and control ourselves from getting those cheap stuffs. To be frankly, the price was slightly cheaper than the price offered on the first day. We ended up buying more and more snacks and each of us had about 3-5 bags of snacks again. Before we headed up to our hotel and packed our luggages, we planned to drop by another famous local restaurants. Nevertheless, the queue was too long and we ended up having our lunch at the next door restaurant. We ordered a few dishes, which were Tom Yum Soup, Crab Fried Rice and a Garlic and Pepper Pork to end our last proper meal in Phuket.

After our lunch, we walked back and had desserts again to spend our time. After having dessert, we went back our hotel and re-packed our luggages. After packing and weighing our luggages again and again, we finally manage to make sure our luggages were under 60kg in total. We waited at the lobby while waiting our taxi driver to pick us up. We left our hotel at around 5.45pm and headed to Phuket airport. It was about an hour of journey, and we reached there early and went through different immigrations before waited to board our flight. While waiting for our flight, we also fed ourselves with cup noodles to ensure that we would not feel hungry while on the flight. That’s end of our Phuket trip and we bid goodbye to Phuket. Till we meet again, Phuket.

Our trips revolve around one memory that crystallizes the trip and puts everything into focus. Each of the moments ties together all my other memories of a place: the sights, the foods, and most importantly the people. Traveling with my best friends is totally distinct than traveling with a simple acquaintance. They are the one that know me inside and out, the one whose history I am familiar with, which made everything so much easier and fun to be with. They are the best travel companions I could ever wish for, and I look forward to travel around the world with them. For now, strive hard, work hard and earn more money so that we could travel further and longer in near future.