Phuket beachin..again -July2010-

I never regretted my choice on going to Phuket for the second time. If I have more time and more money, I would definitely go again.And again. And again...I just love the islands around Phuket. Especially the beaches. And pretty much everything there.

This time, I brought more friends with me, my BFFs, and family. Rahim (my husband), Nelly (my sister), Kaf, Jam and Lina (my BFFs) were my companions. And they only confirmed on going with me at the very last minute...phewwww~kalu tak aku g ngan Rahim jek la..

Kaf;just arrived from Dubai that day, "jet lag", he would say, Jam: just arrived from Mauritannia and got to make time for his ACD assessment preparation, Lina: no more cheap tix (starting price RM600), in fact, no more tix for the day, and she got to take the afternoon flight (MAS) instead, Nelly: badly required to be in the office for audit (or whatever it is) , Me: need to prepare for a workshop (supposed to be organized by me), Rahim: no prob!

Haha, but the good thing is, we've all made it to Phuket, all of us!!Happy me! Happy us!

Yeah, and again, I'm the travel planner, and I got to make sure there's a whole lots of fun in it!

So we stayed at the Patong Beach area, the most happening beach in town. I've stayed there last time, and it occurs to me that if you want the noise, you've just got to choose Patong area. Karon beach, and the other beaches are the quiet one (couple of friends told me that), and if you prefer romantic and quiet environment, I dont think Patong is the good choice.

Accomodation.....The hostel that I chose this time is Adonis Guest House. www. adonis-phuket.com. Not a very good choice though, but we were fine with it, location-wise, its ok~ it is very near to Patong town. If the taxi driver is asking for nearby landmark, just tell them that its near the Royal Paradise hotel, the highest building in Patong beach area

**a simple conversion to Malaysian Ringgit: 10 baht = RM1

We took the minibus from the airport(150bath per person), and definitely a waste of time!! The driver waited for 9-10 people to fill in the minibus first before starting the journey, and we've waited for 2 bloody hours for that. Unless that you are travelling 9 in a group, I suggest you to take other options. We should just go for taxi, or a private car instead, which costs approximately 500 baht per car (slighly expensive but better) but at least we have experienced riding on a minibus. I remember taking taxi last time when I visited Phuket.


Since Lina took the afternnon flight, we decided that we should wait for her first to begin exploring the real Phuket. Therefore, we spent our first day strolling down Patong town, and familiarized ourselves with the area (of course everything seems familiar to me..:P)..We spent time shopping, eating ice creams at the beach, watching Inception at Jungceylon Mall (hey, the movie theatre is cool man, love it there, they even got tomyam popcorn, and it is not supposed to sound delicious..haha), and many more. We went to the beach, but not to swim, just to hang out ( and of coz because we didnt feel like it)

We've booked couple of tours for the next day, and got the greatest bargain! (Remember, you dont have to buy the tour packages at the airport, coz there are many tour booths at the Patong area and there's a wide selection of tour packages there). We've paid only 950baht (~RM95) for Phi Phi island hopping, and 1400baht for the safari @ Phanga

Food....There's a couple of choices for the halal food around town; Cairo Restaurant, Orient Restaurant (mostly Arabian restaurants), McD, KFC, etc. You might want to ask the owner whether they serves halal food before you order especially the fast food.The price of foods are ranging from RM15 - RM40 per person. Its cheaper if you choose KFC or McD, but if you prefer eating rice, the food price starts at RM20. We had our lunch at Cairo's restaurant that day, and below are the common price for the meals;

1) Morning glory (Kangkung) with oyster sauce = RM20
2) Tomyam = RM30
3) Fried beef slices = RM20
4) Mango juice = RM15
5) Seafood for ~ 6 ppl = RM250
6) Roti naan = RM6
7) Chicken curry (to go with Roti naan) = RM25

I believe we spent more than RM100 for lunch that day, but its ok, we dont have the luxury to choose anyways (halal food is only served in couple of restaurants), and once in Thailand, you just got to experience Thailand. The tomyam of course, it taste better somehow. Orient Restaurant is a MUST-GO-RESTAURANT. The seafood there taste soooo good, like heaven! (Nah, I must be exaggerating).The fish BBQ, the tomyam, the butter squids, the curry crab,...OMG, i must go there again. Must go!

The drink price starts from RM10 (or RM7.50 if you wanna go for hot tea). And the mango juice at Cairo's is the best in town (well, since Jam mentioned it over and over and over again..haha)

Day 1.....We went to Phi Phi island the next day. The tour package for Phi Phi starts from RM200 above, but because of the low season, we got it for only RM95 per person (7.00am to 4.00pm). Remember to bargain with the tour packagers, they will usually give you good discounts if you are travelling in group, and remember to request for halal food for the food (normally lunch is included)

Its a sunny Sunday morning, and we just couldnt wait for the rest to come. It started to raining in the morning when we're on the boat (Bad sign..bad sign~). And yeah, its raining heavily one hour after that. And because of the high tide, we couldnt make a stop at the famous Maya bay to go for snorkelling. But we did make it to Khai island (Khai is the best, of course), and the rest.

I dont know whether these guys love snorkelling or the underwater photo session better. But we did take a lotss of photos underwater. Of coz not using my DSLR. Thanks to Kafri for bringing waterproof/water-resistant/shock-proof (tahan lasak la ni) camera. And I just love being the photographer for the guys. Khai island is the best. And the camera ruined our day, because as soon as we arrived at Khai island,the camera's out of batteries.huhu.

The overall tour was awesome. Its double thrill somehow, because of the rain. Alhamdulillah as none of us got seasick (and we saw almost everyone's throwing up on the boat). The bestest experience we got so far in Phuket.



I like this one, she's a cutie!

We went to the ladyboy shows that night, "Simon Cabaret", and we're offered VIP tix for about 600baht per person (and thats a good bargain knowing the fact that the original price for VIP is 900baht). We were amused with the fact that these ladyboys look much better than a real girl..hahaha..they are even sweeter, more beautiful, sexier, and etc.. And Simon Cabaret is not just about showing the ladyboys, but its to also prove that these ladies (boy) can even dance!!Its one hell of a show, highly recommended. These ladyboys would wait outside the theatre before and after the show, waiting for people to take photograph with them. Remember, its not free. They'll demand for you to pay them some tips, which costs around ~40baht or more, depends on their popularities.

Day 2.....It is a day for outdoor activities!

Day 3...shopping, shopping, shopping!

Gtg, got to go to sleep now...to be continued..daa~