I just came back from my Phuket trip!
It's sort of my grad trip, but with Sidney. It's our first trip overseas together, alone as a couple (because our 2 previous trips to Jakarta and Bangkok were for his friends' weddings...).
It was AWESOME!
Everything was so cheap, compared to Singapore!
Come, come, I show you some photos :D
This was taken at Patong Beach, the main area where the tourists go. The beach isn't really nice here, water isn't super clear like the other islands as the place is very commercialised and touristy.
There were tourists parasailing and speeding around on jet-skis at the beach!
This was taken on Day 2, where we took a day trip to Racha Island.
We did snorkeling (I had to use the borrowed mask, eews!), but it was an awesome experience! The fishes swam so near me! But many of the corals were bleached :(
I saw parrot fishes, butterfly fishes, gar fishes, a pufferfish, a moray eel, etc etc!
A lot of inconsiderate tourists there though. It was only a small area where we were allowed to snorkel, and a few tourists from China kicked and swam into me without any apology.
Although when you think about it, it's hard to apologise with a snorkel in your mouth..
It was hard to get used to the mask at first. It covers the area of your eyes and nose, so you have to breathe through your mouth with the snorkel.
At first, I breathed through my nose a few times, and my eyes were bulging because everytime I breathed through my nose, it took a bit of air from inside the mask, so it created a vacuum, haha!
And the worst thing was sometimes I forget to breathe out through my mouth into the snorkel, instead I breathed out through my nose, and the mask became flooded with air and the vacuum was gone, so water seeped in...
-_-"
I AM SUCH A LOSER RIGHT.
Hahaha!!!
We were then brought to Racha Island's beach.
OMG the beach was so wonderful!
I've never experienced such clear waters before, the sand was so soft and smooth, the sun was hot and the place was just so beautiful.
I'd recommend anyone looking to go Phuket to go to Racha Island.
There are only 2 destinations, snorkeling, then lunch, then a whole afternoon at the beach!
Which is amazing and super relaxing.
Plus, it's not very spoilt by tourism yet.
Although I spent 50 cents SGD to use the toilet there (more expensive than going to a toilet in Malaysia -_-" ), there are convenience shops there, and you can buy ice creams for a refreshing treat from the sun's heat.
The place was awesome.
We had to pay 200 Baht for (about S$8) for 2 beach chairs to lie on, but the guards look after your stuff when you go swimming in the sea.
NICE RIGHT!!!!??!?!!??!?!
The photos I took don't really do the place justice but it's really amazing.
On our 2 nights at Patong, our shitty hostel "Regent 2002" (think about S$20 a night, with relatively clean rooms and a private toilet, TV, safe, and a small sitting area) was situated right behind this super awesome seafood stall called Linda's Seafood.
It only opens at night, and the boss lady is very, very cool. She's the only one who knows how to speak Teochew/Hokkien there, and the catch she has is really fresh and the prices she quote is very reasonable!
A lot of Singaporeans go to her for dinner. She's a very good boss, she even gives Singaporeans like free fruits after our meals, and she personally cut a mango that was so sweet for me <3
We had lobster there on our 2nd night, we paid 1600 Baht (about S$65) for a huge lobster, and you can eat almost every part of it, it was cooked in garlic and butter sauce, which was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!! Also, she gave us five free big prawns, when we ordered the lobsters.
SO AWESOME RIGHT!?
I'm salivating just thinking about it...
Sidney did all the planning for our trip, and I have to thank him for it <3
We then went for a walk after a heavy meal, and I stumbled upon this stall. He's famous in Patong and it's a bit like whatever flavours you want on a crispy prata, provided he has it.
Sid and I were so busy taking photos with him, and when our pancake was cooked, we were like, "OMG THANK YOU!!!!!!!!" and proceeded to walk off...
When he..."You no pay money?"
I was damn embarrassed but managed to save some face by saying, "YA YA!", pretending to pass the pancake to Sid and fishing my bag for my purse, haha.
Then this Sidney spoilt everything when he said, "OH YA! TOTALLY FORGOT NEED TO PAY MONEY."
Tsk.
The pancake was all right, a little bit of a novelty I guess.
On the morning of our 3rd day there, we walked to Jungceylon, the only shopping mall at Patong, and ad breakfast at Au Bon Pain, which is open since 7am.
I ordered a smoked salmon with wasabi bagel, and I loved it!
Although the breakfast was a bit on the expensive side, costing us about S$16, but it was not bad!
A lot of tourists were waiting for Jungceylon to open at 11am.
We then took a tuk tuk to our other hotel called Aquamarine Resort and Villas, situated away from Patong (about 15 mins ride) and on top of the hill overlooking the sea. We paid 300 Baht for the ride.
Sid bought groupon vouchers at S$80+ a night there.
It's a good buy, I think. The place was beautiful and the service is great!
There's our hotel lobby with pools overlooking the sea. This photo was taken from our room's balcony!
Our bellhop was asking if we were on our honeymoon, because this mural at our building means...
Honeymoon rooms...
Sid said, WA! Then I must have another girl like that guy in the sculpture!
HAHA, look at this Mr Yee taking photo of a butterfly with an umbrella kiapped at his arm pit.
He's so uncle!
One of our hotel's pools.
Guests get free cocktails and can drink it in the pool!
Stairs down to the other pool.
View of the sunset sky while swimming!
View from a landing at the lobby.
We went to Kamala Beach that day. It is better than Patong beach with less people, but isn't as awesome as Racha Island's clear waters and fine sand.
Watching the sun set!
Sid wrote this! <3
Then he quickly wipe it off...
>:(
I can't get over how beautiful the view is at our hotel!
At about 10pm that night, there were loud booms outside our hotel, and when we ran out to the balcony with our cameras, there were fireworks in the distance! We think it's the Fantasea show, not sure though.
On our 4 day there, we had a day trip to James Bond Island.
Also, we bought matching singlets! Finally, this Sidney Yee consented to wearing couple shirts after nagging from me, haha!!!!
And if you're wondering why he looks like such a loser with a singlet over a shirt, it's because we were very sun burnt from the Racha Island day, and he wanted to protect his skin...
This tour was different compared to the Racha Island one because they brought us to many many locations, like this one.
This is a cave in an island, called Ice Cream Cave because of the way the stalagmites and stalactites were formed, the colours and the fluid-like melting patterns resembled ice cream.
The cave is inhabited by bats, so it was super stinky because of the guano and there were bats swooping above our heads. I was trying to cover my head in case the bats pooped...
Beautiful!
This used to contain water, I think.
We were on a speedboat when travelling between islands. The view is really super!
I took a lot of photos on the boats, which were going up and down with the waves, so don't mind the non-horizontalness of the photos.
We went sea-canoeing around caves, and we got off at a small beach while our guide took photos for us.
His face very irritating!
I did some paddling too, it was difficult!
At James Bond Island.
I'm trying to pretend to be Atlas, carrying the rock...
Sid looks like he's falling, but he's being his usual dumpy self.
Sid is the man with the hand gun, haha.
This island became famous after the 1974 James Bond movie, The Man With The Golden Gun, where there's some assassin who lives on this island who owns a golden gun, as seen below.
Yay! I've been to Hollywood filming location.
The trip was really, really enjoyable.
Especially when I went with Sid, hehe. We went to many amazing places, I experienced so many new things, and I enjoyed every part of it.
:D
