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Phuket - Paradise on Earth
The rock on the beach - James Bond island. A scene in "The man with the golden gun" James bond movie starring Roger Moore was filmed here. Hello guys! with the term vacation in line me and a bunch of my classmates decided to go to Phuket, Thailand for a getaway from the hustle of Singapore routine life. We will be there from the morning of 24th March to the Morning of 27th March. We called ourselves Phuketeers - myself from India, Waichan from Malaysia, Elsa and Celeste from Singapore, Zhaoyun and Wang Ting from China and Yusdy and Jevan from Indonesia. It was no wonder that everyone who saw us were asking us about our origins and tie ups 😊 It was acceptable that they were at first surprised to see a motley mixture of nationalities, races and faces!!!
24th March Morning - 4:30 AM----------------------------
I woke up with a start and lost in the sleep-wake transition in my apartment in Singapore. Having slept only at 2 hours before and unsure what to do, I sat on the sofa which instantly put me back to sleep. About 30 mins later I get a call from celeste saying "kitty are u there? r u ready? We are leaving in 15 mins". What the heck I bought myself 15 minutes and got ready and alive by that time
and boarded the taxi to collect other members en-route Changi. We reached Changi at 6:00 AM, checked in the baggage and checked out the breakfast. After an enthusiatic wait, we finally boarded the flight at 8:00 AM, the Tiger Airways budget flight to Phuket (S$122 return).
24th March Morning - 8:30 AM----------------------------
We reached the airport and went through a neverending immigration procedure that took around an hour to finish. The visa on entry charges are 1000 Baht (40 Baht = 1 US$). After clearing immigration we entered the lobby where we took the airport taxi to the Deewana hotel which Celeste had booked online. The taxi trip takes around an hour for a 40 km journey to the Patong beach where our hotel was located. The taxi guy charged 1100 Baht for 8 people, which we later realised was very high. (The return trip we arranged a ride for 500 Baht for 8 ppl - So I would advise travelers to go outside the airport and negotiate the cost than book from airport. Airport transfer is recommended). I was amazed to see that the city looked more like the suburbs of my city in India, except for the
language and ppl. We reached the hotel at around 10 AM and checked in. The hotel charged an equivalent of US$15 per person on a twin room with A/C and all facilities and free nreakfast that was simply out of the world. The cuisine was an amazing mixture of Thai and western style and was great to taste. After a quick refreshing we set out to the travel agent to book tours around the Phuket islands. Waichan was able to negotiate well with the agent and got a good bargain bundle that included Phang Nga/James bond island tour, Phi-Phi island tour and the Simon Cabaret for around 2800 Baht (US$75).
24th March 2:30 PM--------------------------------------
We headed on to the Patong beach which was walking distance from the hotel (15 mins). After wearing copious amounts of Sun-block cream (I was lucky - dark so no need to wear copious amounts :/ ). We took bath in the bright aqaumarine sea for about 2 hours and played frisbee though I reckon beach volleyball would be a good idea. Me and Zhaoyun rented a water -scooter and went jet-ski-ing in the water at full throttle. It was an amazing ride that cost
us only 1000 Baht (500 per person) for 30 mins. Me and Zhao took turns and drove it and I daresay I was freaking good at driving that thing though the Yamaha engine was beseeching me to stop pushing her to the limits. It is a receommended ride to get your body to pump adrenaline. After all the fun we headed back to the city and ate at a roadside restaurant. The menu was pineapple rice with shrimp, crab and chicken. We then went back to the hotel at around 7:00 PM to take the transport to Simon Cabaret.
24th March 7:30 PM-------------------------------------
We took the taxi to the Simon Cabaret, about 30 min drive from our hotel. The show boasts to be one of the best cabaret shows in the world with close to over 130 performers. I was amazed to hear from waichan and the others that these were not actual girls but guys converted thru sex change ops. Thailand being well known for their open policy on sex tourism and sex change, it comes as no surprise that people would do this for money. After the show, we took photos with some of the performers one
of which was a cute girl 'ahem' performer. We headed back to the market, walkable distance from the hotel, bought some stuff and had a look at the city nightlife. The city teems with people at night clustered around bars. Thai girls can be seen with tourists everywhere which was quite grouse. Bar girls are dancing on tables and some form of competitions (like the one to climb a rope ladder without falling or twisting) can be seen everywhere. As I walk bar girls beckon you to come inside the bars and chill out with them. I finally hit the sack at 11 PM to fix myself up before the tour to Phang Nga/James Bond island tomorrow.
25th March ---------------------------------------
I am woken up by my roommate Zhaoyun at 6.30 AM. We have to start and rush off for food at 8:00 AM and catch the hotel pickup taxi. In the taxi I met Rebekka, a cute looking Belgian girl, Abdel, a guy from Morocco and two other girls from France, Rebekka's friends. It was a good party and after a seemingly endless 1 hour drive we reached the port from where we would be taking the ferry. The
party for the trip included ourselves - the 8 phuketeers, Rebekka and her friends, Abdel, an aussie couple and a old couple from God knows where. The atmosphere was congenial and was great with everyone mingling with each other and was actually gr8 fun meeting up with people coming from every corner of the world and discussing about their ways and getting to know them. After the taxi-ride that looked almost endless, we reached the pier and boarded the ship to into the wildness of the indian ocean. After traveling for about a couple of hours on the sea, we reached the monkey lagoon. Its a lagoon circular and surrounded by water on all sides and the only way to enter are meter high openings in the mountain. The only way to enter the lagoon is through a canoe as boats are larger than the cave opening. Its called monkey lagoon as lots of monkeys live in the lagoon. I was surprised to see monkeys swim as I have never seen one swimming. the tourists were throwing bananas in the water and the monkeys jump and swim to catch them. It was a sight to watch. Totally funny! Then we
went to the Phi Phi island and James Bond rock where the "The man with the golden gun" james bond movie was shot starring roger moore. After that we went to some island whose name I forgot and swam in the ocean, drove the canoe myself and attempted a boat jump with the life jacket - totally hilarious. We then headed back shore and exhausted after the day, we returned to the hotel and hit the sack.
25th March ------------------------------------------
Today we went to the Pha Nga bay and surrounding islands. The journey was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long by boat. The boat was airconditioned with the top deck open for people to enjoy spectacular views of surrounding islands, rock formations and beaches. After a seemongly unending 2 hour journey, we stopped for bathing and lunching in an island, The lunch was an amazing thai style food, spicy and hot. Then we travelled to the Pha Nga bay where we went snorkelling for an hour. Finally after 2 hours of traveling by boat we came back to land. We decided to check out the city, buy stuff and go massaging. There was a thai exhibition going on and I joined and listened
to a thai band, bought stuff and hit the sack at 12 pm.
The next day we packed our bags to head back to Singapore after an exciting time in Thailand.
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