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Thursday, December 18, 2008, 7:16 pm
Kata Beach, Phuket 13-17 Dec 08
And so i'm finally back from a 4D4N trip to Kata beach, Phuket. Arrived back in Singapore last night close to 11pm. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable trip together with zb and cw, our itinerary was pretty packed everyday too. Fortunately we were blessed with very good weather all 5 days, it only drizzled a little on the 2nd night while we were having dinner. Other than that, it was hot and sunny throughout the trip. Well, we left last sat evening and as usual cw was running late but luckily zb's father was giving us a lift to the airport so we were still able to make it on time. By the time we touched down and finally settled down into our hotel,the Orchidacea Resort, it was pretty late so most of the shops were closed already so we just had our dinner, did some exploring around the area and went back to the hotel to rest. Oh yeah, our hotel was on a slope and and our room was right on the top floor. The hotel had no elevators we basically had to trek up the slope to our room and we actually counted the number if steps, it was about 110+ odd steps. lol. Good way to keep fit. lol Ok basically, the hotel and our room was pretty clean and the staff was pretty friendly and nice but we did encounter quite a few problems with the room. The extra bed turned out to be pretty pathetic, lol. Like wad zb said, it was even worse than the army bunk bed. The air-conditioning was pretty noisy, especially when we were sleeping. But we kind of got used to all that after the 2nd night. The worst one was probably the elusive shower head and water. The rubber tubing broke TWICE and the water pressure can get pretty low. The temperature of the water fluctuated like crazy. One min it would be hot den it would be cold, den hot, den cold.. lol. But i guess it was only a 3 star hotel, so i shouldn't expect too much. haha, but overall it was pretty okay. The breakfast was SCRUMPTIOUS, LOL, with zb and cw obsessing over the omlette everyday and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the cheese. Quite a funny sight. There was this particular waiter who is ever-so-efficient too, he is constantly hovering around and just by looking at him he will rush towards u in a matter of seconds. Sometimes, we did not even need to look at him, just by sheer telepathy he will teleport to our table. He became a source of our amusement at breakfast, coupled with the "bapok" waiter as labelled by zb. Well, we spent the next morning on kata beach itself where we were amazed at how clean and fine the sand was, an EXTREMLY far cry from Singapore's sand. I think Singapore's sand should be called dirt from now on. We decided to go book the tours after breakfast and were very lucky because we manage to chance upon this tour agency with an extremely friendly and hospitable lady, Lek. We decided to book a phi phi tour and the much talked about Hongs by Starlight tour by John Gray. She also gave us a good discount (or so we assume), but nonetheless her service was very very good and she knew her stuff pretty well too unlike some of the other agents. We decided to go to Karon's viewpoint just before dinner because it is right at the top of the hill and it has an amazing view overlooking Kata and Karon beach. Too bad it was pretty misty that evening and couldn't really get a very clear view. We went to a seafood restaurant recommended by Lek for dinner, and i suppose it was pretty cheap spent about 20 odd bucks there. But the ambience seemed pretty posh for that area, lol. We book a tour to PHI PHI the next day and did a lot of island hopping that day, 5 islands to be exact, on speedboat. One of the islands that we went was MAYA BAY, where The Beach was filmed. The sand here was the finest and whitest i have ever seen. It was extremely clean and beautiful. The cliffs and mountains surrounding the bay where extremely breathtaking and majestic too. We were simply awed by nature's beauty. We also did some snorkelling, but unfortunately i did not make contacts so i couldn't see much. (note to self: time to make those damn contacts!). Dinner was once again SCRUMPTIOUS, LOL, at Kata Mama Seafood Restaurant. This time it was really dirt cheap. We ordered around the same number of dishes, maybe even more and this time it was like only 10 bucks. One thing bad about the food there thou, they tend to put tons of oil in every dish, you practically can see the plates shining after we finished. Did some shopping after dinner. The 3rd day was probably the highlight of our trip. We went on the John Gray's Hong by Starlight tour. We took the "mother ship" to Phang Nga and basically kayaked around the Hongs of Phang Nga. Some of these Hongs were so low that we had to lie down fully to get through. Explored bat caves and mangroves and just marvelled at mother nature once again. Our guide, Baw was very very good, he was very informative and kept explaining a lot of things. We had another SCRUMPTIOUS seafood dinner on board the "mother ship" and tried our hand at making the Loi Kratong, which is basically a floral ornament where they use to set out onto the sea and we can make a wish. We set out again on the kayak after dinner to set them afloat onto the sea and to check out the bioluminescence. The bioluminescence is actually plankton which will start to glow in the water when u disturb them, like fireflies in water. It was really cool and amazing looking at the bright lights moving around the water, too bad we couldn't catch it on film. We tried to have a relaxing last day and had a slow day. we actually spent 2 hours having breakfast. But in the end it turned into the usual rush to shop shop shop. After checking out, we went out to the shops to buy stuff for ourselves and we were on viagra mode towards the end of the trip. We even decided to skip the Thai massage because we were still shopping like nuts. Overall, i guess we enjoyed ourselves over there. Most of the people there were friendly and very hospitable with of course the few exceptions. Some were just downright rude and annoying. The beaches there were beautiful and nothing like singapore's and so is the water, so very clear and clean. Just baskin in mother nature's glory and what she has to offer to this world. Too bad 90% of the tourists there were caucasians (we were practically the only all-asian group at breakfast everyday) and the first thing the locals ask when they see us was "from china?". It caused quite a few lips to vibrate and my lips were flaming by the end of the trip. lol. Don't really mind going back there again and maybe do the other stuff that we missed out like the whitewater rafting and the atv riding. Maybe can try the bungy jumping too, lol. Turned out to be a pretty good holiday with not much mishaps, except for the hotel room, which wasn't too bad to be frank, since we had a breathtaking view of the beach. Looking forward to the next holiday already. =) At the airport Our plane On the Plane Our Hotel, the Orchidacea Resort Our hotel room, 144. The wonderful view Tuk tuk Our very friendly tour agent, Lek. on the tuk tuk back to our hotel the very very long staircase up to our hotel Kata beach! Ain't the sand clean Breathtaking view from the Karon's Viewpoint We're on top of the world Karon View Point Our feet Our first Seafood dinner! I found this sign rather amusing Holding our flippers for snorkelling On the speedboat to Phi Phi LOL, this is so damn funny. Lunch at the private island One of the beaches of Phi Phi MAYA BAY!! BEAUTIFUL BEACH WITH GORGEOUS WHITE SAND! Majestic cliffs The water is so damn clear Lol, monkey drinking pepsi Viking Cave, where the locals go to collect bird's nest 2nd SCRUMPTIOUS SEAFOOD DINNER. Cost us only 10 bucks! Polished off everything. Can see all the oil on the plate, haha. don't i look cool, hahaha. Inside the Hongs The mangroves just after the hongs Our one and only MOTHER SHIP Our guide says the sparkling things are diamonds. Not sure if its true but they look quite nice |
thedeceptionist
Vanity isn't a sin, a little narcissm wouldn't hurt. |
partnersincrime
A Yawen Si Hui B Anitha Kelly C Clarice Justin Soon D Karwai Celine E Zongbing Teng Yi backtoyesterday
+ Sawasdee.. + the start of a new era + Sigh. + Goodbye. + zheng fa fa fa fa fa + Pokemon! gotta catch them all! + Great weekend + 3 great days wheni'mgone
+ September 2006 + October 2006 + December 2006 + January 2007 + December 2008 + January 2009 + February 2009 + March 2009 takeabow
A accidentality productions Inspiration from DancingSheep & BONBON:D |
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