MY TRAVELS: Phuket 6 - 9 October 2006

Hotel: Holiday Inn, Phuket

My first trip to Phuket was full of anticipation. It wasn't my first choice because I'm basically not a "sun, sand, sea" person. I prefer aircon. But because most of my colleagues chose it, I don't have a choice but to go with the flow. We took Silkair which didn't take too long from Singapore. The hotel was fantastic. We had a room that facing patong beach and what's more, everything in the mini bar is for free! They even top it up twice a day :)

As you can see, the room is spacious and comfortable. I heard that this is newly renovated after the tsunami destroyed this part of the hotel. Our balcony faces the pool and beach. Not bad for a view.

As part of our 'must-go' places in our itinerary, we took a ferry to Phi Phi island. Actually, it was 2 ferry and 1 boat. The ferry brings us to the middle of no where to move into a medium sized ferry who then bring us to another place to transfer into a wooden boat.

Beautiful scenery and clear blue water greeted us during the journey.

We had to pass by Phi Phi Leh in order to get to Phi Phi Don (where most scuba divers would go). All the while, I thought Phi Phi island was just....well, Phi Phi Island. Didn't know there's a Leh and a Don but since the guide says so, we took his word for it.

That's the small wooden boat that brought us to the island. It'll be good to wear your swimsuit underneath your t-shirt and shorts because the boat does not go all the way to the shore, it stops somewhere near. So when we jump into the water to walk to the shore, the water was somewhere at our waist level. It was a good experience though....coz for the first time, I could see my feet at waist leveled water!!

While the rest of my gang went for scuba diving, some of us who remained on land started wandering around. We didn't wander too far off because there wasn't much to wander. The island is tiny. Saw this cute little shop with a bird nest on top.

Saw some really cute crabs while walking along the beach enjoying the heat and the breeze!

Our way back was basically the same. We had to take 3 different transport. When we land, I can't help but notice a Princess Leah wannabee (think starwars). He used a piece of towel to make the 2 "donuts". Quite an entertaining sight.

For dinner, we ate in Baan Rim Pa. The food was expensive but good! We had lobsters, crabs, 4 bottle (or was it 6 of red wine), fish, prawns, satay, pineapple rice and many more. Our total bill came up to 21,000+ baht. We must have been really hungry. I was impressed with these old musicians. The guy on piano was actually playing the piano with his hands and tambourine with his legs all at the same time. The alto-saxaphonist was cool too!