Phuket
Last week there was a public holiday in my country..It happen on thursday [13 May]..
so I decided to take a-1-day leave [14-May] and go to Phuket-Thailand with my friends during the long weekend..
First I fly to my hometown Jakarta on 12-May Afternoon...My flight was suppose to be on 18.25 but the Air flight just change the schedule into 17.50. Unaware of the change, I didn't rush to go to the airport..I go out from my office at 17.00, and I even stop at the mini market to buy a bottle of water..
By the time I was about to check in, the girl in the check in counter was a bit angry at me coz I checked-in 10 minutes before the new flight schedule..
Later on I notice that I put the wrong cellphone number when I booked the flight [I also put Mr. in-front of my name in the booking form]. >__<
I go home safely and stay 1 night at my house, and go to Phuket the next day..
Next morning I went to the airport -- the air flight ask us to check in 3 hours before the flight schedule to prevent rush..So me and my friend checked-in and had a breakfast..While doing our breakfast I'm checking again my return flight [in case there were changes -- my intuition was working..our return flight was delay! It should be arrived at Jakarta on 10.something but they change the schedule and it would be arrived at 11.00 and my flight from Jakarta to Balikpapan was rescheduled too, so that it fly earlier..the original schedule was on 12.45 they reschedule it to 12.10..I was panic..there's no way I could catch the flight to balikpapan! so I called the air flight to change my schedule to the next flight, but since it's a peak season they ask me to up-grade and i have to pay IDR 520.000 [USD 50] that's quite expensive for me [i could buy bump's dvd with that amount of money and still have some return]! I said I'll think about it first and I hang up the phone. But actually I got no other option, so I called them back to change my flight and they said that the price is now higher [IDR 610.000 -- USD 60],& since I put Mr. as my title when I booked the flight, they said i have to pay extra IDR 50.000 -- USD 5 to change it, or I'll get trouble during check-in! -- Shame on you LionAir! But luckily the LionAir counter at the airport didn't charge me extra IDR 50.000 for changing my Gender in the ticket!
So then I decided to forget about it and enjoy my holiday in Phuket!
We arrived around 14.30 -- Local time -- the time zone is the same as Jakarta. When we arrived , Our cellphone was totally numb..it has no signal. Apparently there is a new policy that you have to set up the international roaming before you leave the country. Luckily, there is a cellphone provider who offer pulse-less SIM card in the airport and we can top it up at almost any convenient store.
We stay at a small guest house in the most crowded place in Phuket [in Patong Beach area] called the bird cage, yes it has a weird name and it has bird cages with fake birds inside it just in front of the entrance door. the guest house is small but clean so I like it. and the good thing about the guest house is that It has a box where you can put your unused clothes, sandals or everything to be give to the needed one! good!
But they gave us room in the 4th floor so we have to climb up the stairs with all of our belongings.
After we put our stuff, we went out for eat, top-up-ing our new SIM card and go find tour for tomorrow. Finding info about tour is easy coz about every 3meters there's always a stall offering you plenty kind of tours.
We did some research when we arranging the holiday so we decided that we must do 3 things while in Phuket:
1. Go to James Bond Island
2. Watch Lady-Boy Cabaret -- You cannot go to Thai without watching stuffs like this...>___<
3. Go to Phi Phi Island
and after asking some stalls, we decided to take the lowest price they offer.
We got tour to James bond for 1100 Bhat, Cabaret for 650 Bhat [VIP seat] and Phi-phi for 1000 Bhat -- all includes pick-up from your hotel and return. We chose to go using Big boat instead of speed boat because one one of the stall keeper didn't recommend going via speed boat on rainy season because the wave will be higher [altho during this global warming era we now cannot predict when the rainy seasons is off -- coz it can be raining at the hot season]. Actually with going by speed boat you'll get to go to more islands compare to going by big boat, but It cost higher too.
So the first day we go to James Bond Island.. we are not only visiting James bond Island, but also several Islands. The tour pick us up at the hotel on 10.30, then we go by car for about an hour, to reach a pier [the view was very beautiful] then we continue by boat to the bat cave [sadly we are not visiting batman & we didn't see the cool bat-mobile -- never mind this! xP]. Near the bat cave the boat stop and we went down canoeing inside the cave. I was very dark that we have to use head lamp or torch to see what's inside, we went out and canoeing along side the island to the boat, then we go to the next Island. In the next destination we went canoeing inside a cave again, if we go deeper inside the cave we can enter to a lagoon, but sadly we went on the wrong time. The water level was high so that we cannot pass trough the cave & we have to go outside the cave.
this is the lagoon's entrance.
After that we canoeing trough some rock and we see a secluded place from the big Andaman ocean due to the sea was blocked by some rocks and an island.
it is beautiful, isn't it!
then we went up to the boat, having lunch [the menu was traditional seafood dish with a very delicious tom yum soup], go to the James Bond island -- this Island has a Thai name for it [which i didn't remember] but it is known better as James bond island since Roger Moore was doing some James Bond scene in this place.
After James bond we went to Muslim Island where -- according to the tour guide -- the society lives above the sea & giving their only small piece of the land to bury the dead.
Although it is a Muslim Island, we have to go to the corner of the island to find a Mosque [we almost get lost when we want to go back to the boat]. In the Mosque, we met a very kind old lady who use a crutch & she explain to me where the kiblat is [altho she cannot speak English] also she gave my friend a chair when she waited for me to finish my prayer.
Muslim Island was our last journey using boat for the day, after that we docked and went to the Buddha cave using cars. In front the Buddha cave there was a lot of monkeys! but we are not interested in feeding them so we went straight to the cave where there is a big statue of relaxing Buddha
& apparently the monk also have other pets inside the cave -- dogs and cats..
& the cats are just silly...xP
see picture here
Inside the cave there's a stair to the upper side of the cave. Upstairs we can find small Forrest on the right side and another cave on the left side. The other cave gave me a chicken bumps. It was chill as if they have put an air conditioner there, so I decided not to go inside. The rain was pouring quite hard when we go back to Patong. We got to the hotel, took a shower, dinner and we were ready for the cabaret -- the name of the cabaret in Phuket is Simon Cabaret!
We watched the 21.30 cabaret, and it was started on time..
Their outfit was great, the property too!! they play cabaret on dream girl, Avatar, a Korean-chick-group-with-the-song "nobody - nobody but you.." thing..[I forget the name of the group], Chinese song, India and many more and also there was a very man-like lady boy with annoying outfit [tutu & cone bra] who seduce a male audience. Besides all the lady-boys there are several [still] male performers..but among all the male dancers only 1 that could really-really dance.
From all the performance I like the India & the "nobody but you.." best! The lead dancer of the "avatar" is also good.
I know you'll be curious what the lady-boys look like..they looks totally like a women! they have boobs, and they don't have their "lower-parts" anymore! I don't really paid attention to their "lower-parts" -- my friends did, but in several performance they dare to use very tight undies so I suppose they have cut their thing. just googling it and you'll see how pretty those lady-boys are! *I feel failed as a girl*
found this picture at google:
yes she is Male...[that sounds absurd....xP]
Next destination: Phi-phi...
Unlike the trip to James Bond, the boat for this tour is bigger, It even have the air conditioner in the boat, but if you want to sun bath you can go to the upper part of the boat [we seat in the upper part of the boat 3/4 of our trip -- altho as Indonesian people we do not need to get tanned -- we already are. And the results is my skin is burnt and darker until now.
But despite the bigger ship, I like the first tour better, i think it's friendlier. Oh yeah, there is a funny thing happen in this ship.. The tour provider always use loudspeaker to announce anything..and before they announce something they do the-"test..test..1..2..3.."-thing. And there is 2 times after doing the-"test..test..1..2..3.."-thing, I guess the tester-dude forgot that the mike is still on and he starts mumbling Thai songs..and we can all hear him singing.xP
The first destination was a very small island [approx. 1 km2!?] where the sand is pure white and the sea is very clear. We can feed small fish there. We just bring loaf & they'll come on us.
After that we back to the boat and having lunch there while continuing our 45-minutes-or-more-cruise to Phi Phi island. During the cruise, we can see a lot of Jelly fish in the water, and apparently some of the tour participant became the victim of jellyfish sting while they were snorkeling in the previous islands.
Phi-phi consist of 2 island -- Phi Phi Up!? [I forget the term] and Phi-Phi down. We went to the upper first. At the upper Island we have to choose between snorkeling or going to Maya Bay. As I have seeing plenty beaches in the previous day & in the Island before, I decided to do snorkeling. It was my first snorkeling, so I forced one of my friend to accompany me, while my other friend going to the beach. The color of the water was turquoise. i thought that I can only find this color at drawing palette, but apparently it's natural!
So we went snorkeling with me learn how to use the goggle first.xP
The sea ground was about 6M below [I wouldn't dare snorkeling without using a life jacket]. The view was magnificent, but sadly only several type of fish that I've seen and all of 'em are small fish. And after do the snorkeling both me and my friend got sea sick!
Then down to Phi Phi Down. It's a small town, unlike the upper phi-phi, which is only a beach. It has many shops & even hotels. The stuff in here is great, I would recommended to shop here instead of in Patong, because we found some good clothes that doesn't sold in Patong. but the price is a bit expensive here.
This is one of the thing that I regret, to not going shopping here [Hey I'm still a girl!]. I found quite a good dress, but I didn't buy it because I think I will be able to find another/better one at Patong -- but I didn't [we haven't had a chance to go to Patong's market until we came back from this Phi-Phi island]. After several minutes walking around Phi phi down, we went back to Phuket and arrived around 17.30. By the time we haven't pray yet but we were heading towards the Saturday-night-market to go shopping. We thought that we could found a small place/ small Mosque to pray [30% of Phuket population is Muslim], but we were wrong! the nearest Mosque is actually far! We have asked several people for information about the nearest mosque & all of them pointing on the far mosque, Then there is a good person leading us to the taxi so that we could go to the mosque, but as we ask the price, it only differs by 100bhat between going to the mosque [400bhat] or to our hotel [500bhat]. then we decided to go to the hotel & left our friend in the Market & our plan to shop at the Saturday-night-market. The taxi driver was barely speaking English, we had asked the price using hand gestures. It was already dark outside & we were collecting money inside the Taxi, then we lack of 50bhat. We cannot see very well inside the car & we are not familiar yet with Thai's coin [for me it's quite hard to see the number/value of a Thai coin]. So by the time we have arrived at the hotel, we asked the driver whether we have given him a correct 50 bhat using hand gesture & I spontaneously speak in Bahasa Indonesia "lima puluh bhat", & then he said "yes, lima puluh"! *sweatdrops*
So he could speak Malay [Malay & Bahasa is quite similar]! If he had said it in the market that he could speak Malay it wouldn't be difficult to ask about mosque & to do the price negotiation.
After went to the hotel & pray we went out having dinner, shopping for souvenirs. and went back almost midnight, packing and leave to the airport early in the morning.
That's the end of my holiday...
We stay at patong beach area but since we join tours to other islands we did not really enjoying Patong beach. We only came to the beach to have breakfast [we go to convenient store and bought instant noodles -- that's what we called brekfast..xP].
If you see the beach is soo not crowded, it's because we went there at 7:30 in the morning. In fact patong area is the most crowded tourist place in phuket.
and check this quite silly announcement that we found in the beach!
A special police for jet-ski...not the real police's contact number..xP Like the most problem that the tourist would have is with their jet ski!
But Anyway...
I had great times there! I wish I had more time too...
So next holiday destination would be.....hm.....
Lombok, Belitong, Pulau Seribu, Tibet, or Japan *yea..you wish! you wish!*
so I decided to take a-1-day leave [14-May] and go to Phuket-Thailand with my friends during the long weekend..
First I fly to my hometown Jakarta on 12-May Afternoon...My flight was suppose to be on 18.25 but the Air flight just change the schedule into 17.50. Unaware of the change, I didn't rush to go to the airport..I go out from my office at 17.00, and I even stop at the mini market to buy a bottle of water..
By the time I was about to check in, the girl in the check in counter was a bit angry at me coz I checked-in 10 minutes before the new flight schedule..
Later on I notice that I put the wrong cellphone number when I booked the flight [I also put Mr. in-front of my name in the booking form]. >__<
I go home safely and stay 1 night at my house, and go to Phuket the next day..
Next morning I went to the airport -- the air flight ask us to check in 3 hours before the flight schedule to prevent rush..So me and my friend checked-in and had a breakfast..While doing our breakfast I'm checking again my return flight [in case there were changes -- my intuition was working..our return flight was delay! It should be arrived at Jakarta on 10.something but they change the schedule and it would be arrived at 11.00 and my flight from Jakarta to Balikpapan was rescheduled too, so that it fly earlier..the original schedule was on 12.45 they reschedule it to 12.10..I was panic..there's no way I could catch the flight to balikpapan! so I called the air flight to change my schedule to the next flight, but since it's a peak season they ask me to up-grade and i have to pay IDR 520.000 [USD 50] that's quite expensive for me [i could buy bump's dvd with that amount of money and still have some return]! I said I'll think about it first and I hang up the phone. But actually I got no other option, so I called them back to change my flight and they said that the price is now higher [IDR 610.000 -- USD 60],& since I put Mr. as my title when I booked the flight, they said i have to pay extra IDR 50.000 -- USD 5 to change it, or I'll get trouble during check-in! -- Shame on you LionAir! But luckily the LionAir counter at the airport didn't charge me extra IDR 50.000 for changing my Gender in the ticket!
So then I decided to forget about it and enjoy my holiday in Phuket!
We arrived around 14.30 -- Local time -- the time zone is the same as Jakarta. When we arrived , Our cellphone was totally numb..it has no signal. Apparently there is a new policy that you have to set up the international roaming before you leave the country. Luckily, there is a cellphone provider who offer pulse-less SIM card in the airport and we can top it up at almost any convenient store.
We stay at a small guest house in the most crowded place in Phuket [in Patong Beach area] called the bird cage, yes it has a weird name and it has bird cages with fake birds inside it just in front of the entrance door. the guest house is small but clean so I like it. and the good thing about the guest house is that It has a box where you can put your unused clothes, sandals or everything to be give to the needed one! good!
But they gave us room in the 4th floor so we have to climb up the stairs with all of our belongings.
After we put our stuff, we went out for eat, top-up-ing our new SIM card and go find tour for tomorrow. Finding info about tour is easy coz about every 3meters there's always a stall offering you plenty kind of tours.
We did some research when we arranging the holiday so we decided that we must do 3 things while in Phuket:
1. Go to James Bond Island
2. Watch Lady-Boy Cabaret -- You cannot go to Thai without watching stuffs like this...>___<
3. Go to Phi Phi Island
and after asking some stalls, we decided to take the lowest price they offer.
We got tour to James bond for 1100 Bhat, Cabaret for 650 Bhat [VIP seat] and Phi-phi for 1000 Bhat -- all includes pick-up from your hotel and return. We chose to go using Big boat instead of speed boat because one one of the stall keeper didn't recommend going via speed boat on rainy season because the wave will be higher [altho during this global warming era we now cannot predict when the rainy seasons is off -- coz it can be raining at the hot season]. Actually with going by speed boat you'll get to go to more islands compare to going by big boat, but It cost higher too.
So the first day we go to James Bond Island.. we are not only visiting James bond Island, but also several Islands. The tour pick us up at the hotel on 10.30, then we go by car for about an hour, to reach a pier [the view was very beautiful] then we continue by boat to the bat cave [sadly we are not visiting batman & we didn't see the cool bat-mobile -- never mind this! xP]. Near the bat cave the boat stop and we went down canoeing inside the cave. I was very dark that we have to use head lamp or torch to see what's inside, we went out and canoeing along side the island to the boat, then we go to the next Island. In the next destination we went canoeing inside a cave again, if we go deeper inside the cave we can enter to a lagoon, but sadly we went on the wrong time. The water level was high so that we cannot pass trough the cave & we have to go outside the cave.
this is the lagoon's entrance.
After that we canoeing trough some rock and we see a secluded place from the big Andaman ocean due to the sea was blocked by some rocks and an island.
it is beautiful, isn't it!
then we went up to the boat, having lunch [the menu was traditional seafood dish with a very delicious tom yum soup], go to the James Bond island -- this Island has a Thai name for it [which i didn't remember] but it is known better as James bond island since Roger Moore was doing some James Bond scene in this place.
After James bond we went to Muslim Island where -- according to the tour guide -- the society lives above the sea & giving their only small piece of the land to bury the dead.
Although it is a Muslim Island, we have to go to the corner of the island to find a Mosque [we almost get lost when we want to go back to the boat]. In the Mosque, we met a very kind old lady who use a crutch & she explain to me where the kiblat is [altho she cannot speak English] also she gave my friend a chair when she waited for me to finish my prayer.
Muslim Island was our last journey using boat for the day, after that we docked and went to the Buddha cave using cars. In front the Buddha cave there was a lot of monkeys! but we are not interested in feeding them so we went straight to the cave where there is a big statue of relaxing Buddha
& apparently the monk also have other pets inside the cave -- dogs and cats..
& the cats are just silly...xP
see picture here
Inside the cave there's a stair to the upper side of the cave. Upstairs we can find small Forrest on the right side and another cave on the left side. The other cave gave me a chicken bumps. It was chill as if they have put an air conditioner there, so I decided not to go inside. The rain was pouring quite hard when we go back to Patong. We got to the hotel, took a shower, dinner and we were ready for the cabaret -- the name of the cabaret in Phuket is Simon Cabaret!
We watched the 21.30 cabaret, and it was started on time..
Their outfit was great, the property too!! they play cabaret on dream girl, Avatar, a Korean-chick-group-with-the-song "nobody - nobody but you.." thing..[I forget the name of the group], Chinese song, India and many more and also there was a very man-like lady boy with annoying outfit [tutu & cone bra] who seduce a male audience. Besides all the lady-boys there are several [still] male performers..but among all the male dancers only 1 that could really-really dance.
From all the performance I like the India & the "nobody but you.." best! The lead dancer of the "avatar" is also good.
I know you'll be curious what the lady-boys look like..they looks totally like a women! they have boobs, and they don't have their "lower-parts" anymore! I don't really paid attention to their "lower-parts" -- my friends did, but in several performance they dare to use very tight undies so I suppose they have cut their thing. just googling it and you'll see how pretty those lady-boys are! *I feel failed as a girl*
found this picture at google:
yes she is Male...[that sounds absurd....xP]
Next destination: Phi-phi...
Unlike the trip to James Bond, the boat for this tour is bigger, It even have the air conditioner in the boat, but if you want to sun bath you can go to the upper part of the boat [we seat in the upper part of the boat 3/4 of our trip -- altho as Indonesian people we do not need to get tanned -- we already are. And the results is my skin is burnt and darker until now.
But despite the bigger ship, I like the first tour better, i think it's friendlier. Oh yeah, there is a funny thing happen in this ship.. The tour provider always use loudspeaker to announce anything..and before they announce something they do the-"test..test..1..2..3.."-thing. And there is 2 times after doing the-"test..test..1..2..3.."-thing, I guess the tester-dude forgot that the mike is still on and he starts mumbling Thai songs..and we can all hear him singing.xP
The first destination was a very small island [approx. 1 km2!?] where the sand is pure white and the sea is very clear. We can feed small fish there. We just bring loaf & they'll come on us.
After that we back to the boat and having lunch there while continuing our 45-minutes-or-more-cruise to Phi Phi island. During the cruise, we can see a lot of Jelly fish in the water, and apparently some of the tour participant became the victim of jellyfish sting while they were snorkeling in the previous islands.
Phi-phi consist of 2 island -- Phi Phi Up!? [I forget the term] and Phi-Phi down. We went to the upper first. At the upper Island we have to choose between snorkeling or going to Maya Bay. As I have seeing plenty beaches in the previous day & in the Island before, I decided to do snorkeling. It was my first snorkeling, so I forced one of my friend to accompany me, while my other friend going to the beach. The color of the water was turquoise. i thought that I can only find this color at drawing palette, but apparently it's natural!
So we went snorkeling with me learn how to use the goggle first.xP
The sea ground was about 6M below [I wouldn't dare snorkeling without using a life jacket]. The view was magnificent, but sadly only several type of fish that I've seen and all of 'em are small fish. And after do the snorkeling both me and my friend got sea sick!
Then down to Phi Phi Down. It's a small town, unlike the upper phi-phi, which is only a beach. It has many shops & even hotels. The stuff in here is great, I would recommended to shop here instead of in Patong, because we found some good clothes that doesn't sold in Patong. but the price is a bit expensive here.
This is one of the thing that I regret, to not going shopping here [Hey I'm still a girl!]. I found quite a good dress, but I didn't buy it because I think I will be able to find another/better one at Patong -- but I didn't [we haven't had a chance to go to Patong's market until we came back from this Phi-Phi island]. After several minutes walking around Phi phi down, we went back to Phuket and arrived around 17.30. By the time we haven't pray yet but we were heading towards the Saturday-night-market to go shopping. We thought that we could found a small place/ small Mosque to pray [30% of Phuket population is Muslim], but we were wrong! the nearest Mosque is actually far! We have asked several people for information about the nearest mosque & all of them pointing on the far mosque, Then there is a good person leading us to the taxi so that we could go to the mosque, but as we ask the price, it only differs by 100bhat between going to the mosque [400bhat] or to our hotel [500bhat]. then we decided to go to the hotel & left our friend in the Market & our plan to shop at the Saturday-night-market. The taxi driver was barely speaking English, we had asked the price using hand gestures. It was already dark outside & we were collecting money inside the Taxi, then we lack of 50bhat. We cannot see very well inside the car & we are not familiar yet with Thai's coin [for me it's quite hard to see the number/value of a Thai coin]. So by the time we have arrived at the hotel, we asked the driver whether we have given him a correct 50 bhat using hand gesture & I spontaneously speak in Bahasa Indonesia "lima puluh bhat", & then he said "yes, lima puluh"! *sweatdrops*
So he could speak Malay [Malay & Bahasa is quite similar]! If he had said it in the market that he could speak Malay it wouldn't be difficult to ask about mosque & to do the price negotiation.
After went to the hotel & pray we went out having dinner, shopping for souvenirs. and went back almost midnight, packing and leave to the airport early in the morning.
That's the end of my holiday...
We stay at patong beach area but since we join tours to other islands we did not really enjoying Patong beach. We only came to the beach to have breakfast [we go to convenient store and bought instant noodles -- that's what we called brekfast..xP].
If you see the beach is soo not crowded, it's because we went there at 7:30 in the morning. In fact patong area is the most crowded tourist place in phuket.
and check this quite silly announcement that we found in the beach!
A special police for jet-ski...not the real police's contact number..xP Like the most problem that the tourist would have is with their jet ski!
But Anyway...
I had great times there! I wish I had more time too...
So next holiday destination would be.....hm.....
Lombok, Belitong, Pulau Seribu, Tibet, or Japan *yea..you wish! you wish!*