Monday, April 23, 2007
Phuket trip
So I’m back from Phuket…. Skin’s very tanned, I think I’m starting to peel now :P
The moment our plane touched down on the runway on our first day, it felt like we were really on a beach holiday. The runway’s been built by the sea so when you look out the plane window, you can see the rays from the setting sun caught on the sea waves.
Our hotel room was really very nice, especially when you consider the price we paid – something like 10-plus dollars for a night. There wasn’t lush carpeting or a bathtub, but the floor tiles were clean, the beds comfortable, the toilet in good shape etc. it was cosy.
We weren’t staying right in the centre of the hustle and bustle of patong beach, but some minutes’ walk away. We spent the night looking at tour options and exploring the area a bit. We had wanted to go to phi phi island coz it’s supposed to be like really lovely. I also wanted to go to james bond island, lol. But they were all really quite expensive. Thank goodness we found a good deal for coral island..
The next day, Friday, was spent at patong beach. Because phuket is quite mountainous, what happens is that you get mountain ranges behind you… then the settlements at the foot of the mountains, by the beach. Patong beach is sorta like enclosed in, like a horseshoe… deck chairs with umbrellas lined the beach in rows – rental was cheap at 160bht for the entire day. Local vendors walked by regularly peddling items ranging from local suntan oil, to roasted nuts, drinks, and tourist items like tees and wooden carvings. If you wanted a massage, or have your hair braided, or hey, even get a temporary tattoo, there were such ‘stations’ dotted about. And of course, sea sports were available.
It was really lovely… we lounged on our deck chairs under our huge beach umbrella. We had chosen a spot on the first row of deck chairs, so we were like, right next to the waves. And the water was not freezing cool, temperature was just nice. Everything was clean, unlike our grossly-dirty beaches in sg (sentosa doesn’t count coz it’s artifical) and we just, well, we stoned.
Every now and then we’ll discuss the sights around us. Most of the tourists in phuket were angmohs…. There were not many Asians, and even when there were, the girls were quite covered and the guys looked blur. I think Nis and I were the most underdressed asian girls on our section of the beach and quite a number of people thot we were thai – we just looked that way to them. You had bodies of all shapes and sizes there. Sadly, there were no hunks on the beach… I had hoped for a james bond-type to walk out of the water :P the older men had surrendered their bellies to beer, while the younger ones just looked like brainless punks. There were older and younger women there too, and while this may sound really mean, I got a huge confidence boost about prancing ard in my bikini when I saw some of the shapes the other female bodies were in.
There were, of course, the very large women in bikinis. There were also the slim ones, some with rather nice faces. But you know, the funny thing is, those girls can be so slim and long-legged they look like goddesses from 100m away. But as they approach, you see the sagging tummies (even on girls about our age!), the extremely visible cellulite and stretch marks everywhere, and the very flabby thighs and butts (imagine if those slim legs could already wobble so much with fat, how thin those girls really are!) I’m no slim girl, but I have some curves and thank God my cellulite and stretch marks are not so visible, and that I’m not quite wobbly fat but have a rather firm tummy and butt and legs. I looked at those girls, and thought, hey, they’re not really to be admired. They may be slim and all, but their bodies aren’t really nice to look at…. Which means, I actually dun look gross in a bikini next to them. And more importantly, if they can be confident about walking around looking like that in public, I should be just as confident.
Male readers looking at this post shouldn’t despair though. There were 1-2 nice female bodies around… and I even saw 2 topless girls stretched out on the beach. It was a little distance away, but they looked pretty and their bods in good shape. There was even an older woman walking topless down along the beach, holding her male partner’s hand. I think she was in her 50’s… but her body was quite toned (gym work) and her boobs very round and firm, aka good boob job done. Nis and I joked that she was either walking ard topless coz she wanted to show off the boobs she had bought, or her male partner had said, “I paid so much for those boobs, you damn well use them and show them off, woman!”
We had gone jetski, and the wonderful thing was that they allowed us to drive out to sea on our own. I drove first, and Nis complained that I was a shitty driver coz we were bouncing along. :P it’s the waves and current, woman! We ain’t driving down a smooth road you know! Lol. When she took over the gear, then she realized it wasn’t all that simple after all. Of course she could have also been distracted by this angmoh guy on jetski out at sea. While I was driving, she had waved back at some guy who supposed waved at us, and she declared him ‘cute’. :p like you can actually see that from afar. Pity we never saw that guy back on land, right, Nis? lol
The weather wasn’t grossly hot, but it wasn’t a breeze either. When we finally the beach, it was about 3-plus. We rinsed off at one of the many shower facilities on the beach (you gotta pay a fee though), and headed for some mcdonalds chocolate mcfreeze. Just to cool down, you know. Lunch, or rather high tea (coz of the time) was at an English pub…. Their liver, mash and peas were lovely! After that, we went opposite for some spa loving at this beautifully decorated place. Body scrub and massage… it was nice, but not fantastic… I dun like painful massages, but even the ones we got were not that great. :P just ok lah.
That night, we headed to this place called ‘simon cabaret’. If you ask, “for what ah?”, I’ll knock you over the head. The name of the place kinda says it all, right? The dancing and lipsyncing wasn’t as good as the cabaret in Bangkok, but the set… omigosh… they were so massive and very detailed. Nis and I were amazed by the sets and how they could do the changes so quickly. And the costumes were very flamboyant and beautiful to the eye… no expense spared on the clothes.
We went on to a tiger show after that. In hindsight, it hadn’t really been worth the money we paid… but I guess, you’ll never know a show’s worth until you’ve paid to see it, right? I mean, they weren’t totally dull… and I guess, there’s a limit as to how original you can get with a sex show. But it was definitely overpriced.
:P
anyway, on Saturday, we spent the entire day on coral island. We had struggled to get out of bed early in the morning. Then we were picked up together with a bunch of other tourists and headed to the ferry terminal. From there it was a speedboat ride to coral island.
It’s a small beach with clear water lapping the shore – perfect for snorkeling. And that was what we did all day til mid afternoon. We’ll lay a bit on deck chairs, then hit the water. Small colorful fishes swam very close to shore and if you swam out a little further, you’ll see corals and big ugly fishes, the sort you have for dinner, nibbling at the corals. It was a surreal experience. It’s just you, out in the water, with the fishes. You spend lots of time just floating around, or chasing a particular fish which has caught your eye… it’s just really beautiful to observe the water creatures. It’s so peaceful, you get sucked into the whole fish paradise… til water enters your mask or the breathing tube and then you swim furiously to shore to clear out the water before heading back out.
The package included a buffet lunch at the resort on the island… nothing fancy, but still, quite a variety of dishes. Then you rest a little, before heading back into the water.
That was really loads of fun.
By the time we headed back to our hotel in the early evening, I was red from the sun. we were feeling rather lazy so we lounged at the hotel pool side, reading and munching on snacks. When it finally got too dark to read, we headed back to our room to shower. Maybe it was all the fish watching… for dinner we had a seafood dinner, lol.
Because it was raining quite heavily on-off, we decided we wouldn’t walk around as we didn’t want to get caught in the rain. So with more snacks, we went back to our hotel for a lazy night, the objective being to finish the bottle of baileys Nis had brought. Lol. I think because it’s baileys, you dun really feel like you’re drinking… more, gulping a sweet dessert. So ya, it was quite easy to fulfil the objective.
Our final day was a real relaxing one. We checked out close to noon, left our luggage in the hotel and went walking. The weather was really hot, the sun burning down on us. Being the bums that we were, we finally sought the cool shade of molly malone and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Their meals are huge, I tell you… but we had time to kill. So we basically just stoned there, chatting away til we had to go to the airport. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our luggage and our ride to our plane.
On the whole, the phuket trip was what it was supposed to be – a lazy holiday. We shopped a bit, ate some, got lots of sun… we didn’t make elaborate plans on how we would spend our time… things just flowed together naturally. And that was good… I dun like holidays where the events dictate you. That’s not what a holiday should be… you should dictate time, not the other way around. If I wanted to be dictated, I would have just stayed home :P.
And Nis was a lovely traveling companion… I guess it helped that we’re similar in enough ways, with similar interests so it was easy to just do things together. So yup, thanks Nis for a great holiday…. Maybe we’ll do another holiday together again in the future… maybe somewhere where we can learn to surf or something, lol.
☺
ok… I better get on with my packing… it’s off to Bangkok tomorrow for an exhibition for a week…
The moment our plane touched down on the runway on our first day, it felt like we were really on a beach holiday. The runway’s been built by the sea so when you look out the plane window, you can see the rays from the setting sun caught on the sea waves.
Our hotel room was really very nice, especially when you consider the price we paid – something like 10-plus dollars for a night. There wasn’t lush carpeting or a bathtub, but the floor tiles were clean, the beds comfortable, the toilet in good shape etc. it was cosy.
We weren’t staying right in the centre of the hustle and bustle of patong beach, but some minutes’ walk away. We spent the night looking at tour options and exploring the area a bit. We had wanted to go to phi phi island coz it’s supposed to be like really lovely. I also wanted to go to james bond island, lol. But they were all really quite expensive. Thank goodness we found a good deal for coral island..
The next day, Friday, was spent at patong beach. Because phuket is quite mountainous, what happens is that you get mountain ranges behind you… then the settlements at the foot of the mountains, by the beach. Patong beach is sorta like enclosed in, like a horseshoe… deck chairs with umbrellas lined the beach in rows – rental was cheap at 160bht for the entire day. Local vendors walked by regularly peddling items ranging from local suntan oil, to roasted nuts, drinks, and tourist items like tees and wooden carvings. If you wanted a massage, or have your hair braided, or hey, even get a temporary tattoo, there were such ‘stations’ dotted about. And of course, sea sports were available.
It was really lovely… we lounged on our deck chairs under our huge beach umbrella. We had chosen a spot on the first row of deck chairs, so we were like, right next to the waves. And the water was not freezing cool, temperature was just nice. Everything was clean, unlike our grossly-dirty beaches in sg (sentosa doesn’t count coz it’s artifical) and we just, well, we stoned.
Every now and then we’ll discuss the sights around us. Most of the tourists in phuket were angmohs…. There were not many Asians, and even when there were, the girls were quite covered and the guys looked blur. I think Nis and I were the most underdressed asian girls on our section of the beach and quite a number of people thot we were thai – we just looked that way to them. You had bodies of all shapes and sizes there. Sadly, there were no hunks on the beach… I had hoped for a james bond-type to walk out of the water :P the older men had surrendered their bellies to beer, while the younger ones just looked like brainless punks. There were older and younger women there too, and while this may sound really mean, I got a huge confidence boost about prancing ard in my bikini when I saw some of the shapes the other female bodies were in.
There were, of course, the very large women in bikinis. There were also the slim ones, some with rather nice faces. But you know, the funny thing is, those girls can be so slim and long-legged they look like goddesses from 100m away. But as they approach, you see the sagging tummies (even on girls about our age!), the extremely visible cellulite and stretch marks everywhere, and the very flabby thighs and butts (imagine if those slim legs could already wobble so much with fat, how thin those girls really are!) I’m no slim girl, but I have some curves and thank God my cellulite and stretch marks are not so visible, and that I’m not quite wobbly fat but have a rather firm tummy and butt and legs. I looked at those girls, and thought, hey, they’re not really to be admired. They may be slim and all, but their bodies aren’t really nice to look at…. Which means, I actually dun look gross in a bikini next to them. And more importantly, if they can be confident about walking around looking like that in public, I should be just as confident.
Male readers looking at this post shouldn’t despair though. There were 1-2 nice female bodies around… and I even saw 2 topless girls stretched out on the beach. It was a little distance away, but they looked pretty and their bods in good shape. There was even an older woman walking topless down along the beach, holding her male partner’s hand. I think she was in her 50’s… but her body was quite toned (gym work) and her boobs very round and firm, aka good boob job done. Nis and I joked that she was either walking ard topless coz she wanted to show off the boobs she had bought, or her male partner had said, “I paid so much for those boobs, you damn well use them and show them off, woman!”
We had gone jetski, and the wonderful thing was that they allowed us to drive out to sea on our own. I drove first, and Nis complained that I was a shitty driver coz we were bouncing along. :P it’s the waves and current, woman! We ain’t driving down a smooth road you know! Lol. When she took over the gear, then she realized it wasn’t all that simple after all. Of course she could have also been distracted by this angmoh guy on jetski out at sea. While I was driving, she had waved back at some guy who supposed waved at us, and she declared him ‘cute’. :p like you can actually see that from afar. Pity we never saw that guy back on land, right, Nis? lol
The weather wasn’t grossly hot, but it wasn’t a breeze either. When we finally the beach, it was about 3-plus. We rinsed off at one of the many shower facilities on the beach (you gotta pay a fee though), and headed for some mcdonalds chocolate mcfreeze. Just to cool down, you know. Lunch, or rather high tea (coz of the time) was at an English pub…. Their liver, mash and peas were lovely! After that, we went opposite for some spa loving at this beautifully decorated place. Body scrub and massage… it was nice, but not fantastic… I dun like painful massages, but even the ones we got were not that great. :P just ok lah.
That night, we headed to this place called ‘simon cabaret’. If you ask, “for what ah?”, I’ll knock you over the head. The name of the place kinda says it all, right? The dancing and lipsyncing wasn’t as good as the cabaret in Bangkok, but the set… omigosh… they were so massive and very detailed. Nis and I were amazed by the sets and how they could do the changes so quickly. And the costumes were very flamboyant and beautiful to the eye… no expense spared on the clothes.
We went on to a tiger show after that. In hindsight, it hadn’t really been worth the money we paid… but I guess, you’ll never know a show’s worth until you’ve paid to see it, right? I mean, they weren’t totally dull… and I guess, there’s a limit as to how original you can get with a sex show. But it was definitely overpriced.
:P
anyway, on Saturday, we spent the entire day on coral island. We had struggled to get out of bed early in the morning. Then we were picked up together with a bunch of other tourists and headed to the ferry terminal. From there it was a speedboat ride to coral island.
It’s a small beach with clear water lapping the shore – perfect for snorkeling. And that was what we did all day til mid afternoon. We’ll lay a bit on deck chairs, then hit the water. Small colorful fishes swam very close to shore and if you swam out a little further, you’ll see corals and big ugly fishes, the sort you have for dinner, nibbling at the corals. It was a surreal experience. It’s just you, out in the water, with the fishes. You spend lots of time just floating around, or chasing a particular fish which has caught your eye… it’s just really beautiful to observe the water creatures. It’s so peaceful, you get sucked into the whole fish paradise… til water enters your mask or the breathing tube and then you swim furiously to shore to clear out the water before heading back out.
The package included a buffet lunch at the resort on the island… nothing fancy, but still, quite a variety of dishes. Then you rest a little, before heading back into the water.
That was really loads of fun.
By the time we headed back to our hotel in the early evening, I was red from the sun. we were feeling rather lazy so we lounged at the hotel pool side, reading and munching on snacks. When it finally got too dark to read, we headed back to our room to shower. Maybe it was all the fish watching… for dinner we had a seafood dinner, lol.
Because it was raining quite heavily on-off, we decided we wouldn’t walk around as we didn’t want to get caught in the rain. So with more snacks, we went back to our hotel for a lazy night, the objective being to finish the bottle of baileys Nis had brought. Lol. I think because it’s baileys, you dun really feel like you’re drinking… more, gulping a sweet dessert. So ya, it was quite easy to fulfil the objective.
Our final day was a real relaxing one. We checked out close to noon, left our luggage in the hotel and went walking. The weather was really hot, the sun burning down on us. Being the bums that we were, we finally sought the cool shade of molly malone and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Their meals are huge, I tell you… but we had time to kill. So we basically just stoned there, chatting away til we had to go to the airport. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our luggage and our ride to our plane.
On the whole, the phuket trip was what it was supposed to be – a lazy holiday. We shopped a bit, ate some, got lots of sun… we didn’t make elaborate plans on how we would spend our time… things just flowed together naturally. And that was good… I dun like holidays where the events dictate you. That’s not what a holiday should be… you should dictate time, not the other way around. If I wanted to be dictated, I would have just stayed home :P.
And Nis was a lovely traveling companion… I guess it helped that we’re similar in enough ways, with similar interests so it was easy to just do things together. So yup, thanks Nis for a great holiday…. Maybe we’ll do another holiday together again in the future… maybe somewhere where we can learn to surf or something, lol.
☺
ok… I better get on with my packing… it’s off to Bangkok tomorrow for an exhibition for a week…
