Phuket 101 - Part 1

I always thought that Phuket is all about beaches, sun-bathing, beautiful scenery, nice food etc. When Mum told me that we're going to Phuket for 5 days (including 2 days for travelling), I was like, "So long? What can we do there?" I take back my words. There are actually lots of things to do there. In fact, 5 days are not enough. We went to Phuket on 28 May, just nice as school holidays just started. Before we fly to Phuket, there's this little incident that almost prevent me from going to Phuket. Apparently, my passport is less than 6 months validity and I cannot travel out. Mum did not notice this till Tuesday when they're checking in and mine cannot pass thru AirAsia's system. I freaked out! Obviously, the first thing I do was to check on the net. So I came upon this website that said, I can. I was relieved for a moment.

 

It says there that there no longer such requirements. BULLSHIT!! Let me tell you something, "YOU CANNOT ENTER THAILAND WITH PASSPORT LESS THAN 6 MONTHS VALIDITY!!". This has been confirmed by the Imigresen officer. Even if you pass Malaysian Imigresen, Thai Imigresen will still detain you from entering. If you're saying, the validity is only less few days, I don't think you wanna take the risk. Remember, you will be at the mercy of the Thai officers there. If they are as stubborn as mule, you will need to fly straight back or worst, being detain there. I don't think it's a risk worth taking especially when you just need an hour to renew your passport. 

So with much hustle, Great Tiger was asking around, talked to the Imigresen officer and  finally arranged for me to go to the nearest Imigresen office to renew it the very next day. The nearest was Kajang Imigresen Office which opens at 7 am. Mum came down to KL that very night with my documents. She reached at 5 am in the morning and we went straight to Kajang. Things went smoothly. Credits goes to the taxi driver that I've known who took mum from the bus station to my place and from my place to the Imigresen office. He also waited for almost an hour for the passport to be done and then again, from Kajang, he fetched us all the way to KLIA 2. Also, not forgetting, the Imigresen officers who have been so helpful and understanding. Much gratitude.

We managed to reach KLIA 2 at 9. Our flight to Phuket was at 12.45 pm. Me and mum actually waited 30 minutes for the rest to reach from KT. Well, KLIA 2 was indeed very big. Lots of tourists and shops to shop. It was so big that one might lose in there. Had our lunch in this very restaurant which is quite pricey. It was RM 20.00 for 2 plates of with rice with fried chicken only. But what do you expect right? They need to cover their cost, rental etc. Since it's new, it was quite boloq. There was two scanning counters. First was on the Imigresen side and the second one was on the airport. Why the hell do we need to line up twice? One would probably says for security reasons. But let me tell you, on the first scanning, the officers don't even look at the screen. They was chatting around! Waste of resources.

Our flight got delay for almost 45 minutes so technically we cam-whore at the waiting area. It was bad enough that the numbers of toilets available are not enough to accommodate all the passengers. Imagine there's only 3 stalls in a toilet. You practically need to queue till the front door and wait for at least 15 minutes before your turn. The worst was there was no enough seating at the waiting area so almost half of the passengers were sitting on the floors. HORRIBLE!! And you called this 'International Airport'. Heh!

 

Landed in Phuket at 2 pm local time. Blame it on the luck. We waited another hour for Imigresen clearing. Can you imagine? An hour? As many as 6 flights landed at the same time so it explains the congestion. Phuket was so famous that there are at least 3 flights landed every hour. We got frustrated and tired of waiting that it dampened our holiday's moods. Finished clearing at 3 so we decided to wait for Dylan who's coming straight from Singapore. While waiting, the rest was checking on the tours available. It was almost 4 when we finally get into the mini van to bring us to Burasari Resort, a 4 stars resort in Patong Beach.

 

Had our Phuket tours booked here!

 

Another group shot!

 

The one thing that annoyed me to no end about Phuket was the travelling journey. It took us an hour journey from the airport to Patong Beach. Patong Beach is more like at the other side of Phuket. You need to cross the hill in order to get there. Of course, nowadays you don't technically hiked the hills when you have road and cars. But imagine 50 years back? Some said money can't buy happiness. It is indeed true. But without money, there is no happiness too. How to enjoy such a lavish life without money? How to travel around and see the world without money? Lets face the sad truth, without money, there's no happiness too.

 

With the rest of my siblings!

We're served with the welcome drinks while waiting for the adults to settle on the rooms.

 

Since it was late evening already that time, we went out at 6 pm for our dinner. Along the roadside, there are lots of restaurants selling different kinds of seafood for you to ravish. We settled upon this very restaurant after 30 minutes of walking. Too hungry to look much further. I was so hungry and tired that I don't even know what restaurant is that but I love the decoration of the restaurant. One thing that I love about Thais is their details on their buildings. Their buildings have such a fine details that awed everyone.

 

While waiting for the food to be served

 

If you happen to come across this restaurant too, the food was nice and affordable. We ordered quite a lot of dishes here. The best would reserved for the desserts. Top on the chart, fried banana fritters.

 

 

Fried crab dumpling *thumbs up

 

Fried grouper, I think.

 

Green curry which is not to my liking

 

Spare ribs which was too spongy?

 

Is that asparagus (I don't know anything about vegie) with prawns

In case you haven't figure out, I only ate the prawns

 

Stir fried spinach. This one I know coz rabbits eat these types of vegie

 

 

After dinner, we went to Bangla Road. Our eyes are totally not virgin anymore here! There are so much things to see and explore here. The whole stretch of road are filled with strippers, pole dancers and lady boys. This is also a place to find a quick and steamy sex. But be careful thou, don't want you to be mistaken as gay as the lady boys are as beautiful as the ladies. Open your eyes bigger!! No offense but this is my personal opinion. I find it disgusting to see the pole dancers on the poles. Yeah, they're not professionals coz they're just twisting around awkwardly at the poles with old, horny customers (the ones with big, protruding belly and bald heads) sticking money into their panties expecting cheers from the crowds. My my. Dylan almost got pulled by the lady boys there. Hahaha.

 

As much as I'm not comfortable being there, I'm still fascinate at the pubs there. The deco are amazing! Just can't describe it. And the picture below probably give the credits they deserved but that's the best I can find.

 

 

 

Walked back to our resort after Bangla Road but before that, stopped to get some supper!

 

Banana with chocolate pancake!

A must when in Phuket

 

There are lots of stalls beside the road selling this but this particular stall near our resort was the best. It was THBT 60. Too good that I came back again on our last night there. I would say it's a mixture of roti canai with banana topped with chocolate and creamer. I was disappointed that I managed to get 2 bites only that I went in a search frenzy to find the recipe after I came back. I'm glad to say I found the recipe. Will be sharing the recipe with uolls when I successfully recreated the pancake.

 

Took me a sold 2 hours to write this entry. It's almost 6 am already here in Malaysia. Hope your patience paid off. I'm suppose to sleep or better revise on my Computing Mid-term which will be on this Tuesday since I screwed the test but instead I spent my time on this entry. Well done, Karen. You deserve an applause! This is just Day 1. More coming up on Day 2 and 3. Till then, be happy!

 

Thanks for dropping by!

 

p/s: If there's grammar mistake, by all means please ignore it. Got no time to spare for checking and proof reading again.