Phuket Revisited - Day 4

16 Feb 2011

Our Jazz..... :)

The car will be delivered to us at 9am today. Probably cuz’ we were tired, we got up a bit late and went down for breakfast at around 9.15am. By then, the guys from the car rental company were already there waiting for us. Nel did all the registration and inspection while the rest went for breakfast.

After a few days of quite heavy breakfast... opt for something lighter..

In our last trip, we got a white Honda Jazz. This time around, we also have a Honda Jazz but the newer model :) We planned to return the car at the airport tomorrow and were worried if the boot will be able to fit in our luggage. One look at it… for a small car.. it has a very spacious boot! Definitely can fit in the 2 big luggage bags.. even have more space for more stuff too! So, no more worries ;)

Time to drive around today :) First, we stopped by Patong beach for a while.

Still early.. not many people yet

We went to Blue Marine Resort after that… the place where we stayed for our last trip in 2006. Just to check out how the place looks like now. I think there were some slight changes with the reception area.

Reminded us of the view we got from the room..and from the cafe while enjoying breakfast...

Then, we went to the pool area. What a flash back… We can enjoy the Andaman sea view from our room… café.. and the pool. Think the rates has gone up compared to the last time we came here. The resort is located at the cliff, so it’s more quiet over here compared to the more happening place at Patong. This is the type of place for total relaxation!

Next, we drove to Wat Chalong, reached there at almost 12 noon. Tho’ we went there before but guess it’s worth a visit again. The first thing we did was to get some coconut drinks :p Then we checked out the souvenir stalls before going up to the building.

Forgot how many coconuts we had throughout our trip :p  The Uncle also helped us to cut it open so that we can have the isi too

When we left Wat Chalong, we noticed a sitting Buddha at the top of the hill. We have decided to go there to check it out. We got a map for guidance and once we’re going towards the direction, we saw signboards leading us to the Big Buddha.

Passed by a rubber estate

It could be difficult to locate the place if not for the signboards. It led us to some small roads.. then up the hill.

Along the way, we saw some elephants (think you can go for some elephant tracking there) and also noticed a number of cafes. And it’s such a nice view from the hill! So, we have decided that once we’re done visiting the Big Buddha, we’ll have our lunch at one of the cafes there.

As we were getting nearer and nearer to the Big Buddha… the Buddha is getting bigger and bigger :p We parked our car there and walked in. Seems that the construction of the Big Buddha is not quite complete yet. They were still trying to get fund to complete the construction.

We went up the stairs and saw this Big Buddha there… quite an amazing piece of work, built with marble. But what we enjoyed the most, was the view from the hill and the very strong and cool wind, topped with the sounds from the wind chimes. I think it’s a great place to meditate ;), we spent about 30 minutes just enjoying the wind while sitting on a rock.

As planned earlier, we headed down and had lunch at one of the cafes that we saw earlier.

Decided to eat at this place

Food wise, it might not be the best.. but it’s really so nice to chill and hang out there. We had tropical fried rice (pineapple fried rice, noodles in soup, cashew nut chicken and tom yam).

We headed to Phuket town after that, hoping to find the shop where we bought honey from (in our last visit) but as usual, we always get sesat every time we’re at the town. We gave up as it’s going to be 6pm. We have to rush to Phromptep Cape to catch sunset.

The place was so crowded. Nel bought some snacks from the stalls – BBQ chicken. The thing is, the food sort of attracted the dogs.. and one of them kept following us wherever we went.

We managed to catch the sunset and like a cinema.. once the ‘show’ is over, every body left the place.

I was still holding on to the piece of BBQ chicken.. and guess what? The dog managed to tracked us down even after we went downstairs. For its persistence, I shared the chicken with the dog :p I don’t eat the skin anyway… and gave some of meat to the dog too. After I got up from the place where I was seated (while eating the chicken), the dog actually went to the spot and ‘marked its territory’. lol

It was almost 8pm already. We drove to Rawai for dinner. We had a great dinner at this place in our last visit and here we are again. We can’t quite remember which restaurant that we went to, so er, we just went based on our instinct and what we could remember ie. Well lid with fluorescent tubes, and picnic on the sand. We saw a familiar place and decided to eat there.

We noticed that most of the diners were locals.  We were given a menu in Thai...

We asked for an English menu instead.... and they serve 'stream' dishes...  :p

The first thing we ordered was a large bottle of Coke (we ended up having 2 litres of Coke and a litre of Pepsi - think this must be my only time having so much of Coke :s)

Then, we ordered tom yam, chicken with cashew nuts, minced pork with basil, mango salad, garlic prawns and pad thai. We were afraid that everything will be too spicy for us, so we asked for everything to be less spicy.

Everything is so yummy! Each of us seem to have a favourite dish. Nel likes the minced pork with basil (meat is soft and juicy and full of flavours with the basil), Yuen likes the garlic prawns (with very aromatic fried garlic), Ai Mun likes the chicken with cashew nuts and for me, being fan of pad thai, likes the pad thai. The mango salad was not bad too – very appetizing but the tom yam is not too great tho’. Maybe cuz’ we asked for less spicy.. so.. it’s not that oomph!

We enjoyed our dinner a lot while hanging out. There were mosquitoes tho’. Good thing I brought along insect repellent ;)

I took a picture of the restaurant… to make sure that we remember this place if we’re to come again next time.

We drove back to Patong after that, passing by Kata and Karon. As we’re back at the busy Patong, we noticed all the stalls at the night market. We parked our car nearby and went to check out the night market. There were a lot of food stalls selling all sorts of food, including fried insects! Then, game stalls and also stalls selling stuff of all kinds, like clothes, shoes, bags, lamps, souvenirs..etc. The only thing I bought here is a 3D puzzle for my niece while Nel bought a new pair of Bermudas.  We were too full from dinner to have anymore food.

Insects anyone?

A stall selling T-Shirts with funny/perverted prints

It's scary to see people simply throwing the darts while the dude arranging the balloons will just walk around.. it's as if the dart is gonna hit his head!

People playing Bingo too

Other than the many things to see here.. there were a lot of hot chicks to please our eyes too :p We went back to our hotel at almost 12 midnite.

Front desk of the hotel

Again.. I tried my luck to loan a hair dryer and yes.. finally… they have 1 available!

The lobby.... where we can use WiFi for free.  Just need to get the password from the frontdesk 

Normally on a day before check-out, I would start to pack our stuff but I was too tired. I put on a facial mask for Nel and I actually fell asleep :p So er.. the mask was left on his face till he woke up to go to the toilet. The mask was already all dried (supposed to put on for up to 30 minutes only). Oops!