Phuket Trip - Day 1

Our $70 all-in air ticket to Phuket! Lucky day, we got ourselves in row 2!

Our car rental guy pick us up in the departure hall, shuttle us to their office which is right outside of Phuket airport. David car rental... not too bad considering that they gave us discount from 1200thb/day to 900thb/day :)

The Honda Jazz i reserve returned late, so we switched to this new Vios

Playboy Vios

Our hacked navigator with Phuket map, btw David provide renting of navigator at 200thb/day.

 Finding out way to the still-under-construction Big Buddha and we got lost! Because it's still under construction, most map/navigator doesn't have a record!!! :(

 We lost our way to Wat Chalong, Phuket’s most important Buddhist temple and is the biggest and most ornate of Phuket’s 29 Buddhist monasteries. Locals come to pray and pay respects to the founders of Wat Chalong, among them Luang Pho Cham and Luang Pho Chuang, 2 monks who were well known for herbal medicine and took care of local villagers and negotiated for a settlement during a Chinese miners rebellion in the 1870's.

Lighting up Chinese fire cracker to fire off those negative energy

Phuket is still an outskirt kampong, their Wat/temples cant be compare to those in the capital

Wax museum of respectable monks

 The lighting of the room was dim, those wax look really realistic, was actually quite freaky...

Proceed to Hilton Phuket for our Sunday Brunch (reservation is advisable)

1160thb after tax which is about SGD50/pax comes with complementary bottle of wine per couple

Sunday brunch is always the highlight of the week for restaurant... everything are so fresh, fat, juicy and imported! I regret so much i didn't pick up those fat oyster the husband took! Seductively delicious~

DIY salad bar with everything nice~

Hot plates - Thai noodles, steam fish, stir fried prawns, fried samosa

Cheese and cracker plates with some parma and duck breast

Seafood platter - regret i didnt attack the oyster first. The husband's plate of prawns are gigantic compared to mine!

Thai chili with extra squeeze of lime

 Freshly baked corner

The husband's must try list - Salmon teriyaki

How can Sunday brunch be Sunday brunch without roasted beef~

Cream of Portobello

Steam plate - Pekin duck roll, custard bun and some stale tasting gnocchi

Salsa chips from the children section

 The spread for the sweet indulgent....

 Heaven's fountain..  Strawberry is absent, luckily they have got honeydew :)

 Traditional Thai Kueh

 Homemade gelato with sauce and topping

Assorted deserts - my favorite pick will be the ....chocolate ice cream (below)

Home-made goodness... Good as Galare's moist chocolate gelato! One scope is the maximum one can take, if more thou will be down with sore throat! Creamy, Rich and Shiok!

The vanilla man went to scope for more vanilla gelato after his 7th or 8th plate of everything? humph~

Hilton Phuket gave us a feeling of Bayshore Park, the apartment where the husband stay when we started dating..

Talking a walk to repent some of our "sin" committed

My next itinerary was to explore the beach around the area (Rawai beach), but the beach doesn't seem very clean, so we proceed to our next station - Promthep Cape (Most southern part of Phuket).

 We decide to take risk climbing down... no proper steps and very rocky... *sweat*

 

Light house of the South

Say "Hi" to the Big Buddha we never get to visit

Checking in to our hotel... Sugar Palm Kata, 3 min walk to the beach. Paid $141 nett for 4D3N stay inclusive of breakfast (low peak promotion period).

Units of the superior room... Agoda mention hotel staff will automatic upgrade you from standard (old wing) to superior (new wing) for free... not so true, i need to ask for the free upgrade..

Hotel Lobby.. the good thing about this hotel location is there is a few massage parlor right outside the hotel, which is one plus point for the husband... he loves massage, and he loves collapse into bed right after massage..

 Our bedroom... For $47, this is much more than our expectation! Free wifi in room only bad is there are no English movie or variety channel on their SET!

 They even provide you a safe.. not common for three star hotel..

Unpack, shower, rest and out to book our island hopping package..

Stop by Black Canyon Coffee to do analysis on which island hopping package to sign on.. (we went to about 5 agency to check/neg price)

Ice latte in boots

We decided on this two package from two different agencies at 3900thb (SGD170) for 2pax 2days.. Coral and Raya island is a confirm choice, but my Similan island is closed for the low peak season (high tides.. no tour allow around the area).. leaving us with only PhiPhi as next option :( Heard alot over crowded, over commercialize, over polluted comments on Phi Phi ... but it's either PhiPhi or James bond island ... James bond island has been a tourist attraction since 1960s... a commercialize attraction for over 40years, you can imagine how clean the sea/lake will be... Dont bother~

On the way back.. we saw Thai satay (BBQ on stick)!

BBQ chicken fillet 20thb

Yummiest satay of this trip! Glazed with honey leaving a hint a sweetness when you chew on the meat~

Yummiest banana prata of this trip! This is the only place they use prata dough than watery flour mix and the lady added some butter as base to fry the prata... adding on extra crispness *crunch crunch*

A thing we note.. people in Phuket didn't expect much tips compared to Bangkok... which is good hahhaha~