Now in case all of you think we were just lazing out by the beach the whole week (tempting as it was)…we did make an attempt to ‘see’ some parts of Phuket.

Our hotel has a sister hotel called Peach Hill on Karon beach. Got free shuttle bus.

The free ‘shuttle bus’ from the hotel. Of course it wasn’t really a bus per se. But this type of vehicle is very common in Phuket, together with the tuk-tuk and the regular taxi. Not very fast but all very colouful.

Peach Hill Hotel had just undergone a renovation but we felt it was too ‘hotel-like’ for our taste. But I did like their pool bar..

And then on another day, we rented a jeep. Very cheap jeep = 1,000Bht only for a full 24 hours. But the jeep hor…

– had shift gears that groan and groan
– had a hole on the floor. I could see the road as we drove along
– had an air-con that barely works. It fact it was cooler with the windows down

But, it does work. Oh, you can rent motobikes there. Very cheap too but I wouldn’t recommend it. Phuket has a high rate of accidents involving motorbikes.

Anyway, on the trusty jeep, we went-a travelling.

Central Karon Village
This was the hotel we would have stayed in if it wasn’t full. Very nice and their restaurant The Cliff is very well known- both for the food and the panoramic view of The Andaman Sea.

The entrance to The Cliff
One of the room.

We had a very nice lunch here. (Come to think of it, our own Sentosa Hotel also have a restaurant called The Cliff. Wonder how is it like)

Kathu Waterfall
Phuket has a few waterfalls. We didn’t have much time, so we went to the nearest one-Kathu Waterful. Wasn’t much of a waterfall though, more like Kathu Tricklefall.

But what made it interesting was the dog that followed us all the way up to the waterfall, waited for us whilst we look-see-look-see and then followed us all the way down again. It was really sweet as he would stop and wait for us to catch up and then sat beneath our seat as we rested up at the waterfall. It even followed hubby to the toilet…. hmmm…

And oh…we almost became this spider’s lunch. Kidding.. but it was BIG. I’m not joking. It was one mean looking spider.

The dog, the hubby and the cheap jeep.

Patong Beach
Now in case most of you didn’t know…the action is actually at Patong Beach. So we went there for a look and stayed for a full 2 hours, of which 1 hour was spent inside Starbucks. To escape from the heat and the tailors.

What I didn’t tell you guys about the famous tailors of Phuket? Well, you can’t miss them coz they’re everywhere and they make sure you see and hear them.

“Suit sir?” “Shirt?” “Where are you from? You want to make a suit?” “Good day sir, come on in and have a look. I give you very good price.”

At the risk of being rude, the only way was to ignore them. BUT we had absolutely no problem from the others…just the tailors.

So the only photo I took of Patong Beach was this. See the many, many motorbikes?

We must be getting old… Ok, ok, we are getting old. We actually had no desire to stay on at Patong Beach to see the night life. Instead, we drove to Laem Phromthep. This is the southernmost point of Phuket. It is popular with the tourists as well as the local Thais for views of the sunset.

Laem Phromthep
After Patong Beach, this seems almost civilized.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day so we didn’t get a good, glorious sunset. This was the best shot..Still, it’s rather peacful, isn’t it?

Well, after such an exciting start to our holiday, we felt the need to replenish our energy…with breakfast (got no food during the journey) and then we were off…. to bed! Hahaha! Hey, it’s a holiday and the beauty of it is that we can sleep as and when we want to, without feeling guilty. Which was pretty much our pattern for the whole week. Wake up– Swim (Hubby, not me)- Breakfast– Nap– Out.

Good right? Remember my blog about Time No Enough? Well, I actually managed to actually do nothing much for a whole week, which was a real pleasure.

But really, that’s what most of the tourists do on the beach…
including hubby dearest. Bascially you rent a deck chair for 50Bht (about S$2), buy a bottle of beer (50Bht) and just chill out. You can sit on the deck chairs for the whole day if you like. It was very relaxing, just starring out to the sea, with a drink and book in hand.

Of course, if you get bored, you can always do some people watching. From the young to the old, from Europeans to Asians. In fact, you can even catch a few women’s assets which were ‘hanging loose and free’. Actually it’s something that was explicitly mentioned as a ‘No-No’ in many of the brochures. Hmmm…

And without fail, every evening, no matter which part of the beach you were at, this scene comes on. Asia’s favourite game- Football

And oh… there are lots and lots of dogs around, all having a good time. Not many cats though.

The Dogs of Phuket
Having a drink.
Having fun in the sea.

But this dog really captured our attention…especially its ears. hehe! ^^ Btw, that’s it’s owners having a snooze in the background. What do they do? Rent out deck chairs. Good job hor? Hubby was tempted to go and ask for an application.

What more can you ask in a job? Sun, sea, fresh air, flexi-hours and a beautiful sunset…

Well, my holiday got off to an exciting start, I must say. It almost became a holiday that never was..as we nearly missed our plane.

I had gone to bed that night (or morning), expecting my trusty alarm clock (hubby) to wake me up in time. Unfortunately this time, the alarm failed.

Hubby woke me up and said calmly: “It’s 5.50am”, like it was perfectly normal.

But of course it wasn’t. Our flight was at 7.05am!!!!!

Up to today, I still couldn’t understand why and how he could have been so calm about it (His reason was that it was no point panicking me). But surely this is major panic time…NO???? But people who know my husband know this this is him. Now me? I would have gone screaming around the house:”Arggghhh!!!!” But therein lies the difference between hubby and me.

Anyway, back to my story.

So, there we were, hurrying as much as we could in record time.

I put on my jeans. %$#@*&^% I forgot about my bloated tummy after my operation and could not zip up my jeans! I grab a pair of pants (making sure it was a drawstring pants) and stuffed everything into my bag. By now, I was looking like a mad woman- no make-up, uncombed hair, mismtached clothes, panicky look.

Made it into the taxi at 6.10am. “Can you hurry Uncle? We’ve got a plane to catch!”

No way were we going to make it in time. Tried calling all the available Jetstar numbers.

“Our office hours are from 9am to 5.30pm, from Monday to Friday etc…..” ARgghhh!!!!! I know that!!! I need to speak to the counter staff. Of course, that most important number was nowhere to be found. After 10 minutes, I gave up.

As we neared the airport, hubby and I got into a slight argument.

Hubby:”You run to the counter and check in.”
Me:”I can’t run at my present stage. I think you should run to the counter and stop them.”
Hubby:”But I can’t check in without the lugguage anyway. I think you should go and I’ll come with the luggguage.”
Me:”But you’ll be faster.”

It sounds funny now but we were dead serious then.

By some miracle, we reached the airport at 6.30am and managed to get to the counter quickly. Thank goodness for budget airline.. their check-in and boarding time is sooo…. much later than international airline. We couldn’t believed it when they actually let us check in!

Still in a dream, we walked towards the boarding gate. Or rather, hubby walked whereas I waddled (as fast as I could).

We got into the boarding gate and then….. waited for the next 10 minutes in a queue to board the plane. Sheesh… I could have waddled a little slower.

Hehe! I shouldn’t complain though. We were just so relieved and thoroughly shocked that we didn’t missed our plane. I think we remained in shock for the rest of the journey.

After all this drama, it was such a joy to reach our hotel. And these greeted us from our room and the hotel. Sure made up for everything.

From our room

From the lobby

The lobby

Our holiday has started. ^^

Wish I was there now….. Sigh…..

Ah- chooo!

Cough! Cough!