Phuket trip – 18 Jan 14

We had a good sleep and are greeted by the morning sun from our room.

View from our room

Guests from all over the world

Facade of The Artist House

As we opted out of breakfast in our room package, we have to source for our own breakfast. I have researched that Kaab Gluay Restaurant which is few meters down the road offering breakfast at reasonable rate. When we reached Kaab Gluay Restaurant, the staff direct us to the cafe opposite the road which also belong to the same owner. 

Bai Bour cafe

We ordered the American Breakfast set which comprise of toast, tea or coffee, scrambled egg, ham, bacon, sausage, juice and fruits. It only cost THB150 ~ S$6 which is really cheap.

Toasted bread

Scramble egg set

From Bai Bour cafe, we walked along Phrabaramee Road to Patong beach which takes about 15min.

Mosque at Prabaramee road

Songthaew

Patong is the most famous beach resort in Phuket so how can we visit Phuket without coming to Patong beach? There are rows of deck chairs parallel to the beach and rental is cheap at THB100 ~ S$4 for a day. Peifen told me that the deck chair rental is much more expensive in Bali and rental is not for the whole day. We rented the chair and sun bath for 2 hours before leaving the beach for lunch.

Patong beach

Sun, sea, beach

Sun tanning

Do you dare to have botox here?

Tuk tuk

Bangla street

Numerous pubs along Bangla street

We walked from Patong beach to No 6 Restaurant (Direction: Located on Rat U Thit Road across the road from PS Hotel near Bangla Road). The No 6 restaurant was full house when we reached and we waited for a while before we have a table. I have read online that there is another branch at hilltop and free transfer is provided from here.

No 6 restaurant

Waiting for a table

Serving of the dishes is a bit slow and they even ran out of coconut. We ordered 3 dishes but I find these mediocre and No 6 restaurant is really over rated. 

Seafood coconut soup

Seafood salad with vermicelli

Grilled squid

I have arranged Panya to pick us up at No 6 restaurant. He has arranged his staff whom I forgot her name to accompany us for the half day tour. We were surprised when they have arranged a van for us although there are only 2 of us.

I have planned to visit the Cashew nut factory, Wat Chalong, Big Buddha, Promthep Alternative Energy Station, Promthep Cape and Phuket weekend market. The staff is very good as she went through my itinerary and advise me to skip the weekend market as we may not have enough time and help me to arrange Simon Cabaret to an earlier timing. 

We started the tour at Phuket old town which is half an hour from Patong. Portuguese used to settle at Phuket old town but we find the shophouses here resemble those in Malacca.

Phuket old town

Row of shophouses

A modern cafe among the old shops

Cupboard shophouses

Phuket Thaihua museum

Cashew nut factory

Cashew nut drink

Variety of cashew nuts

Wat Chalong is the most important temple in Phuket. There are several building in the compound and we spent half an hour to explore it. It is open daily from 8am - 5pm and admission is free.

One of the temple in the compound

Couple taking pre-wed photo

Buddha statues

Dressing modestly inside the temple

View of the garden

One of the building contains a sacred relic which is fragment of Buddha bone. The relic was bought here from Sri Lanka.

Buddha's bone in the glass case

We heard firecrackers being set off in the furnace as it is the devotee's way of showing gratitude to Buddha that their prayers have been answered.

Shoes are prohibited inside the temples

There is an air conditioned wooden house which house the wax model of 3 monks. The 3 monks are highly revered by the locals and we have seen photos of Thai Queen paying respect to the figurines.

Wax monks model inside this house

Wooden carve door

We continued the tour to Big Buddha. I saw ATV rides and elephant trekking on the way uphill.

Elephant riding

At the base of Big Buddha, there is a tent age displaying the Big Buddha project history, donation boxes, souvenirs. There are also monks chanting prayers here.

Wooden carve Thai Baht 1,000

Donations

Currencies around the world

Make a wish

Panorama view of Phuket town

The 45m white marble Big Buddha is still under construction and is only expect to be complete in few years time. Opening hours: 8.30am - 7.30pm and admission is free.

Big Buddha

Donation of marble tile

Golden Buddha

View of Kata beach

View of Chalong beach

We stopped at Promthep Alternative Energy Station enroute to Promthep Cape. I have included this place as I have saw windmill in a travel blog but the big windmill was not operating when I was here.

Promthep Energy Station

Windmill

Sun is setting

Saw a couple taking sunset shot?

Busker

Rawai beach

We bought some snacks from the stalls at Promthep Cape as we wouldn't have time for dinner later.

Street food stalls

Souvenir shop

Lighthouse

Elephant Shrine

Promthep Cape is located at the southern most tip in Phuket and is fame for the beautiful sunset. We arrived in time for the sunset which is around 6pm. The place is packed with people but we managed to find a spot to take the photos. It's a pity that some tourists arrived in their tour bus after the sun has set.

Awesome sunset

Sun has set

The guide managed to change our Simon Cabaret ticket from 9.30pm to 7.30pm. I have asked Panya to book VIP seats for us. The difference between VIP & normal seat is that VIP seat is on the first level whereas normal seat is on the second level, the fare difference is only THB100 ~ S$4.

Queuing to enter the theatre

The theatre is huge and there are ushers to direct audience to their seats. A bottle of complimentary mineral water is provided at every seat.

Waiting for the show to start

The show starts promptly at 7.30pm. We were entertained by a series of dance and song performed by the ladyboys which range from Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Latin America to Egypt etc. I have read online that the singing are lip synched but nobody care about it as everyone is wowed by their performance. Taking photo is strictly not allowed as the ushers are standing at the side to look out for audience. I am amazed that Simon Cabaret has entertained visitors for more than two decades except when the Thai King's mother passed away and 2004 Tsunami. 

The show last about 1.5hr and the ladyboys stand in a row at the exit waiting for audience to take photos with them. Do note that taking photo with them is not free of charge unless you stand at a distance to take photo.

Ladyboys waiting to take photo with guests

I wonder who will take photo with the green dress ladyboy 

Beautiful "ladies"

We searched for the most beautiful ladyboy to take photo and alas the not so pretty ladyboy secretly appear beside Peifen and was in our photo. We have no choice but to pay her too. We paid THB100 for each ladyboy. This not so pretty ladyboy is really very clever to make use of the pretty lady ladyboy and earn money. She even dare to ask for THB100 from each of us.

Pretty vs not so pretty ladyboy

We have complimentary transfer from Simon Cabaret to hotel and we asked the driver to drop us at Bangla street. Bangla street is very happening at night as the whole street is full of pubs.

Bangla street at night

Pole dancers

Hmm I wonder if there is Thai girl show here?

Solo pole dancer

We wanted to have pork burger at MacDonald but it only sells Samurai burger set. Hence we decided to return to our hotel and had dinner at Kaab Gluay Restaurant. The distance from Bangla to The Artist Hotel is so far that we walked for more than 20min. On the way back, we passed by Tune Hotel which is a no frill hotel.

Tune hotel

We quickly put the items which we bought from the cashew nut factory in the hotel and head out for dinner.

We had dinner at Kaab Gluay Restaurant (ร้านกาบกล้วย) which is few minutes from The Artist Hotel (Add: 58/3 Phrabaramee Road Patong Beach). We ordered 3 dishes and a bottle of beer. The coconut salad is spicy and we ordered ice tea to cover the spiciness. The salad is not as nice as papaya salad which I have ate in Bangkok. The phad thai is mediocre and lackof peanut crunchiness. The dish of the night is the crab stuff with pork and fish meat! The meat are stuff in the crab shell and deep fried. The meat are juicy and not dry and we agreed to return tomorrow for this dish again. This meal cost THB490 ~ S$20.

Coconut salad

Crab stuffed with pork and fish meat

Phad Thai

>>Day 3: 19 Jan 14