The amazing adventures of Tweet And Ribbit: Phuket Vacation 5th to 10th March

I took a vacation to Phuket with Alan, Kenneth and Liyen. Alan, Kenneth and I arrived there on Wednesday and Liyen flew in to meet us on Friday.

We stayed at the Little Buddha Guesthouse (http://www.littlebuddhaphuket.com/) which cost around RM50 a night and came with air-con and attached bathroom. Very clean and nice. Affordable too. It was in a very convenient location as it had a 7-11 beside it and was near the Jungceylon Mall. It was near enough to walk to everything but far enough to be away from the bustle.

We had an eventful start to our trip. We finally arrived at our guesthouse, which in the end took 3hours (supposed to be 1hour from the airport) as our driver didn't know his way around Phuket at all. He had to stop for directions for each passenger. He almost didn't find our guesthouse! We were so hungry we headed straight out to the nearby mall to visit my favourite Japanese restaurant in Thailand, Fuji (http://www.fuji.co.th/wwwfuji/). So affordable and yummy! I discovered Fuji on a trip to Bangkok last year. A bento set with salmon on 220Baht.

Kenneth's bento set

Activities we engaged in while in Phuket was the Phang Nga Bay full day sea canoe tour. With that we also visited Hong Island and James Bond Island. James Bond Island was really just overhyped since it was used in the movie starring Roger Moore, "The Man with the Golden Gun". I actually enjoyed the sea canoe tour as we got to squeeze through narrow passages and slip through water caves, where we were made to lie down flat against the bed of the canoe. That was because the the ceiling of the cave was just above me. However, I wish there weren't that many people there and if only I could paddle myself.

Squeezing our way through the caves

The sea canoe company was actually very, very decent and cost on 1400Baht. You can look them up the next time you are in Phuket: http://ppt-tour.com/amazing_krabi.html

Me and James Bond island (nothing but a rock)

We also visited almost all the beaches along the southwest and southeast coast of Phuket. Patong Beach was where we stayed and it was overcrowded, touristy, full of Western restaurants, massage parlour, street stalls (like Malaysian pasar malam only, nothing special). The beach is still nice and clean considering the amount of people that past through it. In fact, I had two pretty decent running experiences up and down it. I tend to run every where I visit so I did run on three out of five days I was in Phuket.

Karon Beach is south of Patong and is much nicer and fancier. It has the glamour resorts lining the beachfront and the crowd here seems older. The beach is much nicer than Patong with very fine sand. It is also definitely less populated.

Kata Beach is by far the smallest and narrowest of all three beaches on the southwest of Phuket. Nothing much here. The longtail boat park really close to your beach towel though. We had some pretty decent Thai "chap fan" on Kata which cost 50Baht for three dishes.

Patong Beach which is packed with beach umbrellas

Alan looking cool on Karon

Kata Beach

Liyen arrived by Friday evening. We just spend a relaxing evening having dinner, and strolling around Patong doing some souviner shopping. The next day we took a tour that would take us to Phi-Phi, Maya Bay and Khai Island.

Our first stop was Khai Island where we spent an hour snorkelling. The water was amazing! So clear and there are fishes very near the shore. The island is tiny though. You don't even have to snorkel much to see them. Sadly, the beach of Khai Island was riddled with dead corals so it was painful to pick your way through. There weren't much live ones in the water either. I saw plenty of sea urchins which freaked me out a little.

Basically Phi-Phi is made up of two islands, Phi-Phi Lay and Phi-Phi Don. Maya Bay which was the film location for the Leornardo Dicaprio movie "The Beach". Maya Bay is National Park and very clean and nice but spotted all over with tourist. There really isn't much beach area. And the island is really small.