Snorkelling/Canoeing/Spa
07 Aug 2012
If there's only one tour you must go on, you gotta choose Phi Phi Island. Cos that's what Phuket is known for, so it's important for me to go on my 1st visit. If you haven't been to Phi Phi, you haven't been to Phuket! Hahaha that's what San told us.
To our horror we were told to get ready super early at about 7am in the morning! Which means we wouldn't have time for breakfast. But the hotel staff were kind enough to ask if we'd like them to prepare breakfast boxes. And this is my 1st ever breakfast box!
I totally didn't expect this. It was a nice touch on the hotel's part :)
Embarrassingly enough... we made ppl wait again. Mich is the culprit!!
I now know why she's always late everytime when I meet her in SG. She snoozed her alarm NON-STOP! Not only that, I have to drag & scold & pull her out of bed every 5 min. Being late is a terrible, terrible habit. Even I, the late queen, cannot even be compared to her in the least. She is horrendous!
This is the boat we got on. Make sure they assigned you the right one, pertaining to the money you paid. For a cheaper price at 1200b, they'll give you a larger boat which will go super slow. For more money you get a speedboat which will bring you to the destination faster. They gave us a green sticker, which I later realised they got it wrong.
Ok huge mistake on my part. I shouldn't have wore eyeliner. Once you wear makeup on water activities you'll be v conscious & wouldn't be able to relax & enjoy yourself as much. Mich is clever to go fresh-faced. (AND still can dilly-dally -.-)
Woohoo!! I think this is Pha Nga Bay? There's so many of these that I couldn't differentiate what is what. I'm just super excited! But it's certainly breezy to be out here :)
The boat stops for maybe 1hr in the middle of the sea, Maya Bay I suppose, so that ppl can canoe/snorkel or just chill out. By the way, I noticed that there're a lot of ppl who brought their luggages with them. Hugeeee luggages, not those carry-on. I later realised that Phi Phi Island is in the middle of Phuket & Krabi. So ppl can transfer to Krabi on their own as part of their itinerary. If you know how to, you can go to Phi Phi Island too without buying a tour.
Also, if you wanna canoe/snorkel, you have to pay more of course. We settled everything at the point of purchase w San. If I'm not wrong, green sticker only allows snorkelling. But we also bought canoeing so we should've gotten another sticker.
It's a LOOOONG 1.5hr ride. When we got there we couldn't find any seats at all! Not on the 1st nor 2nd deck. In the end we have to go down to the basement which is dark & smelly... the whole time trying to slp & frustrated at when are we gonna reach. But we later managed to find 2 seats upstairs & moved up.
Approaching our destination! Look how aqua blue the waters are! It immediately turns me into hyper mode :)
Look! I have abs too! Hahaha j/k they're probably not abs. I don't know how I got those by slping/snacking/lying down right after a meal. It feels so good! I'm too lazy to exercise at all.
At first I feel kinda insecure & over-exposed but there're lotsa China/Japan girls who's tourists like us, wearing big straw hats & bikinis w flowery sarongs so... at least I'm more sporty?
READY??
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.
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LETZ GO!!!
One of the staff's really kind to offer to take my camera & help us to capture all these pics while we're having fun! My camera's not waterproof so I can't carry it w me either. One of my qualms is that our bags had to be left unattended in the cabin. But I tell myself, "So does the rest of the 300 passengers!"
I say forget canoeing. It's a total waste of money. I wanted to do it cos I'd never canoed before (nor kayak cos I skipped sec 3 camp haha).
Snorkelling's so much more fun! Try to ignore the fact that the mouthpiece has been in contact with thousands of different saliva.
Even though I know the staff's got my camera... I still don't feel too safe cos he could've helped other ppl too. So we went back shortly after. Phuket is beautiful isn't it? :)
When everybody got on board, the boat start moving again & there's an announcement that there'll be an entrance fee of 100b/pax on Phi Phi Island. This made us panic becos we didn't bring any cash!! San told us not to bring any, everything is included, at most about 100b so we can buy drinks. We trusted him & although we intended to bring some, we forgot!
Damn after digging out all our coins, we only have 180b, not enough for 2 to enter. So we let everybody go first... just so nobody will see us in this embarrassing state :( We showed the person our 180b, & he waved us in. So.......
YAY!! Happy again.
Lunch is provided with the tour we bought. It's alright... not excellent but edible.
Then we met this old Australian couple who's super nice & friendly so we chatted with them in between bites. Well, only me actually. Mich just stayed quiet which was so unlike her. They told us they bought the same tour for only 1000b (we got it at 1500b) at a tour agent at Patong. But they also added that's maybe becos their son who's working in Phuket knows the agent. Their son's a manager at a club & is here to work for a couple of months. Cool!
They finished their food first & excused themselves to leave... only to turn back to give us their email so that when we go to Aussie they could bring us around. What nice people there are in this world! So polite! But I never did email them though..
We have 1.5hr free time to roam around ourselves... so we just walked to the beach. The water is so clear! So beautiful!
Okie I only sat down here for like..... a total of 5s. Becos once I took this pic, a man came up to me & said it cos 100b to rent a chair. 100b = SGD $4, & I can't afford it. Why does these situations always happen to me? In Bangkok too :(
Where's Mich though???
HERE. She loves shopping & looking at those trinkets. But we don't even have a cent on us! So the whole time Mich is whining... giving a sullen face, & even suggesting we could borrow from fellow tourists. "We could tell them where we stay, our hotel name, & that we'll definitely return them.................." blahblahblah. But no we didn't have the courage haha.
If I had money I'd probably but the "I ♥ Phi Phi" singlet. Since we don't have any cash I don't see no point hanging out at the stores.... so I walked around myself leaving Mich alone to browse.
There's a few food stalls I see with Caucasians working there... they look like backpackers so I'm guessing they're probably working for a few dollars a day just to lower their cost of living on this island. I'd love to stay here for a month or two too! So when I went back to SG the 1st thing I did was google about this. But I realised the hotels on Phi Phi are quite expensive, plus it's illegal to work without a license & even if you manage to get hired the pay is really little.
Good thing I walked around, otherwise I wouldn't have discovered...
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.
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THIS! Say with me. "OH MY GAWD." Is this Paradise or what???
I know I know. That's the reason why I wanna stay there! Look at the crystal clear waters! It looks like a shot from Travel + Leisure magazine... & you don't even have to travel to Maldives!
I spotted a couple kissing in the waters... just hugging each other & appreciating this whole beauty of nature. So sweet :) It's so relaxing not doing anything, esp when you don't even know what time of the day it is... just lying on the water letting the waves bounce you around.
There's nobody around to help me take photos so I politely asked a Japanese tourist if he can help me take some. Man, I think I do need a personal photographer hahaha.
After 30 mins I went to find Mich. She's STILL at that one spot. But I just had to bring her to see this. This one below is taken using iphone4. Still as pretty! Haha sorry for the spam.
At about 3pm, we left Phi Phi & headed back... this is how the 1st deck of the boat looks like.
Thoroughly beat.
LOL LOOK AT MICH looking at me from the corner of her eyes. She must be thinking "Camwhore again?!" We slept the whole journey back to the hotel
But we did not stay in! We took our towels & head to the beach! Well it's just opposite~
Man I cannot describe how good it feels. How absolutely good it feels to just lie down on the beach, letting the wind mess up your hair, letting the sun shine its' rays on you, & washing down the heat with an ice-cold beer. Sooooooooo good.
I like myself to be photographed but I'll also help ppl take photos ok! Love this photo of mich. So carefree & natural :)
I'm not naked I'm wearing a bikini top, just that it's almost nude in colour that blends in w my skin.
HAHAHA I didn't see that one coming.
Michhy ♥ Jo Lai. That's her 6 yrs bf, now going on to 7. How sweet!!
Then, we had to find a place for dinner. Walked around the main road & looked at a couple of restaurants' menu, then we decided on this, Karon Princess Hotel. This is just across the street from the beach, which is just a couple of steps from our hotel at Grand Sunset.
We got the set meal at a great price. But it's really just so-so.
Guess what is this? It's salmon sashimi. SALMON SASHIMI! When I looked at this exact words in the menu I start to salivate, literally. Which is what I always do when I saw/read about the food I love, even now when typing this. But this is totally not what I expected! In my mind I'm imagining fat, smooth pieces of salmon sashimi like those in our Japanese restaurants. No way I'll never order Japanese in Thailand again. Nasty. I think we ordered this separately it's not in our set meal.
That's our number from the tour this morning. A full day tour is really tiring! But fun too!
After dinner, we walked around the area for a bit more cos they have this sorta night market. Mich needs to get her shopping fix. Hahaha. But she's so slow! Took so long to browse one shop, but end up not getting any.
Headed back to the hotel & saw these kids trying to build sandcastles, by the roadside where we walk on! I say Daddy probably took 10 trips with 2 pails each crossing the road again & again for this amount of sand.
All makeup gone! Feel so refreshed! I'm wearing the top that I'm gonna wear tml... so that I don't have to bring extra clothes for slp. Hahaha save space!
You'd think this is the end of our day huh.
NOPE! We're heading out again! For massage! This is directly beside our hotel though. We've been thinking about it since ytd.
The receptionist who speaks excellent English. This is not like those 200b massage where the masseuse chat amongst themselves while anyhow rubbing your back. They have a whole list of different massages incl. Thai, Swedish, oil, aromatherapy etc.
I've always wanted to know... what is Swedish massage & how different is it from others. So I asked the lady & she told me Swedish massage is like oil massage but uses more strength to rub the knot outta you. Now I know.
The area for the Thai Massage. Lovely thai décor. Somehow I'm more relieved when I pay more for a massage knowing I'll at least be at ease.
Since I cannot take much strength, I chose the aromatherapy massage... & this is where we get knocked out after a whole day of activities.
One hour later... Happy us! :)
That's the end of day 2. Tml is adventure day! ATV woohoo here I come!
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