Two thousand nineteen has been a good year. Already. On the 3rd of April I celebrated my birthday in solitude. My 5th birthday abroad, the first on my own. I guess 23 is a good age for it.
Anyway, 30th of March 9:20am and I was up and away again! Off to the beautiful Island of Phuket, Thailand. I could not have been more excited, nervous and ready for the trip. Even-though it was only for a week, the thrill of stepping into the unknown like this once again was exactly what I needed after having lived and worked in Byron Bay and having been in Australia for almost half a year already.
Six months is a long time if you live every day and not just let life pass by. This is something I have learnt during my travels. They say time flies when you’re having fun which is true but doesn't time always fly by in hind sight? I mean to say that I feel like I've been to so many places and met so many new faces, it wouldn't be right not to acknowledge all the awesomeness of my last 182 days spent here.
Back to Phuket. Now, I feel like I must start with sharing something I would have liked to known beforehand. This being that Phuket is quite a big island with plenty of little towns. Public transport is close to non-existent and taxi’s are quite pricy for Thai-standards.
The single piece of public transport that I found was the airport bus. Which is the easiest/cheapest combination to get to Old town. Costs 100Bhat and takes about an hour and 20 min to and hour and a half from the airport to Old town. If you say which hotel you’re staying at in old town the bus driver might just drop you off in front if it’s on the way.
Although old town is quaint and has it’s charms, things to do and see are well spread over the entire island. On Sunday nights though, you'll find the Thalang night market right in the centre of Old town, which I most definitely recommend to everyone staying in Phuket over the weekend.
So the thing about Phuket is, is that you’ve got two big hubs where you’d want to be. This being Old town and Patong beach area. Now Patong beach is world renown for it’s party scene and I made the very conscious decision NOT to stay there because I wanted to go explore and relax rather than party. So I started off at Vitamin sea hostel in Old town. This beautiful little hostel is an easy walk from the bus station 1 where the airport bus ends and is an equally easy walk up the road to the central streets. Probably the best thing about the hostel is the ever so friendly and helpful staff. Most definitely recommend when in Phuket.
Spent my first morning pretty slow, figuring out a plan on what to see and do in Phuket and if I would even stay in Phuket for the entire week. After a good couple of hours going over maps and talking to other travellers I decided not to make a decision quite yet on what to do with my week. I went for a walk in stead. Ended up wandering through Old town for most of the day.
Turns out there's quite enough places to discover in Old town I soon found out. Temples and murals just around corners and down alleyways. As well as a nice park here and there and of course all the food waiting to be eaten. After a quick nap back at the hostel I ventured to the night market to stuff my face in all that's weird and wonderful. Ran into two girls I met at the hostel and ended up eating loads of mango sticky rice which made my soul really happy.
I'd also decided on doing an island hopping day tour, which I booked through the hostel. So day two started early with a pick up shuttle to Rassada pier. I booked a 3 islands day trip tour with Sea Angel for 1 400Baht (39€/62AU$) as it was recommended by the hostel and I had a great day.
Air conditioned shuttle to the pier, animated briefing by the tour guide accompanied by free water, juice, coffee and some biscuits. And then off we were!
Speedboating to the first stop which was Yao Yai Island where we were free to go snorkelling and so I did of course. Met some really cool people too with who I ended up hanging out with for the rest of the day. We also got fresh pineapple and watermelon sliced to munch on before heading off for some sightseeing. Where we stoped in monkey bay and went snorkelling in the Phi Phi marine national park among many other places. For lunch we headed to Phi Phi Don, where we spent another couple of hours relaxing and enjoying the island
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| one of the snorkel sights, where I saw the entire Finding Nemo-crew ! |
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| Take three for the sea |
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| Koh Phi Phi Don |
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| Had such a great time and laugh with this crew! |
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| Monkey bay laughs |
So about the monkey picture. If you know me at all I feel quite strongly about animal/wildlife conservation and keeping wildlife wild. Which naturally includes not exploiting wildlife for tourism or any proposes really. This includes feeding wildlife, which I can get really angry about if I see people doing this (certainly if it's just to take a picture/selfie with the animal??!) as it disturbs their natural habitats and food patterns. So in the picture we're at Monkey bay, a little bay on one of the islands close to Phuket known for it's monkeys that inhabit the beach. Tourists come to the island in boat loads and although we were explicitly asked not to touch/feed nor interact with the wildlife clearly others weren't. As there were loads of people feeding the monkey it's clear that these monkeys already have changed their habits greatly and now fully associate humans with food.
So as I was getting angry at idiots feeding the monkeys another monkey climbed up my leg to sit on my shoulder/head. Quite ironic, I know, as I was telling people off for feeding the monkeys and letting them climb onto them for pictures. But I still think it's a funny picture so imma still gonna leave it right here.
Case in point: DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE, nor ride elephants, take selfies with tigers, .... the list goes on and on really. people are idiots 🙅
ok rant over, back to my trip.
So for the next four nights I found myself in bathing in (affordable) luxury. I got on of the studio villa's with views over the bay for just 281AU$ (178€) breakfast buffet included. The resort also rents out SUP-boards and kayaks for free to explore the bay and next-door mangroves. I cannot recommend this place enough. Honestly. Very friendly staff, always happy to help.
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| Kao Khad views tower |
Next day I went for a bit of local exploring and had the idea to hike up the hill behind the resort and visit the view point there. Luckily I got picked up on my way up, because I would've died ever so slightly if I'd had attempted to walk up that hill in the blazing heat of mid day lol.
So big shout out to the friendly local Aussie who picked me up and gave me a ride up on his scooters haha!
Once up there I was greeted with magnificent 360 views though.
Well worth the hike back down, 6k and almost 200m elevation. Although, to be fair, the last 400m some friendly ladies gave me a ride again, probs because I looked like i would faint and die any second (my face turns really really red quickly and I was sweating profusely. It ain't pretty haha).
Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling and headed out to Patong beach (on the other side of the island) to meet up with the guys I met on the tour yesterday.
Patong beach is quite the experience, to say the least. I think one you can't miss out on, while in Phuket, but certainly not one I would do over and over again. So Patong is famous for this one street where it all goes down. Quite literally. Nightlife mecca. Also, ping-pong mecca, if you get what I'm getting at ;-).
I met up with the guys because we had been talking about the whole ping-pong show thing. That we kind of wanted to see it but kind of didn't. Naturally we ended up going to one. It's not hard to find as people on the streets quite literally harass you to go see one. They all give you the whole: "it's free you just buy a drink and can leave whenever you want"speech. Which is perfectly true, only thing is the drinks cost about 10 times as much as anywhere else lol. So we bargained for the price greatly and ended up paying 200bhat each for a drink (which is still expensive for Thailand but better than the 1400bhat on the menu).
The show itself was honestly ..... quiet boring. An experience for sure, almost comical by the normality these ladies pushed, pulled and popped things out of their lady parts.
Eventually we were there for over an hour and a half as all sence of time just leaves you in this underground joint. When we finally walked out of there I found myself walking straight into a big ass night club where we ended up dancing the night away, and into my birthday.
Starting out the morning nice and slow with a big brekkie and a chill by the pool before my 11AM massage. I'd never had an actual Thai massage, I don't even think I've ever had an actual professional massage in general. Needless to say I was quite excited to get pampered. And what a pampering it was. Pretty sure I fell asleep at some point out of relaxation. lol. But the best part might've been when the massage was over and a staff member came walking into the pavilion with two cocktails wishing me a happy birthday from my sister. I must admit I almost cried.
So one of my sisters, Tweenie, found a way to reach me from quite literally half a world away. She paid for my massage and arranged the cocktails. I still don't really know what I did to deserve a sister and best friend like that.
My afternoon was honestly just as marvellous as the morning, though in a very different way. I rented this bad boy for 24 hours and went exploring, because yes, in contrary to what people say (that there isn't much in Phuket and that it's just a stop over place between the islands and the airport); there is so much to see!
Also scooter hire is super easy and cheap ! I paid 350 Bhat (≈15AU$/‹10€) for 24 hours renting one from the hotel. But in town I found ones for just 250 Bhat (11AU$/7€) for the day, this usually isn't 24hours though and you have to either leave you passport or a 1000 Bhat deposit. Anyway it's super easy to hire one and a great way to get around!
First stop was Watt Chalong, across the bay from where I was. Scootering in Phuket can be dangerous as the locals are all very confident and everybody knows where they're going and what they're doing. Now, I used to own a scooter in high school so it's almost safe to say I knew what I was doing. Problem is tourists don't know what the locals are doing resulting in collisions. Thankfully I managed to get everywhere safely and thoroughly enjoying myself whizzing around on a scooter like I was 17 again haha!
Next up I drove up up the hill to the Big Buddha. On my way up I felt sick a couple of times by the elephant exploitation companies that do the jungle rides with these amazing animals. I'm not going to rant about it again, but please people. Don't ride the animals. Go to sanctuaries where they save them, give them a feed or a bath is you really must. But most of all, please just leave these animals wild where they belong.
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| happy birthday to me! |
Right so this big *ss Buddha, or more respectfully called: Ming Mongkol Buddha is the third tallest statue in Thailand sitting at 45m tall and completely covered in white marble. Needless to say it's quite the sight to see.
Also, as in all temples in Phuket (& Thailand I presume) don't forget to wear appropriate clothing, meaning covering knees and shoulders at the least.
Top tip: a sarong or two will do just fine
and are easy to cary with you!
I forgot my sarong but got lucky as they have free wraps for you to borrow on your way into the temple grounds here.
Around the main temple there are many other statues with kitties lounging in the sun and magnificent views to be seen all round.
By the time I got home I was greeted with this glorious sunset. Jumped in the shower and went out for dinner by the bay. Life's good at 23.
Last day I didn't waste a minute adventuring as there were still some thing's I wanted to see, places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do!
So first thing after brekkie in the morning I jumped in a kayak and ventured into the mangroves in front of the hotel while it was still high tide.
After an hour or so on the water I headed toward Old town again on my scooter and found Monkey hill. Now you don't have to be a genius to find out why they call it as such so I just spent some time watching the monkeys doing what monkeys do best. Which felt quite the same as people watching, only difference is that I usually do the latter with a coffee and a snack. Which isn't possible here as the monkeys will most definitely come and steal anything food-like from you. So I just had some fun taking pictures of all these guys.
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| to chill to give a damn |
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| did somebody say food? |
And just like that, my birthday adventure week had come to an end. A last dip in the pool, another great sunset and bed for me before a long journey homewards, back to Aus the following day.
On my way back home I had an eight hour layover in Singapore though,
so guess who went on a day trip to Singapore ??!!
on the blog soon!
xoxo Liz
