Went to Phuket (Thailand) for the very first time last September, on Tiger Airways. In Phuket, I did many things “the first time” as well.
Luckily I did my homework (as I always do) before we got there – I had the itinerary all worked out the moment I walked out of the Arrival Hall at Phuket airport. This ensured that we did not waste precious time wondering we should be doing next. The taxi-ride from the airport to the hotel was something to behold. Upon leaving the airport compound, the driver (who wasn’t much older than me) known as floored the accelerator – he was going like 100km/h in a (what would have been, in Australia) 60km/h zone, cutting into other people’s lane without so much as breaking into a sweat, and basically leaving me breathless in the back-seat.
The other wonderful things were: (a) the taxi did not have safety belts at the back, (b) there were no speed limit signs at all on the roads, which essentially meant that “Who dares wins!” And this budding-Formula-One racer certainly dared! He was easily the fastest car on the road that morning; no other vehicle passed us. And the most wonderful thing was: the car was speeding at 100km/h (in a normally 60km/h zone), the next moment he saw the lights ahead turn orange, he actually put the gear-stick into neutral, let the car cruise a while, then step on the brakes! I don’t know how in the world he got his driver’s licence, but that’s bloody dangerous and idiotic behaviour (besides the fact that he’s wearing out the brake-pads at a much faster rate). I was just relieved that we got to the hotel in one piece.
We stayed at Kata Palm Resort & Spa, near Kata Beach, which was rated as a 4 star hotel. The (Deluxe Pool View) room was damn bloody spacious, to me I felt like a king – which was another “first”. The toilet was pretty unique – it had wooden windows which enabled you to see what’s going on in the bedroom! Never seen anything like this before. The bathtub was strategically placed so that you could watch the television shows while immersed in a bathtub of warm soapy water, which was exactly what I did on a number of occasions.
The hotel also had two free 24h ADSL high speed internet stations (to my delight), a gym, and two beautiful swimming pools. We only paid SGD$44.44 per night, which included a full buffet breakfast each morning. I reckon this was one of the best value-for-money hotel experiences I’ve ever encountered.
We did a lot of walking, in the town centre. There were so many shops selling the same (souvenir-type) things that after a while, it got a little boring. All I got were a couple of Phuket shirts, to remind me of the trip.
On the second day, we went on this 6-in-1 safari adventure, which was an eye-opener in many respects. Undoubtedly the highlight of this adventure was the elephant ride. They are large yet gentle beasts, and very well-trained (I might add), responding obediently to each command that their mahouts give to them. They certainly know how to put on a show – playing harmonica and dancing (albeit at a slow pace) in unison. One elephant even slam-dunked a basketball! I also managed to “enjoy” in an elephant massage! Luckily it didn’t put its full weight on me, otherwise I would have been a mashed potato, that’s for sure.
The monkey show was pretty interesting as well – one of them demonstrated how to pick coconuts from a tall coconut tree, ride a tricycle, and shoot hoops (at about my shoulder-height). I also managed to sit on a water-buffalo and have a photo taken. Then there was the demonstration of how rubber sap is tapped from a rubber tree, and processed into flat rubber sheets to be sent off to factories.
At night, we went to the must-see attraction in Phuket – Fantasea, a highly entertaining cultural and arts show that lasted about 90min, with laser lighting effects that dazzled the crap out of me. Their use of lights, sounds, colours, costumes and props could easily rival those exhibited at the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony. It was a full house that night; I’m pretty sure every night would be packed as well. At roughly SGD$50.00 per ticket, they would be laughing all the way to the bank (considering the low cost of living in Thailand, in my humble opinion).
They were extremely strict about preventing unauthorised photo-taking of any kind for the show: besides the usual devices like cameras and video-cameras, mobile phones (even those without built-in cameras) had to be surrendered as well. [Reason for this is given below…] Hence I got the next best thing, which is to buy postcards (and scan them into digital format)! Hehehe. Smart, eh?
The highlight of the night was undoubtedly getting up close and personal with a tiger cub (as we walked along the walkway to the theatre)! It’s so cute; the skin was so smooth, so lovely to touch. The keepers kept it distracted by giving it a milk-bottle for it to suck. Then, in quick military procession style, each couple was given roughly 10 seconds to smile and pose with the cub, then given their marching orders to the cash register for payment. It’s not very often one gets to handle a tiger, so I guess the SGD$20.00 price-tag (for an 8R size photo and two 4R size photos) was money well-spent. I would say this is one of the main reasons why cameras are banned in the show: another smart money-making exercise.OK, better stop here for now. Keep an eye out for Part 2 of this Phuket adventure!
