SE ASIA - DAY 54 - PHUKET - Free and Easy
My initially plan was to stay here in Phuket for 6 nights from tonight and I have booked a hotel earlier due to the fact that Hotels in Phuket are really popular. Due to the not-so-interesting things to do in Krabi, I have decided to come here a day earlier and stay in Patong Resort last night.
When I checked the booking this morning, I realized that I have screwed up on the dates. I am earlier one day from the schedule and the hotel I was supposed to stay tomorrow for 6 night's price have raised from SGD98/night to SGD238/night 😥. The hotel I stayed last night without free Wifi is also fully booked today.
The hotel I booked for 6 nights.
So I look up on booking.com and found another hotel 20 meters away for SGD120/day.
So I had my breakfast, packed up and check-out. They happens to have a weighing machine at the hotel so I weigh my bigger side pannier, was really curious on how heavy it is.
20Kg, but it really feels much heavier than that. The smaller one which contains all the tools and other things that I don't need to be brought up to the hotel room is probably weighing about 15kg.
So I mount up, rode 20 meters, unload and checked in into the new hotel. Luckily, they have empty room at 11am, that means I don't have to wait until 2pm.
The Veridian hotel that I will be staying tonight looks like a Jungle with a swimming pool in the middle.
This is what I can see from my balcony.
It's quite a decent room.
Most important of all, free wifi, although there is a need to login with ID and Password which doesn't work most of the time on my iphone. I have to tether it from my notebook instead for my iphone to connect.
I will have to repeat the transfer of hotel again tomorrow at about noon-time and likely to be able to check-in at 2pm. That means I would not be able to go far for a full day tour. Never mind, I have 6 more nights to go in Phuket, no hurry.
So the plan is to explore the streets of Patong beach today and tomorrow. Beautified another lamp post along the way.
Went to visit this big mall in Patong beach, called the JungCeylon mall.
They do have a food court there.
These hand-crafted lamps looks nice, but I already have two such lamps at home and there isn't any more spots for lamps. Anyway, my pannier box are fully packed to the brim, no more additional spaces for any more things.
Selfie with my selfie-stick.
Then I am in Bangla street, a street full of different theme pubs.
I like the tiger theme the best, they looked fierce.
And the Aussies claimed their territory here as well.
Moulin rouge ? I think it's probably a casual ladyboy performance place.
Then it's to the beach again, it's freaking hot. I guess the Westerners all like to come here despite the long flight just to escape from the cold winter, of course they enjoy the hot sun here. Not for me, I couldn't stand another 10 mins just being there.
They have different country flags planted on different parts of the beach, I guess it is to gather the same people from the same country to come together and have fun. No Singapore flag spotted. We could have done the same thing in East Coast Park beach, so which Singaporean bothers to lay down and get sun-tanned here ?
As for me, I tried to cover myself as much as possible not to get tanned.
Then back to walking the commercial streets again.
There basically a few types of shops here in the streets of Patong. Let me offer you a summary of it.
First, the small little stalls that try to sell you the different day tours to various tourist attractions. I find them trying to quote you a very high price and up to your negotiation power/charm to bring it down. Depending on how much price comparison you have done just to decide on one tour, this is just too time consuming. Try ctrip.com and they have all the one-day tour all lined up on your web browser for you to choose. Alternatives are tuniu.com or alitrip.com. Sorry but they are all China websites but some do have English version. All price are fully transparent and no negotiations, save lots of time ensuring you are not ripped off. You get to also read the reviews posted by other people who have tried the various tours and shared their experiences if it was good. I will stay away from these shops on the street instead..
Then, there are tons of Tattoo shops with ready design for you to choose from. I have never been a fan of tattoo, so no comments, but I guess the price has to be attractive, the demands explains why there are so many of such shops there.
Then there are these massage shops where all the middle age ladies calling you, "massage sir". Traditional thai massages prices ranges from 200THB/hr to 300THB/hr.
And the restaurants. I find it strange but there is a significant number of restaurants here owned/operated by Indians. There are also quite a number of Halal restaurants but I don't go there because I need beer to accompany my food. I must have like seen four of the "Number 6" restaurants in Patong. One of them must have been very good and the rest are just wannabes leveraging on the popularity.
Lastly, are shops who sell knock-off brands of T-shirts, water-proof bags, slippers, backpacks, handicrafts and such. These are what you get to see mostly along the streets of Patong.
It's lunch time and I got into a restaurant, ordered a soy-sauce Seabass for 300THB. Same price for a live red snapper but I prefer a dead Seabass for the taste. It's still fresh and this is probably the fifth seabass I have eaten since Chumpon. Never have been dissapointed with the freshness of the fish. The only complain I have is that they did not fully clean off the scale of the fish. I just have to spit out the scale one-by-one.
Back to the hotel, seeing that my bike is safely parked at the hotel compound.
By now, I am all sweaty from the walking under the hot sun and decided to take a shower and then did my laundry. I was shocked by the colour of the water. Is my laundry so dirty or the water naturally comes in this colour ? I swear I was wearing a freshly washed T-shirt this morning before going out. So I drained the water and wait for a fresh basin of water from the tap.
Concluded that the streets of Patong beach is really dusty. 😅
Day 55 - Phuket - Free and Easy
When I checked the booking this morning, I realized that I have screwed up on the dates. I am earlier one day from the schedule and the hotel I was supposed to stay tomorrow for 6 night's price have raised from SGD98/night to SGD238/night 😥. The hotel I stayed last night without free Wifi is also fully booked today.
The hotel I booked for 6 nights.
So I look up on booking.com and found another hotel 20 meters away for SGD120/day.
So I had my breakfast, packed up and check-out. They happens to have a weighing machine at the hotel so I weigh my bigger side pannier, was really curious on how heavy it is.
20Kg, but it really feels much heavier than that. The smaller one which contains all the tools and other things that I don't need to be brought up to the hotel room is probably weighing about 15kg.
So I mount up, rode 20 meters, unload and checked in into the new hotel. Luckily, they have empty room at 11am, that means I don't have to wait until 2pm.
The Veridian hotel that I will be staying tonight looks like a Jungle with a swimming pool in the middle.
This is what I can see from my balcony.
It's quite a decent room.
Most important of all, free wifi, although there is a need to login with ID and Password which doesn't work most of the time on my iphone. I have to tether it from my notebook instead for my iphone to connect.
I will have to repeat the transfer of hotel again tomorrow at about noon-time and likely to be able to check-in at 2pm. That means I would not be able to go far for a full day tour. Never mind, I have 6 more nights to go in Phuket, no hurry.
So the plan is to explore the streets of Patong beach today and tomorrow. Beautified another lamp post along the way.
Went to visit this big mall in Patong beach, called the JungCeylon mall.
They do have a food court there.
These hand-crafted lamps looks nice, but I already have two such lamps at home and there isn't any more spots for lamps. Anyway, my pannier box are fully packed to the brim, no more additional spaces for any more things.
Selfie with my selfie-stick.
Then I am in Bangla street, a street full of different theme pubs.
I like the tiger theme the best, they looked fierce.
And the Aussies claimed their territory here as well.
Moulin rouge ? I think it's probably a casual ladyboy performance place.
Then it's to the beach again, it's freaking hot. I guess the Westerners all like to come here despite the long flight just to escape from the cold winter, of course they enjoy the hot sun here. Not for me, I couldn't stand another 10 mins just being there.
They have different country flags planted on different parts of the beach, I guess it is to gather the same people from the same country to come together and have fun. No Singapore flag spotted. We could have done the same thing in East Coast Park beach, so which Singaporean bothers to lay down and get sun-tanned here ?
As for me, I tried to cover myself as much as possible not to get tanned.
Then back to walking the commercial streets again.
There basically a few types of shops here in the streets of Patong. Let me offer you a summary of it.
First, the small little stalls that try to sell you the different day tours to various tourist attractions. I find them trying to quote you a very high price and up to your negotiation power/charm to bring it down. Depending on how much price comparison you have done just to decide on one tour, this is just too time consuming. Try ctrip.com and they have all the one-day tour all lined up on your web browser for you to choose. Alternatives are tuniu.com or alitrip.com. Sorry but they are all China websites but some do have English version. All price are fully transparent and no negotiations, save lots of time ensuring you are not ripped off. You get to also read the reviews posted by other people who have tried the various tours and shared their experiences if it was good. I will stay away from these shops on the street instead..
Then, there are tons of Tattoo shops with ready design for you to choose from. I have never been a fan of tattoo, so no comments, but I guess the price has to be attractive, the demands explains why there are so many of such shops there.
Then there are these massage shops where all the middle age ladies calling you, "massage sir". Traditional thai massages prices ranges from 200THB/hr to 300THB/hr.
And the restaurants. I find it strange but there is a significant number of restaurants here owned/operated by Indians. There are also quite a number of Halal restaurants but I don't go there because I need beer to accompany my food. I must have like seen four of the "Number 6" restaurants in Patong. One of them must have been very good and the rest are just wannabes leveraging on the popularity.
Lastly, are shops who sell knock-off brands of T-shirts, water-proof bags, slippers, backpacks, handicrafts and such. These are what you get to see mostly along the streets of Patong.
It's lunch time and I got into a restaurant, ordered a soy-sauce Seabass for 300THB. Same price for a live red snapper but I prefer a dead Seabass for the taste. It's still fresh and this is probably the fifth seabass I have eaten since Chumpon. Never have been dissapointed with the freshness of the fish. The only complain I have is that they did not fully clean off the scale of the fish. I just have to spit out the scale one-by-one.
Back to the hotel, seeing that my bike is safely parked at the hotel compound.
By now, I am all sweaty from the walking under the hot sun and decided to take a shower and then did my laundry. I was shocked by the colour of the water. Is my laundry so dirty or the water naturally comes in this colour ? I swear I was wearing a freshly washed T-shirt this morning before going out. So I drained the water and wait for a fresh basin of water from the tap.
Concluded that the streets of Patong beach is really dusty. 😅
Day 55 - Phuket - Free and Easy
Yep, Patong is (rhymes with 'sit') !
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha, gotta wear a face mask from tomorrow onwards.
Delete