Phuket, Patong 16 to 18 June 12

On the way to Changi Airport

Waiting for Claire and Phil who were late!

Our resort Deepava Patong Resort and Spa

Rooms were surprisingly big and super clean ;) What's most important when going overseas for leisure will be clean and comfortable accommodation ~ especially the toilet!

Went for an hour massage (Aromatherapy) with Claire. Was quite ex at THB1,200 and the skill was not that good. However, it's expected that hotel service everywhere round the globe will be more expensive. There's a massage place just outside our resort (Oriental) that provides similar massage for like half that price. Didn't try it though, we didn't have enough time.

After massage and a short swim in the (warm) pool, we went out of the resort for our dinner. There's a whole row of seafood dinner places just across the street from our resort. Had originally planned to see whether we can have our dinner at Linda's Seafood however, we were pissed off and turned off by how aggressive the mongers were at getting business. They not only stop you in your tracks, block your way and shout in your ear but they also try to stop you from walking away by touching you! Understand they were trying to make a living. However, it's precisely because they did that, we don't want to eat at their shops.

In the end we walked down Rat-U Thid Road about less than 10 minutes away, near The Royal Paradise. There's a street of mini stalls there much like a night market, selling clothes and souvenirs. Opposite the night market-like street was this: 99 restaurant. Still aggressive but a whole lot less irritating than those we encountered before. This place was like full.... 爆满 and what we noticed was that a lot of the customers were Chinese.

This dish was nice, Chicken with cashew nuts. Love the texture of the chicken meat yumz~ ;) It's harder, less tender than the chicken we often eat with Chicken Rice but it's more chewy and sweet.

Tom Yam Goong, I only drank a little since I can't really take spicy food. Not as sour as the ones found in Singapore, not as spicy too. But they were not stingy with the ingredients as we found lots and lots of prawns and mushrooms in there~  

Stingray X 2

In total we ordered, 4 fried rice (quite big a portion, please share!),1 chicken with cashew, 1 vegetables, 1 tom yam goong, 6 drinks, 2 stingrays totaling up to about THB1800+ converted to SGD will be SGD18.50 per person. To me it's considered as expensive though compared to Singapore's price for the same spread, this will be cheap.

Look! We found treasures at the 7-eleven~ One Piece green tea~ There's Genmai, Goji and some other flavors I've forgotten but Genmai's my favourite~! Cornetto Ice Cream's selling at less than SGD1 per piece! We had a great time pigging ourselves with the Ice Cream after dinner. ;P

Next morning at 7am (8am Singapore Time) we got on to the mini van to take us to the ferry for island hopping.

The cruise ride to Phi Phi Islands will be about 2 hours.The cruise will take you to various parts of Phi Phi Islands to let you view the scenery, take some photos then for an hour snorkeling, then to a buffet lunch at Phi Phi Don/Lay (whatever).

Great scenery, though the corals and fish were not the best I've seen, they were great enough. Probably the tide's too high for a great view. (sorry, no underwater pics)

Really, you really don't have to go Island hopping on the big cruise ships. Instead, spend a bit more and get those speed boats to take you and your friends to go island hopping or snorkeling. 

Going on the big cruise ship was a torture. Yes, torture. You'll face loads of people who have no idea what is courtesy. You'll face vomits from children (and adults) which no one bothered to clean up. You'll face people smoking and blowing the smoke in your face. Time's wasted on the cruise as 2 hours to Phi Phi will mean 2 hours back + an hour snorkeling + 2 hours lunch and shopping, you'll reach your resort at about 7 pm and not much time left to do anything cept for a short swim, dinner and sleep.

We really regretted getting the deal from Deal.com.sg. Spent $58 per pax on a deal that says "speed boat" but did not get what we paid for.

This is what I meant by loads of people: