Phuket Day 1

Hi guys!

As promised, I will be posting about my Phuket trip from two weeks ago. I hope I remember everything that I wanna share with you. Haha. So... it was a trip planned by 3 of my cousins and I. We didn't really have the itinerary drafted out because there was really limited information online about Phuket. We only managed to seal a deal on Groupon - white water rafting with zipline. So, basically we only planned out the itinerary when we reached Phuket itself.

Day 1
Our flight was on Wednesday morning by Jetstar. I'm more of a Scoot fan though; it just feels right for me. Below is a comparison table between Scoot and Jetstar but what's more important is your personal attachment to the airline. With that, I would like to emphasize that these comparisons are based on my own experiences (a few times with Scoot and the most recent one with Jetstar), so you might disagree with me.

	Scoot	Jetstar
Flight schedule FROM Singapore	For certain destinations like Gold Coast and Hong Kong, the timings are early in the morning or midnight. J However, for some others, the flights can be at noon and then you will reach your destination in the evening or night, thus the whole day will be wasted. L	I’m not sure about Jetstar’s but my Phuket flight was in the morning. J
Flight schedule TO Singapore	Scoot’s timings are usually in the morning or midday. L	Personally, Jetstar’s timings are preferred because they are usually near the end of the day so you can make full use of your last day with more activities. J
Airfare	Both airfares are comparably cheap but I feel that scoot’s promotions are more frequent and significant. J Airfares on Scoot website are constantly changing, so consumers need to be quick and decisive. STRESSFUL!!! Especially when the offers have time limits. L
Pilots’ take-off and landing		I’m not really sure how to judge this but my cousins felt that the Jetstar pilot did well for our flight, better than their previous experiences. J
Seats	The seats are more cushioned in the sense that they feel sturdier. The seats are more spacious as well. J
Others		The noises made by the engines and when there was turbulence were very deafening. It was either the door wasn't closed properly (highly impossible) or the soundproofing property of the plane is not good. L

Upon arrival, we were greeted with nice air-conditioned walkways and intimidating salespeople at the exit, pulling people to their booths with exchange rates, attractions and transportation. Oh before I forgot, if you are thinking of getting a local SIM card at the airport, there is only one booth right after you clear immigration. If not, you have to get the SIM card from 7-eleven or family mart. They have a SIM card specially for tourists, which includes unlimited data for 7 days, costing about 299 Thai baht. There's free Wifi at almost every shop though.

So we took a metered taxi to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express, in Patong. It cost us 680 baht, exclusive of 100 baht airport administration fee. There is a variety of vehicles you can choose from to get around - metered taxi (3-4 pax), car (3 pax), van (7 pax), mini bus (>7 pax)... Except for metered taxis (more expensive!!! Cabbies might take you on a 'tour' if you're not careful), you can bargain the prices for the other vehicles. FYI, they charge per vehicle, not per pax. From Patong to anywhere else, 200-600 baht is the standard price range for vans. I will be more specific when I get to travelling around later.

We were a few hours early for check-in, so after storing our luggage, we went hunting for lunch and planned our itinerary.

Holiday Inn Express has its own tour booth, so you can check out the prices for tour packages and compare them with the ones outside. If the hotel of your choice doesn't have one, just go and find one somewhere to serve as the basis of comparison. There are plenty of tour booths out on the street and BARGAINING IS NECESSARY, so DO NOT rush into paying deposits!

Right, so walking down the street outside our hotel, you will be able to see the beautiful beach!!!

And there will already be shops along the road. If you cross over to the beach side and go down towards the left, you will pass by this coffee shop. Go in and you will see many food stalls. I don't really compliment on food because as long as they suit my taste buds, I think they are good. But if I were to say something is nice, believe me, it's DELICIOUS! So anyways, we ate at MAMA restaurant, which is the center stall, and I love its food!!! I would highly recommend their Phad Thai (White Kuay Tiao), Tom Yum Goong (Tom Yum Soup) and Lap Moo (Minced Pork Salad). We also had Kang Kong (Morning Glory) and seafood fried rice. All these only cost us 810 baht, including drinks. It is near the beach and the hygiene is not bad. So I would give 4.5 stars on a scale of 5 for this eating place.

* Thai food is generally more salty, not necessarily spicy, so you will still need water! If you want to save on drinks, you can bring your own or get from family mart. If you are like me, spice-intolerant, you can ask for less spicy too!

Just beside the coffee shop, you can find a tour booth called Carolina Phuket Tour Agency. It's the first tour booth that we came across and what left the deepest impression was the staff, Mia. She's very friendly and helpful. She really went all out to provide us assistance and clinch the deal with us, in a good way. The others whom we met in the later part of the day were either not interested or unhappy when we bargain.

With all the help that we can get and running around to check out prices, we fixed the schedules for the next 3 days. I'll keep the itinerary a secret for the time being; you will have to read the next few posts to know them. :P So basically, for the rest of the day, we walked along Bangla Road, which is filled with shops selling clothes, souvenirs and tour packages. Most of them have the same stuffs and they are all quite cheap. I think the shopping malls and plazas are the ones that you should go. The things there are significantly cheaper than Singapore and there is a greater variety of things to buy. For example, Kee Plaza and especially Jungceylon Shopping Centre. In Jungceylon, there's retail stores like Mango, Melissa Dream Jelly Shoes... A must-go at Jungceylon is its supermarket, Big C! You can get almost anything (especially facial products) you want there and cheap! Along the way, we also saw a few interesting stuffs like a random life-size chess board and wall paintings etc. We bought a crazy load of things - from clothes to accessories to food - and it's just the first day!!! :S

Bangla Road

Kee Plaza

Jungceylon

Our loot from Big C supermarket

And finally, we ended out day with a ride on the Tuk Tuk, a prominent vehicle in Thailand. The ride from Jungceylong to our hotel cost 200 baht, regardless if we took Tuk Tuk or taxi. It's an experience to take the Tuk Tuk and it's very cooling and beautiful at night with the sea breeze and all the streets light, so Tuk Tuk is definitely something to go for.

Back at the hotel, we were given Level 1 rooms and it was cozy and comfortable. The only demerit is its Wifi connection. :( And that's when the 3G SIM card came to our rescue.

Toilet and its interior

Our room with balcony

We ended our day with awesome pizzas for dinner, delivered from The Pizza Company (2 pizzas - Tom Yum Goong Cheese and Sausage crusted oh my god! and Italian Sausage Cheese crusted - with 6-piece drumlets: 970 baht), and the latest Running Man episode. And... voila! My loot of the day!

Toddlers' clothes x 2 sets: 200 baht each
Phuket shirts x 4: 125 baht each
Dried mango: ~300 baht
Ikan bilis: ~100 baht
Mango bag: ~600 baht
Soap with scrubber x 2: 100 baht
Tribal patterned shorts:100 baht
Bracelet: ~100 baht
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Total: 2,500 baht

Day 2 will be up next week! Don't worry, day 2-4 will be more interesting and adventurous than this! ;)

LOL (Lots of Love),
Jensylee