This is a continuation from Day 1 on Star Cruise Libra. Today, we woke up bright and early to go to Phuket. Btw, Thailand is one hour behind Malaysia, so those using smartphones have to rememeber not to use automatic lest it changes your phone time.
The crew kept emphasizing to us that the cruise ship follows "ship time", which is "Malaysia time". People like Benz and Vero overslept cos they followed Phuket time. Heheh. We agreed to meet at 9 am (I think), but they thought it was only 8 am when we banged on their door. So we had breakfast separately.
We went to the Ocean Palace (Chinese restaurant) for breakfast. When seated, I asked the waiter: err..how do I order food?
He smiled and told me to sit tight and wait just a minute. They will go fetch you a complete set of breakfast. This was our dim sum breakfast for two. Free! The porridge was realllly good. Benz had 3 bowls btw. That was how good it was. Hahah.
Bleary haven't woken up eyes and face.
Anyway, we are supposed to go down to port at about 12 pm (me thinks. Don't really remember now). But lunch starts at 11:30 or was it 11 am, so we all went to have free lunch again (too much food!), while waiting to go down.
We had a seat by the window so I saw clearly that they laid out carpets and the crew had gone down already, so I hustled everyone to quick quick go down to Phuket too!
Turned out we were the early ones. While other people were queuing up and organizing, we were rushing down the stairs. Hahah there are pros and cons to this.
The bad thing was, the taxi drivers charge you high prices cos you are one of the early ones. Allow me to explain. When mum and Win them went a week earlier, they said they booked a taxi for the whole day for 2,000 baht. (RM 200). Earlier on on the ship, the crew mentioned that they will start the price at 3,000 baht and they will go down to about 1,800 baht. Just negotiate with them nicely.
Unfortunately, we were the early birds so they refuse to reduce the price. We got 2,200 baht in the end. Pfft. Oh well. Not bad considering cos we divide by four. Some more, it was convenient to have a driver wait for us the whole day and night. No need to worry.
In the taxi, they give you a list of the places you can go to. Just pick and they drive you there. Do your research before hand and see which places you're interested in.
Btw, the cruise provides tours but they are more pricey and they go to places like some nut factory (why would I want to go there), and probably snorkeling (just guessing but so hot, no thanks). Ahem. Moving on.
Vero wanted to go to the snake show. So off we went. Entrance fees are separate of course. I don't remember how much this was.
Look at how red-faced Cs is. Hahaha its not the flash. The guy on the left was damn quick, and the guy on the right lost his second finger on his right hand. Its not an encouraging sight. =.=
This was how close we were sitting and no barrier at all ya know! When the snakes came close to my side, it was eww..but the guy was quick to pull the snakes back to his side, so all is well. I'm alive as you can see.
Didn't help that the commentor was saying stuff such as: this snake's poison can kill you within 15 minutes. Wtf please.
This snake was so huge! It looks bloated from having just eaten. I guess that's why they let us touch it.
After that we went elephant trekking. This was my idea. I wanted to go horse riding (on the beach) too cos it sounds romantic and err fun but after the elephant ride, I changed my mind. It was so hot that we all wanted to go the mall after that.
Vero and Benz.
Waiting for our ride..
That's our ride!!
The guide heard me say in mandarin to Cs: where's our umbrella??
He immediately reached for an umbrella and passed to me. They speak mandarin! And I look so scared. Haha that was in the beginning and when the elephant was walking down a slope. Very wobbly and had to hold on to my umbrella, my bag, and to Cs.
We took the 30 minute trek only and it costs about RM 90. Quite pricey but oh well it was an experience. :)
The thing with sitting on the elephant is you're at its mercy. No lah not that bad. Sounds so dramatic. Just that the elephant stops to eat along the way. Vero and Benz's elephant must have been bloody starving. It stopped so many times along the way to eat. Haha.
Ours pooped mid walk. Trivia of the day: did you know fresh elephant poop is green? Cos it eats so much vegetation I guess. Hahah we turned around to take photos of Vero's elephant when we noticed our elephant pooping while walking. Multitasking.
After that we went to Jungceylon (shopping center) to escape the heat. There are more places you could go to: shooting range, the beach, massages etc, but we chose the mall. Air con please!!
First stop was le siam for some thai food. Its located right at the entrance of Jungceylon. Slighlty pricier than other restaurants but its soo good.
Pineapple fried rice is yum.
Cs and I have been to Phuket before so it was easier to get around this time. I wrote about my last trip here.
Hot, slurpy Tom Yam Goong. Just look at it. A lot of seafood inside some more.
This guy was perfoming outside. He was dancing quite fast so it was quite hard to make out at first whether it was one or three people.
We shopped around a bit, went to Starbucks to use the free wifi (none btw). Thailand don't provide free wifi in Starbucks apparently. This was the case in Bangkok too. We asked. Shopped some more, went for a one hour body massage (all of us). Ahhh nice. One hour full body massage costs 300 baht (RM 30). So cheap. Why not?
Cs and Benz wanted Burger King to tapau back to the ship. Men. I scored a free fries and drink btw cos the guy mistook my two ala carte burgers for meals. Oh well. :) I'm sure I probably gave out some free food too when I was working at Mcd. Accidentally of course. Ahem.
Later on, we went to Patong beach. Stayed a while to watch some people parasailing, and took some photos. Cs and I got our feet wet while Benz and Vero didn't.
After sunset, we walked over to Bangla Road. Its basically this stretch of road filled with bars and dancing girls on poles with very little clothing, and people trying to pull you to watch ping pong shows (with their pussy) and other tourist products. Bought magnets here (super pricey). Don't buy here. Buy in Krabi.
I blogged about Bangla Road before. Click that link above. The last time I was here, it was during the weekends, so it was very happening. This time, I was here on a Monday night. It was mehh. Dancing started at 9 pm, which was 10 pm (ship's time), so we had to leave soon. Didn't get to see much this time around. Boo. We had to arrive back to the ship by 12 am midnight.
We chose this huge bar to go in for drinks. They had free wifi (oh so important).
Group shot!
Cs took this photo btw. Not me. But look at their attention to detail.
The bar was huge. Too bad it was kinda empty.
From Bangla road back to the port, it was about 30 mins. Not too far away.
Anyway, we were afraid the ship would sail without us so we went back to the ship on time, before midnight. Some people were cutting it really close though. Cs and I went to the top deck to hang out some more, and saw people running to the ship at midnight. Siao one.
Benz and Vero went back to rest after that. Cs and I, being the couple that don't know how to rest, we put our stuff back in our room, had the Burger King, and went out to the pool deck to chill some more.
There were still quite a lot of people about sitting in groups, drinking and taking pictures. Oh and waiting for the buffet (supper). Supper starts at 11:30 pm (I think), so of course Cs dragged me there again.
They have quite a lot of choices, including vegetarian options too for Indians it seems.
Anyway that concludes our second day out. Very long day it seems.
Next day: Krabi!
No comments:
Post a Comment