Life beyond the beach and the deck chairs

Now in case all of you think we were just lazing out by the beach the whole week (tempting as it was)...we did make an attempt to 'see' some parts of Phuket.

Our hotel has a sister hotel called Peach Hill on Karon beach. Got free shuttle bus.

The free 'shuttle bus' from the hotel. Of course it wasn't really a bus per se. But this type of vehicle is very common in Phuket, together with the tuk-tuk and the regular taxi. Not very fast but all very colouful.


Peach Hill Hotel had just undergone a renovation but we felt it was too 'hotel-like' for our taste. But I did like their pool bar..






And then on another day, we rented a jeep. Very cheap jeep = 1,000Bht only for a full 24 hours. But the jeep hor...

- had shift gears that groan and groan
- had a hole on the floor. I could see the road as we drove along
- had an air-con that barely works. It fact it was cooler with the windows down

But, it does work. Oh, you can rent motobikes there. Very cheap too but I wouldn't recommend it. Phuket has a high rate of accidents involving motorbikes.

Anyway, on the trusty jeep, we went-a travelling.

Central Karon Village
This was the hotel we would have stayed in if it wasn't full. Very nice and their restaurant The Cliff is very well known- both for the food and the panoramic view of The Andaman Sea.

The entrance to The Cliff
One of the room.

We had a very nice lunch here. (Come to think of it, our own Sentosa Hotel also have a restaurant called The Cliff. Wonder how is it like)



Kathu Waterfall
Phuket has a few waterfalls. We didn't have much time, so we went to the nearest one-Kathu Waterful. Wasn't much of a waterfall though, more like Kathu Tricklefall.



But what made it interesting was the dog that followed us all the way up to the waterfall, waited for us whilst we look-see-look-see and then followed us all the way down again. It was really sweet as he would stop and wait for us to catch up and then sat beneath our seat as we rested up at the waterfall. It even followed hubby to the toilet.... hmmm...

And oh...we almost became this spider's lunch. Kidding.. but it was BIG. I'm not joking. It was one mean looking spider.


The dog, the hubby and the cheap jeep.

Patong Beach
Now in case most of you didn't know...the action is actually at Patong Beach. So we went there for a look and stayed for a full 2 hours, of which 1 hour was spent inside Starbucks. To escape from the heat and the tailors.

What I didn't tell you guys about the famous tailors of Phuket? Well, you can't miss them coz they're everywhere and they make sure you see and hear them.

"Suit sir?" "Shirt?" "Where are you from? You want to make a suit?" "Good day sir, come on in and have a look. I give you very good price."

At the risk of being rude, the only way was to ignore them. BUT we had absolutely no problem from the others...just the tailors.

So the only photo I took of Patong Beach was this. See the many, many motorbikes?






We must be getting old... Ok, ok, we are getting old. We actually had no desire to stay on at Patong Beach to see the night life. Instead, we drove to Laem Phromthep. This is the southernmost point of Phuket. It is popular with the tourists as well as the local Thais for views of the sunset.

Laem Phromthep
After Patong Beach, this seems almost civilized.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day so we didn't get a good, glorious sunset. This was the best shot..Still, it's rather peacful, isn't it?