Phuket Trip Day 5

After 2 days of island tour, we almost visited all the famous islands near Phuket. Today, we had a different experience by going for elephant trekking and water rafting! 

After the breakfast of fried noodle, we had a 2-hour van ride to Khaolak Safari (aka Island Safari Adventure). Not sure if because of the ride or noodle, few of us suffered from stomach upset. 

Our first activity was elephant trekking. It was a new and good experience, but we kinda pity those elephants as they are trained to carry tourists even when they are pregnant. 

Could hear Yee Voon and Alicia scream when the
elephant started walking 

Friendship forever!

Practically the elephants are trained to wade through the river, walk the tourists one round before going back to the gathering point. 

During this trekking, we only realized that elephants are pretty clever. The hat of the our elephant crew dropped in the water accidentally, then elephant quickly used its nose (trunk) to suck it up and pass it to the crew! That really amazed us. 

We spent few minutes touching and caring the elephants too. 

Feel like skin of snake

After the trekking, we watched elephant show.

The most eye-opening one was this:

"Bird" massage!

Subsequently, it was monkey show. 

They are swift and smart as expected. 

Then it came the most exciting activity - water rafting! 

It was not as scary as I thought, perhaps because we took the novice level. 

Then we ended our trip with fruit sampling in a fruit garden. We were served with fresh guava, dragon fruit, papaya, rambutan and mango. Not to forget, we took the chance to taste the delicious tomyam soup, chicken curry and ondeh-ondeh as well. 

After back from the trip, we spent some time swimming and splashing water in the swimming pool on the hotel rooftop before we went for massage and dinner! I am grateful I can write all these out because Shane reminded me this and we jotted down the highlights of the trip before we went to sleep.

Early in the morning the next day, we made our way to the airport. 

This marks the end of our wonderful trip. It not only gives us fun but also enhances our friendship! Thanks Yee Voon again for organizing the trip! 

Phuket Trip Day 4

Day 4 was another fun day. At least there were no more hard boat bumping and salty water creeping into my eyes and mouth. 

Early in the morning, we were picked up when we were having our breakfast at hotel. We gathered at Ao Por Grand Mariana and cruised to Hong Island as our first destination. 

This time it was a big cruise, carrying food, canoes, and of course us! 

It was a long journey (around one hour plus). So we were served with carbonated drink and biscuits. 

While we were busy taking pictures,

Alicia and Yee Voon went for tattoo-ing.

Along the journey, we did not forget to enjoy the picturesque scenery around us as well. 

Our first destination was a mangrove swamp. We couldn't reach it but need to paddle canoes into the small cave and then went in. I screamed like hell the moment I walked down to the canoe, as the canoe kept shaking with me kept shaking the canoe hard. =.= After seconds of screaming, then only I calmed down a bit and was assisted by crew to paddle inside the mangrove swamp. 

We stopped our canoe at the entrance of a small cave and waded through the water to reach the mangrove swamp. 

It has nothing much there except the muddy mangrove swamp! We spent a few minutes there taking photos and made our way back to the canoe and cruise. 

This time I was less afraid and could paddle on our own without the crew's assistance.

After Hong Island, we made our way to Panak Island. It is an island full of serene lagoons and magnificent limestones. 

And the best limestone is James Bond 2 Island. 

Later you can judge if this looks similar to the real James Bond Island
comparing to the pictures below. 

Soon it was lunch time! We were served with succulent Thai cuisine onboard! 

At the same time, the cruise was propelling us towards James Bond Island. 

Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs when we reached James Bond Island. We sheltered ourselves few minutes and decided to take pictures eventually. 

The rain then started to subdue, but we had been soaked in rain! For your information, James Bond Island is famous because the movie James Bond was filmed there. Its other names are Khao Phing Kan and Ko Tapa. 

After James Bond Island, we headed to our last destination for the island tour that is Phang Nga Bay! We spent a quality time of 40 minutes there canoeing! Some other tourists were swimming. The crew even relaxed themselves playing among themselves in the water too. 

Alvin and Me

Shane and Yee Voon

This time we were totally enjoying being on the sea canoeing. We even canoed to a place slightly farther than the crew's sight control, and they yelled us back! 

Joyful time ended very soon. We paddled back to the cruise reluctantly. 

While on the way back to the quay, the crew performed an eye-opening "Lady Boy" show couple with lip-singing! 

Alvin was the most enjoying one!

All the tourists were enjoying a lot and made quite some cheers. 

After back to our hotel, we just filled up our stomach with Thai instant noodles and then were lying down to enjoy Thai massage just next to our hotel! 

The 2-day island tour was really my ever best island tour in my life so far! Until now, the every moment of joy is still etched in my heart. 

Phuket Trip Day 3

It was a sunny day unlike the day before where it was raining heavily in the afternoon and evening. Early in the morning, we woke up, washed up, and headed down to have our simple breakfast. We were then picked up to gather at a quay to ride a speedboat to Loh Samah Island. We were waiting for a while to wait for all our boat members. And as usual, with Shane being around, he would not allow time pass by without doing something useful during a vacation like photoshooting! 

And here are some of his masterpiece. 

Soon after everyone was there, the speedboat was set off to Loh Samah Island. It was an hour ride and we were asked if to sit at the deck to experience the exciting bumping. Since we are among the youngest in the boat, we agreed to do. But it was slightly beyond our expectation, the wave was strong to bump us up and down HARD. From this trip, I got to learn that water surface could be as hard as a concrete cement wall if we fall hard on it. In another word, it could cause us to be fatal if we fall from high. Besides, sometimes the wave was high and we were seemingly going to be covered beneath it. It was scary!

After tonnes of horrifying bumping, we finally reached Loh Samah Island.

Serene Loh Samah Island

Alvin being hydrophilic was the first one to jump off the boat with a very poised posing to swim.

Then each of us slowly made our way with different poses into the crystal clear water.

Alicia

Shane

I tried hard to convince myself it was not high, but
I was still scared and just slipped off with hand still gripping hard @@

Yee Voon

It was a remarkable activity to kick start our day. Our hydro-activity mode was switch on!

We were served a variety of carbonated beverage when we went onboard. Soon after, the boat was speeding to Monkey Beach. In between, we passed by Viking Cave where bird nest is being picked.

Viking Cave

We did nothing much on the Monkey Beach except feeding monkeys. =.=

Good friends forever!!!

The speedboat then propelled us to Phi Phi Don (where Ton Sai Town is located) for lunch. During 2004 Tsunami, Ton Sai Town was hit severely, many were dead and the villagers spent quite some time to make the town to come alive once again.

After lunch, YeeVoon, Alicia and Alvin were resting under the trees, while Shane and I were exploring the town, traversing in the small and merry streets selling different kinds of souvenirs.

We then made our way to our last destination, that is Khai Nai Island! I shall let the pictures below to describe how mesmerizing the island is.

We spent a quality time of few hours there relaxing, splashing water, being pushed by water wave at the seashore, and of course taking plentiful pictures.

I really thanked Shane for all the pictures as we just enjoyed ourselves but had tonnes of nice picture back after the trip. 

After Khai Nai Island, we were back to our hotel. We chose KFC as our dinner as we were too hungry to wait for seafood to be cooked etc.

After the dinner, we strolled along the happening Bangla Road which is famous for its night life.

We saw people performing magic on the street, bars staff competing against each other for tourist to visit their bars, and all sorts of souvenir shops.

Out of curiosity, we entered a bar to watch Thai Girl show. I shall not make any comment on the show, but it was indeed an eye-opening experience.

Tiger = "Thai-Girl"

We were soon worn out and could not walk back to our hotel, but flagged down a tut-tut to send us back :) 

That's Day 3, an extremely pleasant day to make us feel that we were in Phuket.