Lilo's Diary

Phuket Aug '05 - The Flight

I've wrote about my 2005 trip to Phuket with my bro and wanted to post in a second blog but never really finished... All of a sudden I feel like writing it now. After 1+ years... hahahha... By the way, that was my first time taking a flight~!! So here goes.

(This was written in 2005)

On 18th Aug 2005, my first time taking a flight. Haha.

We were at Changi Airport before 6am. The airport was huge... I like this airport, gave me a good feeling.
There was a Barbie dolls display, for some kind of contest or whatever, I didn't read the sign. The dresses on these dolls were so pretty...

I was taking the flight to Phuket, with my brother. We were taking a budget airline, free seating policy. I am a very kiasu person, thus we sat near the entrance while waiting to be allowed into the plane as I wanted to choose a window seat for my first flight.

We got on the plane on time, greeted by the pretty air stewardess. It was an airbus, very narrow, but I was told the space in Boeng 737, 747 planes are as narrow as that except in Business or First Class. Boy, how I wish I was born a "Paris Hilton" so I can afford First Class seats...haha..

I was a bit uneasy about the flight... as I am not a very lucky person.. haha.. I was afraid that something bad might happen to the plane because I was on the plane...

Thank God I came back intact and able to write this now.

Then came the pilot's announcement, "Good morning.... ladies and gentleman... This is Captain ......" I can't remember his name. All I can remember was the announcement was completely different with what was shown on TV where the pilot's voice was always energetic. Afterwards I was told that in real life most of the pilots always sound listless... That voice made me felt more uneasy, it made me wondered whether the pilot had completely awakened from his sleep...

It felt kind of funny at the moment the plane took off but I liked the feeling. It took approximately 23seconds on the runway before finally taking off.

The scenery from above was spectacular...

Seeing islands from above like we always saw on TV was marvellous.

My face was stuck to the window pane almost all the time... hahaha...

When the plane entered the zone directly above the ocean, looking down caused me the most interesting feeling. It was like the world has turned upside down. I was "looking down at the sky" and ocean is above me.

I don't think I ever took my sight off the window all through the flight and just marvelled at the beauty of nature on my mind.

The landing was smooth. Smoother than I thought it would be. The listless voice of the pilot was heard again. And so we have landed on the beautiful Phuket.

Phuket Aug '05 - Hotel & Kata Beach

(Written in August 2005)

We checked in at Peach Hill Hotel, as the name suggests, was built on the hill. This hotel has over 200 rooms. We suspect there was only one check-in - we ourselves, on this day. It was low season during this time of the year but the total occupants were really surprisingly little. Anyway, this is not the famous Patong but Kata beach, further south from Patong. We wanted a quieter beach so we came to Kata, it was about 20minutes ride from Patong. Taxi ride to Patong cost 250baht.

Beautiful decoration in the hotel lobby arranged flower by flower, petal by petal.

Overall, Phuket was very clean, they swept even the sand on the side of the road! This is the view from outside of the hotel. About 5-7minutes walk to the beach. Walking to the beach was no problem. But going back to the hotel... man.. this stretch of road if it's about 20degree steep, another to the hotel was almost 30degree steep... You can't bring elderly to this hotel...

This was only a small part of the total staircases we had to climb everyday to the coffee house for breakfast and to the main reception. There were two reception and 3 exits.

When we finally reached the coffee house after climbing the truly "breath-taking" staircases, we were greeted by the staffs, welcoming us to breakfast. And we were like "....g...good..m...m..morning...." Totally out of breath...

Kata Beach

Kata beach was hit little by the tsunami in Dec 2004. You won't remember about tsunami when you're at Kata or even Patong beach until you see one or two newly or still building shops or houses, or when you come across t-shirts which printed about tsunami.

Adorable father & son.

The 3wheels taxi :tuk-tuk has been replaced by these vehicles, which look like mini lorries.

Phuket Aug '05 - Wat Chalong

(Written in 2005)

Wat Chalong, Chalong Temple, is the biggest among tens of temples in Phuket. Quote from a guidebook "The island's most important Buddhist temple... famous throughout Thailand for its spiritual power rather than architectural merit... it is associated with three revered monks, all great healers, so people come to regain their physical and spiritual powers and buy amulets to protect them from misfortune".

This photo was merged by 2 photos manually by myself, not using the camera's panaromic function. So it didn't look that perfect.. I do not know whether the ivories are real, I think they should be.

Some of the photos taken by me and my brother

A view from top

Nice lotus

There were so many stray dogs in Phuket and they were all very cute, one way or another. This dog was following my brother when he went to check whether there're lotus "pool" ahead, he saw it when we're on the top part of the temple. When my brother gestured it to come then it stopped, shy, I supposed. haha.

There's an ATM machine right in the compound of Wat Chalong... very funny... Temple is not a place where you'd think you can find an ATM machine, is it?

The taxi driver asked us if we want to visit the cashew nut factory. I know when we visit this kind of factory, we would surely end up buying something we didn't want to buy. Although nobody forces us.. but still... you just end up buying. We wanted to go to the famous Cape Phromthep viewpoint to see sunset, but it was only 4pm... we had plenty of time so we agreed to go anyway. The so-called "factory" consist of 2 "machines" shown in the photo. I wouldn't really call that a machine... It's merely a mechanical apparatus to crack open the cashew nuts. You look at it for 3 seconds and you've finished your "visit to the cashew nut factory". Then you'll spend a good 10-15minutes test eating and buying cashew nuts of different flavours. Anyway, the taste was not bad.

Phuket August '05 - Museum (1)

(written in 2007)
I forgot my hair was ever that long~~ That was my first time. You know why I kept my hair that long? Because the image of the Mermaid is always topless with long hair covering her breasts. And I thought that's so sexy.

I miss my brown colour hair. Speaking of which, yesterday I went highlight my hair, money spent, but it looks the same... so disappointed.

All sorts of money, on the wall of a restaurant. I like the Thai "vertical" money, very pretty. And also African money, the one with various animals print.

We went to the Phuket Seashell Museum. We were not keen to go here but boy, was I glad that we did.

This is a collection of the Patamakanthin brothers of over thirty years~ They have fossils dating back 380 million years! According to the brochure, "Shell collectors from around the world have proclaimed this collection to be one of the most extraordinary collections to be found."

This fossil (land turtle) is approximately 30millions years old, found in South Dakota, USA.

This fossil (gastropod) is approximately 35million years old, found in France.

This is about 12million years old.

Large brown piece of limestone with polished orthoceratites & goniatites. Don't ask me what that is, I just copied from the signboard... But this thing is 380 million years old!

Different shells. Too lazy to find the names from the sign which I also took a photo.

tritoss

Notice my hand on the left. I wanted to show in relative, how big are these shells. These are Shrynx Aruanus located commonly from Eastern Indonesia to Northern Australia. (perhaps now it's not that commonly found anymore? looking at the way human destroys everything..)

These shells look like they've been painted artificially but of course they were not.

Another fossil.

Giant clam with me.

These can be found from New Guinea to Fiji (57), Phuket(58), moderately common in California to Ecuador (59), Hawaii (60). But they look about the same, with "dots" on them, I don't like dots... makes me have goosebumps.