Thailand Graduation Trip - Part 2 Phuket (Day 6 and 7)

Right! I better get going with this if not I will never finish it! Haha

Alright for day 6 and 7, which were our last two days, I didn't take much photos :( Cause in day 6 we went for the ATV ride, water rafting and waterfall trekking! The photos are in Weilun's underwater camera which I'm still in the process of downloading, and it's not done yet. So I'll post them later okay! :) So yup cause of these activities I didn't bring my camera out. But here are some photos I took in day 6 after the activities! :)

Oh and some photos of cute monkeys from the monkey cave before the day begins! :)

 My brother from another species

 On the way back to Phuket from Pha Nga (outside of Phuket)

Fruit stalls!

 So I bought this fruit called Salak!

Which I also eat in Indonesia, and they're called Salak too

Thankfully it didn't rain during our activities -_-

And after we returned to Phuket, we wash up and then we decided to end of our trip (being the last night here) to go for a drink! But before that we went to search for food. So we walked along the beach street but couldn't find anything suitable. So we decided to go walk along Bangla road, which is famous for its night life! And to our luck we find a nice food fair :D So we just bought food and we share it together hehe. And there was an awesome singer too!

And after searching for a place to settle for our drinks, we decided to go to Red Hot Bar along the Ratuthin street, near the intersection of Soi Bangla. To all who are going Phuket, I highly recommend you to go there for a drink haha. Love the band and the atmosphere! They have jug margaritas too! We ordered a jug, and I ordered uhhh...

 

Okay here's the story I got real high that night haha. Drank (and shared) two pints and one bottle of Chang. Plus the jug margaritas. I forgot what happened but I remember that I vomited when I reached the hotel. And I got severe hangover the day after. Oh dear haha. But it's a great night I must say! Would love to come back :D

And yes the picture beside is the jug margarita hehe

Right so that's all for the last night in Phuket. For the last day, we decided to swim at the hotel after breakfast, wash up, and then we went for lunch. Before lunch we decided to go to Patong Beach to walk around but the weather was not on our side so we rushed back to the street. We decided to go to Jungceylon for lunch at a restaurant called the Soup Restaurant. And then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Patong :)

We were trying hard to look for the Thai Iced Tea! Haha, we found an unattended stall near Ratuthin street but no one came. So we decided to walk along Patong beach again and... We found it! Alright here are some photos I took during that afternoon.

 Patong Beach in the late morning

(Note the dark clouds at the back :P)

 En route Jungceylon via tuk tuk!

 We walked Patong Beach for this! Hahaha

And it tasted so good.

 Fine day at Patong beach

 The famous pancake stall!

 And what we found when we're back at the hotel HAHAHA

Oh man blogging about this trip made me really miss our trip so very much! At the same time I must also say that it's been a wonderful time I had with the 5 of us. I'm so glad that we went for this trip together and braved Thailand together. And quite thankful that weather has been on our side as well. I really love Thailand, it's a uniquely beautiful place. I would love to come back when I have the chance. I'll definitely be back! :')

And to end off this post, here's our jump shot at Patong!

 

Thanks for everything JAMBS!

-JAMBSGT13-

Thailand Graduation Trip - Part 2 Phuket (Day 4 and 5)

Alright continuing again! This time round for Phuket :D Alright so anyway since I left Bangkok for Phuket on the 4th day... Which means my whole trip lasted for 7 days. So technically we have 3.5 days for each place. Okay you get what I mean, day 4 and 5!

Anyway so yup we took a flight from Bangkok, it was a Bangkok Airways flight to Phuket and it's just like a one hour plus ride there? I like the plane! I thought I'm gonna starve cause we won't have food but we got some decent food of salad and a bun. Standard airplane food but well I know I'm a weirdo but I love airplane food yum!

So we reached Phuket at about 6:15 PM, though we left the airport officially at about 6.50. We booked a van from Singapore which fetched us from the airport to our hotel. The ride to the hotel was nice, though it's quite far (as I found out then) it was enjoyable.


And I just discovered that Phuket is such a hilly region! I thought it's just like beaches. Even to go to Patong we have to climb this winding hills that's kinda scary but thrilling to ride on haha.

 Us at the hotel room (my room)

We reached the hotel at 7.30 and we decided to just head for dinner and walk around Patong area (along Ratuhin street). We were also looking for tour packages for our 3rd day in Phuket. We decided to call it a night early as we had to wake up early the next day for island hopping! We gotta wake up at like 6.30! Haha so not much for the night. After chatting for a while in the girls' room we head to bed!









We woke up early the next morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and then we got picked up by the van. We were brought to the port where the speedboats are, I forgot the name of the pier! But the boat company we went with was Sea Angel. After being briefed for a while about our tour, we hopped on to our speedboat, led by our guide Mr Sunny. He's such an awesome and funny guy! Haha and our first destination was Maya Bay! :)


It was the first time in my life that I saw, with my own eyes, and even put my feet into clear blue waters! Well I went to a beach once like very far from my hometown, the water was clear, but not this clear! Haha. It was so beautiful! We were only given 30 minutes at Maya Bay. Though we were allowed to swim but I decided not to cause it's quite crowded. And I was carrying my DSLR as well. And oh yes my DSLR got a taste of seawater! Haha. Didn't see a wave coming and splash. But it's fine :)

I was really really happy to see these clear blue waters. Just amazing to be somewhere, a place you've always dreamed of being at. Right in front of your eyes! Lovely :)







After Maya Bay we went back to the boat and we headed for our next destination which was Phileh Cove. Cause of the high tide we couldn't walk on the beach etc so we were just there for sight seeing. Similar to that we went to Monkey bay. Well we're supposed to be able to walk down and feed the monkeys but due to high tide we couldn't as well. So sightseeing again it was! :) We passed by the Viking cave. Well not really vikings, but the cave is used for harvesting of birds' nest. Interesting to see this huge cave with some like ladders and stuff there. For more photos please refer to below! Hehe. Argh, I LOVE the blue waters!

 

 Phileh cove - some people were snorkeling here

  Monkey Bay!

 Pristine water ayayayayayayay

Viking cave

After that we headed for our first snorkel trip which was somewhere near Phi Phi island. I forgot the name of the place. It was my first time snorkeling and it was so fun! Err it was rather difficult to adjust in the beginning, especially breathing through your mouth and sometimes blowing the tube so hard to get ride of the water. And the occasional water leak inside the goggles. Sometimes I will just dive inside the water to see! Hahaha.

 This is where we snorkel (taken after snorkeling of course)

LOOK AT THE CORALS BELOW

Nevertheless it was definitely a lovely experience snorkeling to see the fishes underneath the clear water! Though the sight of sea urchin freaked me out.

After our first snorkeling trip we went to Phi Phi Don - The bigger Phi Phi island to have lunch. Thankfully it was included in the package cause I was quite hungry haha. It's a nice simple buffet lunch. And I drank a bit of seawater so I was very thirsty haha. The sight of water relieved me. After lunch we walked around the beach and take some photo! :)

 Us at Phi Phi Don

Moving on to our next destination, we headed for Khai Island. It's a tiny (I think) island that is so chill! I like! We were one of the first boats to reach the island so the seats were empty. We chose the best seats! Haha. In Khai Island we had like 1.5 hours to roam about. The water is once again very very pristine. We spent lots of time snorkeling near the beach and giving a feeding frenzy to the fishes! They're really cute, though sometimes they think my finger is bread too.

And I went to snorkel further and was SO SHOCKED to see this bunch of sea urchins in one area. I freaked out and swam back haha. But at the same time I was feeling amazed by the sight haha. More underwater photos with Melissa and Weilun. Will post em here once they uploaded it to Facebook haha. It's a fun experience! :)




And before we leave here's more photos of us and also our guide, Mr Sunny! :)

 Khai Island

Us and Mr Sunny!

Khai island was the last destination of our package so we headed back to Phuket after that. And after being transferred back to our hotel, we cleaned up (Weilun and I went swimming at the hotel) and then headed for dinner. We wanted to have dinner at the famous Number 6 restaurant but well we were unlucky cause they're closed from like the 6th - 24th April (if I remember correctly).



Oh well! So we had dinner at the restaurant beside called Dang restaurant. Good food with my favourite (extra) spicy mango salad haha.

We walked around Ratuthin street again to look for water rafting and ATV package and we got a good deal from this nice lady whom we've been bugging about haha. She's such a nice and friendly lady though! :) And then we went for food hunting and we bought our usual Oishii green tea and also banana nutella pancake haha. And that's all for the day.



We returned back to our hotel to sleep as we need to wake up early tomorrow morning.

Alright that's all for day 4 and 5. I miss the blue waters so much :(

Formally bid farewell

Well like the title says, as of today, I have formally bid farewell to my student life here. How in a sense "formally"? Well because I just cancelled my student pass. So I'm no longer a student pass holder, nor a FIN owner. I'm officially... A tourist? Well ICA gave me a visit pass, so I'm considered a visitor? Haha but well ultimately, I'm not longer a student here.

And... It feels so bizarre and weird.

I was making my way back from ICA today when suddenly my eleven years here were playing in my mind like a movie reel. The first time I came to Singapore to study, feeling hesitant to leave my mum at the airport, entering NYU language centre, then Pei Tong Primary, moving on to Tanglin Secondary and last but not least ending my journey at Singapore Polytechnic.

All the days seem to move like a reel inside my head. And I felt really bizarre and shocked by how much quickly time has passed by. It feels like they have flow so quickly, eleven years passed by so so fast. It feels rather funny how back then, I wondered to myself how much time would fly in the next coming years. Here I am sitting at the end looking back on this journey.

I have to say that the past 11 years here have been a wonderful and life-changing moment for me. I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be who I am now. The past eleven years have definitely shaped me to become who I am today. And I am definitely proud of who I am now, the accomplishment I made for myself in the past 11 years, both academic and out of school wise. All these wouldn't happen if I wasn't here all these years. So yup.

And well I have learned a lot of things the past eleven years. Not only from school but more, way way more. In fact to be honest I am really proud of how far I have come. As much as life is filled with its unexpectedness, I'm glad that the 11 years are filled with "happy" unexpectedness. How?

I never expected myself to run races, to climb a mountain, to travel to quite a lot of places, to live alone, cook for myself, go to doctor alone, get an x-ray/MRI alone and so on and so forth. Being a student here not only taught me about the academic lessons I learned in school but also to be an independent individual. Which I'm sure I can bring forward to the future.

So I must say thank you to everyone and everything here. The things that happened, which I am definitely sure happened for a reason. I have become a better and stronger person after my life here. And I will definitely make this into good use in the future.

Today was such a tough day on the heart.

Thailand Graduation Trip - Part 1 Bangkok (Day 3 and 4)

Right, continuing on!

For the third day, which was a Sunday (7/4) we decided to go for the boat tour down the Chao Praya river. We bought a one day pass which entitled us to stop anywhere we want, but we just decided to stop at a few stops and not everything since we didn't have the whole day. So the places we went were: Wang Lang Pier, Chinatown (Yaowarat), Wat Arun, and then we took the boat back to take the BTS back to Siam (pronounce Sa-yam, not Siam!),

Alright so our first stop was Wang Lang Pier,where there was the Wang Lang market, a temple where we feed the birds and fishes, and a school haha. It's just like alleys and it was quite interesting to walk around there. I can tell it's not a touristy place cause in the market, almost everything is in Thai haha. Bought some street food there too!

There are lots of food stalls, clothes stalls and so on. But we were full from breakfast so we didn't get to try the full meal. Though I would really love to sit in one of their eateries there to eat! But yes I was full from breakfast and the street snacks we had haha.

I truly enjoyed walking around Wang Lang though, it's pretty cool and an eye-opener. But once again, Wang Lang reminds me of my hometown heh. Just that everyone speaks Thai.



In Wang Lang we also found a spot where we could buy some breads and feed the birds and fishes. I think it's just for the fishes but the birds (thanks to evolution) join the party and went for the feeding frenzy too haha. It was my first time like feeding SO many birds, it's really a lot haha. Rather frenzy but a fun experience I must say. Doing good deeds.

After that we walked back to the pier again to catch the next boat to our next destination which was Chinatown or also known as Yaowarat. We headed there to hunt for stuff to bring back, and also to hunt for yummy food! Cause they're famous for the food hehe.







Yaowarat speaks Chinatown to me haha. Almost all the signs have Chinese writings on it. And even the shopholders can speak both Thai and Chinese. We just walked around to get some food. Their street food is quite good! We found food like Chwee Kueh (though I mist say I prefer Singapore one haha) and also a bottle of freshly squeeze promergrenate juice is all I need after walking on such a hot day! And also, we had a bowl of Bird's nest dessert which is nice as well.

And not to forget we brought back the famous pork floss spring-roll :)




After walking back we headed for our next destination which is Wat Arun - Temple of the Dawn. It's a pretty nice temple, grand and majestic, tall and beautifully sculptured! Can't believe it's constructed in the 1800s. Without much technology yet the temple looks awesome. Artisan in its best form. And the climb up was really challenging, but the climbing down was EVEN more challenging haha. Well cause it's super steep!

But it's fun :)










And here are more pictures during the boat tour. Don't worry I took more than this heh. After Wat Arun we took the boat back to the Central Pier to go back to Saphan Taksin station to go back to Siam as we were heading for Platinum mall!

Us at the boat, thanks to a nice boat-lady who helped us take this!

 Wat Arun in the distance

I didn't take a lot of photos at Platinum. Actually I did just that it was taken with my Lomo and the films are still being processed now so sorry no photos! Besides it's only shopping haha. But it's a great way to end my last night in Bangkok by having an awesome foot reflexology, shoulder, back and head massage with Weilun! It's so relaxing and aaahhhhh hahaha.

The last day was spent on last minute shopping too. Same, I didn't take much pictures but I have to share with your this "nice food"! Too bad you can't eat it.

THIS PORK DISH IS SO GOOD OMG hahahaha. It's like slices of roasted pork, dumplings and vegetables. The pork was so crispy and salty and just perfect! The soup was okay, but the pork elevated the dish to seventh heaven! Really good. Oh gawd I think I can eat this everyday, just that I wish it won't bring me cardiovascular problems.

Alright, just gonna end off this post with some photos of Bangkok Traffic, the infamous one haha. And one last photo of Suvarnhabumi before we boarded the plane to Phuket. Thanks for reading! :D

 The infamous Bangkok Traffic

I realised why the motorcycles are in such formation

Hint: Look at the shadow

 Waiting

 5 of us on our way to the airport!

 While waiting for our flight to Phuket

Thailand Graduation Trip - Part 1 Bangkok Done!

Thailand Graduation Trip - Part 1 Bangkok (Day 1 and 2)

Right! Here's the post about my trip. I'm gonna blog about Bangkok first hehe.

Anyway so like all journeys, we begin in Changi (duh!). We met at 6.30 AM as our flight was at 8.30 AM, checked in early and we just decided to walk around T2 before waiting at the gate. Co-incidentally we even met Raudha who's also heading for Bangkok! :) The Tiger Airways flight was pleasant, not for me though, thanks to my headache and nausea urgghhh. And we arrived in Bangkok on time and so on! And we decided to get the Thai numbers with unlimited 3G for 7days! :)

We took the City Line train which took us from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Phaya Thai station, which we then change over to the BTS line to Chit Lom, which is our station near the hotel. It's quite cool cause we got to use interesting coin (as shown beside) for our "card"! Well some stations do have their "card" as well, perhaps the one from the airport uses the coin hehe.

The journey to Chit Lom station was... Tiring but fun! Haha lugging our luggages up and down, and some stations don't have escalators (like Chit Lom) so we had no choice but to carry our luggages down the stairs. Well it's good exercise before we start our 7 day gastronomical journey in Thailand I suppose! Nevertheless we conquered it all, checked-in our hotels, unpack a bit and began our Bangkok adventure with Centralworld for food!

So we were walking around Centralworld, which is a mall near our hotel and we were so famished, we found a nice restaurant for our lunch! One thing I love about traveling is trusting your instinct. Cause I remembered this restaurant only has its menu in Thai and Chinese. And... I don't know what food but I just look at the picture and it looks good so I eat it! Here is a photo :P

After lunch we went back to our hotel before making our way to our first shopping hunt: Union Mall! It is located at Phahon Yothin station so we bought our train ticket and made our way there. And we take photos once we reached the station with the train! Haha. Union mall has both clothing and apparels. And their top floor has some cool art works!

We found out that our Thai secondary school friend, Aphicha, is in town! Well he's studying in the UK and it's good to hear that he's back in Bangkok for his holiday. It's been so long since I met him (like 4 years ago?) and so we decided to have dinner with him. We waited for him at Union Mall before we decide where to go for dinner. Well what can I say, he never change! Haha. It's good to see him again nevertheless, feels like we're back in Tanglin :)

We decided to go have some Thai food, and Aphicha knows where so we went to this restaurant called Sorndaeng, which apparently is quite famous since 1957 I think, looking at their signboard. We ordered a few dishes and yes the food there is really yummy! Like seriously good. Okay shall explain the food below hehe.

This is not all of course, we had more but these are the ones where I took photo of :P

So we have some stir fried cabbage. I like the sauce/gravy they used, it's something I've never tasted before! Well being someone who likes stir-fried stuff, and who eats stir-fried stuff that is. Then we have my favourite Som Tum which is Papaya Salad, and then followed by the famous pineapple fried rice. And one interesting dish: Hor Mok! Which, if I say correctly, it's steamed fish paste. I saw it in TV before haha. And it tasted really good! :)







Before we leave we all take a group shot in the restaurant. 

And then Aphicha brought us to a night fair which was set up by the different government sectors of Thailand! Like I saw the different ministries, defence sectors and so on. And I found out that it's for charity. It is really definitely something you won't find in tours or guidebooks (maybe) of Thailand. So I'm really glad that Aphicha has brought us there, to experience what the locals do on weekends. Definitely a night I won't forget! So Thanks for that Aphicha :)

And it was rather an exciting night where we couldn't find a taxi! But we eventually did haha.

And that's all for day 1, what an interesting day isn't it! It was just one day and I couldn't wait to see more of Bangkok, to see what this city has to offer! To be continued....



For the second day, it was just a whole day of shopping! We went to Chatuchak market, which is only opened during the weekend. That's the reason why we left on Friday haha. So it was just a whole day of shopping, and also we had a massage! Umm didn't take photo of the loots I got but anyway here are some photos I took in Chatuchak! :)

 A day ending in Chatuchak

Ice cream seller, everywhere!

This is an interesting sight actually. It was 6 PM when (I think) the national anthem was playing or something like that. And suddenly everyone just stood still for a moment. Even a car before us stopped! I was wondering why did the car stop? And then I went oh.. Okay.

Bye Chatuchak!

 5 of us and our happy loots!

For dinner we decided to head to Bangkok famous Khao San road! Yup I've been wanting to go there too, since almost all the sites recommended to go there. And I'm interested to go there after reading the book "The Beach" by Alex Garland! :P We cabbed there and when I arrived there, oh yeah things were pretty interesting! I guess the book really described what I saw there. The endless throngs of backpackers, street food, drunk people and so on. 

What can I say - Khao San, where the world travelers meet in Bangkok! I'm glad I went there teehee.

And here are the street food that we ate! From frilled mushroom, to Padthais, to banana crepe and also... Yes, CRICKETS haha. Well Weilun and I ate them that is. I find they taste like prawn. Best insect I've ever eaten haha (from wasp to scorpions, ants and my latest edition, crickets). We also actually dined at this restaurant. It looked so posh and so on but their service was bleah. Not gonna dine there anymore, if I go back to Khao San that is. But well, I really like Khao San night life! I think it's pretty interesting, and I hope to stay there longer when I come back :)

Alrighty that is all for day one and day two! And to end this post I shall end it with my beautiful face eating my favourite crickets! Yum!

Day 3 and 4 to be continued