Category Archives: Jet Setter

Big Buddha in Phuket

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When I rushed out my Phuket blog entries at the end of 2011, I left out 2 highlights from the trip. The first is the visit to the Big Buddha. The second? Just wait and see ;)

phuket big buddha

So moving along with this post, the Big Buddha is literally a big statue of Buddha on the Nak-kerd Hills. From the balcony of our hotel room, we could actually see the head of the statue! Factoid about me: I do have a weird fear of monstrous-sized things. So the thought of going just under this HUGE monument scared me more than it should. But while I was right there, so close such a big statue – it wasn’t that bad. Ha – I’m such a drama queen sometimes.

It’s a free-to-enter attraction, though you would need to get a cab or tuktuk driver to drive you up the hill. Even though admission is free, they do accept donations. As you can see in the above photo, there are some construction work going on at the base where Buddha sits. They are, in fact, building a lotus for him. So among the things they sell to collect funds for the building of this lotus base are marble slabs – that you can write messages on. These will be part of the monument.

marble slab donation

marble slab messages

There are other religious relics, amulets and coins that you can purchase too. I just thought the marble slab thing was a cool idea. So onward we go to reach the top!

Big Buddha Sign

To get to the top where Buddha sits, we needed to climb several flights of steps. And throughout the entire climb there were these pretty bells everywhere.

Bells at Big Buddha

Here are other sights along the way up:

sign at big buddha

statues at big buddha

And finally we reach the top (wasn’t that long a climb, but I’m not exactly the fittest person you know?) Since we were quite high up, we had quite a view.

view from big buddha

And here we are, finally at the base of the Big Buddha itself -

buddha upclose

There are some other smaller Buddhas all around the big one:
golden buddha statue

golden buddha on side

Apart from these, there’s nothing much else to see. I guess it would be more of a spiritual visit than anything else – or like us who made our way to the Big Buddha out of curiosity, and also because we were tourists (and this is what tourists do). One tip if you ever want to come visit the Big Buddha: look out for this small stall outside the entrance (near where the marble slabs were being sold)

Coconut Ice Cream Phuket

Why? Because this unassuming ice cream stall sells the most refreshing and awesomely delicious coconut ice cream! Seriously, this is one of the things we crave for from time to time – but have no means of satisfying the need for it :(

coconut ice cream big buddha

So yummy, I swear.

If you’re thinking of going here, the details for Big Buddha are:

Nak-Kerd Hills Buddha Park
Phuket Thailand

Opened from 8 am to 7 30 pm.

Admission is FREE!

A Day at Central Festival Phuket

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My birthday this year coincided with our last day in Phuket. Since our flight was only at 10 pm that night), we decided to spend the day at the biggest mall in Phuket – Central Festival Phuket. Yes, I spent my 28th birthday hanging around a mall like an 18 year old. But hey at least it’s a world class mall!

One of the first things we came across as we started to explore the mall was these sushi doughnuts!

How could we resist. Of course we got them, and they were delicious.

And then we decided to have KFC for brunch! The KFC menu in Thailand is really interesting and the food didn’t taste like fast food (well except for the spicy drumlets).

This was my spicy roasted chicken rice:

We also tried the green curry chicken:

Everything was so yummy!

We decided to watch a movie at the SFX Cinema – a Thai movie at a Thai cinema, fancy that!

We got sofa seats at the price of a normal 3D ticket here in Singapore. Replica of our seat below, price excludes popcorn and drinks but still so reasonable!

We decided to watch this Thai movie called Summer Love. We’ve always loved Thai movies for its humour and because the poster looks promising, we had high expectations. But of course, we were disappointed. It was a plotless waste of time, but the sofa seats were really comfy. So I guess that balances everything out.

By the way, it was quite an experience watching a movie in Thailand. Somewhere in between trailers (and towards the start of the movie), everybody else in the theater suddenly stood up. We only knew that they stood up because our seats were right at the back. So we also stood not knowing what to expect. Shown on the screen was a video montage of the life of the Thai king. Very interesting experience, but I guess that how it is under a monarchy rule.

What’s a trip to the mall without a little bit of Starbucks? We had some cake and drinks in between window shopping and waiting for the movie to start (we got the tickets one and a half hour before the actual movie timing).

So I had some hot chocolate (not much else I can have at Starbucks since coffee is out of the question) and a strawberry shortcake (or was it cheesecake?) This cake was supposedly my birthday cake, lol.

Remember I mentioned that Steve Jobs died on the day we left for Phuket? Well this was what we saw at the Apple Store (can’t recall now if it’s an actual Apple Store or a reseller: tributes upon tributes upon tributes to the legend of a man.

Even little kids were writing tributes:

So I also took the chance to write one too.

So that’s our day at Central Festival Phuket. We couldn’t stay longer as our driver was coming to pick us up for the airport soon after the movie. I did enjoy my long birthday weekend in Phuket, I should travel out for my birthday every year! :)

One last photo before we were picked up. Check out the dark clouds looming again:

Beachy Adventures in Phuket

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This is more like a quick photo post.

Apart from the beaches we encountered while island hopping, we also indulged in a few beaches (in the Kata area) during the 4 days we were in Phuket. So here are some photos to depict the relaxed mood of our vacation!

On our second day there, we took a very, very long walk after breakfast just to explore the place. And we discovered this beach. It was well-hidden and we had to go down this very steep flight of stairs to get to it.

But once we got to the end of the steps and jumped off the final step to the sand (I promise we were not trespassing though it sure sounds like it!), we found a small but nice beach with big waves.

Here you go:

Shoes came off and we went barefooted and just soaked up the view, the wind and the sand.

Because it was a really small beach, we didn’t spend too much time there. But before we left, I had this photo of myself taken:

It was the hardest thing ever for me to climb up the rocks. Almost gave up, but pushed on anyway. By the time I got off the rocks, I was wet from waves. I kinda like this photo – I look young and happy. While I know I typically look younger than I am, this one beats all odds. I look like I’m 16! And I look like.. genuinely happy and relaxed. That’s a rare combination, considering I’m such a grouch.

So the rest of the photos below are random snippets of beaches we chanced upon on day 1. Not really too sure of the names because we tend to just enter the beach instead of looking for a sign of the beach name.

Footprints on the beach:

The photo below was taken just before all the sand on my feet were shaken off.

This was taken late afternoon before we headed for dinner that first evening. Recliner chairs, abandoned for the day having done their job.

And finally, our very first sunset in Phuket:

Phuket = beautiful beaches! :)

Island Hopping in Phuket

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We went on tour of Phi Phi Islands on our third day in Phuket. Even though it was sort of a rainy season in October, it didn’t rain much for the first two days. But of course Mother Nature decided to wait till we’re out in the open sea to shower us with the rains of rains. To make things more interesting FP and I were at the front of the boat with no shelter and hardly a poncho during the entire bumpy boat ride.

So the bus fetched us from our hotel at 9 in the morning and we proceeded picking up other couples/families from other hotels. When the headcount was complete, we were taken to the port where we were briefed. Our guide for the day is Nina, and she made all of us take a tablet each to curb seasickness at bay.

And then we’re off! Our first stop was Maya Bay, a beautiful island that was used in Leonardo DiCarprio’s movie The Beach. It took us an hour to get to the island and most of that hour was accompanied by crazy heavy rain. The beach towels we brought along didn’t help much.

Check out the beautiful clear blue waters!

And this is me looking like what the cat drag in, after an hour out in the open storm. Rainbow dress looks pretty on beach, no?

We passed by Viking Cave, where birds nests thrive and are collected.

While we were supposed to stop by Monkey Beach on the itinerary, we simply passed it by due to “weather conditions”. Soon it’s time for lunch. We were absolutely starving by then!

Lunch was at another small island, can’t really recall the name right now, but the buffet food was just alright.

Anything would have seen alright to a freezing and stubborn person at that point.

Our view during lunch:

We all rested up after lunch before we head off to our next destination – a snorkeling area! I didn’t snorkel because I didnt have any swimsuit with me, but I really wish that I did! Next time! Anyway, here’s one of our tour mates snorkeling away so happily.

Then finally, it’s time to be off to our final island – Khai Island, where it’s just a rest and relax session. There was a small part of the beach where you can actually snorkel and/or feed fish with bread – we were looking forward to feeding fish, but bread was sold out on the entire island!

So we chilled instead.

Love the rainbow umbrellas sprawled across the beach!

We found grilled corn! I’m sure you know by now that if there’s a food I absolutely can’t resist, it’s corn – grilled, sweetened – it really doesn’t matter. It’s the absolute perfect snack for the beach!

(ignore the big, hairy russian guy in the photo below!)

The bliss didn’t last long, about an hour and a half later, dark clouds start to loom overhead and it was time to go. Check it out:

It was a really wet, exhausting day filled with pretty sights and clear water – despite all that rain. Thanks to our awesome guide, it wasn’t so bad after all!

Staying at Metadee Resorts, Phuket

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We stayed at Metadee Resorts and Villas for the duration of our Phuket trip. And I must say it was a really lovely resort, with a gorgeous room boasting a princess bed (which I couldn’t and still can’t stop gushing over) and an open concept bathroom. The staff offered bright sincere smiles and the service is top-notch, but I will get to that later.

Let’s re-visit the room again!

Presenting the beautiful princess bed:

Absolutely love the ruffles.

Orchids on the bed, so sweet :)

A peek into the bathroom!

Moving on to the bathroom. I love the open concept of the it all, being the claustrophobic that I am.

A short while after we checked in, the staff sent us a platter of fruits!

There are beach towels in a tote bag all ready for us. These came particularly useful (in keeping me both dry and warm) during our island hopping experience – which was also accompanied by very heavy rain.

One of the perks of staying at Metadee was the buggy service. There’s a buggy station about 50 meters from the hotel entrance where you can request for someone to fetch you if you are lazy to walk all the way in or are carrying too many things.

We called for a buggy one too many times, but there was this once after an afternoon of shopping and we asked to be picked up – not only did they pick us up, but upon seeing our many carriers offered to send us directly to our room. Really a +1 moment.

What’s not to like about cute buggy drivers? :P

The staff really impressed us on our last day there. It was my birthday, and we checked out of the hotel late morning. We were planning to spend the day at Central Festival Mall as our flight back home was only at night. The only we worry we had was to have to lug my macbook air around. Yes it’s super thin, but it can still be a hassle when we are sight seeing.

First we asked if we can leave our luggage with them for the day, to be picked up later that evening. They accommodated to the request, naturally. Then we had second thoughts about leaving my macbook air with them. They reassured us with the widest of smiles that it will be perfectly safe with them. So we decided that it’ll be more convenient for us anyway. Still a natural and almost expected reaction on their part.

Wait for it -

As we were getting into the cab that will take us to the mall, the staff members on-upped their service by telling us that we don’t have to come back to the hotel in the evening. Instead, the driver will collect our luggage + macbook air for us, and fetch us from the mall, and from there take us to the airport.

How excellent is that service standard? Seriously! We were so awed.

So we gave last minute instructions (to re-confirm everything) to the driver to not forget the macbook and that it must be placed in the passenger seat, instead of being dumped with the rest of the luggage in the boot.

(LOL, we’re treating our macbook like it’s our kid!)

And so we spent a full day at the mall, and it was an awesome birthday (will blog about this). And the driver, came right on time, with farty my darling macbook air waiting for us at the passenger seat.

Awesome to the max.

So here are the details for Metadee Resort:

60 Kata Road Kata Beach, 83100, Thailand
076-337888