Phuket 2014: Day 3 - Motorbike Ride (Karon, Kata, Phromthep Cape)
Part 1: Flight, transport, stay; Part 2: Patong Explore; Part 3: Raya Island and Coral Island hopping; Part 4: Karon, Kata, Phromthep Cape; Part 5: Phuket Town, Rawai Beach, Part 6: The End
Motorbike ride around Karon Beach, Kata Beach, Kata Viewpoint and Phromthep Cape aka Laem Phromthep in Thai.
A little Google Map routing to show where I've been:
I have no any other idea of how to map a route. I mean like recording the route as we are going on the road, we know where we want to go but we (sort of) not using GPS and just wanna know how we go there... if you get/don't get what I mean. So, I use the only way I know, using Endomondo to map it, then use Google Maps to draw back where I've been haha! If you know how to do it (mapping route) using Google Maps or GPS or whatever, please share with me!!
Anyway, early in the morning (as early as 8am), we ambushed the booth nearby our hotel to rent a motorbike, because Hon kinda struck a deal with the lady there the night before, the rate was pretty (200B per 24hr) and they needed passport OR positive ID as assurance. We were uneasy when we had to surrender our passport just to rent a motorbike coz our passport costs much more than the motorbike loh obviously, so when the lady said so we were glad. The lady was going home with her son, so we arranged everything with this ladyboy who took over the morning shift and who is also a very very nice person.
We were in our beach suit (me wearing bikini under shirt and shorts) because our main aim was to the beach!!! Of course not the lame Patong beach lah...
I have a friend who told me before my trip that he prefers Bali over Phuket because for him, it doesn't feel like you going to Thailand as the things in Phuket are so expensive, as if you are paying USD on everything!! ... which kinda made me worried but this was Hon's fourth visit so I trust Hon over this friend lah. Now that I've came back from Phuket (and comparing my itinerary with the said friend's), all I can say is, Phuket is not that expensive actually, ask me for tips LOL, and go with like-minded pals lah.
We had our breakfast at Family Mart (I find I love their fan tuan, and that was my first time eating fan tuan), refueled a 40B or less than 1L oil into the fuel tank, and off we went to....
Our first venue in the morning is Kata Beach!!
Third purchase of the day: beach mat for 170B. The aunty first offered 250B, then Hon tried bargaining in (very partially) Thai like "you give me roi ha sip (150B) lah... can can... pleaseee... you sell other people song roi ha sip (250B) no problem here rich people many many..." LOL you should listen to Hon trying to speak Thai, it made me wanted to punch him in the mouth so many times HAHAHA!! And, yeah, Kata beach is full of luxurious resorts and hotels I don't think they would mind a few extra Baht on the mat... However, we could only fight until neng roi chit sip 170B. Better than nothing lah hor...
Oh yeah, before that, maybe a slight explanation why we chose Kata over Patong and Karon. Patong beach, like any other beaches which are the center of touristy attraction in that certain place like Pantai Cenang in Langkawi, Pattaya Beach in Koh Lipe, Patong in Phuket etc, is overcrowded, overdeveloped, over-everything and the beach itself is kind of affected with these development and becomes less beautiful. The sand is soft and all but when we walked closer to the sea, we stepped on broken shells and dead reefs and rocks etc, and sometimes rubbish(!!), it's no fun.
Karon beach, on the other hand, has rougher waves and seems dangerous and not play-water-friendly. We stopped to take a look and went away.
Kata Beach is less crowded compared to the aforementioned beaches. The beach is very clean, sand very soft and fluffy, the wave is calmer yet big enough, a play-water-friendly wave I would say hehe.
We had our fun time until It was almost noon so the sun was high up in the sky and it started to get real hot. We packed up and went back Patong for lunch and buy bus ticket to the airport.
While we were wandering around the airport transfer area (it was closed at the time), we stumbled upon this small shop selling food, where in the shop was 100% locals. They looked at us surprised and curious, we looked at them nervous and not-knowing-how-to-order, and everyone in the shop, about 8 of them, none speak English. -___- So everything were ordered by pointing, and due to misunderstanding we ordered three dishes of meat instead of two.
When I sat on the table, the font on the menu looked funny and obviously not Thai (I wasn't dare to snap pic in case it upsets them), then I saw Aung San Suu Kyi and her father Aung San's portraits on the wall, and it occurred to us that, this was in fact a Myanmar's makan place! Wow what a surprise!! The food was good and 'different', the broth was really oily, we saw another person ordered only one dish and mixed his rice with the oil for moisture, I guess it's for hard labor's energy refill. The whole meal costs 130B.
When we went back to the bus station, it was finally opened and Mr. Pinit came greeting us. His English was rather limited but he is extremely friendly and nice. He tried his best to answer our questions and we also tried our best to convey our questions like how long has this airport transfer service been operating, how to say delicious in Thai etc, too bad he didn't get what we were trying to ask. Nevermind lah we found cheap airport transfer option, nothing was better than that!
We went back hotel to bath, do laundry and rest. At 4pm or so, we went out again for the sun set 'mission'. We stopped by Karon enroute coz it was too hot to ride motorbike under the hot sun! We escaped into a cafe, drank overpriced Marigold Peel-Fresh orange juice while enjoying the much needed aircond.
Then we continued our journey again to Kata Beach for another round of water-playing. There were more crowd this time, and a group of people surfing! It was kind of my first time seeing people surf, so I was excited. There's one very pro and heavily tanned uncle surf so freaking damn good!! He could catch, surf and ride on almost any kind of waves, be it big or small, so cool!!! We gave a thumbs-up to him when he paddled and waited for another wave. There was a middle-aged couple grabbed on a wake board 随浪漂游~ In the meantime, we also learnt a new trick, 'swim-surfing' - meaning, we standby at a target spot and waited the wave like the surfers did, and when a wave came, instead of using surf board, we caught and 'surf' on the wave and stay floated (as in ride the wave) as long as we can! Hahaha it was soooo much fun!!
Unwillingly leave the beach as we need to go catch sun set! Had a shower in front of Club Med, cleaned up, hopped on motorbike and off we went to catch sunset. We stopped by Kata town to refueled for the third time.
One of the good spot to watch sunset is at Kata Viewpoint. It overlooks Kata Noi, Kata Yai and Karon beaches and the vast ocean. It was really cloudy so we couldn't take a clear shot of the sea.
Another hot spot for sunset view in Phuket must be Phromthep Cape aka Laem Phromthep. The place was jam-packed with tourists, locals, everyone.
We couldn't awe enough for the beautiful view. Unfortunately it was too cloudy, so there's no clear shot for the nice yolk to set gracefully. We had some tidbits at the roadside stalls and surprisingly the price was super cheap! Wanted to go second round but everyone started packing to leave as it was getting darker.
We stopped by Kata town again for dinner. Since (Hon thought) it was our last night in Phuket, he decided to spend extravagantly on the 'last dinner'. We found this restaurant, Lobster & Prawn, having promotion on small size lobsters and offered the cheapest price we could find along the road, so we walked in.
This plate of 5 S-size (I suppose) lobsters costs 1,200B, original price 1,500B. Cheap!!! ... ... ... right? Very touching when I took the first bite, it was full of juiciness and chewiness, unlike big size prawn where its meat can get very stiff and dry. I wished I could have 10!!! Too bad we spent all our money on this 5 and broke.
Tummy very happy that night hehehe!!!
Motorbike ride around Karon Beach, Kata Beach, Kata Viewpoint and Phromthep Cape aka Laem Phromthep in Thai.
A little Google Map routing to show where I've been:
I have no any other idea of how to map a route. I mean like recording the route as we are going on the road, we know where we want to go but we (sort of) not using GPS and just wanna know how we go there... if you get/don't get what I mean. So, I use the only way I know, using Endomondo to map it, then use Google Maps to draw back where I've been haha! If you know how to do it (mapping route) using Google Maps or GPS or whatever, please share with me!!
Anyway, early in the morning (as early as 8am), we ambushed the booth nearby our hotel to rent a motorbike, because Hon kinda struck a deal with the lady there the night before, the rate was pretty (200B per 24hr) and they needed passport OR positive ID as assurance. We were uneasy when we had to surrender our passport just to rent a motorbike coz our passport costs much more than the motorbike loh obviously, so when the lady said so we were glad. The lady was going home with her son, so we arranged everything with this ladyboy who took over the morning shift and who is also a very very nice person.
We were in our beach suit (me wearing bikini under shirt and shorts) because our main aim was to the beach!!! Of course not the lame Patong beach lah...
I have a friend who told me before my trip that he prefers Bali over Phuket because for him, it doesn't feel like you going to Thailand as the things in Phuket are so expensive, as if you are paying USD on everything!! ... which kinda made me worried but this was Hon's fourth visit so I trust Hon over this friend lah. Now that I've came back from Phuket (and comparing my itinerary with the said friend's), all I can say is, Phuket is not that expensive actually, ask me for tips LOL, and go with like-minded pals lah.
We had our breakfast at Family Mart (I find I love their fan tuan, and that was my first time eating fan tuan), refueled a 40B or less than 1L oil into the fuel tank, and off we went to....
Our first venue in the morning is Kata Beach!!
Third purchase of the day: beach mat for 170B. The aunty first offered 250B, then Hon tried bargaining in (very partially) Thai like "you give me roi ha sip (150B) lah... can can... pleaseee... you sell other people song roi ha sip (250B) no problem here rich people many many..." LOL you should listen to Hon trying to speak Thai, it made me wanted to punch him in the mouth so many times HAHAHA!! And, yeah, Kata beach is full of luxurious resorts and hotels I don't think they would mind a few extra Baht on the mat... However, we could only fight until neng roi chit sip 170B. Better than nothing lah hor...
Oh yeah, before that, maybe a slight explanation why we chose Kata over Patong and Karon. Patong beach, like any other beaches which are the center of touristy attraction in that certain place like Pantai Cenang in Langkawi, Pattaya Beach in Koh Lipe, Patong in Phuket etc, is overcrowded, overdeveloped, over-everything and the beach itself is kind of affected with these development and becomes less beautiful. The sand is soft and all but when we walked closer to the sea, we stepped on broken shells and dead reefs and rocks etc, and sometimes rubbish(!!), it's no fun.
Karon beach, on the other hand, has rougher waves and seems dangerous and not play-water-friendly. We stopped to take a look and went away.
Kata Beach is less crowded compared to the aforementioned beaches. The beach is very clean, sand very soft and fluffy, the wave is calmer yet big enough, a play-water-friendly wave I would say hehe.
We had our fun time until It was almost noon so the sun was high up in the sky and it started to get real hot. We packed up and went back Patong for lunch and buy bus ticket to the airport.
While we were wandering around the airport transfer area (it was closed at the time), we stumbled upon this small shop selling food, where in the shop was 100% locals. They looked at us surprised and curious, we looked at them nervous and not-knowing-how-to-order, and everyone in the shop, about 8 of them, none speak English. -___- So everything were ordered by pointing, and due to misunderstanding we ordered three dishes of meat instead of two.
When I sat on the table, the font on the menu looked funny and obviously not Thai (I wasn't dare to snap pic in case it upsets them), then I saw Aung San Suu Kyi and her father Aung San's portraits on the wall, and it occurred to us that, this was in fact a Myanmar's makan place! Wow what a surprise!! The food was good and 'different', the broth was really oily, we saw another person ordered only one dish and mixed his rice with the oil for moisture, I guess it's for hard labor's energy refill. The whole meal costs 130B.
When we went back to the bus station, it was finally opened and Mr. Pinit came greeting us. His English was rather limited but he is extremely friendly and nice. He tried his best to answer our questions and we also tried our best to convey our questions like how long has this airport transfer service been operating, how to say delicious in Thai etc, too bad he didn't get what we were trying to ask. Nevermind lah we found cheap airport transfer option, nothing was better than that!
We went back hotel to bath, do laundry and rest. At 4pm or so, we went out again for the sun set 'mission'. We stopped by Karon enroute coz it was too hot to ride motorbike under the hot sun! We escaped into a cafe, drank overpriced Marigold Peel-Fresh orange juice while enjoying the much needed aircond.
 |
| Enroute to Karon Beach |
Unwillingly leave the beach as we need to go catch sun set! Had a shower in front of Club Med, cleaned up, hopped on motorbike and off we went to catch sunset. We stopped by Kata town to refueled for the third time.
 |
| Kata Viewpoint |
 |
| Laem Phromthep |
We couldn't awe enough for the beautiful view. Unfortunately it was too cloudy, so there's no clear shot for the nice yolk to set gracefully. We had some tidbits at the roadside stalls and surprisingly the price was super cheap! Wanted to go second round but everyone started packing to leave as it was getting darker.
We stopped by Kata town again for dinner. Since (Hon thought) it was our last night in Phuket, he decided to spend extravagantly on the 'last dinner'. We found this restaurant, Lobster & Prawn, having promotion on small size lobsters and offered the cheapest price we could find along the road, so we walked in.
 |
| Stupid Hon turned the plate when I was capturing, which turns out to be nice effect!! Hehe |
This plate of 5 S-size (I suppose) lobsters costs 1,200B, original price 1,500B. Cheap!!! ... ... ... right? Very touching when I took the first bite, it was full of juiciness and chewiness, unlike big size prawn where its meat can get very stiff and dry. I wished I could have 10!!! Too bad we spent all our money on this 5 and broke.
Tummy very happy that night hehehe!!!
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