Just came back from The Tomyam Land on Wednesday.
It was a long and tiring but fun trip. What can I ask somemore, when I'm surrounded by good friends? You tell me!
Most of the trip packages only sell ground. It's exclusive of transport there. And being a tight-budgeted student, we decided to take land transports there instead of air transport. It's expensive la.
"All we have is time and what we don't have is money" (The Gang, 2007)
Hence, we ended up in a long journey.
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Day 1 (24th November)
The bus took 10 1/2 hours to take us from KL to Hatyai.
Ronald McDonalds greeted us upon our arrival.
Sawadika
Next, we took a mini van from Hatyai to Phuket Island and that journey took another 6 hours. And finally we reach Patong City Hotel at approximately 7pm
They prolly chose my name because it the most-difficult-to-pronounce-name
At the hotel lobby.
I'm quite satisfied with the services of this hotel.
Our room.
All I need is just a shelter and a place to sleep.
Our tour guide, Jimmy rented a van (quite luxurious and comfy for a van) to pick us up for dinner in a fine dining restaurant.
The atmosphere was good but the hungry us gobbled down all the food in 1/2 an hour time.
Can you imagine, 6 of us actually finished up 8 dishes? And one of it is our favourite, tomyam.
So happened that night was the Loy Kratong (lantern) Festival in Thai. The celebration was held at the beach. We adjourned for Patong Beach to join that celebration after our dinner.
There were many people on the beach. The buddhist there will buy the loy kratong rafts (google or check wikipedia for further explaination) and send them away floating on the water to take away all the bad lucks. However, the waves will usually come and gobble down the fire of the joss stick. So its quite difficult to ensure them to stay on the water bringing all the bad luck away.
Others would buy the lantern, lit it, make a wish and let go to the air. And here we bought one too, just to join the celebration for 100 baht (10 ringgit).
Our lantern
"Hope everyone can pass the exam"
Everyone made the same wish, somehow. And then we let go.
Our lantern went into the thin air, joining the rest of the lanterns.
Look at the amount of lanterns (hence amount of wishes) sent up to the sky.
It was a very pretty sight I must say. There were fireworks as well. Beautiful ones.
We had to walk back to the hotel after that. Most of the shops there are catered for westerners. Heaps of pubs, clubs, restaurants and 7-11s. Talking bout that, I found NINE 7-11s along the way back to the hotel. Goshh.. I cant even find nine 7-11s in the entire of Klang!
I like this road sign! Really cool!
Ah Sian, Yiwei and Tammy with the Golden Retriever.
Reach back about 1am, washed up and called it a day.
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Day 2 (25th November)
Morning call at 6am by the hotel. Washed up and had our breakfast at the hotel's cafeteria.
This was my breakfast for that morning. Glorious! Chicken sausage, pork sausages, hams, potato balls, onion ring, ham omelette and a glass of orange juice.
Our transport came and pick us up at 7.45am to the pier. Had a short briefing and then adjourned for Phi Phi Island via speedboat.
View from the rear aspect of the speedboat.
us.
Lucy, the tour guide for the day.
Friends, do meet our tour guide for the day, Lucy (take note of his right hand's gesture). When he speaks, he will increase the end tone of each sentence to a higher tone.
At one occasion, one of the male tourists (westerner) told him that he need not use the voice amplifier (he's prolly abit annoyed with Lucy's high pitch) and Lucy's reply (in the pondan voice) was..
"I need this. This is very useful. I'm just a small little girl. And I do not have little brother"
Ohh kayyy...
Our first stop was Maya Bay (pronounced as Mai-Yah).
It's really beautiful.
Lucy said that there were too many people on that beach and so he'll bring us swimming somewhere else. So I decided not to wet myself at all.
But when I walked along the shore, a strong wave came and hit me and I lost my balance hence fell onto the water. That was not too bad, yet. Just a little wet (and embarrassed).
A kind couple helped us to take this picture. Before I managed to catch up with my friends, lo and behold, a huge wave came crashing over me in a split second with my hands up high holding my camera while asking for help.
Sands were all over me and of course they laughed at me. This is what I call embarrasing!
"Whoah MK, just a few seconds I didnt see you, you become like this ah?" (sarcasm?) from Jean Nee.
And then a girl came up to us.
Girl: Can you all speak English? (in a quite broken tone)
us: Yes
Girl: Can you.. take photo... us? (pointing to a group of people at the back of her with hand gestures and body language trying very hard to convey the message)
us: (hand gesture for taking photos) take picture for you all? Yes sure, why not?
Girl: Really? Thank you. Take picture cause you all so pretty (of course not referring to Jean Nee or yours truly, duh)
us: huh? *shock and didnt understand*
Everyone started running to us and then pose and take picture WITH us. So many cameras, as if we're like some celebrities or so.
How can a beach photo be complete without the following pose?
We went up the speedboat when time was up. Lucy actually applied a thick layer of foundations on his face and made him looks like some white ghost (seriously!). All in a sudden a thought came to me and so I suggested YiWei they all to scream out "sui mak mak!" (means 'pretty girl' in Thai). Lucy got so excited and double checked if we were calling him that. And he was so happy.
Note: 'sui mak mak' means pretty girl while 'loh mak mak' means handsome in Thai language.
Next we adjourned for Monkey Beach to feed the monkeys with bananas. We threw them from the back of the speedboat.
Lucy: Who wants banana?
us: (with hands raised)
Lucy: Come and get it.
YikWooi represented us and went forward to get the banana. Only one banana was given to her.
Lucy: Who else? Sir, do you want one?
Sir: Yes please
Lucy: But you have to kiss me first to get the banana.
Sir: (smile while shaking head to say no). Really?
Lucy: Not here (pointing at the cheek), but here (pointing to his lips while protruding his lips in a hiao way. The hiao-ness can definitely beat you la, Ywen!)
Sir: No no no
(Btw, sir's wife was beside him).
Lucy gave everyone bananas after that.
Large testicles monkey
The speedboat pull away to a slightly deeper part of the Monkey Beach and then anchored there. We had our lifejackets on, snorkeling gears ready before we dived into the beautiful sea to snorkel.
All my friends already jumped into the water leaving me alone in the speedboat still, trying to fasten the lifejacket properly. Somehow at the place where I stood, on my left was Lucy and on my right was some big-belly middle age man wanting to jump into the water.
Lucy: (touching and playing with that man's belly) whoa darling.. you're so slim, you're so slim!!
man: (touch Lucy's tummy a little tryin to be sarcastic) you also.
Lucy: (pretended to scream because someone wants to molest him while laughing cheekily) Awww.. save me! Save me!!!
Oh my! I was in between them when they did all these. My goosebumps stood up straight as if they were singing Negaraku. I quickly jump into the water and swim towards my friends who were so far away from the boat.
Naughty puffer fish
This puffer fish pretended to die by turning his belly facing upwards (that's how you know the fish is dead). We gave him water and tried to turn again forcing his dorsal (back) to face the sky but he refused to obey. His belly insisted to face the sky and so we let him go out of pitifulness (coz dead edi) and guess what? Once I let go, he quickly turned back (dorsal face the sky) and swam away! We were deceived by him!
Feeding the fishes with bread.
The group of blue colour thingy around me are the fishes.
Tammy and I after snorkeling
Glass bottles of pepsi. Classic!
We adjourned for lunch in another island after that. Once the speedboat landed, another big belly ang moh wanted to go down.
Lucy: Ehhhhhhhh darlingg.. don't go down first. Everybody please sit down.
(another man's leg was at the walkway, but seated down)
Lucy: Excuse me, can you please put your legs in?
(man sat properly, legs inside).
Lucy: Do you all wanna know why? Because.... Lucy needs to do catwalk!
omg! *bengang*
Buffet lunch, but I didn't like it. No edible food. All superb salty. Had spaggheti and can you imagine the tomato puree for the spaggheti was so salty (and not soury).
The final destination for this Phi Phi Island tour was the Khai Beach. It's another beautiful beach with fishes near the shores! We were given 2 hours there to chill and relax.
May Jean feeding the fishes with bread.
Since it was a shallow shore (if you dont go further), we decided to help YikWooi to overcome her fear of drowning and taught her how to relax and trust the lifejacket in helping her to be afloat in the water. Everyone was so into convincing and encouraging her that we didnt know that we were pulled by the water current away from the shore, nearer to the coral reefs and stones.
We all started swimming back to the shore and shallow area. It was tiring because the lifejacket could help us to stay afloat but limit our movement. I swam/kicked so hard but could move only a little (against the water current direction). Unlike those time in swimming pool where we could have already reach the other end if we swam that way. MayJean was our hero for that day to save us from those terrible current. Most of our feet were cut by the coral reefs.
Everyone decided to do some sunbathing after the swim and I (spot me if you can) went to build sand castle.
sebai sebai (relax in Thai language)
Oh yeah, most of us wanted to give a leak after sometime. But we need to pay to get in to the washroom (and the smart alec us didnt bring money). So, we all decided to help the Thai government a little by saving their sewage treatment and water supply in the toilet by taking a leak straight INTO THE WATER.
MayJean and her sand boobs and belly button. Sexy!
Oh yes we did! Oh my! It was 20 years ago when I last pee-ed in my pants. MayJean took the first move and everyone followed later on. It was not easy because we had to do that against the water pressure.
Take note at the different skin tone colour between my face and my limbs.
I took a short nap in the shade. My face had sunburnt during snorkeling earlier on. So I decided to do a little bit of 'facial' with May Jean's tee.
Jean Nee with full exposure under the sun.
Yik Wooi's back sunbathing.
Reached back in the evening, washed up and had buffet dinner in the hotel. And then played card games in May Jean and Yiwei's room. It was a great time together for sure. Laughed till I had stomach cramps.
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Day 3 (26th November)
Had breakfast and the tour guide picked us up at our hotel at around 8am.
My breakfast.
Our destination for that day was Pang Nga Bay. Before we reach the pier, we were brought to a Buddhist Temple - Cave thingy where you can see alot of monkeys there.
Monkey asking for bananas
We then adjourned for Pang Nga Bay via a long-tailed boat.
Long-tailed boat
The Gang.
Smoochy MayJean and constipated-smile Tammy
The long tailed boat took us through the cave. We were quite excited when we heard bout this at first until we really went through it, and we were quite dissapointed after that. Because the journey through the cave was just about 10 seconds? Or rather definitely less than a minute.
Eventhough its just 10 secs, pictures taking is not a problem. With pro camwhorers like us.
Sui mak mak!
The long-tailed boat stopped us at the National Park of James Bond Island (200 baht entrance fee)
Yi Wei
May Jean
Jean Nee
Ah Sian
Posers.
James Bond Island (the stone in the middle)
They sell souvenirs there too. But then the tour guide told us before that its expensive. I remember passing by the stalls and all the owner would ask me to buy from them.
There's this stall where I actually looked longer at the magnet-bracelet which I have no idea how much it costs in Malaysia.
Owner: Come buy this, very nice.
me: How much?
owner: you press (pointing at the calculator to give her a price)
(I waved my hand softly while smiling and say dont want)
owner: (press the calculator and show me) 450 baht (45 ringgit)
me: (still giving the 'no' gesture with my hands while smiling and walkin away
owner: (press again) 150 baht (15 ringgit)
me: (I dont intend to buy anything so same gesture for her while walking away)
owner: no no, dont! (press again) 100 baht (10 ringgit)
me: (same gesture)
owner: come, you press.
me: (smile and walked away).
Oh my! 45 ringgit to 10 ringgit and STILL CAN bargain? WHOA. They are really desperate weyy!
We stopped there for only 35 minutes and then adjourned for lunch in another place, some restaurant by the sea.
After lunch, we went to do some 'shopping' at the market behind the restaurant. Most of them sell costume jewellery, bands, keychains, batiks and these sort la. Its fun bargaining with them.
us: This one how much?
owner: 100 baht
us: no no, 50 baht!
owner: cannot. 80 baht!
us: (shake head) no.. peng peng (means 'expensive' in Thai). 50 baht! You sui mak mak!
owner: ok ok 50 baht
us: really? 40 baht, we buy 2!
owner: no, cannot, sit-pun (rugi/lose)
us: okay 45 baht, we buy 2!
owner: okay.
Deal! Initially one for 100 baht. Now two for 90 baht. Have to brush up bargaining skills.
Left back after lunch and reach the pier around 2pm. Went for city tour around with Jimmy, our tour guide. We visited the Cashew Nut Factory, T-shirt shop, Jewellery place, shooting range, motorbike range and the Elephant place.
Baby elephant
Elephant bathing itself. Under-18 readers, please close your eyes. Shame shame!
Elephants' droppings.
Eeww. I saw a large group of flies on it.
After that, Jimmy dropped us at the Kata Karun Beach. It was one of the Tsunami's place. Jimmy said many people drowned there before because the waves are too strong.
I love the sunset
We bought a volleyball from a nearby stall and played on the beach. Fun!
In the tuk tuk (cheap cab).
Went back to the hotel via tuk tuk. Many pronounced it as 'tut tut' but its tuk tuk. 'Tut tut' means pondan in Thai language.
Had dinner, washed up and then adjourned for a drink in a nearby chilling place.
Tammy giving her shot.
I didn't drink (I don't drink and have no money) so I played pool instead.
Day 4 (27th December)
Supposed to depart from the hotel at 9.30am after breakfast back home. Instead of waking up late and breakfast straight, we decided to wake up 6 something and go for a jog at the Patong Beach.
Brought the volleyball along but we ended up playing with water and catching crabs after that.
Came back to the hotel at around 8.30am. Washed up, packed, checked out and had our breakfast.
Took 7 hours from Phuket to Hatyai, 10 1/2 hours from Hatyai to KL and 1 hour from KL to Klang. Alright, do your own maths.
Home sweet home on Wednesday morning.
It was great time spent with you gurls! Gonna miss you all for sure.
