Phuket fun in the sun

I just came back from a short trip to Phuket with my lovely wife and another couple. Well... Phuket is not the same as I remembered it to be, especially the people... I'll explain in the next post "Phuket fun in the dusk". This post is all about the sun the sand and the sea.

We went to the airport at 5.30am in the morning to catch the 7am flight from the Budget Terminal.

The name "Budget Terminal" I wonder if it means the terminal was built on a budget or is it for people flying on budget because the terminal looks like a warehouse converted with metal roof and struts. Do they have to remind us we are flying on budget?

We were made to walk to the plane in the rain as there was no shelter... Budget lah.

The traveling was pretty smooth. Once at the resort, I then realized my wife booked our names under "Honeymooners". They showed us to our rooms and behold... flowers are arranged in a heart shape on our bed... ha ha ha.

Later there were more surprises... In the evening we came back from sight-seeing, our friends found a plate of sweet pastries in their room, compliment from the resort, but we did not, as I itchy hand placed a "Do Not Disturb" sign at our door.

The Thai are very proud of their beach, they also put in effort to keep it clean. Everyday they will lay out the chairs and umbrellas for the tourist to enjoy, then by evening they will keep it stacked neatly.

The equipment like the jet-skis are very new, probably due to the Tsunami destroying most of them 2 years ago.

Riding on Jet-Ski cost 1000 Baht (S$42) for 30 mins
Para-Sailing cost 700 Baht (S$30) for 5 mins

I found an adventure company, Anda-Adventure, that brings us a whole day event for 1350 Baht (S$59), it includes:
Water rafting, lunch, swim in the water fall, visit to a monkey cave. Transport to and fro our resort.

After a 1.5 hours of drive up north, we reached the river and began out safety briefing.

The instructor tried to scare us by giving scenarios of rafts capsizing, rafters falling off the raft and broke their teeth when they hit face first on the rocks... He kept saying: "I dun noe the future, maybe no raft capsize today, maybe your raft will capsize, I dun noe... "

The river water is icy cold, but very refreshing. We pushed off the bank and started rowing at our guide's command... "Forward... forward... backward...backward..."

There were several dangerous looking drops, but our guide maneuvered very well for us. Our raft is the most noisy group with our wives screaming at every rough drop, but ride which lasted almost an hour was very exciting. Worth the money.

After the raft event, we were treated to a very generous lunch with 5 dishes plus Tom Yum Goong, my favorite. The dishes were free flowing, you can ask for it as many times as you like.

We rested for a while, letting the lunch settle in our stomach, soon they invited us to the water fall for a swim.

Its a 10 mins ride on their jeep, with a short stop for a photo opportunity along the way with a beautiful valley as backdrop. I was wearing only a swimming trunk and nothing else because I thought we were going straight to the water fall for a swim, they did not mention anything about taking picture along the way. I stood half naked and awkwardly took picture before hurriedly hide back in the jeep.

The water from the water fall was refreshingly cold, after a few dips, the body adjusts to the temperature, it feels just right.

We went to 2 water falls... the 1st is smaller but water is deeper. At certain point, nearer to the fall, our feet couldn't reach any footing, the current is very strong, any miscalculated move will cause us to be drifted away.


The 2nd water fall is at higher ground, the water falls strong but the current is weak. But the water is just as cold.







We guys went to show our machoism by swimming to the bottom of the fall and stand there for a few moments. Its really not easy to act cool with cold water splashing in my face and hitting hard on my back and smile at the camera.

The things guys will do to be macho.

You can visit: Anda-Adventure for more detail of the eco-tour