What can I say? The title of this entry says it all... today we left the resort to Phuket Town for elephant rides, snake show, spa (go Thailand, don't do spa, how can?) and caberet show!
Breakfast was a filling Subway sandwiches which my FIL so thoughtfully "tapau-ed" last night when we were out in Patong. We warmed it up in the microwave oven provided, and I discovered complete sets of plates and cutleries and all sorts of pots and pans to faciliate a simple cooking. The club even provide that thing that brews coffee, what do you call it, the coffee maker? : )
But of course, I am not there to try out my culinery skills, am I?
Our driver the night before came on time, at 1000am he was already waiting for us near the concierge.
First stop, Phuket Town. We asked the driver to recommend a place for elephant rides. He is driver cum tourist guide... haha - one note, he knows good places to eat as well, but maybe out of sheer hospitality, never brought us to the road-side hawker stalls, instead the moderate-good food-reasonbly priced restaurants.
Elephant Rides
To put on record, I am a chicken-sh*t mummy who's equally excited yet scared of getting on an elephant, at the same time I'm prepping my kids up for the thrill of riding on an elephant weeks before this trip.
The moment of truth finally arrived... despite the slight rain and gloomy weather, God is great to hold the rain for a good 15 minutes of our ride on His mighty creation, before sending little showers on the last 15 minutes of our ride back. But no worries, we were given umbrellas along the way (see how tourist-friendly they are?).
The ride cost THB800 per adult, and THB400 for children. They wanted to charge for William as well, but knowing the general practice that kids below 4yo enjoy/eat for free, we negotiated, and they quickly relented.
So the boys went on one elephant - a 15yo elephant, I later enquired. Vic and me got on an older elephant, older than moi - a 35yo elephant (yes yes, I am still very very young). I passed my camera to FIL/Yeh Yeh because I was afraid of dropping it along the way but later wished I had my camera with me as there were many good shots.
At one part of the 30minute journey, we were going down a small laterite slop, Vic and I both felt we were slipping down our seat, even though we were strapped in. One hand holding on to umbrella with my arm around Vic's shoulder/neck, and another hand holding on to the side bar with my handbag on my shoulder, I was fearing for dear life! I screamed, "Stoopp! Wait!" but the mahout only went on nonchalantly. Maybe he thought we were screaming with excitement! Oh nooooo!!! I looked in front, and saw that hubs and William were steady on their elephants...
Coming in... look we are still in one piece!
The maharajas returning from their trip.
After the elephant ride, we got the opportunity to feed the elephants sugar cane. I gave a small tip to the mahout on our elephant because I found out that he was only 25yo, with a wife and 1yo baby, and paid only THB100 per day no commission. Am I too gullible? Later I saw a sign after the ride that we should not pay tips, ahh, but what the heck.
Hello, I'm Mr Elephant! Feed meeeeee!!
Feeding the elephants. William wasn't scared, but big jie jie was...
Snake Show
We gave the kids an option of seeing monkey show or snake show. As usual, they have to choose different choices, with Vic opting for snake show and William for monkey show. As the monkey show only started at 1pm, we didn't want to wait, and so went for the snake show.
I didn't see... snakes are not exactly my cuppa tea. (OK I'm a scardy cat)
Hubs paid THB400, Vic paid THB200, William entered for free. Mummy, Mama Yeh Yeh waited outside.
Thai lunch
This is one of the best dish too... simple cooking, but taste perfecto! This is pork fillets cooked with salt and garnished with cashew nuts. Maybe I can attempt this at home... hehe
This is Thai fried rice with pineapple and cashew nuts and raisin
Braised soup - fish maw (I love this... makes me miss the Hokchiu fish maw dish)
Deep fried fish - very fresh, crunchy on the outside
Tender black bean beef
Stirfry morning glory (we were wondering what it was... then) which turned out to be kangkung
Total lunch cost including 4 coconuts: THB2095
Nearing 1pm, we asked the driver to recommend a lunch venue for us. He brought us to this restaurant near the beachside, covered open air (like what you get at our Telok Gong) and Yeh Yeh did the ordering of food. Everything tasted good, here are pictures to salivate on, even I had to stop William from downing all the coconut before lunch.
After lunch, we asked the driver again to recommend a good place for spa massage. He said we go to Phuket town because it's cheaper than Patong. He took us to Metropole Hotel first, but it was full, so we went to the second venue, which coincidently was what I read about before this trip and hoping to go (looks like God had this planned out). We dropped Mama Yeh Yeh off at The Raintree Spa first then hang out at Robinsons (NOT the same Robinsons as ours) as it was raining.
We picked Mama Yeh Yeh after one hour, and it was hubs and my turn at the spa. The driver took the rest back to the resort to rest. I chose a herb & spice and aromatic massage for hubs, and for myself, I went for the honey & orange (for a renewed and glowing look, ahem!) and the aromatic massage.
The honey & orange massage was not very nice as honey was sticky (duh!) and then I had to wait 5 minutes for it soak into my skin followed by a cold shower, and finally a good, hard aromatic massage. It was so painful I even thought the masseur was taking revenge on me for no reason. Haha... but after that, all nice and lose and refreshed!
Hubs massage package was THB1600 (comes with 30mins steam bath but no time) and mine was THB1800. Both massage lasted 2 hours.
Simon Cabaret
Drived picked us up for a quick shopping at Silang mall, we only managed to buy a little stuff as there were not many stalls and some were not willing to bargain. Hhmpk. So ended up with a small loot from a Vietnamese-run shop, then tapau-ed Subway breakfast for the next morning, and McDonalds for our dinner in the car.
We arrived Simon Cabaret to pick up our VIP seats (front row, so we can get a good view of the girls... hehe). Actually VIP seats cost cheaper than normal seats, promotional price was THB600 per pax. At this point, I didn't have my camera as I thought they didn't allow us to bring in... regrets later.
Review of the show: very good. The girls were not all 100% pretty and delicious... oops, did I just say that? I spotted a few who were still in-the-making, with flat or small boobs, and did we just see the ticket attendant dancing on stage too? Serious.
My personal thoughts on the she-males. Sad. I feel for them. Takes them a lot of balls (no pun intended) to perform on stage, and a few times I wonder why. Why did they come to where they are today? After the show, they all lined up outside, asking the audience to come snap pictures with them, and tip. I saw a man who took a photo with them, but didn't bother to tip! How thick skin! The rest, just stood around snapping pictures of them, but refusing to take WITH them, so they save on the tip. For me, I had no camera lar...
Returned to the resort nearing midnight. Driver was good. He has been a safe and punctual driver, and comes out with good recommendations, honest and we paid him THB2700 including tip.
5 comments:
its been many years since i last went to phuket.. looks like fun there!
Ops! I went there in yr 2003 and you know what I didn't tip them after taking pictures with them.........because I simply didn't know I had to do so! :p
Ha ha....When I saw the title of your post, I had to read with one hand partially closing my eyes. I was relieved there were no snake photos! Phew! (yes, I'm that scared of snakes)
The elephant ride sure sounds fun. I'll put that on my "to-do" list when I return to Phuket :)
And yummy.... the food looks good!
Wah...looks like FUN ! Reckon my son will love the elephants too! But he may be too scared.
Next time I plan to go there must ask you for your driver contact.
@Ann, yikes I didn't keep his contact... lemme check if hubs or FIL has his card.
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