Take Me To La La Land: A Rainy Affair in Phuket

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A Rainy Affair in Phuket

Prior to booking our tickets to Phuket, I remembered making a short research and concluded that the rainy season in Phuket ends in October and November is already considered as the peak season. However, the conclusion I made was totally wrong. We found out that the time that we were in Phuket at the end of November was the tail end of the rainy season which is the worst! We were there only for 3 days and it was raining all day from the minute we touched down at the airport until the morning we check out from our hotel on Sunday morning. Ok maybe not all day (i was exaggerating as usual, haha) but it did rain about 60% of the time and we didn't get any chance to swim in the sea without being chased by the sudden pour of heavy rain. If the weather is good, i really do think that the Patong Beach is perfect for a dip in the sea and also sunbathing. From what I heard, Patong is the safest beach whereas other beaches especially the ones in Kata/Karon is quite dangerous. Luckily, island hopping was not on our plan. We were still traumatised by our Langkawi boat experience in March last year.

We stayed at the Amata Resort Patong which is about 10-15 minutes walk from Patong Beach. I was torn between staying at a beachfront hotel or a bit further away from the beach , you know why. So I booked this hotel with that in mind. It has a balcony that overlooked the city and the swimming pool. The hotel has 2 swimming pools which is located at the ground floor and on the roof. However, because of the rain we did not get to swim in it. The rooftop pool was very basic and I was a bit in doubt about its cleanliness.The room itself is spacious as well as the bed. However, the floor was uncomfortable as it gets sticky and lack of mats / carpeting made it worse. What's best about the hotel is that its close proximity to where the action is which is the Jungceylon Mall and Bangla Road. Although it's quite close to Bangla Road, it's at a quiet end and you don't really hear the noise. For Muslims, this hotel is within close proximity to a few arab/indian halal restaurants. However, the popular Kusuma Restaurant is quite far from this place (25-30 mins walking distance). It's much nearer to Novotel. Take note that the arab/indian halal restaurant is quite pricey. Well, generally, everything in Phuket is expensive except for massages. It only cost 250baht for a foot massage and around 300baht for full body massage.. really really cheap compared to the prices here in Malaysia.

We would love to go to see the Fantasea show, but we didnt have enough time to do so. On the last day we booked a car from Phuket_Easy_Tour for a half day city tour. It costs us THB3,200 which is quite pricey i think but its easy to deal with them. Their agent is very responsive to all your queries and you can settle the booking online. We got to visit Wat Chalong, Promthep Cape lookout point, a tour of the Phuket city as well as shopping for local snacks at Pornthip Phuket (you'll be spoilt for choices here and the snacks all looks delish and it's really had to resist buying them). The tour agent arranged lunch for us at Gaddafi restaurant which is located near to the Mosque and it was delish! Totally recommended! The city tour was supposed to end with a sunset tour but we skipped that as we had to go to the airport at 5.00 pm as we have to catch our flight. Well, that pretty much sums up our trip to Phuket last year. Hopefully the next time we come the weather will be kind to us...