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... 

View from the hotel balcony

A rainy night in Patong

Jungceylon Mall

NaRaYa on discount! Credit card accepted here at the Kanjana Shop

The ever happening Bangla Road. This is very early in the night. We did not dare to go there late at night as we were with our daughter

massage place just 3 minutes walk from the hotel

Patong Beach - the rain is about to hit the beach

Patong Beach

Wat Chalong

:-D

View from Promthep Look out Point

Kusuma Seafood

food is so so only

Thai Iced Tea- Must Try!

Banana Fritters

Mango & Sticky Rice  - Must Try!!!

heavenly tomyam @ Gaddafi

Fressh fish @ Gaddafi

Bought this at Family Mart

Pornthip Phuket

Loot

Sydney Stories : Day 1

We arrived Sydney the day before. The 7 hr ++ flight was a bit bumpy at first but exceptionally smooth once we enter the Indian Ocean airspace.Q managed to find herself a new boyfriend onboard and it saves us the headache from trying to keep her entertained during the journey :P. However, landing was quite scary as it was VERY VERY windy in Sydney that evening. The plain literally tilted side to side just before landing but managed to be stabilized seconds before touch down. I was literally holding my breath as from what I have read before, wind gust during landing can be very dangerous. Took the taxi (read my previous post on taxi rides from airport) and reached the hotel at around 10.00 pm however we were still not that tired as it was just only 8pm Malaysia time. So we went out to have dinner and stock up on groceries at the nearby supermarket. It was still windy outside but we put on the right gear and were ready to face the wind this time ;-) We were exhilarated when we saw Opporto and our dinner issue was solved. Went back to have dinner and turn down for the night. 

Welcome to the Continent!

Sunset

Sydney Night Aerial View

Q and her new (boy)friend

Arrival. Be prepared for one of the strictest customs in the world!

 

Well prepared to battle the wind!

The next day I woke up very early (4.30 am Malaysian Time). Made breakfast in our room - toast and egg. yumss.. Totally love the fact that we can cook in our room and all the cooking gadgets are being provided by the hotel; i.e.: microwave, toaster, cuttleries, plates, kitchen towel and even liquid dishwasher. Location wise, the place is perfect. It's located on a quiet road but very close to all the attractions. It is within walking distance to Paddys Market, George Street, QVB as well as The Sydney Eye Tower and its surrounding area (major shopping area). It is also located in front of the Hyde Park and you can enjoy strolling at the park in the afternoon, nice, isn't it?

Best Western Plus Hotel Stellar

Small lobby but functional. Sliding doors will be locked at 6 pm. Use your keys to enter.

Cafe. The smell of coffee in the morning, heavenly..

Standard room

Kitchenette

Most important meal of the day! The red container is used to cook rice in the microwave. Can be bought from Woolworths for less than 10AUD. Very useful for travel. Long grain rice can also be bought at Woolworths for 3AUD.

Day 1 OOTD ;-)

Hyde Park

Our first destination of the day was to Paddys Market. It took us 20 mins walking from our hotel/apartment to Paddys Market and it was drizzling that morning. It was on a Friday and it was not crowded at all. One thing about this market is that the stuffs here are really cheap (do not convert to RM. Haha)! We went crazy buying t shirts, sweaters and souvenirs here. I also bought a sheepskin UGG for 88AUD which is oh so comfy.. At first I thought it was the original UGG brand boots (UGG is actually US based even though ugg originated from AUS), lest that I know that those boots are called ugg regardless of the brand. Nevertheless, It's totally worth it as u get the same quality at a fraction of the price ;-) I also went overboard by adding in the waterproof spray and ugg socks at that ;-p So, if u want to buy the original UGG boots,  pls make sure you buy it at the right place as you will find so many shops in Sydney selling uggs claiming that they are selling original UGGs..

Bought my UGGs here ;-)

As I have mentioned before, we have already bought our Sydney attractions tickets in advance. So our next destination of the day was to Madamme Tussauds. On the way, we had an early lunch at one Kebab joint we found en route to the Museum Train Station. The name of the place is Yummies Kebab Pizza Pide, it had delicous Pides and Pizzas! More information can be found here. The review is not so good but for us the food is descent and most importantly halal. However, i have to agree that the pizza is better than the Kebab.

We took the subway from Museum Station to Wynyard and walk towards the Aquarium Wharf. However,  there was no clear signage towards the place. Apart from that, there's no detailed direction provided on websites on how to get there i.e which exit to take at the subway station. So that's when ur phone is really needed. Googlemap was  instrumental in helping us to locate the place (u have to have internet connection for this). I just discovered that you can use Googlemap to literally direct you to the place. However, you still have to use your own instinct as its not always accurate. But it does help with getting a good sense of the surrounding area. So I would recommend buying the data package for ur phone as I have mentioned in my previous post. Or otherwise you can install an offline map app on ur phone and download the local map prior to your departure. It is about 20-30 mins walk (slow pace) to Madamme Tussauds and do check the weather beforehand. You might want to bring/buy an umbrella or raincoat with you. Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Sydney is situated at the same area. So its recommended to cover all those in one go.  

Museum Station - No escalator and no elevator here.

double decker train

odw to Aquarium Wharf

That was my second visit to Madamme Tussauds so I'm not that excited. The most interesting figure would be Obama but it costs a bomb to have your picture taken with him. As usual, these kind of establishments have their own photographers and will sell you pictures upon ur exit. Pictures taken by them costs a minimum of RM90! So we'd rather not waste our dollars and opt not to buy them.After that we went to the Aquarium. It was just ok and could not compare to the one in Osaka. But Q enjoyed it nevertheless.After we were done with the Aquarium it was already 4.30 pm and the Sydney Wildlife was already closed.

Q busy snapping away

So we decided to go to Circular Quay (pronounced as Key) and take a walk at the harbour towards the Sydney Opera House. Q was already acting out by this time and the captain was exhausted. So we just made it brief and quick and just took a few pictures of the Sydney Opera House from afar. The place is crowded at night and we just watched from quite a distance. 

Circular Quay

 

Sydney Opera House from afar

 

Went back to our hotel/apartment at 7pmish (it was already dark like its 9pmish) and made a trip to the supermarket, again. Love the place ! ;-)

supermarket

Q is crazy bout this Kinder Surprise. Bought loads of this while we were there...