This is the 1st short trip in 2009.  Hy and I took the Air Asia promo fight SGD 110 to Phuket, and sign up the package offered by Royal Paradise Hotel which includes airport transfer, phi phi island 1 day trip, 4D 3N stay at the hotel facing the sea and a free dinner for SGD 350.  However, the hotel logistics is pretty poor, they wrote to me for the flight details 4x, and finally I have to call them up at Changi Airport to confirm the pick up details.

Arrived Phuketat 130pm.  Fortunately, the agent did pick us up at the airport.  We carry on with the city tour.  The agent bring us to have lunch at a local stall.  I think the stall must be operated by Chinese, it just taste like A1 Bak Kut Teh and Seafood Noodles.

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After lunch, we went to Wat Chalong Chinese Temples.  The tour guide did not give explanation, just drop us off, below is the abstract found online.

This temple played a significant role in Phuket’s history as over 100 years ago the Abbot at the time was instrumental in healing many immigrant Chinese labourers who were injured when rival gangs fought. Today, the watis visited by thousands of the faithful every month and is said to contain a fragment of the Lord Buddha’s bone.

I think the main attraction are the new born puppies lying around the temple, should be owned by the stall owners around the temple.

After the temple, we check in hotel.   We stay on the 16th floor (25th the highest).  Pleasant hotel, simple and clean.  From the balcony, we can see the right side of the Patong Beach, not the 100% of it.  We went for Thai massage at the hotel, 800baht (SGD 35) for 2 hours massage, what a steal.  As usual, Thai massage emphasize on leg massage, almost 1 hour is on leg.  Relax…. 

After spa. we had dinner at reataurants at Patong beach.  Nothing fabulous, the food seem like westernized, not v authentic Thai.  Surprisingly, now the ‘In thing’ in Patong beach is 孔明灯, mainly for Europeans.  Do they get the idea from movie 赤 壁 ???  Don’t remember I see this when I was here 3 years ago…The wind is so so so strong, 35 to 40km/hr, the sliding door at the hotel is making so much noise that we have problem sleeping, and we got to wake up at 6am, cos they are picking us up at 7am to Ko Phi Phi !!!! 

JOKE OF THE TRIP !!!! I set alarm at 445am, thought that it will be Thailand 545am.  At the end, the alarm ring at 345am, and HY obediently wake up and brush her teeth.  When I look at the hotel clock….’ohh ohh’

 DAY 2

What a big spread of buffet breakfast, on the spot fried omelettes and pan cakes, porridge, salad, fruits, 8 to 10 hot selections (left over from yesterday dinner buffet?)  Taste good anyway.

Its an hour ride to take the harbor, and the harbor is so crowded, mainly hundreds of Koreans.  It has turned out to be such a commercialised place.  Everybody is grouped according to green, orange, red, yellow and don’t know what else stickers, and board the ferry accordingly.  At somewhere, we are transfered to the other ferry according to stickers again.  We pass by bird nest cave, below pix…  We drop off at somewhere nearby for snorkelling, many fishes but not a lot of variety.   

After snorkelling, we head to Phi Phi island for lunch and a short dip in the sea.  Thailand has the best pineapple in the world, super sweet and crunchy.   Crowded and commercialised beach, but the beach is still well maintained.

We went to Phromthep Cape to watch sunset.  Anybody got any idea is there a way for point and shoot camera to take a sunset picture?   It is always black and red…Tired and hot and humid…The whole body still feels like on the boat, rocking up and down, left and right.

After a tiring day, we went back to hotel and had the free set dinner, clear seafood soup with mushroom, fried dumpling, fried curry chicken, vegetables, one more dish cannot remember, and seasonal fruits (best pineapple :>)

What a tiring day, we just knocked out immediately on bed, not too sure whether there is strong wind blowing at the sliding door.

 DAY 3

We set off for sea canoeing at 8am to Ao Porpier, hopefully today will have a more interesting trip.  The boat is less crowded, with only less than 20 tourists.  The boat is a bit slow, but we enjoy the ride.  It takes us 1.5hr to James Bond Island, where 007 Sean Connery acted in.  We are transfered to a long tail boat as the shore is shallow.  Many souvenior shops, can only take pictures, nobody is swimming.  Lunch on boat after we left James Bond Island.  Mainly fried sotong, fish, prawn, carrot…tom yam soup, noodles, rice, vege…  taste ok.  The best part should be free flow of ice cold coke, sprite and mineral water.

Next we went to Phang Nga Island to canoe.  High class trip, we actually had a chauffer for our canoe.  The canoe has to pass through tiny caves opening, we will definitely stucked in the entrance if we DIY.   Nice scenary, blue sky, clear blue / green water…

After visiting the caves, finally we go to a lagoon to swim and canoe all by ourselves.  Hooray!!!!!

Had dinner at the beach restaurant when we are backed at Patong beach.  The end of the trip…early flight, pick up at 730am…yawn

We watched Keanu Reeves new movie, the time the earth stood still, he is the earth supervisor, not a nice show, will give a rating of 3 out of 5.

We took a bus back to Hort Park to get my car, and meet up Rina at Jewel Box for dinner.  We wanted to try the western food, but it is all fully booked.  So we had the chinese food.  This is the  2nd time I dined at the chinese restaurant.  The 1st time I treated my aunt for her birthday.

It comes with the cable car ride.  It is a windy day…and the cable car is a bit shaky, got a bit giddy after that.

These photos are taken in Si Chuan Dou Hua, at UOB tower, during my last home trip in Aug.  Chin wear such a flowery shirt.

3 of us (Tracy’s birthday 11th, Ting’s birthday 22th and of course mine is 12th) always celebrate birthday together in September.  Will add on this category for coming years.

We went to Utah on Friday evening.  On the way back on Sunday, we detour to US89, it is a scenic drive, with autumn leaves and Logan river.  The scenary is breath catching.  You can feel the autumn atmosphere, yellow and red leaves , cool breeze…

Scenic overlook of the bear lake.  In summer, there will be water sports.  In winter, the lake will freeze.  In autumn, it is just a peaceful lake, with only 1 boat…

Washington Monument is the most prominent in the park, in memorial of US 1st president.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial, he had a lot of proverb about liberty, the statue is inside the building ( black shadow in the middle).

Of course there is the famous white house.  Beautiful, grand.

We arrived at Chinatown, nothing much, just a normal chinatown like San Frans.  We walked down to the Brooklyn bridge (left picture), which connect Brooklyn and Manhanttan.  Opposite there is a Manhanttan bridge, which also connect to Brooklyn, not too sure wy they need 2 bridges.   

In the evening, we went to Time Square.  We wanted to go up to the 86th storey of Empire building for night scenary, but is low visibility.  Empire building is the tallest building now in NY after the collapse of WTC.

The next morning, we went to visit the Statue of Liberty.  The queue is short but the security is tight.  It is just like airport.  We have to go through security check to scan our bags.  After 45min, we finally managed to hop on to the ferry.  We are able to catch the view of whole wall street from the ferry.

After 20min, we arrived at Ellis Island, where Statue of Liberty is.  We can only tour around the island, going up into the Liberty museum has to make at least 1 month advance booking through Internet.

Next, we went to Wall Street.  They are rebuilding the new WTC, drilling work is going on.  We walked past the New York Stock Exchange, the Donald Trump builiding and of course the physical contact with the golden bull.

At night, we went to Empire Building for the night scenary.  The queue looks like 30min, when it turns inside, is another 30min, after you get your tickets, is another 30min, finally when you see the lift, you thought finally… but when yo get out from the lift, you have to wait for another lift which will bring up to the 86th storey…so in total we have stand for at least 2 hrs…so so so tired. Is it worth it?  well… i think Tokyo tower is better.  NY night there is only yellow color, Tokyo is much more colorful.

After this NY trip, I think I really prefer those natural sights rather than city tour.  New York is too crowded and dirty, people not as polite as those in Utah.  But at least I have been to the city that never sleep.

The next day, we went to the Boston downtown and longwharf harbor.  The town is nothing much, just like Shenton way and the parking is as expesive too, USD8 per hr. 

We took a ferry for whale watching.  After 1.5hours of speed riding into Atlantic Ocean, finally we found humpback whales, mother and a new born cub of only 1 yr old.  The mother is always by the side of the cub wherever it goes.  We can see only the mist from their blow hole, the fins and the tail.  After another 15min further out the sea, we see few more humpback whales, what a fruitful trip.  For lunch, we had Legal Seafood (is a chain seafood restaurant).  The cold plater came with half of a small Boston lobster, oyster, clams, salmon.  It is indeed yummy, very fresh and sweet.  Or is it because I stayed in mountain for too long without fresh seafood.

The Niagara falls consists of American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and the Horseshoe Falls which belong to Canada.  Too bad my passport does not allow me to go Canada, visa is required.  At Canada side, it has a better view, looking directly at the falls.  From America, we can only view from the side.  Also, Canada is more vibrant, there are casinos and themepark.  US want to preserve the natural look?

It is a gloomy day but fortunately no rain.  The fall is big but not great in height.  You can hear the water ‘shua shua shua’, rushing to the bottom, and the mist coming out.  Here is the American Fall, from the observation deck.  The fall is separated by a tiny piece of land, and they name the next fall Bridal Veil. 

We took the ferry, Maid of the mist’, which will go pass the falls, have a real close up look.  As the fall is so powerful, we have to wear the ‘obiang’ blue rain coat, looks like aunty go market buy fish.  The fall is really magnificient, we can’t hear each other talking, only the falls…and the mist splashed onto you, can’t even take photo.

This is the Horseshoe fall, named after its shape.  How tiny the ferry is in the mist…

At night, the fall is lighted up.  The highlight of the day is the fireworks at 10pm, from the Canada side. 

Up the rocky mountain, we see elks feeding on the grass, and the snow…a scenic drive…  It is very cold at the peak, 5 degree Celcius only. 

It the end of holiday…back to Utah.  It is another long drive back.  Sit til bumache.  2 weeks later, I will be in New York!!!  Looking forward.  Maybe i will not like the place.  Stay in kampung too long, cannot take city busy life.