Phuket, I'm back!

I was back in Phuket for a 3-day weekend getaway in August last year. This is what I love about Singapore actually, there are a lot of weekend places you could go to either by bus, boat or a short plane trip. Phuket is definitely one of the choices for a short holiday.

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Oh Phuket!

I was in Phuket in May and August last year. This post is for our trip in May with my housemates. Our first trip together! We have always wanted to go on a trip since moving in together in Aug 2012 so we were happy we finally got to do it.

L-R: Rachel, Lenin, Krizia and Alfian

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Patong Seafood Restaurant, Phuket, Thailand

Seafood, seafood and more seafood. This was our food itinerary for Phuket. So while strolling along the beachfront, this resaturant stood out because of their claim of having the "best seafood since 1979". Hmm lets see if they live up to that...

It's always fun to be able to choose the seafood you want and how you want it cooked. We chose a huge groupa fish and asked them to crispy-fry it with sweet and sour sauce. Then we also chose prawns to be sauteed in lemon and butter.

Where is my damn food?!! hehe.

We asked for ice water (meaning cold water in Singapore) and they gave us a bucket of ice and mineral water... next time don't use local singlish slang hehe



The Shrimp was quite bad. I think they were overcooked plus I couldn't taste a hint of lemon or butter. AND they only gave us 5 shrimps when we remember choosing 6. But who cares, we didn't want to ruin our meal for that.

The Crispy-Fried Groupa Fish was ooh-la-la yummy! There was so much boneless meat and it was perfectly crisp!! So crispy you could actually eat the head (not that I did hehe). The sauce was mildly sweet and sour and didn't drown the natural taste of the fish. My kind of dish.

The noodles were so bad I couldn't even remember what kind of noodle dish this was. The noodles were so overcooked they clumped one each other and became so starchy. Very bad.

The rice was even worse. If you look closely at the pic you could still see white pieces of rice, which means it wasnt mixed properly. Moreover, there wasn't a lot of meat, veggies or what have you. In short, it was a mediocre dish of fried rice. Yo Yo wins.

Overall, they didn't live up to their claim of having the best seafood (or food for that matter). I mean they probably did have good and fresh seafood but if you didn't cook it properly then what's the point right? We paid around 1200+ Baht for the entire meal. Double the price of Yo Yo but half the taste.

Here is my rating for Patong Seafood:

Ambiance - 3.5
Service - 2.5
Food - 2.5
Presentation - 3
Value for Money - 3
OVERALL - 2.9

"Live, Love & Eat!"

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Yo Yo Restaurant, Phuket, Thailand

It's funny how we found this restaurant. We were walking around trying to find authentic thai food to satisfy our monstrous cravings and when we were cautiously waiting to cross the street (as thai drivers don't give way to pedestrians), this guy came out of nowhere and bravingly gestured the speeding tuktuks to slow down so we could cross.

Lo and behold, he is the waiter for Yo Yo. So even if we still wanted to look around, we settled to eat there because of the guy's nice and clever gesture.

Anxiuosly waiting for our food hehe.

So we started off with a refreshing coconut drink. Pretty well presented for a street restaurant. The coconut meat was tender and fresh. A great way to cleanse your tastebuds to start off a meal.

I'm not sure if its thai custom to always serve these 3 sauces but everytime we ate somewhere they always did. I love the sauce on the right, the one with a lot of green and red chili on top. It was sweet, sour and spicy all rolled into one.

The chicken with ginger was ok. Tasted normal but not bad. The squid in red chilli was ultra spicy!! but the squid was tender and tasted fresh. And the portions were quite big to think it was really cheap (I think around 50baht).

The pineapple fried rice was scrumptous!!! I never knew rice could taste that good haha. There were generous portions of pineapple, chicken and cashew nuts. It was actually a meal on its own.

Finally I got to taste authentic pad thai!! This was the runaway winner! The noodles were very tasty and al dente and the seafood was abundant. This was my favorite of all the dishes. If only I could eat noodles with rice haha. Carbo load.

Overall, my yoyo experience was a rollercoaster ride of flavours. To top it all off, we only paid 500+Baht for all the dishes including the drinks. Can you believe that?! thats like 20 dollars for a thai feast. Of course we didn't get ritz-carlton ambiance but the rustic, slightly-polluted feel (haha) added to the authentic thai experience.

Here is my rating for Yo Yo:

Ambiance - 2.5
Service - 4
Food - 5
Presentation - 3
Value for Money - 5
OVERALL - 3.9

"Live, Love & Eat!"

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Phuket, Thailand

So 6.30 in the morning we already checked-in at the airport so we could get good seats - meaning exit seats hehe. Plus, like I said, I really love Changi Airport. There are so many things you could do. Free Internet, Free Gaming (PS, etc), Shopping, Sleeping, Eating, Gym etc etc.

So let me just blog about the pics rather than every single detail about our trip. I don't think you'd be interested to know the nitty gritty of every minute :-)

I took this shot from the lavatory.

I LOVE airplane food! Though Silkair's food was a little disappointing. PAL would usually serve both bread and dessert but with Silkair, you can only get either of the two but not both. Or is it because of the airline industry crisis around the world?

YES!! you read it right! Those are real worms. Worms that I actually ate! hehehe.

Mmmm, tastes like chicken. Rotten Chicken. hehe. No but seriously, they weren't bad at all. Just tastes like normal fried finger food. We got so excited buying all sorts of Thai snacks in this store only to find out later they sold 2-3 times more than the retail price.

Now this is a very interesting pic. I took this pic during the mandatory "city tour" en route to our hotel from the airport. Another tourist trap - we were taken to a supposedly "famous" honey manufacturer and as soon as we got there we where whisked and LOCKED in this room. Can you imagine that? If she was selling good-find food or souvenirs then it would have been interesting. But she was selling freakin' honey that she claims can cure almost all forms of sickness AND burn your fat. BULLSHIT. Plus the honey was so damn expensive.

It was so funny how it got awkward when everyone was just sitting there with no interest to buy at all, but couldn't go out of the damn room. Sometimes I think Asians are really nice people because in such cases we just keep quiet, act interested and remain courteous. I can just imagine if caucasians or white people were put in the same situation. I bet they would storm out of the room and humiliate the damn lady.

And the reason why the girl looks blurred in the pic is because she quickly moved away when I took this shot and told me "Sorry no pics allowed". I should have said "Then let me out of the f$&!ing room!!"

And yet another tourist trap. Inside a jewelry factory. We were swarmed by the sales ladies as soon as we got inside the jewelry floor. Reminds me of the tour we had in Hongkong years ago. Well, at least they served free flowing juice and softdrinks.

Morale of the story - Never ever take a package tour. If you could buy a "free and easy" tour to avoid all these unnecessary city tours then do it. The only reason why we took this package is to avoid the hassle for the hotel-airport transfers because it was my first time in phuket.

Finally. Welcome drinks at Holiday Inn Resort, Patong Beach.

The hotel room was probably one of the most spacious hotel rooms I have ever seen. That couch beside the bed was as big as a single bed, no kidding.

All that room space and you still get a balcony. Hallelujah! hehe. Too bad our view was the 7-11 downstairs hehe.

I love this snack! Fried whole crablets.

Main Wing Pool

May they rest in peace.

Busakorn Wing Pool

I really hate to sound so bitter but the beach was the biggest disappointment of our phuket trip. I mean all that hype and media about Phuket and this is what I saw. Seriously, it looked like any other regular non-touristy beach in the Philippines. The sand was dark, the water was murky and unclear, and the waves were so damn big it was hard to frolic on the beach. Phuket was just incomparable to Boracay. I don't want to sound unfair and bias, just because I'm from the Philippines, but being as objective as I can, that is the honest truth.

Maybe more than the disappointment, I really felt bad for the beaches in the Philippines. Cebu, Boracay and Palawan would give Phuket or even Phi-Phi a run for their money. But the tourists in Phuket, especially the caucasians, were probably 10 times more than the tourists in Boracay. Seriously, I've never seen so many white people in my life in an asian destination. Even the white people in Raffles City can't compare to the ones I saw in Phuket.

So if anyone knows anyone from the Department of Tourism in the Philippines, I think this is a wake-up call.

Bangla Road. Famous for their notorious go-go shows where ladies play pingpong and pick up bottles with their vajayjay (if you know what I mean).

Have a break, Have Haagen-Dazs. Hehe

I couldn't resist not taking a shot of this. Very Funny hehe.

About to take a dip at the Busakorn Wing Pool.

This water and sounds show was at the Jungceylon Mall near Bangla Road. Like a mini-version of the Bellagio Water show. I'm not sure if I was hearing things but I think they were playing "Don't leave me this way" during the water show - quite a weird choice of song.

I was really impressed with the Phuket International Airport. It's way nicer and more spacious than the Manila International Airport Terminal 1. What a shame. Another wake-up call.

Is Burger King also this expensive in Manila? Thailand Baht has higher value than Philippine Peso, which means if you convert this to pesos it's almost like eating in a restaurant right? 200 Baht is around 8 SGD. I'm surprised people in Thailand can afford this.

My Last Supper. On the plane that is..

If not for the highest of highest of my expectations, I think Phuket would have been a wonderful trip. Nevertheless, shopping and food was amazing. Fresh seafood was cheap and delicious. Shopping was even cheaper. More so, they had sizes up to 4XL. So they fit both my budget and my tummy. haha. But haggling is a skill in Thailand. It is true that you bargain for half the price of what they offer. Especially in touristy areas where some people take advantage. There was even one time the tuktuk was charging us 150 baht for a short trip. Tsk Tsk.

The hotels and resorts were also amazing. It was a blessing that we stayed at the Holiday Inn or else I would have been so pissed. At least we were able to enjoy the pool and amenities of the hotel.

Till the next travel blog..

Sucks to go back to work..

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2 nights to go till Phuket! :-)

I haven't been to Thailand so I'm really excited about going to Phuket this Friday. YIPEEE!!! :-)

One thing I like about living here in Singapore is the convenience & affordability of travel. Several times a year, they stage huge travel fairs at the expo or convention centres. With several budget airlines like Jetstar, Air Asia & Cebu Pacific, traveling has become really affordable - especially to Asian countries.

So this Friday we will be flying SilkAir - Singapore's Regional Airline. We get to eat food on the plane and hang around at Changi Airport. I love Changi terminal, it's almost like a real shopping mall inside. Actually, thanks to Zach's travel voucher we were able to afford SilkAir hehe.

We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Phuket. I saw on their website that they recently underwent renovations and theres a new wing - Busakorn Wing. The pics look reallyyyyy nice. So I have yet to see if the pictures are what they claim to be in real life. You know how pics can deceive you most of the time, especially online hotel pics. By the way, thanks again to Zach's travel voucher hehe.

2 more nights and I can't hardly wait!! Finally, I can add a blog entry to the last F for flight haha so shallow.

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