For A Purpose

And… She’s Back!

Oh whoopee, I’m back from Phuket! =D

Yesterday my dad and I arrived at the LCCT airport at 6.40 pm after departing at 4 pm from Phuket. (Remember, Thailand time is one hour ahead of Malaysian time.) The rest of them are only coming back today.

Just for fun, here’s an extraordinarily short list of what we came back with:

- A big box of slurping tasty Thai instant noodles bought by my sisters’ urgent requests.

- Two bottles of Thailand-made fish sauce (oh, how we love it with beef noodles!)

- 3 portions of barbequed super spicy pork (my dad bought it on Sunday night and froze them in the fridge so that it’ll last till Monday. We then smuggled the delicious pork into the airplane. :P)

- A 1 kg dive weight (I left it in my BCD and forgot to return the weight to the boat guy after the dive, so I accidentally brought it home! Har har. xD)

Yeap, that’s about all I can think of. As always, I didn’t buy much of anything on this trip. Haha. Oh yeah, wait, one last thing…

Of course, I brought back with me a whole load of pictures, too! =D

Since I snapped about 500 shots, I think I’ll only be able to post 15 percent of it today. I chose all the nice shots of our first and second day in Phuket. Must get the other load of pictures taken by Hwai Tah with his super chun Nikon DSLR! :P So for now, I’ll let the pictures do the talking! =)

READ THE CAPTIONS!

I left for Phuket on 19th June.

Nataly snapping the clouds BELOW us.

Flying above Phuket! Awesome view.

Aerial view of the island.

Jacky, Sherrene, and Hwai Tah

On the way to Lawan Residence hotel in Patong, we spotted three school-girls riding a motorcycle uphill! It was crazy just watching them. The last girl was like gonna' slip off the seat. But the most amazing thing was, the puny motorcycle actually managed to overtake us and zoom past our van!

See, they look even younger than me wei. How brave. That's how they travel everyday I guess...

Arrived at our hotel at about 6 pm.

My dad and Joy, the sweet Thai lady who checked us into our rooms. She spoke pretty good English for a Thai.

At night we took a stroll in Patong area to look for dinner.

There were quite a number of good artwork shops around.

The tattoo shop in Bangla Road. We should have checked out the price for a real tattoo. Haha, not that I would want one, though. :P

We had our first meal in Phuket at the Number 1 Seafood Restaurant. Hwai Tah and my dad helping themselves to the green curry beef and shrimp tom yam.

Haha, I was fiddling with Hwai Tah's Nikon DSLR. And you notice that he was fiddling with my camera. :P

Andrew, Jacky, and Sherrene.

I saw a full moon there every night.

Nataly and I walking in Bangla Road. I'd say its not a nice place for us "innocents" to walk. Hahaha.

Metal Art. The metal sculptures were incredible! So complicated; I have no idea how they wrought it!

There was also an Iron Man sculpture, about 8 feet tall, but too bad I didn't snap that one!

On the 20th June, our second day in Phuket.

The Eden Divers operator picked us up from our hotel at 7.30 am. This funny policeman happened to spot our driver talking on the cell phone, so he stopped us. The funny thing about the policeman was that we noticed he had a big Mickey Mouse sticker on his motorcycle seat and Hello Kitty stickers on his walkie talkie! Hahaha, super funny. Too bad I didn't manage to zoom in closer.

And... You notice that he's wearing this pair of really high black boots. Really comical. Haha. XD

Us on the truck.

Sherrene, Nataly, and I.

My dad chatted with this American guy named Glen Gilmore on the truck and found out that he was the former mayor of New Jersey!

At the Chalong Bay Jeti where we boarded our boat.

The boats at Chalong Bay.

Hey-ho, there's our beatiful 3 tier live-aboard boat named the Phuket FantaSea!

Matt, the one of the guys managing the boat, briefing us for the day's trip.

Haha, I'm laughing at Hwai Tah's funny expression! :P

My dad peeling his boiled egg for breakfast.

Man, the breakfast served was simply wonderful! Scrambled eggs, toast buns with cheese, crispy bacon, salad, bananas, and milk or coffee. Thank God so much that I did not vomit at all for this first dive trip! The anti-vomit pill helped this time. x)

Beautiful view. The sparkling sea, the silhouette of a oncoming boat on the left side and a island we passed.

My dad and Nataly at the top tier. Haha, spot Andrew.


This was the best-est place to relax and just sleep! The wind blowing against your face and the waves splashing against the boat; oh its just wonderful!

Haha, caught on camera!

Enjoying the sea breeze at the top tier.

I love this!!! OH its just too blue to be true!

Three scuba tanks.

We headed to Racha Noi Island. Took us about 2 and a half hours to reach!

Suiting up for our very first dive for this trip!

My dad about to jump in. (Credits to Nataly for all our getting-ready-to-dive and in-the-sea shots)

And... we're off!

Me taking the Giant Stride step into the blue water!

Splash! Man, I can still close my eyes and remember the feeling of jumping into the water. Before I jumped in, my back was nearly breaking with the heavy tank and all. But when I splashed into the water, I suddenly floated up and felt so free and light and buoyant!

Five of us giving the OK signal.

Having lunch after our first dive.

My dad showing us his compass and dive computer.

This is just eye-dazzling, ain't it?? Hahaha. The weather was perfect! Thank God so much for answering our prayers for sunny blue skies and calm waters!

Gearing up again for our second dive after lunch.

Sherrene and I reading to jump in.

Hwai Tah going underwater!

Man, there's nothing out there but the deep blue infinite never-ending sea!

After the second dive, we had our tea time filled with chocolate and cinnamon-drizzled pancakes and fruits!


Jacky squirting loads of chocolate for me. Har har.

Our day's trip nearing an end. We arrived back at Chalong Bay at 5.30 pm.

I absolutely, thoroughly, enjoyed our first day's dive trip!
Yeah, super tall eh.

Sun setting and palm tree silhouettes.

Later at night we have Pancake Crepes before dinner at a roadside stall! Yum yum.

My dad pretending to cook my banana and peanut butter crepe. It was gonna' burn already! Hahaha.

We spotted a funny-looking taxi stand opposite the crepes stall. Haha, we were calling for a taxi in vain. :P

Nataly and I spotted this Thai guy with a REAL afro hairstyle!

Then we realized by the waitress' apron that he was the boss of his Beef Noodle shop called The Champ Kepsup!

Jacky totally enjoyed the famous thai beef noodles. With chili flakes and loads of fish sauce!

There you go! Mmm. They don't use normal noodles. Its bouncy Thai glassnoodles. I think they called it Pad Khum/Thai.

Later on after a long walk through Bangla Road and the Rat-U-Thit Road, my dad decided to buy the Thai barbequed spicy pork (cost only 6 ringgit!) for supper.

Its really HOT and appetizing. I loved it!

Here's a funny shot of Nataly and the funny man with the green singlet and bulging belly! He was collecting coins from passersby (I wonder who would even throw a coin into his tray) just by standing there all night doing nothing but amusing people with his wiggling coke bottle. Can you see the coke bottle on his tray? It was bending from left to right on its own without the green man touching it. We were wondering how he did it.

And finally, the last picture for our second day! Two "lady-boys" posing for the camera with Hwai Tah and my dad. Yeap, those two pretty ladies are actually GUYS. You call them transvestites. There were loads of them in Patong. Pretty freaky. Haha.

But the amazing thing is, some of them really look like women. They're most of the time even slimmer and more beautiful than ordinary Thai women! Yeap. Okay, I think that's so "eeww". xD

We all really had a great time on the second day! Tiring too. But it was all splendid. Thank God so much for the awesome weather and all the wonderful pictures we managed to snap!

So, this post is just for the first and second day you know. The next post will be a "continuation"... Watch out. :P