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Gran, Granpa and Brian dropped us off at the airport for our 14h30
flight on Air As a further demonstration of their excellent service, it is the
only airline we have been on where they provided nappies and baby food
for Jade. 16 November 2004 We arrived at Singapore
at a little after 07h00 local time, but according to us it was 01h00
in the morning. We had to sit around for two hours waiting for our
plane to Phuket. They had a kid's playground in the waiting lounge so
Jade and I had lots of fun (Mom and Dad had to keep telling us to be
quiet). Even here the people are really friendly and everyone comes over
and speaks to us. We arrived in Phuket and joined a long queue but a really nice man
came and took us to the front so we got through very quickly. We
caught a taxi to our hotel. Dad says that the driving is almost the
worst he has seen, there are lots of scooters cutting in and out of
the traffic, the cars don't seem to notice them and so there are quite
a lot of narrow misses. The roads are also quite narrow (and very
busy) and at intersections it is often the case of the biggest goes
first. The Merlin Beach Hotel just south of Patong
Anyway, the first thing we did after checking in was to go for a
swim as it was quite hot. One of the pools had a huge slide which we
went on a few times. We then swam under a building to the second pool
which even had a bar in it (Dad seemed to like that idea). We were quite tired after our flight so we went to have an
afternoon sleep. We then took a walk around the hotel and on the beach
before having dinner at a Thai restaurant. We went off to bed early as we were still tired. 17 November 2004 Happy anniversary Mike and Lee. After sleeping for 13 hrs we just made it down for breakfast. We
then went back to the pool and spent most of the day swimming. At 16h45 we caught a bus into Patong
Beach. What a lively place. There are lots of small markets all over the
place, and everyone wants to bargain. Mom bought a few curios at 25%
of the initial asking price (Dad kept saying no and walking away and
the price kept coming down). Unfortunately the last bus back to the
hotel left at 18h45 so we didn't have much time to explore. We went off to a really cool Thai restaurant right on the beach.
The food was good and it was really cheap. We eventually got back to our room just after 21h00 and again we
crashed. 18 November 2004 It was back to the pool in the morning (we have even created our
own spot). Just before lunch we went back to Patong
We went back and had an early supper as we had to get up very early
to catch a boat to Kho
Phi
Phi
Island. 19 November 2004 We caught another taxi to the harbour. It was quite funny, Dad sat
next to a couple who were talking Afrikaans, and they didn't realise
that Dad could understand them until right at the end. The boat trip was quite rough (Dad said we should have rather
sailed across the wind was so strong). There were quite a few boats
coming across but most of the people were just going across for the
day. The scenery as we arrived was stunning. There are huge cliffs right
into the sea, turquoise water around the edges, and lots of small bays
with white sand. There are also lots of small islands all over. We
booked into the Phi Phi Cabana Hotel right on the beach front
overlooking a huge bay. Dad says this is almost heaven and he is
thinking of sending an email back to the office to say that he might
not be back. He says the views are far better than at the office and
they have topless bathing - I don't know what the big deal is. We are staying in a reed hut quite close to the beach. There is a
small village just outside of the hotel which seems really busy. They
have lots of small stalls (just like Patong
Anyway we went snorkelling in the sea this afternoon but didn't see
to many fish, we will try and go out further tomorrow. Jade has got an ear infection so she slept all afternoon, Mom had
to keep trying to keep her cool. Anyway, by this evening she seems
much better and is in fact running all over the place at the moment
playing with me. We had dinner on the beach. Dad had a fresh fish which they braaied
for him (he had to go and choose the fish) whilst we had salad. There
was a band playing just down from us, they were playing a lot of the
Carpenter's songs (Mom told me who the Carpenters were). We are all quite tired (except Jade) so we are off the bed (if Jade
will let us). 20 November 2004 Today we took a walk around the village. There are lots of little
stalls and restaurants. There are narrow walkways between the stalls,
people drive bicycles quite fast up and down the lanes, we have nearly
been knocked over quite a few times. There are no cars on the island,
but there are lots of boats. Where ever we go the locals are always
asking us "taxi boat", basically they are wanting to take us
around the island on one of their long boats with huge engines on the
back (see pictures). We went down another beach and had dinner again right on the beach. 21 November 2004 We decided to laze on the beach. Dad and I went snorkelling and saw
lots of amazing coloured fish, we even saw something that looked like
a sea snake. Jade is enjoying herself on the beach, she always goes
wandering off and Mom and Dad have to chase after her. She likes
picking things up and tasting them so Mom and Dad are having quite a
hard time looking after her. Jade seems to be much better after her
ear infection. For lunch we went to one of the local stalls, Dad had a coconut
shake (which he says is really nice), Mom had a lemon shake, and we
had pancakes (Thai style) with honey and chocolate .. mmmmm really
nice. Again we had dinner right on the beach before going home to bed.
Jade just collapsed, and I wasn't far after her. Dad tried to update
our website but couldn't (he can only send emails), hopefully we can
update the site shortly. 22 November 2004 We have moved to another bungalow called Phi Phi Pavillion. Our
bungalow is right on the beach, in fact Dad is busy typing this up
sitting on the verandah watching Mom and me lying in the sun, whilst
Jade is asleep in the room. Mom and I went snorkelling this morning
and again we saw lots of amazing coloured fish. This is a really nice resort, we are right next to a couple of
restaurants, and the village is literally 50m's away. We spent the rest of the day relaxing. 23 November to 26 November 2004 A typical day consists of waking up, rolling out of bed and onto
the beach. We then take a leisurely stroll down to the restaurant on
the beach where we have a leisurely breakfast consisting of toast,
croissants, fruit, egg, bacon and sausages, coffee, tea and fruit
juices. We then take a leisurely stroll back to the bungalow to brush
our teeth. We then go for a swim and a snorkel to look at all the
fish, and then just laze around or play (Dad covers me in sand and
makes me look like a mermaid). We then get some really nice fruit shakes and pancakes for lunch.
We then take a stroll around the village before coming back and
playing on the beach. We then decide where to go and eat dinner (there are so many
choices). On one of the days we hired a speed boat and took a trip around Phi
Phi We even found Nemo (he is quite tiny). We are off to Krabi tomorrow so we must go into the village to try
and find accommodation there, as well as a boat to take us across. 27 November 2004 Guess what, we decided to stay here and just visit Krabi for the
day. Anyway we went off in the speed boat that we hired the other day
(owned by Kariem). We stopped along the way snorkelling at various
reefs and at various islands (including Krabi was quite beautiful. We stopped off at Railay
On the way back we stopped off and did more snorkelling. The sea
was quite rough so we didn't spend a lot of time at the places in the
open sea. We had another pleasant dinner on the beach. We are starting to
become quite regulars at this particular restaurant, Phi Phi Charlie. 28 November 2004 Jade's birthday!!!! We were woken up really early (Jade must have
known something). After breakfast we lazed around and at 12h00 went
off to go and get Jade's cake which we had ordered the day before. We all really enjoyed a slice of the cake, but non more than Jade
(see photos). Mom and Dad went off for a Thai massage in the afternoon whilst I
played with Mellie (my local friend) and Jade entertained some of the
local ladies. Tomorrow will be our last day here, unless Mom and Dad change their
mind again. We are going to be going back to Phuket before catching
our flight to 29 November 2004 Our last day on Kho Phi Phi was another typical day. It ended with
us having our last dinner on the island at our favourite restaurant
where we took a picture of all the waiters and the chefs. 30 November 2004 We got up early to finish our packing, and then left for Phuket on
a ferry at 09h00. We then caught a taxi to our new hotel Patong Villa.
The only room left was the deluxe "sweet" (Thai spelling)
which is in effect a double room. The entrance to the hotel is via a
very narrow passage with clothes stalls on either side. We took a walk
around the town in the afternoon looking at various stalls. The
clothes are really cheap here, unfortunately we have too much luggage
so we don't have a lot of room, next time we come we will come with no
clothes and just buy here. You can but quite a lot of "big
name" brands, but they are obviously fake, they have some nice
Ferrari jackets (Kevin would love one). It is sometime quite amazing the differences in prices, and how low
you can sometime go. For example Terry wanted to buy a sarong and they
initially indicated a price of 700 Baht (R100). After shopping around
we ended up paying 120 Baht (R20). Some stalls will offer better
prices than others, I guess it relates to how much business they have
done on the day. The best way to determine the cheapest price is shop around and get
a feel for prices, then go into a stall looking at a couple of things,
ask the price, offer a ridiculously low price (usually about 20% of
the asking price), and then walk out. Sometimes the price drops down
dramatically, hang around acting half interested but non committal, up
your price slightly, walk away again suggesting that you will come
back after having looked around, usually at this point they offer the
lowest price that they will give to you (usually about 25% to 40% of
the original asking price). That said, there are a few stalls where
you don't get much of a discount because the price is already very low
(often these are where goods are marketed at the low prices to get you
in in the first place). 1 December 2004 We decided to spend a bit of "quality" time with Hayley
because she is often left out because we are so focused on looking
after Jade. I took Jade for a walk along the beach whilst Terry took
Hayley swimming. Jade fell asleep so I went into an internet cafe and
checked on our emails. After I had started responding Jade woke
up so it was back to the hotel to see what Terry and Hayley were up
to. Terry was grateful to see me because a South African who was
living here had "found" Terry. Unfortunately he was rather
drunk and so was being a bit of a pain. We had booked to go and see the Fanta
The show was absolutely fantastic. There were lots of elephants in
the show, lots of magic and lots of music and dancing. The stage set
was also pretty amazing. There is a carnival outside of the show but
unfortunately we didn't know this so arrived just before the show, and
our lift home left just after the show, we would really have liked to
spend more time walking around the carnival. We got to bed quite late (11h30). 2 December 2004 We decided to do a half day tour around Phuket visiting a number of
tourist attractions. We rode on elephants (the kids loved this), we saw a snake show (including the largest king cobra we have ever seen), we saw a monkey show, visited a cashew nut factory and an orchid farm, and then a jewelry store (Mom persuaded Dad to buy a sapphire ring (Dad says it is all the fault of the "boys from Brazil"). Jade was pretty tired after all of this so when we got back to the hotel she just collapsed. 3 December 2004 Today we are off to Singapore. Looking at the airline tickets Dad realised that they were actually booked for yesterday and we had missed our flight (we were originally going to go on the 2nd but Dad changed the flights - obviously the tickets hadn't been changed). Anyway, it was not too much of a problem to change and we ended up catching the flight we thought we were on (also the hotel in Singapore had been booked from the 3rd so we didn't have any problems there). The story contines in Singapore. |