Island hopping @ Phuket

Wouldn’t it be fun

Just you and me (and a few hundreds of tourists) out in the sun

Going on a bumpy boat ride,

Breakfast in our stomach wanting to come outside.. 

We will make a stop at Ma Ya Bay..

Where The Beach was filmed the other day,

At this exact spot Di Caprio might have stood,

That’s probably the closest i get to be linked to Hollywood

Signs like this kinda reminded us of  that fateful day

Where the huge waves swept everything that was in it’s way,

Gosh..that’s enough of bad rhyming. And my brain hurts

From the beach , we ( everyone on the island  or so it seemed) walked towards the inland , I am not sure where we were heading, but  must be a good place , since everyone was going too, maybe this was how the Pipe Pipper worked huh ?

After maybe 20 minutes walk , we reached a rocky area / cliffs , where everyone instinctively form a line and made our way onto the wooden platform. The final destination ……

After Ma Ya Bay, we made a few more stops, did some snorkeling – didn’t see that many  fishes and for that matter, the corals weren’t too impressive also worrr ( actually they look kinda dead ? )

My favourite stop was at Khai Nok…

 Where we get to feed the fishes It must be a human nature thing, 10 out of 10 people will try their luck on catching the fishes…..and mostly with this cupped hand technique… ( I can say almost 100%) came back empty handed…Unless you know the technique…..We caught 2 fishes the first time and 8 on the second try ! Of course we didn’t hurt them, we let the pretty fishes  go after everyone at the beach came by and congratulate my colleague for his ingenuity.

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive,

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

Then I let it go again.

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so.

Which finger did it bite?

This little finger on my right.

 

Gypsies, Sunset and dinner at Kan Eang@ Pier @ Chalong Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Ok, it’s back to where we left off- before the postings were ‘disrupted’ by Chinese New Year dinners and outings. It’s back to Phuket, guys.

We  had a short stop at  the Sea Gypsy Village / Rawai Beach. There were a few stalls by the road side selling wind chimes made from seashells, I don’t know la..i have this thing about wind chimes…a moderate wind chime fetish.  There were also stalls selling fresh catch of the day- fish, lobsters, sotong, crabs etcThe stop at Rawai Beach was brief and rushed , as we have to make it in time to the next destination to view the sunset  - Laem Phromthep. This is the southern most tip of Phuket and one can get a beautiful view of the Andaman Sea. This seemed to be a popular tourist spot and is included as one of the ‘must-do’ sight when one visit Phuket There is a lighthouse (still functioning) that one can climb up to get a better view of the Andaman Sea.Phromthep is one of the more reasonably priced place to do some souvenir shopping . If you would like to buy those touristy T-shirts and stuff, suggest you buy them here- there is  a larger variety and the prices are cheaper that what you can find near the city.All this sunset thingy..kinda made me  hungry lah..hiew khau ( = hungry for rice )

That night we had dinner al fresco , at  Kan Eang @ Pier restaurant, Kan Eang means feel at ease. The setting was lovely, we have a good view of the pier- lighted with colourful lights, warm breeze, the occasional leaves ( from the branches over us) dropping on our heads, the clatter of wine glasses and happy laughters…

Som Tam ( raw papaya salad) – sweet-sour-spicy..Oh Ah…like a wake up call. I was very careful with this dish, careful to remove the chili padi bits before every bite. This was nice Sotong salad – not sure is this the correct name or not lah, just that- there were sotong and the dish came with vegetables- maybe more accurately black fungus and vermicelli . Sotong was fresh and springy. Another hit !Fish cakes – the fish cakes weren’t that thick, so at the sides they were rather crispy, which was nice. There were some light dosage of chili padi in these but not too spicy to overwhelm and make the tears come, aloy ! ( delicious)Vegetable with egg- kinda a weird thing to order . but due to the fact that as we had some muslims dining with us, we tried to limit the amount of meat that we order. This was not bad.Steamed fish – I think this was done the ‘kheng som’ style. Fish was fresh and the gravy was very good and it was a bit too late to find out that the gravy can be rather spicy especially when one accidentally scooped bits of chili padi into one’s mouth. Ouchhh but Nice.Green chicken curry- the gravy wasn’t rich enough and it just didn’t hit the scales..a bit like flat coke- if you get what I mean. This missed the mark.And last but not least…the highlight of the day We let out an applause when the lobsters arrived…we had 2 lobster and those lobsters alone cost RM1,000. The meat was fresh,  thick , aromatic  and succulent. This was truly enjoyable. We later found out how the lobsters were cooked- grilled over coconut husks ( as opposed to charcoal) Who did you think lost at the game of ‘who blinked first’ ?

The total bill ( for 16 pax – we had 4 sets of all the dishes) ) plus rice, and drinks ( beer, wine and juices) came to Thai Baht 21,000 , which is ~ RM2,100 with the lobster making up 50% of the total bill.

Overall , an aloy ching ching ( very delicious ) meal

 Ken Eang @ Pier is located by the pier of Chalong bay , East Coast of Phuket

website 
http://www.kaneang-pier.com/

 

Tiger Inn and Patong Resort Hotel @Phuket , Thailand

Checked into Patong Resort  (website :  
http://patongresorthotel.com/
) . the first thing I did after entering my room was to devour the complimentary fruits , eh..it was after lunch time and I hadn’t had lunch mahhh… I then start to search for the TV. I  saw a large wooden TV  cabinet . I open the cabinet doors and EKKKKKKkkk where is the TV ? No TV ? huh ? this couldn’t be happening – what kind of hotel is this ? so laubeh one mehhhh Then ..errr…I found the TV

I wonder why are they still keeping the cabinet in the room and at such a prominent location too..

*****

Patong is a really happening place, wow ! more about that later !

 We took a walk down the street, stopping at eateries to look at the menu and the seafood on display. Mr Leader seemed to be not too keen with the simple common eating  area concept , well, as for us, the person who pays get the say. Finally after walking for about 15 minutes, Mr Leader seemed to have found a restaurant that met his criteria.

Tiger Inn has an interesting setting, it was like stepping into Wonderland, the setting had a jungle theme complete with tree trunks that came with human faces, elephants etc, well, this must be working as the place was brimming with diners.Before we even had time to open the menu,  someone had already called for Singha ( beer)What we ate that night :

Beef salad – this was good, the beef slices were  tender and tasty.i didn’t get a second helping. Gosh..these people must be hungry

Grilled squid – the aroma of  the squid cooked over grill was not present and  this was a bit chewy as well,  this was just ok lahTiger Inn salad- Special salad with mussels (250 Baht)  they got to the mussels before I did, so, I just got a taste of the salad san mussels, salad was good and I was rather busy looking out for the chili padi  in the dishFish with salad – the steamed fish was fresh and meaty but overall  I find the taste a bit bland Stir fried Chicken with cashew nuts (170 B) – the other version is with prawns. This was not bad, we had to fight over the cashew nuts though Tom Yam Khung- as this came in individual bowls, I opted out as 1) my tolerance to spiciness is a disgrace 2) I limit my intake of prawns. My colleague let me have a sip of her soup after assuring me that it wasn’t very spicy. This tasted good, not too sour, not too spicy – a rather toned down tom yam – a tourist friendly tom yam. Oh and there were a lot of ‘khung’ ( prawns) in the soup too.Grilled duck breast with coconut curry (200B) – when the dish arrived we didn’t know what it was, some even thought it was pork after tasting it. The duck meat was soft and didn’t have that ducky-ish taste. I hadn’t ate duck cooked this way before , This was nice

Green curry with chicken – (180B) . Green curry has such a unique taste, don’t cha think ? The gravy was  very  rich . Nice.I had to visit the ladies and saw this sign  Overall, a good meal, nice environment. We were happy with the food but not  too happy with  the live band, it started off really slow ( read : sleepy ) and got even slower when the singers took a break and we were left with the saxophonist belting even more sleep induced melodies. Luckily the tempo picked up after this and  we got out of our stupor..

 

Tiger Inn main business seemed to be accommodation rather than food , please visit their website www.tigerinnpatong.com

 Location :

Tiger Inn, 140 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Rd., Patong Beach, Kathu, Phuket, 83150, Thailand.
Tel: +66 (0) 76 340 959, +66 (0) 76 340 877 Fax: +66(0) 76 340 045