Phuket, day 3: No. 6 Restaurant...

Di malam kedua kami di Phuket, kami bertanya kepada resepsionis hotel kami, di makan kira-kira tempat yang oke untuk dinner, lalu sang resepsionis menyarankan No. 6, sebuah restoran yang terletak ga jauh dari Patong beach, lupa sih nama jalannya tapi ada di perempatan antara Soi Sansabai & Soi Bangla (arah ke Patong), belok ke kanan, nanti dia ada di sisi sebelah kiri jalan. Jadilah kami ke sana, eh tapi ternyata tutup karena katanya hari itu merupakan hari perayaan untuk umat Buddha.

Malam berikutnya kami ke sana lagi, dah restorannya buka, tapiii, ternyata ramai banget, ditambah banyak waiting list. Seorang karyawan di situ menginfokan pada kami, bahwa No. 6 ini baru buka cabang yang katanya ga jauh dari lokasi yang ini, dan No. 6 menyediakan shuttle gratis ke sana. Pikir-pikir gratis ini, boleh lah dicoba (gak mo rugi). Naiklah kami ke mobil shuttle yang berupa mobil bak terbuka yang dikasih atap & tempat duduk.

Selain kami, ada juga serombongan mahasiswa dari Hongkong. Perjalanan ke cabang baru No. 6 dimulai, pertama sih melewati daerah-daerah yang familiar, misal hotel tempat kami menginap, makin lama, makin jauh, kok gak sampai-sampai yah, kami semua mulai berasa aneh, karena melewati jalan kecil, gelap, berliku-liku, padahal katanya dekat :s

Ketika tingkat was-was semakin meningkat, akhirnya sampai juga kami di tempat tujuan, dan ternyata tempatnya jauuuuh lebih bagus dari No. 6 yang pertama, yang hanya seperti restoran kecil biasa. No. 6 yang ini letaknya di atas bukit jadi bisa liat view kota di malam hari, wiiih.

Jadi restorannya terbuka gitu (ada atepnya sih), siap-siap sweater/cardigan buat yang ga tahan angin malam, hehe. Ini yang gak pernah saya temuin di restoran lain, di mejanya disediaiin minyak untuk semprot kalo sampe digigit nyamuk atau serangga saudara-saudara! Untungnya selama makan di situ gak ada gangguan serangga. Nuansanya interiornya kayu-kayu gitu, dengan pencahayaan minimalis.

Menu No. 6 ini seputar Thai Cuisine, tapi ada juga beberapa menu western foodnya. Tapi udah ke sini makannya Thai food lah ya. Kisaran harga makanannya untuk porsi sedang sekitar THB 70-150 lah, kecuali menu ikan lebih mahal sekitar THB 350 ke atas.

 

Fried Pork Spare Ribs in Red Sauce (THB 150)

Beef Tom Yum

Fried Chicken with Cashew Nut (THB 100)

Pad Thai (THB 70)

Fried Pineapple

Overall makanannya enak, favorit saya pork ribs-nya. Kalo tom yum, memang paling cocok pake seafood sih, pake sapi jadi seperti makan pindang, hehe. Nah kalo fried pineapple ini, pineapple-nya hanya sedikit sebenarnya, jadi berupa roti dan nanas yang digoreng, dan nanti kita kasih saos sendiri sesuai selera, ada caramel, honey, dan chocolate. Harga juga menurut saya sangat reasonable. Terlebih lagi di cabang yang baru ini dapat bonus view yang bagus. Jadi buat yang mau ke Phuket & main-main ke daerah Patong, No. 6 ini boleh dicoba :)

 *THB 1 ± IDR 300

Phuket, day 3: Phi Phi Island & Khai Island...

 Di hari kedua, waktu ikut Phuket city tour, karena males nyari-nyari & nawar lagi, kami mem-booked tour ke Phi-Phi Island dari tour yang sama, dengan speedboat harganya THB 1,500, dengan cruise THB 1,000. Kami memilih naik speedboat, karena lebih cepat.

Sekitar jam 7.30, dijemputlah kami dengan minibus seperti kemarin, sehabis menjemput kami, masih ada beberapa orang lagi yang dijemput. Perjalanan dari daerah Patong beach ke Rassada Ferry Port memakan waktu cukup lama, di mobil kita sempat sarapan dulu, gak berani makan banyak karena konon ombaknya bakal ndut-ndutan, dan tak lupa saya minum Antangin!

Sampai di Rassada Port, di tempat Phi Phi Sea Angel Cruise kami ditempeli dengan sticker yang menandakan kami naik speedboat. Sebelum berangkat, petugas dari Sea Angel Cruise-nya menerangkan beberapa hal & menawarkan beberapa barang seperti underwater camera, penyewaan kaki kodok, roti untuk fish feeding. Sambil menunggu, jangan lupa, pakailah sunscreen!

Tibalah saatnya naik ke speedboat, ada 4 orang crew di speedboat tersebut, 2 engineers, 1 captain (sopir speedboat), dan tour leader super bawel yang menamakan dirinya sendiri Lady Gaga, karena katanya lebih mudah diingat dibanding nama Thailandnya yang panjaaang. Kami diingatkan, bahwa karena saat ini sedang musim hujan, ombaknya akan kurang bersahabat, dan benar aja, agak-agak seperti naik arung jeram versi lebih dahsyat, hehehe. Untungnya saya gak mabok laut, sementara teman saya di kiri dan kanan tak kuasa menahan mabok laut dan *maaf* threw up, juga beberapa orang lain di dalam speedboat. Dan karena saking besar ombak, belum sampai tujuan, saya dan teman-teman sudah basah kuyup tersiram air yang masuk dari sisi-sisi speedboat (padahal jendelanya sudah tinggi).

Setelah kurang lebih 1 jam perjalanan, akhirnya saya bisa melihat langsung yang selama ini hanya saya lihat di foto-foto, Phi Phi Island! Woaaa, benar-benar excited saat itu, what a beautiful view. Speedboat kami berhenti di beberapa titik untuk kami sight seeing & foto-foto.

Kami juga berhenti di Monkey Beach yang memang banyak monkey-nya.

  Mr. Monkey wanna join the ride.

Karena saat itu laut sedang kurang bersahabat kami hanya berkesempatan 1 kali untuk snorkeling. Snorkeling gear sudah disiapkan di speedboat, hanya saja kaki kodok harus sewa sewaktu di Rassada Port seharga THB 100 sepasang. My first time snorkeling, gini toh rasanya, hehe. Di spot kami snorkeling airnya tidak terlalu jernih, tapi tetap terlihat jelas sih ikan-ikannya.

 

 No, it was not a mermaid, it was me.

 Setelah sekitar setengah jam snorkeling, kami dibawa ke Phi Phi Don untuk makan siang yang juga sudah termasuk paket tour. Makan siangnya prasmanan, ambil sesukanya, tapi jangan expect soal rasanya. Standard abis.

Jadi setelah makan siang, bagi yang kapok & mabok naik speedboat ditawarkan untuk kembali naik cruise, dengan biaya tambahan THB 100 per orang. Teman saya yang takut mabok lagi akhirnya memilih naik cruise, dan yang lain tetap lanjut naik speedboat karena gak mao rugi mampir ke spot lainnya.

Next destination was Khai Island. Arahnya adalah arah kembali ke pelabuhan. Dari Phi-Phi ke Khai memakan waktu cukup lama, sepertinya lebih dari 45 menit, dan ombaknya lebih dasyat lagi dari waktu berangkat, kapalnya jadi seperti dibanting-banting, tapi seru, asli.

 

Sampai di Khai Island harus siapin uang untuk sewa bangku, 2 bangku + 1 umbrella seharga THB 150. Sebenarnya kami gak mao nyewa sih, tapi karena bingung mao taro barang di mana selama main, akhirnya sewa juga.

 View dari Khai Island ini juga cantik, langit biru, pasir putih, hanya saja ramai, ppadahal ini low season, apalagi high season ya.

 

Ada 1 bagian di mana banyak karang di tepi pantai dan banyak ikan-ikan di sana. Jadi kita bisa duduk sambil kasih makan atau lihat-lihat ikan, tapi awas, karangnya licin-licin.

 

Perjalanan kembali dari Khai Island ke Rassada Port hanya memakan waktu sekitar 15 menit. Dari Rassada Port kami diantarkan kembali ke hotel dengan minibus seperti waktu berangkat. Dan ketika sampai di hotel barulah saya ngeh bahwa kulit ini cukup terbakar, karena langsung belang cukup akut! But a very great experience after all.

 *THB 1 ± IDR 300

Phuket, day 2: Patong Beach, Karon View Point, Wat Chalong, Jungceylon, Local Dishes...

 Day 2 in Phuket, Thailand. We planned to wake up at 6 in the morning, and had a morning walk around. But apparently the two boys, who told the girls to wake up early, woke up late! And it took the boys longer to get ready than the girls. So, the 7 AM morning walk mission, failed!

We had breakfast at a restaurant next to the hotel, it was for free since we booked the room+breakfast package. The owner himself served us that morning, a nice Lebanese (I guess, since it was a Lebanese restaurant) man. Below was my breakfast choice. Anyway, every time I go abroad, I bring  Tolak Angin/Antangin and drink it after breakfast, so Indonesia ya, haha!

 After breakfast, we managed to stroll around, and finally we stepped on Patong beach! We were just so happy to see the beach, a nice one especially. We took photos for a while and got back to the hotel because we were gonna be picked up for Phuket city tour.

 I booked a half day Phuket city tour from Airasiago, the normal price was around IDR 200K/person, but I booked it when they were having a promo. Guess how much did I pay for the tour? Less than IDR 30K/person *grinning*

We were picked up at the hotel at 10 AM with a minibus and greeted by our tour leader Ms. Arthi. Beside me and my friends, there were also three Malaysian couples. First stop was Karon View Point, from this place, you could see Karon beach, Kata beach, and Kata Noi beach. One beautiful view!

Second stop was the elephant riding camp / monkey show / atv riding place. It was optional, and since it was expensive, none of us was interested to ride the elephant, so we headed to the next stop, Wat Chalong!

'Wat' in thai means temple, and 'Chalong' means celebration. It was a Buddhist Temple. Usually couples go there and pray to Buddha for babies.

From Wat Chalong, we went to souvenir shop, nothing attracted me there, and the next stop was Pornthip, a local food store. There were many kind of snacks for you to choose, local one of course, from cashew nuts to dried pork slices. There was lines of products those attracted me, the ones with Sino Portugese Old Phuket town buildings packaging. From the tour itinerary, we should be going to Phuket old town, but since it was under renovation, we could not enter the area. This building shaped packagings won a design award, no wonder, they even sold the packaging only packs as souvenirs.

From Pornthip, we went to Gem factory, you could see the making process of a jewelry, they also sell jewelries, not a cheap one for sure. After that we went to a t-shirt factory, but I bought none.

We were so hungry because it was almost 3PM and we haven't had our lunch yet! After we were dropped back at our hotel, we put our stuff in the room, and walk to Jungceylon. We went to the food court at the basement, there were many local cuisine there. Below was my THB 100 food, it was moreover like nasi capcay haha. It was quite good afterall, many seafood inside it.

Jungceylon is the closest shopping mall from our hotel, only a five minutes walk. You could find Big C (hypermarket) here, in case you need something.

  

And there was also DAIRY QUEEN! What's so special about this Dairy Queen? There were also many Dairy Queen's Stalls in Indonesia, right? I'll tell you the difference, the price was muuuuuuch cheaper, like one third cheaper. Gosh!

 After fulfilling our finally happy tummy, we went to Patong beach. I found a funny view, a drunken dog, hehe.

 We took photos, and waited for the sunset, what a beautiful view.

 At night, we tried some local dishes like mango sticky rice, banana pancake, and Thai salad.

 Mango Sticky Rice

Thai mangoes are yellow, but sweet. Mango sticky rice was a yummy dish.

 Banana Pancake

It was sold all around I guess, the taste was so so.

 Thai Salad

It was yummy...The most stand out taste was of course sour.

So it was the end of day two, and we were preparing our bodies for more fun on day 3!

Phuket, day 1...

Sawasdee ka! Last week, me and my friends flew to Phuket, Thailand. We bought the ticket last year, when AirAsia was having a promo. Return tickets cost us IDR 585,000 per person. The plane took off around 4 PM, and landed in Phuket about 2 hours and 50 minutes later, with no time difference. Yay! We were so excited to explore the island. Nothing special about the airport, in front of it, there were so many travel agents those would offer you tours to Phi-Phi Island, James Bond Island, or tickets to Phuket Fantasea, Simon Cabaret Show. From Phuket airport to Phuket Town cost you around THB 500 by taxi, and THB 650 to Patong.

We took taxi to our hotel in Patong area. I've read before, that on the way to our destination, the taxi driver would stop at a travel agent that would offer us tours. Yeap, it happened, the taxi driver said he needed to stop for a while, and leave us in the car, seconds later a woman came to our car and offered us to use the same taxi for our way back to airport later, also she offered some tour's itinerary, we just kept the brochure and name card.

It took around 45 minutes from airport to Patong area. Before the trip, I did some researches for our hotel options, and after considering this and that, I chose Acca (read: eykha) Patong. It was located at Soi Sansabai, just 10 minutes walk to Patong beach & 5 minutes walk to Jungceylon Mall. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the receptionist Mr. Jirayu. The hotel was not too big, but I loved the lobby, it was a nice photo spot, haha. I booked two superior rooms with twin beds, one was with balcony, facing the street, one was without balcony, but it is more quiet, and of course I chose the non balcony one, since I am easily distracted by noise. The room was comfortable, with quite enough space to move. The bathroom was small, but nice and clean. 

 

We put our luggage, change clothes, took some photos, and after that we began our first walk around while searching for a place to dine. After walking, and walking, and walking, we found a place across a boxing stadium with many hawkers around. Most of them sold bbq, from pork to seafood. I forgot the prices, but not pricey I remembered.

After dinner, we headed back to hotel, and prepared our bodies for the next day journey.

*THB 1 ± IDR 300