Wednesday 10 June 2015

Phuket May 2015

It was a remarkable 5 days 4 nights trip for us, especially our four and two year-old.

There were 8 of us including my family of four, my mummy and auntie as well as my lovely sis and her hubby.

We boarded two planes departing from two locations and arrived at Phuket with 40 minutes apart. While waiting for our family, my mum and auntie were sitting at a special waiting area at the arrival hall dedicated to Laguna guests. There are 8 hotels at Laguna area and we were heading to Angsana Laguna Hotel. For 8 of us, we booked the Angsana Pool Residence 3 bedroom villa at a timed sale from Agoda website. It was an unbeatable super deal and worth every penny.

Without much trouble, we boarded a shuttle bus that transferred us to Avis car park. We picked up our Toyota Innova which surprisingly managed to squeeze in 8 of us with all our luggage. The rental of THB7000 for 5 days 4 nights came with a full tank of gas. The car condition was good and all of us sit comfortablely.

Using google map, we easily reached our hotel within half an hour. 
After checked in, we drove our car to our villa. It was a huge villa located at a private enclave a short distance away from the main resort area. The best about this villa was that it came with a sizable private pool with generous indoor and outdoor running areas for my kids. The master bedroom was spacious with an attached bathroom, as well as a walk-in wardrobe. The other rooms were relatively smaller with shared bathroom. The hotel staff was nice and brought us a baby cot, it was rather small for my toddlers, but my two playful toddlers still took turns to sleep inside. 

Splashing time started the moment we settled in. The pool was undeniably the best part of the trip. The pool depth was 1.2m and all of us just had tremendous fun.



We headed to Patong beach for dinner, it was a 45-minute drive from Laguna area. Phuket is an hour behind our time zone. My little boy just couldn't stop whining for food as it was way past his normal eating hour. 

We parked our car at a new shopping mall which cost us THB20. The roads were packed and mostly one way street at Patong area, however it was not difficult to maneuver our car on the busy street.

Patong beach is famous for it's good selection of restaurants, night clubs, touristy souvenir shops, etc.  The designs for some shops were really an eye opener for us.  We also saw a mobile kick-boxing arena set on a moving truck, presumably to promote a kick-boxing show nearby. 

We had our meal at a seafood restaurant which cost us THB2000 for a simple meal. 

Day 2 Big Buddha & Wat Chalong
From Laguna to Big Buddha located at the southern tip of Phuket took us an hour. It was hot at 10am in the morning, luckily it was just a short climb up to the Big Buddha from the car park. 

The Big Buddha was white, and there was also another smaller Golden Buddha. Below the Big Buddha, VY and YS learned about Sunday to Saturday Buddha of different poses. Under the big hot sun, they were having fun with the lotus leaves that never sink.

Everyone had a round of coconut juice before we went for our lunch at Phuket town.





We had lunch at Phuket Old Town. The delicious and sumptuous lunch just cost us slightly over THB1000. 


We headed to Wat Chalong after lunch. Wat Chalong has a few buildings built obstentiously with many Buddha statues. 

After Wat Chalong, we headed back to our villa for a rest. Naughty YS was too excited that he refused to take his afternoon nap. Daddy and JZ spent another round of splashing time with him in the pool. Exhausted, he finally took his nap at 5pm.... only to wake up the next morning.

Dinner was ordered from a nearby restaurant and it cost only THB880, with delivery to doorstep. Though inexpensive the taste was not at all at a discount. 


Day 3: Khai Island hopping

We took up morning half day Khai island tour as it was easier for our group which had kids and elderly. Khai islands were only 20 minutes away from PNT pier located at Koh Siray area. 

However, we stayed at Laguna area which was an hour away from the pier. In order for us to reach the pier at 8am, we had to leave our hotel at 7am, with breakfast all done including the kids. 

The pier was difficult to find as there was no clear sign. It was one of the small private piers near the Rassada ferry pier.

It was a standard tour with itinerary published on website, which means we were sharing the same route with all other tourists going on Khai Island tour from other tour companies.

We stopped at Khai Nok island first for fish feeding. This activity gave a good kick start to my two kids who really enjoyed wading around the water with fish swimming around their feet. 




Next we went to Khai Nui island for snorkelling. Khai Nui was a beautiful private island reserved for tourists who would pay more for private experience. For mass tourists, our boats stopped near the island and we did only snorkelling. It was a bold decision, to bring my two year-old and four year-old off the boat for a snorkelling experience on rough deep sea. But, it was worth it when they told you they really loved the experience. 


All of us were exhausted when we reached the third island Khai Nok island. The kids also just remained on the beach playing with sand, not keen to go into the water again.

The island hopping ended nicely with mummy buying a framed picture that we took together at the pier. The quality of the photo was not fantastic given the price of THB150.

We went to Phuket old town for lunch instead of being ferried back to our hotel. That's the best part of having our own rented car. 

Our choiced restaurant was closed, we ended up having lunch at GO2TUM, a nice restaurant at a small backpackers hotel. 

After lunch, we headed back to the villa as most of us were exhausted. Or that's what we thought... The kids jumped straight into the pool when we reached our villa.

They were totally exhausted after the pool session. They slept at 5pm till the next day....again!!!

Mummy and Dayi were nice enough to help keep an eye on the sleeping kids when all the rest of us went out to the night market.

The night market was just situated at the junction into Laguna area. There were many food stalls which have many local patrons. Good variety of food choices like fried glass noodles, marinated pork stick, coconut jelly, mango sticky rice, etc. could be found.

We also got two nice V-neck tops for VY and YS. Both were free size. Maybe slightly more expensive than Bangkok but that's all we bought for this trip.

Day 4 
Instead of venturing out, we decided to stay in the resort. 
 
Instead of going to Marketplace for breakfast we decided to eat at Botega Grill, another breakfast option in the resort available to villa guests. The food selection was not too different than Marketplace, save for some a la carte items that could be ordered. Food was not great, at least not up to our expectations.

Angsana Laguna resort was really big. Many places were walkable but rather far. For old folks and kids, free buggy service was available on request. The buggy ride was a highlight to the kids and they always got a free ride together with my auntie and mummy.

The beach right in front of our resort was long and clean. But it was high tide and no swimming was allowed. Kids played on the beach under the shade. 

Before long, we decided to go to the big resort swimming pool. Again, another splashing fun time. There were a few pools connected by long canal with bridge overhead. We started at the sand area which water is shallow however we decided to switch to a nearby pool as the sands are coarse. 

Angsana Laguna has a good variety of patrons that come from different parts of the world. We love the variety as you can hear different unfamiliar languages on your ear.

Splashing time last till noon. We went out for lunch. On the way back, we dropped VY and daddy at children's playground in the resort while the rest of us went back to Villa for rest.

Without doubt, VY had a good time doing coloring and art and craft at the children's playground.

We headed out to Surin beach for dinner. It is a relatively quiet beach compared to Patong beach. But, the beach is long and sands are fine. We enjoyed walking on the beach watching sunset. Instead of just running on the beach, they enjoyed climbing up the sand barrier too.

The restaurant we went was quiet. It was dinner at the beach price that we have to pay but we didn't complain coz the food is good, the waitress was nice to recommend us good food.

Day 5
Time to go home. Our flight both scheduled around 10am. We had to rush off to airport just after breakfast. Of course, holiday is short but the memory will last! Bye Phuket, we had such a tremendous time here. All those splashing time, never ending coconut juice, lemon crush, fried glass noodles.... 




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