Phuket - Phi Phi Island Tour

Island tour is one of the things from the must-do list in Phuket. Previously there was a Groupon deal for Phuket tour but we didn’t want to go through the hassle of contacting and locating the tour agency so decided to book a tour impromptu when we were there. Before I start the post, read my review on Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa and my bikini self-portrait loaded post at Patong beach if you haven’t! XD

Walking along the streets at Patong, we came across so many stalls with island tour brochures on display. So many types of tours offered by different agencies, most advertising at super overpriced rates. The boy suggested that we book a tour from the hotel desk saying that it’s safer and more reliable when I saw the price I freaked out and insisted NO! 3600 baht per person for a normal island tour in a speed boat?! Such a rip off!!! No Asian in the right head would pay for that! Stingy and calculative Asian like me.

True there are so many agencies selling their tours for prices above 3000 baht, but it’s not exactly impossible to find an ideal-priced one. From the past reviews and experiences I read, I decided that the maximum price I would pay is 1800 baht. Anything below 1500 baht should be considered a bargain. If I’m not mistaken the deal at Groupon was RM150 although it didn’t include snorkeling equipment rental.

After going through a few brochures here and there, I decided to go for a Phi Phi Island speed boat tour by Sea Angel Cruise which was priced at 1500 baht (surprisingly cheap!). Was quite worried cause they didn’t exactly have a shop but just a small shabby stall. What if it’s a scam? What if she cheats our money and disappears?? But these are the risks I was ready to take for a bargained price like this. Besides if we get cheated it would be RM300 only anyway. Zui duo forget about the island tour lo. LOL.

The lady offered us 1300 baht each which was 200 baht cheaper than the price stated! I was thinking wow this business must be real competitive else she wouldn’t reduce the price for us. But at the same time I thought, so cheap already still got discount? Fishy fishy. But anyhow in the end the tour van really showed up at our resort so we didn’t get cheated! Hiak hiak.

Trust me, there’s really no difference between a 1500 baht tour and a 3500 baht one. Same itenary, same location, same treatment. In fact I think everyone on our boat paid different prices because I saw the same tour company – Sea Angel having a few differently-priced brochures advertising the same thing. The price you pay really depends on how much research you’re willing to do and how capable you are to bargain.

Woke up at 6.30am to dress up, do my make up and went for breakfast before the van picked us up at 7.45am. Make up for picture purpose, don’t judge! Reached the pier, gathered for instructions and all then off we go! There were 4 speed boats in total departing from Sea Angel Pier that morning. Our tour includes 3 islands which are Phi Phi Lay, Phi Phi Don and Khai Island.

First stop was Maya Beach. The beach was so crowded with tourists and there was nothing better to do besides sun tanning. No snorkeling or fish feeding as there wasn’t any fish and corals there.

Despite the lack of activity, the beautiful view was exactly like what you would see in post cards and advertisements though. 

Half of the time I was just dipping my feet into the cold water while admiring the beautiful scenery.

Left the beach after a brief moment and was brought to see Viking Cave. Just a ruin, nothing much to see and we didn’t enter the cave. Just passed by and checked out the place from quite a distance away.

Somewhere near Viking Cave was James Bond Bay (not James Bond Island) with extremely beautiful blue lagoon! See how blue the water was!!! No filter. Amazing!

According to the tour guide, Leonardo Dicaprio dived into the blue lagoon in one of his movies.

Next stop was Monkey Beach. The ang mohs were quite fascinated with the monkeys but for me it was just meh. I grew up seeing monkeys at the Tanjung in Muar and they look exactly like these monkeys so there was nothing special.

After that we were finally brought to the snorkeling site! I can’t swim and I didn’t want to scare myself entering the deep water so I decided to stay onboard. Effing dizzy staying on the boat, had to stand up, inhaled some fresh air and and looked afar to avoid puking.

Snorkeling equipment was included in the tour but we had the option to rent the flipper for 100 Baht per pair.

If you don’t rent the flipper, you might risk hurting yourself stepping on sea urchin.

Black nasty thorny creatures! Expensive cuisine though. Teehee.

Plenty of fishes (albeit only 1 species -.-) there so I entertained myself throwing breads into the sea and watching them fight over it XD The boy took some photos and videos underwater for me since I couldn’t see them for myself.

Oh hello strangers.

Our buffet lunch was served at a small island.

Not impressive but edible. Couldn’t really complain after my long battle with that puking sensation T_T

Our final stop was Khai Island where we were given a long time to relax.

1500 Baht for a pair of beach chair. The island was really small so the shore was filled with speedboats that caused such an eyesore.

Free fruits and soft drinks as they were included in our package. They went around serving us some more! Teehee.

Chang beer was 30 Baht at the local marts but 80 Baht at the beach. Still cheap after all!

Some stalls selling barbequed seafood and corns.

I can haz Pina Colada! ^^

Got into the water and cooled our body before leaving. Fed the fishes again!

Beware, the fishes bite! Hiak hiak.

Ending the post with a full body shot.

Over all Phi Phi Island was good but not awesome. The view was impressive but I dislike the vast number of tourists. Not the perfect place for snorkeling either as there wasn’t any corals. Go for the experience if you haven’t been. But if you’re tight on schedule, I would recommend you to skip the tour and relax at Patong beach instead :)

Afternoon Tea at L. Table by Lavender

When was the last time since I last got my hair braided? High school maybe?

No, I never knew how to braid it myself. Figured I needed a different HOTD instead of the usual thick and messy mane so I managed to get the maid to do it yesterday XD

Love my new tribal print blouse from dad’s boutique! One of the many pretty stuff I got when I went back fro the election last weekend ^^

Was at 1 Utama yesterday and needed a place for afternoon tea. Always wanted to try the 3-tier tea set at Delicious but I was too full after lunch to go for that. Went to L. Table at Lavender instead. There isn’t many choice for tea at 1U after all.

There’s a RM28 tea-set available at L. Table but we ordered ala carte instead.

Jasmine Pearl Rose Tea. Good for sharing.

Belgium waffle topped with ice-cream. And the waffles come in heart shapes! So pretty and yummy!

Messy Napoleon. There’s a reason behind this name. Try cutting into the crunchy pieces and you’ll get it. There are pieces of peach and just the right amount of cream in between the layers. Simply delicious!

L. Table has got the perfect ambience for a casual afternoon tea and most of their desserts and drinks are of affordable price range :)

On a random note, I bought a necklace with my initial engraved on the heart-shaped pendant. Lovely, isn’t it?

The necklace wasn't for me though. LOL.

OOTD:

Tribal print blouse – Attack

Scallop shorts – Bangkok

Belt - Attack

Shoes – Mixit

Neverfull – Louis Vuitton

Clic Clac Bracelet - Hermes

L. Table by Lavender

Address: G213, Ground Floor,

1 Utama Shopping Centre.

Tel: 03- 7728 6933

Suara Rakyat Suara Keramat by Anwar Ibrahim @ Stadium Kelana Jaya

Tonight, on 8th of May 2013, I feel proud to have attended Suara Rakyat Suara Keramat, the speech gathering by Anwar Ibrahim held at Stadium Kelana Jaya!

Me: I'm wearing Giyongchy!
Le friend: What's that?
Me: K-pop
Le friend: You think you attending concert ah?
Me: Yea, Anwar's concert XD

So exhausted right now and my feet still feel sore from all the walking, but I’m full of joy and patriotic spirit right now!

I’m glad I insisted to attend the spectacular event tonight, otherwise I would have missed the opportunity to witness our rakyat of all races being so united. The massive crowd consisted of Malay, Chinese and Indians. In fact I can assure you that it would be a joke to label it as a Chinese tsunami!

Tell me again how is this a Chinese tsunami???

Contrary to the previous belief, there was no commotion, no police, no block, no arrest and no harassment by the BN party. Any BN supporter in their right mind would have stayed away from that place or even pretend to be supporting the opposition after seeing the number of people clad in black! You should have realized by now that those fear and hoax predictions were merely inflicted by the evil ones who wanted to stop you from attending the talk. How could we let them beat down our spirit?

There were at least hundred thousands of people who filled up the entire stadium, and not forgetting most of them who were stuck outside. We went through the jam along the LDP for an hour or so, after which we had to deal with the most tedious task that night – looking for a parking spot. Hundreds and thousands of cars were already filling up all the spaces available, even along every roadside. It was like a concert, only far worse. Spotted a few buses that I assume are from other states. My place was of a short distance from Kelana Jaya, what more excuses do I have?

The scene at Paradigm Mall was crazy! A huge bunch of men and women boys and girls dressed in black parading out of the mall towards the direction of the stadium! Some were holding PKR’s flags and shouting slogans to boost the atmosphere.

Told myself no matter how far we were to walk, we had to reach the stadium anyhow. As expected, it was almost like a joyous carnival. Vendors selling food and merchandise here and there! LOL. Pesta ria! Headed towards the entrance straight anyway, cause we couldn’t wait.

At the entrance

Wah liddat how to enter? :(

Then we encountered our second biggest challenge of the night – entering the stadium. The stadium was already filled up with people by the time, and people outside were having difficulties making their way in. It was almost like an adventure I tell you! For some reason there were obstacles like heavy sponge twice the size of my bed and some other weird stuff piling up on the entrance. We had to climb and cross and jump and dodge and hold on to anything within our reach to avoid falling and getting trampled on and die wtf. Lucky for us there was this group of people who were making way for a so-called YB, and they let us the ladies pass first. Our group of 4 somehow got separated at the entrance so it was just me and Weiyi who managed to get in. Was quite surprised the other 2 didn’t even enter the stadium for the whole night!

Anyway, Anwar wasn’t the only speaker that night. There were other politicians whose faces I could never see cause it was too damn far away. Even the projector was tiny when viewed from my position. But one thing for sure, everyone was very semangat, cheered and shouted and blew their vuvuzela every now and then. It was as if we were watching the World Cup match.

Most of the speeches were made up of slogans like Bangkit rakyat! BN undur! Reformasi! SPR part of UMNO etc and obviously, the Chinese tsunami topic was brought in. This was a Malaysian tsunami, not Chinese tsunami!

We were actually quite comfortably seated on the stadium ground. No standing, no pushing, no shoving, no suffocating. But had to deal with the cold wet ground which itched my butt later on lah lol. 

Today, I am truly proud to be a Malaysian. We respect different races, we stand together united and fight for our nation as one!

Apa lagi Cina mahu?

We want a clean election without cheating.

We want to be treated fairly as Malaysians without crude remarks on our race.

We want a non-corrupted government who prioritize our welfare.

Bukan Cina sahaja tapi Melayu, India dan semua rakyat pun mahu!

We want reformation!

要安不要鸡！ LOL

The loud and happening congestion by the time we left XD

The event ended with our national anthem which almost made me tear. Let our voices be heard my fellow Malaysians, I am so happy and proud of you all! :’)