Phuket - Patong Beach

If you ask your friends what they think about a trip to Phuket, chances are you’re gonna get 2 completely different answers. One might think it’s a great vacation paradise with absolutely beautiful sceneries, another might think it’s just another overrated tourist destination which is highly commercialized. For me, the main intention of this vacation was to have some long relaxed time, and with its beautiful beach and cooling seawater, Phuket was definitely the right place.

If you’re planning a trip there, remember to book a hotel which is of walking distance from the beach. That way you don’t have to worry about getting overcharged by taxi or tuk-tuk drivers. We had our 4 days 3 nights stay at Sea Sun Sand Hotel located 5 minutes away from the beach and 10 minutes way from Jungceylon Shopping Complex and Bangla Road. Read my review here.

Along the street heading to the beach, you would pass by Family Mart and 7-11. Go grab some snacks and drinks first so you don’t have to make another trip from the beach. Of course, there are ice-cold Coke and beer selling at the beach but more than double the price from the mart of course. A glass bottle of Coke is only 10 Baht from the mart, which is like RM1!!! Can you believe it???

Spotted some cool One Piece beverages.

While heading out the mart, there was this cool-looking young ang moh guy who touched my hand and smiled at me despite the fact that I was walking next to my boy -__- Not proud!!! He probably thought I was a Thai girl lo, you know the kind who provides massage service wtf.

Once you step onto Patong beach, you’ll see ang moh sun tanning on the beach chairs. Nothing much is going on at the beach as everyone is just lying down and sun tanning.

A beautiful sunny day. At Patong beach, all you could hear is the sound of the distant waves hitting against the shore.

Some tanned-skinned Thai boys would come to you and ask if you would like to rent a beach chair for 100 Baht. That’s a reasonable price I would say, considering you can lie there for as long as you want. If you didn’t bring your own towel, there are towels for rent at 100 Baht each also.

Tanning oil, not mine obviously. All I needed was sun block lotion.

Once in a while there would be locals walking by trying to sell you stuff like sarongs, snacks and souvenirs. They would always quote you expensive price so remember to bargain if you decide to buy something! But of course don’t be too ridiculous la, these people work so hard under the crazy weather, they need to earn enough to eat and drink also.

Didn’t intend to buy anything but then I saw this really beautiful 3-tone elephant print sarong! The lady asked for 390 Baht but I managed to bargained it for 200 Baht :)

I totally looked like a Thai girl wearing that sarong! LOL.

Spent about 4 hours at the beach. I know 4 hours might sound crazy considering we didn’t rent a jet ski boat or something. But lying at the beach doing nothing is just something I really enjoy.

It’s really hot there, but not the KL city kind of hot since there was cooling sea breeze that neutralized the effect XD

Well there was this once we spotted a few Chinese walking by. But guess what, one of them was holding an umbrella! A man some more! HAHAHAHAHA. I think the ang mohs must be thinking siao one these people come to the beach with an umbrella.

Then I was thinking if Asians don’t come to the beach, what could they be doing? I guess they must be doing something that they thought could be more fun and worthy like island tour and ATV adventure etc. I went for island tour the day after (will blog about it next) but the other adventurous activities like jungle trekking, ATV, bungee jumping and stuff were just not my kind of thing.

Was checking out the island tour brochures I picked up from the road side stalls. It was then I found a reasonable-priced one and decided to go for it. The others were such rip-offs lo 2500-3500 Baht per person. Insane.

Check out my sea-themed manicure! Before the trip he actually tried to persuade me not to do it, saying that it would get damaged easily at the beach. But you know when it comes to fashion, you should never ever listen to a guy’s opinion! (unless he’s gay of course) Luckily I did it else my pictures would be imperfect. Teehee.

Then during the island tour, I noticed all the Asians on the boat did their manicure! LOLOLOL seriously, every single one of them!

Sometimes it got too hot, made us sweat and all so we went into the water and soaked for a while. He was quite annoyed with me because every time when the wave was too strong I got scared and screamed wtf =x

Patong beach, how I miss its beauty and serenity.

I love Phuket! How about you? :)

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Phuket - Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa

Last week was my 1-week  mid semester break and I happily spent 4 of those days at Phuket Island!

Booked our flight a month earlier and did some necessary research excitedly as it was my first time to Phuket. I’ve been to Krabi previously but from what I heard, apart from the similar sea and beach, Phuket is a much livelier town with a significant number of tourists especially ang mohs. A more popular holiday destination among the westerners apparently.

There are so many hotels at Patong area to choose from I spent a few days in dilemma! 5 stars hotels are way beyond budget so we had to settle for 4. Eliminated quite a number of hotels that are older than 3 years to avoid moulded smell or bits of broken utilities. You gotta understand even a small crack on the mirror gets on my nerves! Also eliminated those that are too far from the beach. Lazy to walk so far.  Just want to quickly get there and relax.

In the end we chose Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa which was built in 2012! A very new hotel indeed.

The hotel is only 5 minutes away from Patong beach. Super near and convenient! There are Family Mart and 7-11 along the way so you can grab some drinks and snacks before proceeding to the beach.

Nothing impressive to shout out for the resort lobby. But as we were ushered to our room, we felt more and more at ease with the surroundings.

Very happy and satisfied with our Pool Access room. Open the balcony and the pool is right there!!! The view at Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa was breathtaking in the day time. Our balcony was overlooking the sky, the sea and Patong beach. That explains the name of the resort! Teehee.

It’s not a private pool though. Can’t expect much when we’re only paying RM1300 for 3 nights. It’s shared by 6 rooms altogether but lucky for us the pool was deserted every time we used it so technically it’s our private pool! Very fortunate to have gotten the corner room which allows for more privacy ^^

Beautiful view at night too.

We bought Chang beer from Family mart (30 baht!!! RM3), Thai pork cup noodles that tastes 100x better than our local maggi and some barbequed food from the street vendor. Enjoyed our food in the pool with music from the Sea View Restaurant upstairs. Awesome night!

Basic facilities are provided in the room including bath robe, towel, shower cap, cotton bud, shampoo etc. No toothpaste and hairdryer though. We bought our toothpaste from the hotel mart located on the first floor. They sell a variety of stuff albeit a tad bit pricier than those selling outside.

Bath tub was also one of the criteria I looked for while choosing our room! Who would miss the chance to soak in the bath tub after one tiring day? XD

Like the reviews I read online, the only short fall of the resort is the many lifts we have to go through before reaching our room. We had to use 2 lifts while some had to use 3. But it didn’t really matter because there was beautiful garden set up to see along the way. The reason behind this is because the resort is built on the hill and is tsunami proof as claimed. LOL.

The Sea View Restaurant is on Level 5 from which the scenery is even better.

The public pool is right next to it.

Oh did I forget to mention that upon arrival you’ll be given a welcome drink voucher which you can claim once anytime throughout your stay. We redeemed our drinks from the resort bar downstairs on one of the days.

One does not simply visit Thailand without getting a massage!

We made our reservation for a 90-minute session aromatherapy massage at the spa centre located in Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa.

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There are so many packages to choose from! Ours cost 1500 baht each which to be honest is the most expensive thing we spent on during that trip. Of course there are many other massage parlour out there with average price of 300 baht but they kinda lose out on appearance. LOL.

Look, they can massage you outdoor also! You know like those holiday massage scene you see in movies! But actually the place is more for display only lah because the weather is too hot and humid no one in the right mind would go lie there and get rubbed for 60 minutes wtf. The air-conditioned massage rooms are available downstairs!

90 minutes of soothing music and awesome oil massage! It was sooooooooooooo comfortable I even fell asleep halfway and drooled :x

Cookies and ginger tea was served after the massage.

Overall it was a great experience and the 1500 baht was definitely worthwhile!

That’s my review on Sea Sun Sand Resort & Spa, Phuket. If you’re considering this resort for your Phuket trip, just search for the price and other reviews on Tripadvisor.com. I did most of the research from Agoda but booked the room from Booking.com cause the rate there was cheaper than Agoda. Don’t forget to compare the rates before making your decision!

That’s all for now. Will blog about the food and island tour soon! :)