Phuket Island... Continued...
Wandering around the globe is on
everyone's bucket list, but very less are those who are fortunate enough and get to live their bucket list. Although this was my first international
journey, I couldn't wait to go run and strike Thailand off my list!
Day 2:
I woke up in the morning feeling really
refreshed! I had almost forgotten that I was staying along the Patong Beach, on Phuket Island, in Thailand. I pinched myself
and woke Kushal (my husband) up to. We got ready real quick since we had to leave for our
Scheduled Tour around the city which was a part of our Tour Package.
We started our day with scrumptious
breakfast including Thai Noodles, Baked Beans, Veggie Salad and Fruit juices.
Of course, how can one not get caffeinated, first thing in the morning? That's
in our blood, isn't it? No matter how healthy we eat, we have this tendency of
washing down all the food with either tea or coffee. So we had our cups of
coffee to make ourselves feel away from home; rather than having tea and
blaming how it doesn't have Ginger in it.
Anyway, as we were having our last sips,
our tour guide for the day entered calling out for "AAYALI MORE". I'm
pretty sure he had a hard time finding me.
We entered the bus to know that we were
accompanied by 2 more Indian families. It was really amazing to find similar
species away from our normal habitat. We introduced ourselves with each other.
There was this just-married couple and a family with four members. As the bus
began its journey to our scheduled "Half Day Phuket City Tour" the
details of which weren't mentioned in the itinerary, we adored nature's beauty
along side the bus, wondering what were our spots for the day. The driver took
a halt near Rawai Beach for sightseeing. It was absolutely stunning. Here, we
were astonished by something else as well; there were a couple of trained eagles
which would sit on tourists' arms and the trainer would click photos of them
holding this amazingly mighty bird almost 3ft in length. Of course, one had to
pay for it. These eagles were trained to spread its wings when taking photos.
These eagles truly seemed as though they were trained to feel the royalty of
being the "king of birds". Anyway, as we were about to process his
highness's prowess and soak in the beauty around this hill which was surrounded
by the sea, it started to rain, we had to rush back into our bus. But, we can
really not help but notice how that area was heavenly and crowded yet
calm.
We moved forward to reach the Rawai beach-
view. As the rain hadn't stopped pouring yet, we waited for the it to calm down
in our bus and then we moved towards a plateau for sightseeing. And as we
reached the top, we were taken aback. From Phuket Island, we were now able to
see another Island which I don't know the name of. (Googles it, rightway.....
The Bon Island, it is.) The pictures which we clicked here were so unreal that
people still keep asking us whether we stood in front of a poster or what? I
mean, the sky was crisp clear and blue immediately after the rain, beneath of
which was clear blue sea within which stood this island, just as we stood on
this another Island. It was the perfect picturesque moment, I doubt, I can ever
forget in my life. Our first spot for the day was done and it felt 'Paisa
Vasool!'We now headed towards the Wat Chalong Temple, which was a Buddha Temple. It was interesting to find how people came to the temple to pay respect to the Buddha by lighting candles and how believers burnt firecrackers as a way of showing gratitude for their prayers that have been answered. This temple was said to have been built way back in 1837. The architecture of the Temple was magnificent. Also, the way this temple has been maintained over the years is commendable. In addition to the Buddha Statue, the Temple also contained Statues of Buddhist Monks who are said to have been the Abbots or administrators of the Temple in later times. Buddhism has its roots spread all over the Kingdom of Thailand. We went into a spiritual zone for about a half hour and felt real stress-free.
We then moved towards the Gems Gallery
Phuket Tour which was pretty amazing in which we could actually see people
working with gems, including rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, diamonds and
so on. We literally saw how the craftsman worked using their skills at their
workplace and it was pretty intense. Inside the gems gallery, there was a mini-
train tour- A pretty unique concept which has been undertaken to make the visitors
feel as though they are in a Gems quarry! There were Mini-Boggies in which the
visitors could sit and move on to a presentation, in an artificial gems mine-
like structure. Here, we were showcased the history of precious jewels over the
last thousands and thousands of years of mankind. We were shown the royalty of
beholding such gems since time immemorial. As the train tour was over, we
regretted about how we forgot to click pictures and videos. Such enchanting
ride it was! After that, we were taken to the Gems Gallery, Phuket
Shopping Centre in which there were on display, thousands of designs which were
pretty beyond our imagination. The metals like gold, the silver and platinum
which beheld these gems made our eyes literally sparkle. Obviously the prices
were rocket high. If we knew about this particular place, that we were going to
visit in our tour, we would have perhaps prepared ourselves accordingly, but
unfortunately, we weren't. So, we just had a look at all the designs and some
of the designs were so unique that we couldn't take our eyes of 'em. Colors
like red, blue, green, peacock blue, turquoise blue and golden yellow, clear
white so many many other vibrant colours made this centre literally lit!
And finally, our half day Phuket City tour
was pretty much over and we were left to chilling on our own. The Next day, was
going to be very eventful since we were going to travel to another Island.
Travelling to Phi-Phi Island in a big boat was a part of our itinerary,
something that I was looking forward to the most!
Since the lunch that we tried the day
before wasn't that good, we had already searched for some good Indian
restaurants around Patong Beach, and yes, and we were successful in finding
quite a few, which was not expected by us. One of them, was right across the
road next to our Hotel, hence we decided to give that a shot. It was an
authentic Indian restaurant; the Chef was from West Bengal, so we were nearly
relaxed and you know it was like finding an oasis in the desert! We tried the Chicken
Tandoori, Chicken Tikka Masala, Naan and Rice; the prices were pretty much the
same as they would have been in India. Eating Indian food after a "long gap" of almost "2 days" was so soothing, that we didn't
even feel guilty of eating too much. We spent the rest of the afternoon
relaxing in our rooms.
Later that evening, we did some shopping
for the next day, as it was going to be a Sunny beach and boat day. So, we
decided to stock up our Sunscreen and swimming gears. For dinner, we planned to
go to an Indian restaurant called Hotel Kohinoor; which was a bit far away from
our Hotel. It was suggested by one of our tour members which we met in the
morning. But first, we visited the Jungceylon Mall near Hotel Kohinoor as it
was not yet dinner time. We took some souvenirs for friends and family and had
some pre-dinner 'dessert' which were delicious! We had 'Waffle on ice cream and
Chocolate sauce'. For dinner, we went to Kohinoor Hotel in which we had a kebab
platter followed by Biryani. We walked for almost two kilometers to reach back
to our hotel. Of course, we snacked on fresh fruits to and fro from the hotel
room. Fruits formed a major portion of our daily mid-meals for the past couple
of days. Repetitive yet so Refreshing! So much better than gourmet meals! We
had Pineapples, Dragon-fruits, Mangoes etc. The road towards our Hotel was
filled with street vendors selling clothes, soaps, souveniers and fast food-
stalls selling halal food, roasted corn, hot dogs and so on.
Today's day was pretty much filled with
lip-smacking delicacies. The next day was action-packed. We decided to go early
to bed since our call time was 6.30 am!
The next morning, we hurriedly had our
breakfasts and rushed to our bus which took us to our boat ride to the very
magnificent Phi-Phi Island. We were also scheduled for snorkeling on the way to
Phi- Phi Island' which I was the most excited about. I was more than ready for
taking dips in the sea to view the amazing corals and colorful fish down
below.
Could I be more stoked? I don't think so!
Ting!
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