On the 20th of August this year (2008), Alvin and I had a short escapade in Phuket, Thailand. Our Tiger Airways flight left Singapore Budget Terminal on time at around 8:15 in the morning. We reached Phuket at 9:00 in the morning (local time).
A Marriott vacation club offered us a free taxi (and massage) from the airport to Marriott resort and spa. In exchange, we had to attend a 90-minute sales pitch. We took the offer and soon arrived at the hotel after around 30 minutes of travel. The hotel is located on the northeast side of the island near a park/reserve. We had a “VIP” welcome as a hotel staff adorned us with orchid garlands. As we arrived too early, the room was not yet ready so we decided to visit Phuket town.
The taxi (which was actually a private pick-up), cost THB1400 (back and forth). The town is actually quite far from the hotel, around 1 hour of travel time. We reached town by lunch time and by then, we we’re craving for some authentic Thai food. After some discussion and tip from the taxi driver, we decided to have seafood. The driver took us to a seafood restaurant by the bay. One thing we really liked was the tomyam soup. It was really good! We ordered a lot we had to pack the left over so we could have something for dinner at the hotel. After the heavy lunch, we headed to Central Festival and Big C to buy some delicacies to bring back to Singapore. We didn’t find anything fancy to shop.
http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/91/2008-08_Phuket
We went back to Marriott hotel at around 4pm and walked around the beach. A red flag (warning) meant we couldn’t go swimming in the beach. So we just took some pictures and walked around the resort and had a swim at the pool. At dinner, we ate what we packed from the seafood restaurant.
On our 2nd day, we went to Phi Phi islands. We left our hotel at 9 in the morning and reached Phuket Marina around 9:30. After 30 minutes of waiting, we finally went aboard a speed boat together with some 20 other tourists. Our first stop was at Ao Ling (Monkey Bay) on Koh Phi Phi Don. After that, our boat took us to Hin Klang where we snorkeled for half an hour. We relaxed at Koh Mai Pai (Bamboo Island) before arriving at Koh Phi Phi Don for a buffet lunch. We spent the rest of day at Phi Phi Leh, visiting Maya Bay – where the “The Beach” was filmed. The tour cost us THB3200 per pax, quite expensive but a “must go” experience. Fruits and drinks after stops were provided. On our way back, we had a very bumpy ride and we’re all wet.
http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/93/2008-08_Phi_Phi_Islands
Our 3rd day wasn’t so great as it rained heavily the whole day. We didn’t manage to swim in the resort’s beach. So our appointment for Marriott sales presentation was just nice because of the very bad weather. The presentation was quite enlightening for us. We were toured around their Vacation Club which was just next to JW Marriott. The sales pitch was 3 hours instead of the supposed 90 minutes. We didn’t rush as we couldn’t do anything anyway because of the heavy rain. After the long presentation, we decided to sign up for their basic Time Share at Marriot Vacation Club Mai Kao Beach. I will write a separate blog about the Time Share business of Marriott. After we signed, Mark the sales person gave us a lot of freebies. Free massage, THB2000 which we spent for our dinner, polo shirts and free 3-nights accommodation at Ritz Carlton Bali. After the talk we went for our scheduled massage.
http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/92/2008-08_Marriott_vacation_Club
Our Last day….we are very excited to go home coz we missed Albert so much. Our flight was at 9.15 am so we took our breakfast quite early at the hotel. Tiger Airways was once again on time as we touched down at around 15 minutes past noon in Singapore.
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