Last Night in Krabi

Day 17 (30/11/2010):

Today, my travelling target was only to reach Krabi from Phuket. I decided to visit Thai Mueng, Ton Prai Waterfall and Lampi Waterfall because they were recommended by many people.

The Thai Mueng Beach, just north of Phuket, was rated 5 stars by the Tourist Beach Index Assessment, highest it can go. The Beach Index Assessment is done by the Pollution Control Department in Thailand. Criteria includes environmental management, tourism management, beach nourishment (level of erosion or deposition), aquatic environmental quality. It is a nice and quiet beach. Just one other couple were there when I arrived. If you like a quiet time on the beach with your love ones, this might be a good choice.

Both the Ton Prai and Lampi waterfalls are pretty nice. For the Ton Prai waterfall, you will need to take a short hike from the entrance while the Lampi waterfall is just at the entrance. As both the waterfalls belong to the Khao Lampi Hat Thai Mueng National Park, I have to buy the 100bath ticket to enter. The ticket allows you to enter any areas that belong to the national park within the day.


Ton Prai Waterfall


Lampi Waterfall

That evening, I had dinner with Ire and Annkht at the Steak Ta-Tor.


Ire, Annkht and I

Bike Hunt

Day 16 (29/11/2010):

This is a motorcycle parking area for one of the shopping malls in Phuket, Central Festival. This is only one part of the motorcycle parking. There are probably 3 - 4 more similar parking areas. Try spotting my bike.

Wander

Day 16 (29/11/2010):

Today, I just spend my day wandering around Phuket on my bike.

Diving Again

Day 14 (27/11/2010):

Yay, it's diving day again. This time I am diving near Racha Yai and Racha Noi with All 4 Diving, previously known as the Sea World Dive Team, onboard their Similan Queen. The joke is that the boat never been to the Similan Islands. Dive 1 at Marina Bay, Racha Noi; Dive 2 at Camera Bay, Racha Noi. Apparently the dive site was named Camera Bay because someone lost his/her camera there, probably one of the pioneer divers there. Last dive was at Bay #1, Racha Yai, which was pretty different because there was 2 wrecks at the dive site. We were able to swim through one of the boat wrecks.



It was quite an eventful day. Just after the 1st dive, as I descended from the upper deck to the lower deck, I slipped and fell, leaving a bruise from the last step of the stairs on my back and a dent on my camera. Amazingly, after everything I put my camera through during this day, drops, smashes, rain, sand, mud, wind, dust etc, it still works almost perfectly. Just that after this incident, the battery couldn't eject smoothly anymore but the rest of camera functions still pretty much work as the day I bought it.

After the 2nd dive, we caught a glimpse of something flowing far away out in the sea. When we gotten closer, it was a body. It was pretty much rotten already. The skin turned whitish-grey. The head was gone. The hands and feet were gone. The forearms rotten til the bones. The chest area already cave in. Not a pretty sight. The guys was pretty dead for a few days already, with accelerated decomposition from the heat and sea water.

After the 3rd dive, I managed to start a conversation with this amazing Thai girl. I learnt that she is a dive instructor and brought her friends from high school to discover scuba diving. 1st Thai dive instructor I met, so far all the dive instructors and divemasters I met in Thailand are either Europeans or Japanese. She did an exchange at University of Hawaii so her english was pretty good. It was really a pity that I'm leaving Phuket in a few days time and couldn't get to know her.

In the evening, I went into Phuket Town to find a restaurant named Phuket Phochana recommended by Annkht for tim sum. However, I learnt that it only opens from 6am to 2pm. Bummer. So I went to the night market instead.

Untainted

Day 13 (26/11/2010):

After checking in to my new accommodation, I rented a scooter for fun and for the day.



My 1st stop was the Phuket TAT.



The nice lady at the counter recommended me some places for food, beaches, sceneries and museums. She also told me in chinese which translates to: If you never been to Promthep Cape, you have never truly been to Phuket. Promthep Cape was recommended to be the best place in Phuket to enjoy the sunset. And that evening the sun set at 6.06pm. The time was 11:38am that left me about 6 and half hour to wander around.

I haven't ate breakfast yet so next stop had to be for food. The lady from TAT recommended me 2 places for food. One seemed to be a night market and the other a morning market so I just ate pad thai yet again at a random local restaurant. After that I went to the Phuket ThaiHua museum which shows the lives of the early chinese immigrant to Phuket. After that, Khao Rang which shows a view of the Phuket Town, Rawai beach, Karon View Point which shows a nice view of Kata and Karon beaches and Nai Harn beach. It was 5pm then and time to head for the Promthep Cape. The recommendations were right. It is truly stunning. This is probably the only thing left untainted by massive invasion of tourism into Phuket.

5:27pm: The evening sun casting its reflection onto the Andaman Sea.


5:45pm: My silhouette watching the sun disappearing behind the clouds.


6:02pm: The sun returned as a round ball of fire.


6.05pm: The sun disappearing over the horizon.


6:13pm: The afterglow.

To Phuket

Day 12 (25/11/2010):

I didn't do much today except traveling to Phuket. I got stopped by the rain as usual for a few hours.



It started drizzling again when I reached Patong Beach so I didn't waste a lot of effort to find accommodation. Just went to one which looked decent yet not too posh. Sino House Patong; 800baht a night; got pretty much everything; wifi, mini fridge, safe, aircon, tv. However, the wifi was pretty slow though.

I took a walk around Patong, at the same time looking for better accommodation and found the Power Inn; for just 600baht a night it got everything the Sino House have and better; plasma tv, internet using cable which turned out to be much faster. So yup, decided to shift there the next day.