So why was Patong Beach in Phuket so great? What made it such a memorable and unforgettable 3 days?
Perhaps it was the leisurely pace of life, where there wasn't much of hustle and bustle and rushing around, where we took our time doing most things, and the shops didn't close till late.
Maybe it was the way the Thai people were just so honest and open, and so easy to get along with.
Could be the fact that I didn't hear the blare of a single tooted horn in the 3 days that we were there. There would be several zebra-crossings, none of which had vehicles actually stopping for you - but if you crossed ahead of a vehicle, they would just slow down or wait patiently for you to get to safety.
Possibly it was such that most things were cheaper there, or almost everyone could be bargained with. I also came to realise that bargaining, as much as it was fun, that sale made, was someone's dependency, and only my whim. And I started to give up that 50 or 100 baht that I was haggling so hard for earlier.
Notably the catchphrase of the weekend that kept recurring due to the common sense of it throughout, was simply,
Same same............ but different!
Personally, I came upon a roundabout realisation that being single again there, although I felt a weight off me, it would only last as long as the liquor flowed. It became quite apparent during the trip where Shermaine had influenced, changed or guided my thoughts, feelings and way of life (diet lol). And I believe in those 3 days, I actually grew to appreciate her that little bit more.
Most importantly, I believe it was also cos the 6 of us (Mark, Eugene, Rory, Mike, Justin and me), members of Syndicate - old gaming pals from the Church of St Vincent De Paul, re-united for a trip to celebrate the end of our good pal Mark's 'age of irresponsibility'. Henceforth, he would have someone else to share in his life, and to be responsible for. And to celebrate that, we went out with a bang! Not to mention, we all ended up having commemorative shot-glasses to take home.
These all added up to make our stay a most memorable and almost mystical adventure.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Patong, Phuket @ Night (2/3)
The nights in Patong were great! That's when some stalls along the main Rat-u-thit Rd switch shifts and change their wares when their stall-partner takes over - this meant that you'd see different things for sale if you walk down the street after sundown.
If you thought that Patong in the day was humming with life, night was when it began to throb to a faster, more edgy beat.. It all comes to a head on the famous Bangla Street, aka Walking Street (Bangla St gets closed off by a row of tuk-tuks after a certain time in the evening), found off the main road that is Rat-u-thit 200 Pee. It is along this street and around it that you'll find all the frenetic night entertainment you'll ever need for your stay in Patong.
Here you will come across purple polo-tee-wearing touters asking you to go watch a Go-Go Show, or a "Ping-pong" show. Less pushy triangular hat-wearing/ selling people will be walking around, trying to charm you into buying their native-wear. Often, nic-nac-bearing salespeople would stop you to try to entice you with their automatic cigarette-box dispensers or overpriced grooming kits. And all around you will be tourists and ladies of the night, walking quickly, standing opposite the bars, oogling, gawking, taking pictures, trying to decide where to go. Quite often you'll catch a farang (foreigner) hand-in-hand with a Thai lady, and you'll know where they're going and what they'll be doing (here's a hint: it ain't to play patty cake).
At the junction of Bangla and Rat-u-thit, there are several clubs like FBI (Finest Bar In Patong), Rock City and others. We entered Rock City, our very first stop on our first night. The sound system there was really in your face, with the band on stage singing and playing their hearts out to entertain us. And did I mention the giant gorilla, with its smoking red eyes, towering over the double-bass equipped drum set and the long-haired guitarists? We didn't stay there long though, cos we knew there were cheaper drinks elsewhere, but the quality of the rotating guests bands was good by my standards (Gene n Rory begged to differ for some).
Within Bangla itself are several Sois (side roads), like Soi Eric and Soi Sea Dragon. Within each Soi are bars.. mutiple tens of them, two-levels even! You won't even notice the names cos all you see are bar girls everywhere.
We did a walk-through only once in our 3 nights there - we were waylaid and accosted at one bar and ended up getting a drink each. Soon we were playing Connect 4 and Jackpot (a dice throwing game), and our Stag even had to buy a girl a drink because she stole his hat and just simply refused to return it! Our drinks cost 110-130b, while theirs cost 200b, and we all know there is nothing potent in them. We cut our losses (the girls are so well-practiced, they can't be easily beaten at Connect 4), and vamoosed out of there, never to return for the rest of the trip.
It was on our second night that the words from an 80's song "One Night In Bangkok" came to mind and suddenly became self-explanatory:
We ended up spending most of our nights hanging out at International Bar, cos its right at the corner of Soi Sea Dragon, and about mid-way through Bangla St - there we drank our beers, and checked out the diverse and ever exciting night-scene go by us. Oftentimes, the Katoey (transgender people) caught our eye as they sashayed and tossed their hair or locked glances with us. There were even some Korean actress types that went by, we were quite blown away by their beauty.. In my opinion, Changi Beach trannies don't hold a candle to these fine specimens, and I regret with a twinge that we did not go watch the famous tranny show at Simon Cabaret. By the first night, we came up with a simple rule to identify Katoey from normal girls - "If she's too perfect, its a Katoey". And we were truly tempted to buy a Katoey for our buddy Eugene..
When we were accosted as detailed earlier, we paid 2180 baht for the 10 minutes that we were at the miscellaneous Soi. Compared to two hours at the International Bar, our bill, including food would only average about 1100b. At first I had thought that the bars would be dishonest in counting, but I have since learned that bill tabulation isn't inaccurate at all.
Rory, aka Johnny, bought a bottle of Jägermeister for 900b at the airport when we first arrived. Thus we spent the whole of our second night drinking "Jäger-bombs"! A Jäger-bomb - a shot-glass of Jägermeister is dropped into a whiskey glass containing a mix of Red Bull and Sprite and downed immediately. That was probably one of the easiest cocktails to drink, but we sure paid for it.. The Red Bull and possibly the herbal concoction that is the Jäger kept us awake till the wee hours of the morning..
For supper that night, being unable to sleep, a few of us went out looking for pizza and kebab. I had a great chat with a true-blue Turkish doner kebab chef while we were waiting for our orders to be done. I realized that these side streets became bike parking lots at night, with blue-vest-wearing attendants helping to guide the bike owners. It was quite an interesting, ad-hoc kind of setup, probably unique to the scene. While waiting for the kebabs, we saw the workers on Bangla packing up, and going to their bikes to head on home. Yeap, we saw Bangla Street shutting down..
If you thought that Patong in the day was humming with life, night was when it began to throb to a faster, more edgy beat.. It all comes to a head on the famous Bangla Street, aka Walking Street (Bangla St gets closed off by a row of tuk-tuks after a certain time in the evening), found off the main road that is Rat-u-thit 200 Pee. It is along this street and around it that you'll find all the frenetic night entertainment you'll ever need for your stay in Patong.
Here you will come across purple polo-tee-wearing touters asking you to go watch a Go-Go Show, or a "Ping-pong" show. Less pushy triangular hat-wearing/ selling people will be walking around, trying to charm you into buying their native-wear. Often, nic-nac-bearing salespeople would stop you to try to entice you with their automatic cigarette-box dispensers or overpriced grooming kits. And all around you will be tourists and ladies of the night, walking quickly, standing opposite the bars, oogling, gawking, taking pictures, trying to decide where to go. Quite often you'll catch a farang (foreigner) hand-in-hand with a Thai lady, and you'll know where they're going and what they'll be doing (here's a hint: it ain't to play patty cake).
At the junction of Bangla and Rat-u-thit, there are several clubs like FBI (Finest Bar In Patong), Rock City and others. We entered Rock City, our very first stop on our first night. The sound system there was really in your face, with the band on stage singing and playing their hearts out to entertain us. And did I mention the giant gorilla, with its smoking red eyes, towering over the double-bass equipped drum set and the long-haired guitarists? We didn't stay there long though, cos we knew there were cheaper drinks elsewhere, but the quality of the rotating guests bands was good by my standards (Gene n Rory begged to differ for some).
Within Bangla itself are several Sois (side roads), like Soi Eric and Soi Sea Dragon. Within each Soi are bars.. mutiple tens of them, two-levels even! You won't even notice the names cos all you see are bar girls everywhere.
We did a walk-through only once in our 3 nights there - we were waylaid and accosted at one bar and ended up getting a drink each. Soon we were playing Connect 4 and Jackpot (a dice throwing game), and our Stag even had to buy a girl a drink because she stole his hat and just simply refused to return it! Our drinks cost 110-130b, while theirs cost 200b, and we all know there is nothing potent in them. We cut our losses (the girls are so well-practiced, they can't be easily beaten at Connect 4), and vamoosed out of there, never to return for the rest of the trip.
It was on our second night that the words from an 80's song "One Night In Bangkok" came to mind and suddenly became self-explanatory:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
We ended up spending most of our nights hanging out at International Bar, cos its right at the corner of Soi Sea Dragon, and about mid-way through Bangla St - there we drank our beers, and checked out the diverse and ever exciting night-scene go by us. Oftentimes, the Katoey (transgender people) caught our eye as they sashayed and tossed their hair or locked glances with us. There were even some Korean actress types that went by, we were quite blown away by their beauty.. In my opinion, Changi Beach trannies don't hold a candle to these fine specimens, and I regret with a twinge that we did not go watch the famous tranny show at Simon Cabaret. By the first night, we came up with a simple rule to identify Katoey from normal girls - "If she's too perfect, its a Katoey". And we were truly tempted to buy a Katoey for our buddy Eugene..
When we were accosted as detailed earlier, we paid 2180 baht for the 10 minutes that we were at the miscellaneous Soi. Compared to two hours at the International Bar, our bill, including food would only average about 1100b. At first I had thought that the bars would be dishonest in counting, but I have since learned that bill tabulation isn't inaccurate at all.
Rory, aka Johnny, bought a bottle of Jägermeister for 900b at the airport when we first arrived. Thus we spent the whole of our second night drinking "Jäger-bombs"! A Jäger-bomb - a shot-glass of Jägermeister is dropped into a whiskey glass containing a mix of Red Bull and Sprite and downed immediately. That was probably one of the easiest cocktails to drink, but we sure paid for it.. The Red Bull and possibly the herbal concoction that is the Jäger kept us awake till the wee hours of the morning..
For supper that night, being unable to sleep, a few of us went out looking for pizza and kebab. I had a great chat with a true-blue Turkish doner kebab chef while we were waiting for our orders to be done. I realized that these side streets became bike parking lots at night, with blue-vest-wearing attendants helping to guide the bike owners. It was quite an interesting, ad-hoc kind of setup, probably unique to the scene. While waiting for the kebabs, we saw the workers on Bangla packing up, and going to their bikes to head on home. Yeap, we saw Bangla Street shutting down..
Patong, Phuket @ Daytime (1/3)
The boys and I decided to go to Patong Beach, Phuket, to celebrate Mark's stag night. We finally left last Thurs and are now back in Singapore again since late Sunday night. But that was the most relak-jack chillax weekend I've ever had since.. maybe possibly uni-days.
And there wasn't even a lot of slacking or bumming involved. In fact, my quadriceps were aching quite badly on Sat and Sun from all the walking we did.
The Birdcage was our guesthouse of choice. Rory had spotted a good deal on Agoda.com and alerted me to it. For under 750baht a day/room, we took their Superior adjoining rooms, so it was quite fun having an open-door policy with your buddies just around the corner. The staff at the guesthouse, Tom in particular, were just awesome. Everything we asked, he was quick to answer or find out and let us know; and he spoke English well too. I highly recommend all friends planning to hit Patong - book a room at the Birdcage through Agoda for a good discount. And do ask for a low floor (we were given the top-most 5th floor perhaps due to the smoking requests, and there was no lift, but that was hardly an issue for the guys).
Mark and Eugene shared a bed, and only in the middle of sleeping during the first night, did Eugene discover Mark in a spooning position behind him! Thankfully it was revealed that the bed was not flat, causing Mark to roll over, and not that Mark had subconscious desires to sodomize poor Genie.
The rest of the boys slept-in till late most days, and due to the nature of my work, I tended to wake up hours ahead of them. On several of those mornings, I'd take a snack bar and proceed to sit at the couch in the lobby, chat with Tom, or just ingest huge amounts of water while watching the remnants of the Patong's night-life clean itself up. Other times I strolled around Rat-u-thit 200 Pee looking for bargains and finding cheaper food or optional tours.
We hit the Beach on our first day. The short walk on the white sands were often interrupted by touters asking if we wanted to rent a deck chair for 100b, or whether we wanted to do paragliding, or if we wanted to jetski or wakeboard. The beach itself isn't very wide; there're 2 rows of deck chairs arranged side-by side, with enough walking room between the rows for 4 people abreast at least. But it sure is long! Due to the concave nature of the lagoon, you can see the entire length stretch several kilometres down south to the end of the Patong land mass. When the sun is high, as it was that day, the deck chairs are filled with people, soaking in its glory. There are people swimming and playing in the water, but surprisingly not that many. Patong is a pretty beach, albeit a long narrow one.
Making a suit in Phuket is a cheap and quick affair. Just walking around the main streets, you will see signages advertising the deals there. From the number of shops, you get the impression that competition is pretty stiff. But for 3000b, you can get a suit done in about 2 days. We spent quite a bit of time at Big Boss Fashions, located just opposite the Goode Seafood restaurant, and just adjacent to the Dang restaurant. The costs are based simply on material, with subsequent rise in cost attributed to the better material used. Of course, if you make a vest and tie, these will add up as well. Complimentry bottled soda is provided, you just have to ask for it, assuming you do make a suit with them that is.
Cheap food in Patong isn't hard to find at all. Right along Rat-u-thit Rd, adjacent to Big Boss, very near to the Bangla junction, is the Dang Restaurant, and right beside it, Number 6. We ate most of our meals here, with basic noodle/rice dishes that cost 50/60baht, and awesome 2-person shared Tom Yum Goong for 150b, the food there was delicious! Just watch out for "fried noodles" in the menu - they actually mean hor fun (flat white rice noodle) in many instances, and "rice with soup" actually means congee.. Tom's recommendation for 40/45 baht food will be on Sai Nam Yen Rd, it isn't hard to find, being just along the street. This would be what I term the more traditional and dingy part of Patong already, where your seating location can be incensed with the smell of garbage from the roadside. But it was quaint, and I would suppose it was more the true side of Thailand as opposed to the tourist trap aspect of Patong.
It wasn't all cheap food though, as we indulged a little, eating at a more upper-class hotel along Karon beach during our reprieve from the rain, and at another guesthouse restaurant where we could soak in multiple free games of pool in order to while the time away before leaving for the airport.
The other days we spent exploring Patong, their many unmarked side streets, and looking for stuff like shot-glasses from Jungceylong, the modern shopping complex there, with its orchestra water fountain similar to that seen at Sentosa. We rented a 4WD Toyota Fortuner, a good decision considering there were 6 of us, and Tom had advised us not to take the Honda Jazz. That Saturday, we drove along the western main road of Phuket, to find Kamala beach (north of Patong), and then Karon and Kata beaches (south of Patong). Unfortunately, in that one day of driving, it rained every time we stopped for a walk! But at least we have an idea of what to expect at each location, and the costs involved should we bring our partners there in future. We even got to the Promthep Lookout Point, at the southern tip of Phuket, but the sky was overclouded and the visibility poor, so all I got was a picture of the signboard instead.. Later that day, we arrived at Phuket Town, on the eastern side of the point. There was a night market bazaar there that's open only on Fri and Sats, how fortuitous!
Phuket Town night market prices were quite different from Patong. Indeed Tom said they'd be cheaper and he was quite right. Sunnies going for 199b in Patong went for 99b in Phuket Town. Board-shorts that opened at 750b in Patong, went for 250-350 at the night market. The thing about the night market though, is that bargaining is really really stiff. At one stall, I commented "expensive" after getting a quote from the stall-owner and he immediately walked away! Boy did I feel spurned, but then again, it was cheaper.. So I did go back (with my tail between my legs).
We had several tour options which went missed, including ATV-riding and white-water rafting. Perhaps I will venture to try out such activities on my next trip over.
And that's what one can expect to do during the day in Phuket.
And there wasn't even a lot of slacking or bumming involved. In fact, my quadriceps were aching quite badly on Sat and Sun from all the walking we did.
The Birdcage was our guesthouse of choice. Rory had spotted a good deal on Agoda.com and alerted me to it. For under 750baht a day/room, we took their Superior adjoining rooms, so it was quite fun having an open-door policy with your buddies just around the corner. The staff at the guesthouse, Tom in particular, were just awesome. Everything we asked, he was quick to answer or find out and let us know; and he spoke English well too. I highly recommend all friends planning to hit Patong - book a room at the Birdcage through Agoda for a good discount. And do ask for a low floor (we were given the top-most 5th floor perhaps due to the smoking requests, and there was no lift, but that was hardly an issue for the guys).
Mark and Eugene shared a bed, and only in the middle of sleeping during the first night, did Eugene discover Mark in a spooning position behind him! Thankfully it was revealed that the bed was not flat, causing Mark to roll over, and not that Mark had subconscious desires to sodomize poor Genie.
The rest of the boys slept-in till late most days, and due to the nature of my work, I tended to wake up hours ahead of them. On several of those mornings, I'd take a snack bar and proceed to sit at the couch in the lobby, chat with Tom, or just ingest huge amounts of water while watching the remnants of the Patong's night-life clean itself up. Other times I strolled around Rat-u-thit 200 Pee looking for bargains and finding cheaper food or optional tours.
We hit the Beach on our first day. The short walk on the white sands were often interrupted by touters asking if we wanted to rent a deck chair for 100b, or whether we wanted to do paragliding, or if we wanted to jetski or wakeboard. The beach itself isn't very wide; there're 2 rows of deck chairs arranged side-by side, with enough walking room between the rows for 4 people abreast at least. But it sure is long! Due to the concave nature of the lagoon, you can see the entire length stretch several kilometres down south to the end of the Patong land mass. When the sun is high, as it was that day, the deck chairs are filled with people, soaking in its glory. There are people swimming and playing in the water, but surprisingly not that many. Patong is a pretty beach, albeit a long narrow one.
Making a suit in Phuket is a cheap and quick affair. Just walking around the main streets, you will see signages advertising the deals there. From the number of shops, you get the impression that competition is pretty stiff. But for 3000b, you can get a suit done in about 2 days. We spent quite a bit of time at Big Boss Fashions, located just opposite the Goode Seafood restaurant, and just adjacent to the Dang restaurant. The costs are based simply on material, with subsequent rise in cost attributed to the better material used. Of course, if you make a vest and tie, these will add up as well. Complimentry bottled soda is provided, you just have to ask for it, assuming you do make a suit with them that is.
Cheap food in Patong isn't hard to find at all. Right along Rat-u-thit Rd, adjacent to Big Boss, very near to the Bangla junction, is the Dang Restaurant, and right beside it, Number 6. We ate most of our meals here, with basic noodle/rice dishes that cost 50/60baht, and awesome 2-person shared Tom Yum Goong for 150b, the food there was delicious! Just watch out for "fried noodles" in the menu - they actually mean hor fun (flat white rice noodle) in many instances, and "rice with soup" actually means congee.. Tom's recommendation for 40/45 baht food will be on Sai Nam Yen Rd, it isn't hard to find, being just along the street. This would be what I term the more traditional and dingy part of Patong already, where your seating location can be incensed with the smell of garbage from the roadside. But it was quaint, and I would suppose it was more the true side of Thailand as opposed to the tourist trap aspect of Patong.
It wasn't all cheap food though, as we indulged a little, eating at a more upper-class hotel along Karon beach during our reprieve from the rain, and at another guesthouse restaurant where we could soak in multiple free games of pool in order to while the time away before leaving for the airport.
The other days we spent exploring Patong, their many unmarked side streets, and looking for stuff like shot-glasses from Jungceylong, the modern shopping complex there, with its orchestra water fountain similar to that seen at Sentosa. We rented a 4WD Toyota Fortuner, a good decision considering there were 6 of us, and Tom had advised us not to take the Honda Jazz. That Saturday, we drove along the western main road of Phuket, to find Kamala beach (north of Patong), and then Karon and Kata beaches (south of Patong). Unfortunately, in that one day of driving, it rained every time we stopped for a walk! But at least we have an idea of what to expect at each location, and the costs involved should we bring our partners there in future. We even got to the Promthep Lookout Point, at the southern tip of Phuket, but the sky was overclouded and the visibility poor, so all I got was a picture of the signboard instead.. Later that day, we arrived at Phuket Town, on the eastern side of the point. There was a night market bazaar there that's open only on Fri and Sats, how fortuitous!
Phuket Town night market prices were quite different from Patong. Indeed Tom said they'd be cheaper and he was quite right. Sunnies going for 199b in Patong went for 99b in Phuket Town. Board-shorts that opened at 750b in Patong, went for 250-350 at the night market. The thing about the night market though, is that bargaining is really really stiff. At one stall, I commented "expensive" after getting a quote from the stall-owner and he immediately walked away! Boy did I feel spurned, but then again, it was cheaper.. So I did go back (with my tail between my legs).
We had several tour options which went missed, including ATV-riding and white-water rafting. Perhaps I will venture to try out such activities on my next trip over.
And that's what one can expect to do during the day in Phuket.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Recollections of the September (3/3)
I have presented a series of images depicting the Fish Pie in the process of being magically put together by Shermy, with a tiny contribution from me. The fish pie was just delicious and absolutely amazing! Unrivaled in all of Singapore! The pic below is the Fridge-Raid Breakfast presented with love! All this in remembrance of our special day.
P.S. Shermy I hope this kept you entertained while I was away this weekend =)
P.S. Shermy I hope this kept you entertained while I was away this weekend =)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Recollections of the September (2/3)
We took a stroll down Bussorah Street during the Muslim fasting period. There we picked up some kuehkueh for my maid, and a nice cheap hat for me! We then had an early dinner at Deli Moroccan, whose dishes were deceptively shallow, and the food famously great! And mint tea was a perfect complement to clean your taste palette.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Recollections of the September (1/3)
We explored Tampines 1 for the first time, and found a Yamazaki cakery, and a nice Japanese Marche-type food place. It was at that mall that we had a fearsome encounter..
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Practical Self-Defense Kendo
Got this from Shasha's facebook. Merits a discussion I'm sure.
And as a result of surfing youtube on kendo, here's a nice documentary using high-speed camera to capture and analyse the AJKF 2007 Men's Finals between Teramoto and Takanabe. Awesome stuff! Click here for the youtube link.
And as a result of surfing youtube on kendo, here's a nice documentary using high-speed camera to capture and analyse the AJKF 2007 Men's Finals between Teramoto and Takanabe. Awesome stuff! Click here for the youtube link.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Typhoon Ketsana
Nice, sad set of images taken of the damage wrought by typhoon Ketsana. Do help in whatever way you can. Click here to see.
Even one of the toy shops that I go to is lending a hand to the Filipino victims.
CHARITY RELIEF OPERATION
Dear Customers,
We are currently accepting donations of used/old clothing for the recently occured Flood Disaster in the Philippines a week ago.
Toyntoys would be helping to accept on behalf of the affected people in Philippines in our Showroom China Square Central from today until Sunday, 11 October 2009.
We suggest Canned food & old clothings f0r the donation. All your donation would be sent to RED CROSS Singapore after 11 October 2009.
Please note that we CANNOT accept Cash for this Charity relief, we look forward to your support.
Thank you.
Tel: +65 64386806
Fax: +65 6261 5667
Email: shop@toyntoys.com
Web: www.toyntoys.com
Address: Toyntoys.com
18 Cross Street, #01-25/26, China Square Central, Singapore 048423
