Duration: 4 Days 3 Nights (Jun 22~Jun 25, 2014)
Day 2: Phuket Sightseeing & Shopping
Woken up in the morning with massive seasickness due to
rough sea! Gosh! Either Superstar Libra was too small or the sea was really
rough. Puke my guts out even before breakfast. Darn! The Shore Excursion team
called us and told us our 1st choice of “Phuket Landmarks” tour was
cancelled due to low headcount but our 2nd choice of “Phuket
Sightseeing & Shopping” was on. We went to the shore excursion counter to
collect our tickets and stickers and were told our Krabi 4 Islands tour was on
too. Great! Now I had to go buy swimsuit since I forgot to bring mine onboard. Great Excuse? =P
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| 4 Islands Tour is ON for tomorrow? Happy! |
We went to Ocean Palace for Chinese Breakfast with the
ship rocking nonstop. Ocean Palace breakfast consisted of some dimsum,
porridge, fried noodles etc. I was too seasick to enjoy the food which I found
mediocre. I had to leave the restaurant halfway as I was too sick before
running to the nearest toilet to puke my breakfast out again. Too much
information huh? =P The lesson learned?
Don’t cruise on StarCruise Libra on rough sea if you are prone to seasick!
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| Breakfast Set at Ocean Palace |
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| Sammy is sick |
Superstar Libra finally arrived at Phuket Deep Sea Port at
around 11.30am and the staffs were preparing for disembarkation. We went for a
quite lunch at Mariner’s buffet since our shore excursion assembly was on
12.30noon. The queue in Mariner’s buffet were super LONG so we simply grabbed
the food with shortest queue – Tomyam vermicelli, Orange, Indian Cracker and
some cakes. The Tomyam soup actually tasted like curry rather than Tomyam – I
guess they added in coconut milk?
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| Stopping at Phuket Deep Sea Port |
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| Some Picture near Phuket Deep Sea Port |
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| Let's take some pictures before disembarking |
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| Our lunch - Tomyam Vermicelli, some Cakes (most of them not nice), Indian Cracker & Orange |
We met our tour station at Stardust Lounge – Blue Sticker
no. 21 before being ushered to disembark the ship. The disembarkation line was
long thanks to Starcruise enforcing photoshoot at exit with some mascot again.
Annoying! This never happened when we were on Costa Atlantica.
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| Happy to be off the Ship |
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| Long Queue thanks to Compulsory photoshooting with StarCruise 'Mascot'. *roll eyes* |
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| 1st Picture with the Ship |
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| Doggie at the Port |
Our tour guide was “Wu” and he was humorous and
informative. He gave us introduction on Phuket and cracked jokes to keep us entertained.
Our 1st stop of the day was Cape Phromthep – the southest point of
Phuket to look out to the Andaman Sea. Thank God it was cloudy and windy so we
did not get roasted by the infamous Thai Sun. We enjoyed our stop there with
some photoshooting, battling the strong wind and courting some doggies. =P
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| Bus leaving the Port |
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| Arriving at Cape Phromthep |
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| Strong Wind there |
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| Some Statue |
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| This Doggie is a Professional Model!!! |
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| Look at his Pose!!!! How Professional! |
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| Some Praying there |
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| There is a pathway leading to the end of the Cape - but no time! |
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| A Resort of some sort at the end of the Beach there? |
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| Another Cutie Pie! |
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| Let's take a Picture with the Advertisement Board! *facepalm* |
2nd stop was a tourist trap cashew nut
factory (Sri Burapa Cashew Nut Factory and Shop) – if you are not the type to
step into this kind of tourist trap, think again! This cashew nut factory
provided tons of FOC samples for your eating pleasure. Basically you can eat
all you want and not buying anything if you don’t feel like it – no one will
force you to buy anything in this factory. We personally loved the chocolate
coated Cashew Nuts there. =)
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| Giant Wine Bucket along the way |
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| Now this is Cashew Nut Fruit |
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| How to produce Cashew nut? |
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| Lots of People eating FOC Samples |
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| Chocolate Coated Cashew Nut - tasted more like Caramel to me |
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The Tourist Trap Factory |
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| Giant Cashew Nut Fruit |
3rd stop was another tourist trap
factory called Wang Talang which was selling jewellery and some souvenirs. We
were not interested in those stuffs but the shop provided FOC iced tea so we
just sat there to enjoy the cold drink.
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Another Tourist Trap Factory |
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| Very Huge Factory huh? |
The road was quite jammed when our bus approached to
Phuket Premium Outlet and we only arrived there after 40minutes. Phuket Premium
Outlet had lots of branded shop (not too high end though) selling different
types of items. Since I needed a swimsuit, I went into some shops to look for
one before settling on Triumph swimsuit which cost only 750baht!!!! What a
bargain! The original price was 2,550 baht but apparently they had a promotion
now. Yahoo!!!
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| Local Public Transport |
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| At the Phuket Premium Outlet |
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| Hello Bunny |
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| They have CHEAP Swimsuit! |
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| Goodbye Premium Outlet |
Our next stop was at another tourist trap Phuket
T-Shirt Factory selling super cheap t-shirt with funny wording. One t-shirt
only cost around 150baht and no one will force you to buy anything. We had some
good laugh on some of the t-shirt wording before our bus headed to our last
destination of the day – Patong Beach!
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| T-Shirt Factory |
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| Explanation by the Owner |
Our bus stopped in front of Jungceylon Shopping Complex
at Patong and our tour guide gave us 2 hours free time to improve Thailand’s
economy with more shopping. We walked through Patong Beach Strip to get some
local street food – grilled pork before continued to the beach itself. The tide
was really strong and there was a “no swimming” sign on the beach. We walked
around the beach area and got ourselves a can of Thai Beer at 48baht for 500ml
– good deal huh?
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| In Front of Jungceylon Shopping Center |
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| Walking towards Patong Beach - See the Bar at the right? Rock Hard! Not Hard Rock! LOL! |
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| At some Local Hawker Stalls |
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| Grilled Pork at 100baht |
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| Tiger Bar? |
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| At Patong Beach |
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| It's almost Nightfall |
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| Strong Tide at Patong Beach |
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| This is everywhere! |
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| At McDonald's |
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| Beer!!! It's only 48baht for 500ml!!! |
Hard Rock Café was a few blocks away but we found the
items there even more expensive than Japan or in Europe so we did not get the
shirts. “Phuket” was too common on Hard Rock shirt anyway as the T-shirt
factory we went earlier had imitated Hard Rock Shirt selling for 150baht only.
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| Now this is Hard Rock! |
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| Street Show at Jungceylon Shopping Center |
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| Fountain and Ship inside Jungceylon Shopping Center |
We finally arrived at Phuket Deep Sea Port at around
10.30pm (1 hour ride between Patong Beach & Phuket Deep Sea Port) and noticed there were some stalls along the port. We bought the banana
pancake topped with sweetened milk and chocolate and it tasted okay. We finally
went back to Superstar Libra and saw the announcement on shore excursion desk
that “Phi Phi Island” and “4 Islands” tours were cancelled tomorrow due to bad
weather condition. Such a bummer!!! =( Lesson learned? If you want island
hopping – go on the dry season from October to March.
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| Finally back to the Port |
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| Let's take a Picture with Superstar Libra at Night |
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| The Pancake Stall |
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| Look like Roti Canai! |
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| The End Result - Banana Pancake Topped with Sweetened Milk & Chocolate |
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| Singing at Deck 4 Lounge |
We finally tried the supper in Mariner’s buffet and it
tasted not bad actually – not great but edible and better than the teatime and
BBQ dinner for sure. LOL! There was porridge, fried fish, Kong Poh Chicken,
fried vermicelli etc. After supper we sat at the top deck until 1am for the
ship to sail away from Phuket for our Krabi Adventure tomorrow.
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| Fish Porridge with Braised Peanuts & Minced Salted Egg |
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| They have Dumpling Soup, Fried Dish, Fried Vermicelli & Kong Poh Chicken too... Nothing great but Edible |
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| Goodbye Phuket |
Overall we were satisfied with our Phuket Shore Excursion trip - Tour Guide was informative and friendly and no hard-selling in tourist traps. Before taking the Shore Excursion, we did think of a DIY but quickly scraped the idea as public transport in Phuket was not so convenient - You can rent a Van IF you have 8-10 people to share the cost else it would be expensive.
Next Day (Krabi Attraction Gone Wrong)
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