Sunny Lepak Island - PHUKET

Travel period: 16-18 June 2012 (3days 2 nights) - monsoon season, off-peak season (very few people around!), sunny all-day long...

• Flight + hotel fare : $300-400 ( :( Thanks to some deals website online, the hidden cost led to this price. I'll remember to stay away from any deals website from now on! Be careful too! )
• Half day tour around Phi Phi island, Khai island, Monkey island, Pirate's cave : ~$60
• Total Expenses: ~S$250 (everything excluding flight and hotel fare)
• Transport from airport to hotel: 1200baht (6 persons ~S$49), hotel to airport : 1000 baht (S$ 41)

Pros:

• Fabulous chill-out beaches (Have fun with water sports like jet-skiing and parasailing. You can also snorkel and dive at the nearby islands.)
• Very happening nightlife (down soi bangla)
• Relatively safe place considering that my group (6 girls) did not meet with any unfortunate incident. (I would still recommend that girls should not travel alone especially at night! )
• Awesome massage at an affordable cost  ( that is if you know where to go to ) - i went to C&N Resort and spa! We sat on gold chairs and had the masseuse wash our feet  Like a royalty!
• Alcoholic heaven - There were many bars along the street!

Cons:

• Commercialized place where prices of goods/food/travelling is mostly higher than Bangkok.
• Low variety of food
• Be warn that the prices quoted to you may be higher than it is supposed to be because you are a tourist. Check out prices of various places before committing to anything. Impulse buying may hurt your pocket! Try slashing the prices too!

Things that I have experienced and comments about them:

Day 1 

1. Visited Thepprasit, Highland Bee Farm

Pros:

Warm and friendly attendants who brought us on a guided tour around their small farm, brought us to take photos and gave us an introduction to their products. We were shown the bees!

Cons:

The sales man who introduced his products gave us the wrong information! As we did not buy the luggage space for our flight, we cannot carry any liquid above 100ml hence he told us that it only costs 250baht (~S$11) to check in 15kg and below but instead, it cost us 1200baht (~S49)! OMG!

Up till now, I still am not sure if the honey is really good but I actually bought 1 large bottle which costed 900baht (S$37). Like I have warned before, beware of impulse buying!

2. "Sun-tanned" at Patong Beach

The huge beach was lined with beach chairs (it is all charged per use! - ~100 baht (~4 dollars) ) and there were people parasailing. The waves crashed and pushed the seawater far up the slightly sloped sands. It feels so different from Singapore's beach.

Pros:

You can sun-tan, play some water sports, get some food that is sold along the road, drink coconut drinks, laze under the beach chair and just look out into the horizon etc.

Cons:

There would be people walking up to you to sell you some sarongs, ornaments, temporary tattoos and their water sport rides very often.

3. Watched the Simon Cabaret Show, ~2hrs (regular seating, 550 baht- we bargained for this price otherwise, it would have been 700baht). They perform twice nightly- 7.30pm and 9.30pm

Pros:

• It was interesting to see how the ladyboys (transvestites)  managed to move with such feminity and grace.
• The stage props were quite grand!
• There were funny interactive elements where twice, a manly tranny went down to the audience and kissed some of them. Some guy even had the chance to bury his face in one of the ladyboy's boobs. It was hilarious.

Cons: 

• I would better prefer if the performers sang live instead of lip-syching and the show was quite draggy.
• My regular seat was up above the stage where I could look at the overall performance but I could not get to see the performers clearly.

After the show, we went out and the transvestites were already standing by the road side for some photo-taking session. *Each photo taken with them is charged so becareful! In my opinion, some of the ladyboys were really quite pretty while others were just scary. The situation outside was just chaotic with people pushing and shoving to take a glimpse of them!

4.Visited Soi Bangla

To truly experience Phuket, my group decided to participate in their night life! Now, I will never look at Phuket the same again. If ever my guy friends are thinking of going to phuket, I will probably raise an eyebrow and ask if they are intending to go Soi Bangla. 

Soi Bangla has a mix of clubs, go-go bars and dirty pubs. Before even reaching the streets, the loud thumping clubbing music fills the air signalling its presence. The long stretch of clubs, bars and what-nots spoils you for choice and along the streets, the natives kept selling its notoriously sleazy show-The Ping Pong Show. Right smack in the middle of the street, transvestites who seem to have came from the Simon Cabaret's Show were posing and many of the tourists stood around to have a look at them. During the short 3hours or so, my group tried clubbing in Phuket and went to take a look at what The Ping Pong Show was like.

The Ping Pong Show

Most of the pubs allow you to watch for free except that each person present has to buy a drink. Some places sell the drinks at a reasonable price but beware of those that tries to con you!

My group entered the place thinking that we could watch the show immediately however, we were only treated to a disgusting display of desparate men fondling naked girls who had pole-danced in the middle of the bar. We left the bar after finishing our drink and the show had not even started :/  

Seduction (Club)

Definitely not a non-smokers heaven! I loathe the smoky environment but really enjoyed the music. Eventually, the urge to get out of the place overwhelmed me and my group left shortly after entering. We were almost talked  into buying tickets to the club for a 2 hours free-flow of drinks at ~SGD$50 in the afternoon at Patong beach by 2 westerners. It may be worthwhile if you drink a lot but for my group, nah~. The place was mainly filled with westerners.

Pros

• We had free entry before 12am. (It was on a Saturday night that my group went) Take a free-entrance ticket from somewhere outside the club and you would be able to enjoy the music as much as you want. There was no cache and you may buy drinks as and when you like!
• Great music!

Cons

• People smoked everwhere! OMG I cannot stand it.

It was indeed an eye-opener for a protected Singaporean like me. The stark contrast of the night scene in Phuket greatly masked Singapore's conservative club areas. If you want to know what I mean, I urge you to go and take a look too!  

Day 2

 1/2 Day tour around Phi Phi Island, Khai island, Money island, Pirate cave via a speed boat

Pros:

• Sheer exhilarating speed boat ride to the various places
• Lovely beaches!
• Life felt awesome just chilling with a cocktail in hand.
• Clear waters that is great for snorkelling.

Cons:

• The choppy waves to Khai Island was frightening!
• Sad Snorkelling experience with only 2 types of fishes spotted.

Don't know if the mentioned cons were due to the monsoon season.

All in all, my experience at Phuket was A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

I strongly recommend the tour around the various island but people who are expecting or have back problems should refrain from participating. I am serious!

<3 Signing off,

Felly