The Final Episode : Phuket and Phi Phi

Day 4

 

We didn't do much in the morning except for breakfast, getting onto the ferry and back to the hotel. We took a tuktuk to Ibis Patong to find halal restaurants (which we saw from reviews were 'right in front of Ibis' or '5 mins away from Ibis'). Needless to say, we were walking and walking and walking till we finally found Masjid Nurul Islam and two restaurants just across the street. We chose the other that had less people, the workers were prolly from Patani or Kelantan since they could kecek Kelate.

 

Lunch! Tomyam, Kailan Ikan Masin, Spicy Glass Noodle Salad, Chicken with Cashewnuts

Masjid Nurul Islam

 

Once we had our tummies filled, we walked down to look for a cab to Jim Thompson outlet (which was of course the highlight of my day). We managed to find one, a decent Toyota Vios for 1000baht return trip.

 

The outlet is in Laguna Resort, in Chengthelay (or something like that) about 1/2 hr away from Patong.

 

 

Spent almost two hours and pretty much 20k baht (yes, 20k...OMG!) on cushion covers, thai silk fabric, thai silk shawls and scarves, a shirt for dad, a bag for mom and sis, and myself and some souvenirs.

 

I was of course tired.........

 

After all the shopping, I just had to have another massage which was at Sweet Lemongrass - as recommended from TripAdvisor! And it is as good as the reviews. Cheap and the pressure was strong enough. Of course the masseuse was nervous when I suddenly started to giggle uncontrollably as I was ticklish. She knew not to massage my thighs after that.

 

Look what we found at the massage parlour.

 

Check out the powder....Hahaha

 

We took a tuktuk to Patong (again!) and walked around as Sha wanted to look for Muay Thai stuff for her family. We came across a few stalls selling food, and one was a kakak selling Pad Thai and Fried Rice. We bought one each and ate at another stall that sold grilled seafood...

 

Yummy Seafood!

 

The stalls are across the road from the Bangla Muay Thai Stadium.

 



Muay Thai Stadium

 

Well that pretty much concludes our trip (I wouldn't wanna bore you with the petty details of us sleeping, repacking our bags, and the trip to the airport...). Hope you enjoyed reading, as much as I enjoyed sharing. For those who have been Phuket, how was it for you? and for those who haven't and are planning to go soon... hope it helps you plan your trip to Phuket and Phi Phi!

Phuket and Phi Phi Trip Part Deux

Day 3

Woke up early to take a walk around the island - ok maybe just to the left side of the hotel and back. But it was almost towards the end of the island... I wanted to look for the mosque to see if there was anything interesting around there, but since it was too early in the morning there wasn't anything going on. So I left a small donation, snapped some photos and left. On the way, I passed by one of the resorts and boy was it packed with a tour group! Thank goodness I chose PP Banyan Villa.

 

Went to the normal halal warong to have fried rice for breakfast before going to the diveshop. Met up with Rahim and Keira, discussed about our dive and went to the boat at Tonsai Pier.

Our first dive was at Bida Nok, unfortunately I'm not a good writer, nor an experienced diver so I don't really know how to describe the dive. It was good, but nothing fantastically mind-blowing. There were plenty of marine life, but somehow I found the colors of the marine life were slightly less than in Perhentian with the exception of corals. We did about 55mins which was quite long since my previous dives were about 40 mins or so. The sea was a bit choppy so the first time around I was already tired trying to swim closer to the cliff. (Note to self : Exercise more dammit!)

During the break we were parked just outside Maya Bay. Unfortunately I chose tuna sandwich for the meal, and the strong onion- tunamayo-rocky boat combo made me sick. I was desperate to get off the boat immediately, so the minute we reached our next dive site, Malong, I was like "let me go! move outta the way!" Needless to say, I barfed a few times during the dive. Hahaha. What? I was just following Keira's instructions "If you're sick, just let it out..". I couldn't really enjoy much of the dive since I was busy trying to barf and equalize. There were two swim-throughs but I only did one as I couldn't go deeper without feeling like puking.

I saw turtles by the way.

... and harlequin shrimps! (which apparently are rare to find... I couldn't really figure out how it was supposed to look like, since I didn't feel so good so I wasn't really concentrating...)

 

The PP Aquanauts dive shop

This was where I started to get sick. Haha

 

  Surprisingly I actually survived the dive of 54 mins. Unfortunately the boat drifted away, so it took us awhile to get the attention. The sea was still choppy and I was tired, so I tried to cling on to Rahim, who thought I was trying to play tag, while of course, barfing. Haha. The best part is Rahim didn't know he was swimming in my barf. When I got up to the boat I was like "get this equipment off of me!!" and found a corner to sulk and barf. Hahaha. The minute we reached the pier I was like "ME FIRST! GET OUT!". I rushed back to the hotel to let the rest go all at once. Went for lunch at the same warong and walked around to shop. Also went for a massage, which wasn't that good. After that we went shopping for a sundress for me (didn't bring any and whatever I had would've made me sweat in the ferry again) and walked to and fro finding an outerwear for the dress. We settled down for dinner and then back to the hotel to packup. 

I sure slept well through the night after all the diving and puking and shopping. Haha.

More photos!

They have big fluffy cats EVERYWHERE!

 

 

 

 

Phuket and Phi Phi Trip

A long overdue post, but the cause was the trip itself. The next day after I came back from the trip I was in the office, rushing around chairing a meeting and last minute chasing people around to ensure that my next trip (which was the next day) goes as planned. And yes, the next trip was out in the sea but it was on a "steel island" - an oil platform. After I came back, had a last date before the bf went to Dubai :( , worked the whole week and just came back from a teambuilding session. But enough about those, let's concentrate on the trip.

Day 1

We arrived at Phuket in the evening via MAS (which served chicken pie and some other snacks yay!) and got into our ground transfer (which Rahim had already pre-booked). The hotel we stayed at was Seeka Boutique Resort in Patong, about 50 mins away from the airport (with traffic and a stop at 7E). We reached the hotel when it was almost getting dark and checked in to our rooms. The room was big enough and nicely decorated, although it had a strong scent which wasn't exactly to my liking. Since it was already around 7PM, there wasn't any free transportation for us from the hotel so we walked about and managed to flag down a tuk-tuk. As other reviews mentioned, the tuk-tuk is quite pricely (200 baht to almost everywhere) but as we split the cost between 4 of us, it came to about RM5 per person so it wasn't too bad. First stop was of course Jungceylon as I already had my list of items to buy - lingerie from Annebra (the so-called special lingerie I purchased in Spore) and shampoo from Boots pharmacy. The rest did purchase some stuff too so I didn't feel too bad that I dragged them to Jungceylon. We then we walked (and walked and walked and walked...) to Hard Rock Cafe, which if we didn't get lost initially, is not that far off from the mall where I ended up purchasing a HRC t-shirt (It was nice! It wasn't the standard classic tee!). We finally gave in to the growling tummy and sat in the closest halal restaurant we found, which was Cairo Restaurant or something. We ordered Thai food which didn't taste as authentic (yes, I know its specialty is mid-eastern cuisine but still...) but since we were hungry we gobbled up everything. We took a tuk-tuk back (another 200 baht) only to realise the hotel is pretty near to Jungceylon (but of course no one wanted to walk back!). Slept around 1AM local time after repacking my shopping stuff.

Day 2

We woke up and got ready to go out around 9+ AM and walked down the road for breakfast at a restaurant called Taverne (I think...). Since it wasn't a halal restaurant, I opted for yoghurt and fruits. Little did I know what wonders it did to my bowels... We then took a tuk-tuk to Patong beach for a stroll where Sha got her hair braided. Patong beach is nice, but very crowded. We walked along the stalls by the roadside till it was time to get back to the hotel. We checked out and waited for our ride to Rassada Pier, about half an hour away. When we finally reached Rassada about 12+ PM it was scorching hot and crowded. Got into the ferry, which was already packed, but noticed they were still letting passengers in. We couldn't find any seats as some people "booked" it with their bags, etc, so Sha and Shahrul sat on the deck (and got sunburned) while Rahim and I sat on his luggage near the staircase. Haha. By that time my tummy didn't feel to well. I kept going to the toilet but nothing really happened, till like one final one where I pretty much cleared my stomach. I was super hungry so I ended up purchasing cup noodle (in the ferry) for 40 baht. Luckily I managed to find my one and only diaorrhea pill or I'd prolly have ended up in the washroom again.

We reached Tonsai Pier past 3.30PM and paid our 20baht fee for 'cleaning up' or something (which I think is useless as I still found a lot of trash in the sea...) and walked to PP Banyan Villa hotel which was about 5-10 minutes walk. Checked into the room which was quite hot and the aircond wasn't as strong as Seeka's. The room is much smaller than Seeka but was of reasonable size and clean. I stayed in the room to cool down a bit whilst the rest of them went to cari makan. Joined them later just before my yoga session with Keira at Mama Beach Residence.

After the yoga workout (you can read from my review here) we walked back to the dive shop which was conveniently located right next to the hotel to register for our dives. Then we went around to look for 'banana pancake' which was actually roti pisang with fancy toppings. I went to bed early while the rest checked out the nightlife.

Think that's enough for this post, will continue the other days in the next few posts! Enjoy the photos below!

View of the toilet at Seeka Boutique Hotel

View of the toilet at Seeka Part 2

Me camwhoring. Cool sink eh?
Shirt from H&M

Ah... How romantic... Hahah

Cafe and pool view of Seeka Boutique Hotel

The breakfast that really cleansed my bowel

Patong Beach

Patong Beach

 

Makeup Brushes!

Just finished washing my makeup brushes, something that I used to be so rajin to do till I expanded my collection and then... now I do it whenever I feel like it. Not good.

 

So I didn't really wash my makeup brushes till I think I started to get rashes on my face. Well actually that's not the first time I got rashes, but with the age factor I thought I should get serious with taking care of my skin... So I googled up (yes, I'm a sucker for Googling ALMOST everything) and checked out ways to wash makeup brushes. At first I tried using shampoo and facial foam as suggested by some, (Michelle Phan suggested soap and olive oil I think) (olive oil is expensive lah oi!) but I found the bristles on my brush were always stuck together and looked dry for some reason. Perhaps it was the facial foam that I was using that stripped it dry.

 

I can't recall exactly how I found Sephora's makeup brush shampoo, but I'm glad I came across it. I managed to get it from the US (one of my colleagues, Natasha, was there for a training) so it was way cheaper than in KL. It's $6 (~RM19) for the small 60 ml bottle and in KL it's RM30. Lucky for me, Natasha gave it to me free!

 

 

Pros : It cleans the brush (duh!), most of the coloring (like the blusher, powder) and moisturizes and softens (Ok, maybe that doesn't really make sense in the chemistry world but the fact is it doesn't dry out my brushes and they do feel soft!) the bristles. Smells good and you don't really need to use a lot.

 

Cons : I can't seem to really remove the foundation color of my brush (maybe coz it's thicker and I left it too long on the brush before washing it), the bottle is so dark I can't see how much I've used and how much is left (but that's just me being paranoid).

How to use it?

Disclaimer : This is just how I do it. It's not a cast-in-stone method.

Just pump once or twice onto your hand depending on the size of the brush and swirl your brush in the shampoo (I usually wet the brush before swirling it). Then thoroughly rinse it and leave it to dry. NEVER dry it upright (i.e. bristles on top, handle bottom), always ensure that the bristles are facing downwards or if you cant hang/stand them upside down, lay it flat or slightly inclined. This is to avoid water from trickling into the glue which holds the bristles together.

 

Michelle Phan uses a plastic cover (available online at Sephora) to protect the brushes (which helps them to stand up) but they're not sold here in KL (or either that it was overpriced) nor were they sold in the Sephora store Natasha went to.

Overall I do recommed using the shampoo, especially if you can get your hands on the ones in US since it's cheaper! Or if you don't mind spending, drop by any Sephora store in KL. (I didn't find this particular one in Spore though. They only had the spray kind)
 

How do you take care of your brushes?