Phuket Day 2 - Princess Raya Tour (Raya Island & Coral Island)

Day 2 was THE day! Well cos we arrived on Day 1 in the evening and when we got to our hotel it was already dinner time, so it didn't really count, though we did book our next day's tour then, and that first night got us really well-rested for the Day 2's island hopping adventure. I doubt we would be able to do it on a touch-down day anyway (tour pick-ups are normally between 7am to 8am).

Island-hopping is a must-do if you're in Phuket, I think. I've been to Phuket once in 2006 (I think), and once in 2009, and I didn't do island hopping on either of these trips. Don't ask me why, I don't know either. When we came back from dinner on Day 1, all but two island-hopping tours were fully booked, and we were left with one affordable (and less crowded) option - The Princess Raya tour, covering Raya Island / Coral Island with snorkelling.  Aiyah anything la, next time then try the rest lor.

Lunch is provided for this tour, and it costs 1400THB per person.

(The other one was 1600THB I think, and involved a 600 pax yacht. Like wtf too many people la! 600 sounded too chaotic.)

Awaiting tour to commence. And photobombed by an Ah Ma and a random guy.

All excited cos it's been a long time since me and Cheryl hung out properly. Actually we didn't really get to hang out too much this trip either (minimal) as she didn't go into the water at all when, as you can see from Day 1, we were in the water most of the time. Reason? She was having her monthly women thing and refused to try to use a tampon despite Daphne's and my efforts. Bleah~ 

Also, she had work to do on the trip. Like hello??? Automotive people!!! Give my darling a break! She's on holleeedayyy for Christ's sake!

Having said that, I must say she has been a really good sport in that she still came to the tour with us. Most people would have just stayed in the hotel. Love you la babe!

The many speedboats waiting to send the many groups to their respective destinations. I had no idea how many tours there were, but they must be all pretty exciting~~~

All pictures with the Cheryl Tay logo on the top right hand corner are credited to Cheryl Tay, obviously. Because she's usually the one taking pictures, you hardly see her in her pictures. *Duh~* She uses a super intimidating Canon 1-D (the highest end of Canon cameras) for all her pictures. (She's a motorsports writer, so speed and quality are essential.) You can read her and see her photography works on Cheryl-Tay.com 

Cheryl, me and Daphne. 

WE ARE GOING ISLAND-HOPPING YAY!!!!!!

I forgot to mention - Daphne, when I first met her, was really big. We met on the GLOW programme that I blogged about some time ago, and it has totally changed her life. She went from this:

to her current size. 

So proud of her can?!!!! She exercises like 3-5 times a week, and eats really healthily now.

While me, being such a lazy bum, have remained the same. Boohoo~ Yes, I have been busy, but discipline is something I need to work on when it comes to my diet and exercise. GLOW needs to be taken regularly, something I keep forgetting before my meals. And it's not an excuse to not exercise. Even more no excuse when it comes to instant noodles. *guilty like dunno what* Anyway, more on that another time. 

And we arrive at Coral Island!!!! 

Each time I say the name I keep thinking of The Unbeatables and Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing. You know, 珊瑚岛?!

Our tour guide who kept calling us "Ollen Ollen!" thanks to the orange sticker that represented our group. Lol.

#likesomepageant

Presenting to you....the GLOW girls. Okay some. No this trip wasn't sponsored by GLOW. It just so happened that we met through the GLOW programme, and all of us somehow have a common frequency, and we clicked, and we decided to go on a trip together. Thus the hashtag in our Fb/Instagram #glowinphuket. Plus, don't you think we were all glowing? ;)

This beach really is called Coral Island for a reason. When I tried to go into the water, knnnnnnnnnnn it was so painful cos the floor was just so full of broken corals la! Pain like faaaaaak!!! I was ouch-ing my way for a good 10 metros into the water before my feet touched soft smooth sand. Ok ouch-ing was an understatement. I was cursing and swearing all the way in. Lol. 

Life vests are a lifesaver. -duh- 

I mean when there you keep stepping on corals all you need to do with get just half your body in the water, and float to the deeper parts without the broken corals. You don't even have to worry about it being too deep cos you can just float~~~~~~~~ 

Melissa without a lifevest clinging onto me for dear life. Lol. Those hands were mine by the way, in case you thought she was boob-grabbing me. #misleadingexpressions

We were left alone on Coral Island for a while before the speedboat came back for us to take us snorkelling off Raya Island. I've never done this before so I was getting really excited! 

Look at that crisp clear turquoise/teal-coloured sea! Hao piao liang ah!!!!

Can u spot the fishes in the water?!

First time donning the snorkel mask. I have to say it's pretty claustrophobic. Your nose can't breathe, obviously, as it's kept in this vacuum, and you're biting a mouthpiece which you breathe through that connects to that pipe. 

Not comfortable. Bleah.

What you get to see underwater was pretty worth it though. I'd like to try diving someday though. Cos water keeps getting into my pipe and I kept tasting seawater as I was trying to breathe with my mouth. Lol~ 

For some reason the thing in the mouth image doesn't look very PG... 

After frolicking in the water with the fishes, of course we were hungry. The tour included lunch onshore Raya Island.

This water is too breathtakingly beautiful. (Turquoise happens to be my favourite color. ^^)

Lunch was okay, served at this shack, canteen/barrack-style. You may also call it buffet. Lol. No pictures were taken, cos we were all just too busy eating. If you want really more decent food though, I'd recommend you pay and eat along the beachside. Food's a LOT better.

 Spotted this little boy at a convenience store and I couldn't help but pick him up. Made me miss Alton so much. I wonder how he'd be like if he was an island beach dog. Lol.

Cheryl and Daphne wanted some REAL food. Their real food simply means healthy food like salads and decent vegetables. Our real food means fries and burgers. Lol. All are available at the beachfront restaurant. I had my fill at the canteen place so I was ready to work the calories off...

What better way than doing jumpshots and splits and cartwheels, right?

Eh hem. Yes that's me. ^^ *blush*

Tired just seeing us bounce and jump all over the place? 

Wait till you see this....

7 girls all up in the air nicely. Cheryl Tay, your camera damn zai. LOLOLOL!!!!

Okok kidding! You're a damn good photographer! ^^ (I wish you were inside this pic too though~)

Holidaying with like-minded happy sporty girls ROCKS BALLS MAN!!!!

More Nonsense Pool Pictures - Phuket Day 1

I was looking through some of the photos that Jacqueline posted on Facebook, and I couldn't help it but want to share some of those nonsensical moments with you. It was really fun cos all of us didn't care at all about our images, we were just acting silly just because. =D I really laugh until~~~ But then again, could be just me being easily-tickled.

Skip this if you're not in a light mood okay? Or if you're at some serious meeting and you're scrolling thru blogs cos it was a boring moment. You might 1.find me super boliao, or 2.smile/laugh at my pictures. 

P.S. I had no idea I could come up with so many expressions. Facial and bodily.

This was one of the first few pictures that spurred the rest of them. 

Don't ask me whose legs those were. I really have no idea. 

Since there was one leg in the air we decided to do handstands in the pool. Eh not bad hor so many of us could do it. I didn't know GLOW BFF Challenge 2 picked us based on acrobatic abilites. 

I don't know which pair of legs were whose since there were no leg markings or bands and obviously we forgot who was positioned where during which handstand shot. Lol. 

Don't ask. I thought this was graceful, until I hit the preview button on her camera. Lol!

A floating Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, and a 跳-tone James Bond.

 Till next post! ;)

Pooooket with the Girls! - Day 1

It's been a while since my last travel post, despite the fact that I have a TON of holiday posts waiting to be written. I'm back from Phuket! And I really want to try to do this before life's other things drag me away to busy-ness and 1 year goes by without any updates on this holiday. 

If you have been following me on Instagram you'll see a lot of my beach holiday pictures which I will also be sharing here. (If you want real-time updates follow me here on Instagram!)

Upon arrival in Phuket and having gotten onto our minibus.

 One thing to note about the taxis (or minibuses if you have a big group like we did) - some haggling is required. Go with the rate on the board on the wall right in front of the taxi counters. Our rate was 1100baht to go to Kamala Beach where our hotel was. The first counter insisted on 1300baht. We walked away to the second taxi counter and told them we wanted 1100baht and got it. Later on we realized that after we walked away the first counter told one of our girls that 1000 baht they'll take. Kanasai. The trick is not to look interested at all, and walk away as a group. They want your business, they will do it at a reasonable price.

Happily arrived at the Swissotel Resort Phuket.

Picture credit: Cheryl Tay

 Seeing Ju Ann lie down right there in the middle of the lobby on the lobby daybed? Dunno what that is, but I just lay beside her and did a leg lift. Lol!!! #random

When we met I had no idea Jacqueline would be the girl I would have the most nonsense fun with. That's her in orange-pink top. Scroll on...

Picture credit: Cheryl Tay

 And yes, Cheryl said I might as well do splits on this thing, and Jac said she could, and so we did. Thus begins our direction for this trip - to be super random.

Our rooms were nice - it's a suite with a living area, a kitchen area and 2 bedrooms. The only thing I didn't like was that it only had one toilet. 4 girls to one suite, 1 toilet? Seriously...?

The thing with going out with social media influencers is that once you get wifi, everyone starts getting really busy...

I'm actually kind of glad that there wasn't wifi most of the time while we were out. Else we might not have had so much fun the way we did. Everyone really interacted. It was evident once we stepped far enough away from the wifi-accessible areas of the lobby to go get dinner. 

 The very beautiful Kamala Beach. We walked there from our hotel (5-10min) for dinner, and because we caught sunset, the view was breathtaking.

So so picturesque.

Just. Had. To. Do. This. It's not everyday you get to do a sunset silhouette jumpshot.

 Maybe cos we were in a quiet part of Phuket (Kamala is pretty secluded for a beach), the food wasn't as good. Probably cos the turnover wasn't high, so the seafood wasn't really as fresh either. And QC was bad. We ordered like 2 dishes of the same steamed fish. They served us 2 completely different fishes. Same price somemore. -.-"

Tip: Unless you're really into quiet and reclusive and staying near the hotel (i.e. not venturing into crowded areas at all), I'd suggest staying near Patong Beach. Food is easy and cheaper, you save on taxi to get there, and everything is just so much nearer to each other. We didn't know, so oh well...now we do.

 By the time we got back to the hotel after dinner (think it was like 9:30, 10pm?), I thought the pool had closed because the lights were all off in the pool (maybe there weren't any in the first place, I can't be sure), but apparently they weren't, cos the girls just decided to go in anyway for a dip. And thanks to Jacqueline who brought along an underwater camera, we had so much fun doing silly pool shots. It turned out to be a pretty hilarious way to end the night. 

Warning: You might not have seen this side of me. 

Post-Warning: This is just the first day preview.

 "Nope, I've got nothing up my sleeve...."

(If you hear anyone say this line usually this means something is about to follow....)

 I punched Jac! Jac got a shock...

She kicked me. And I flew....

#superrandom

More updates tmr! Bye!

It's 7am and I haven't slept. That's why...