Phuket: The Land of Decadence Volume 1

Back to updating backdated entries yet again.

~~~

In November last year, I went to Phuket with my oldest friend, Tiffy --one of my bestest bff ever-- for her birthday celebration. It was a rather impromptu decision as we only booked the tickets the day before we flew off and booked the accommodation in the night a few hours before the flight via latestay.com.

Bangkok was intially on the agenda. However due to the flood situation last year, Tiff and I decided to switch destination and put Bangkok on hold then.


~*Day 1: Our Hassle-free Getaway*~

It was my first time taking budget airline from Singapore. Air Asia didn't give us much problem as how I often hear my friends complaining about other budget airlines.




Complimentary food was not provided on budget airlines and so we had to eat our fill at the airport before boarding. The reason why I was posing with the evian mineral water was because we could not help but remember that "evian" is "naive" spelt backwards.




After a little more than an hour, we landed at Phuket!

As 2 girls travelling alone, we were often approached by many people/ touts/ friendly locals/ tourists. We usually ignored their presence and continued walking on. Watching the movie Taken could have served as a reminder to any young lady travelling without a guy in the group not to be too trusting towards strangers.

We were glad to have trusted our instincts to pick the right person ( a taxi-driver) who led us to a booth at the airport. Our hassle-free travel started right from here all thanks to this cute and friendly tour agent, San.




What a lot of privilege we had as Singaporeans travelling during that period of time! The price for the whole package which also include taxi services for a whole day of exploring was simply too good to be true. And when anything is too good to be true, it is better to be wary. San explained to us that the enticing package was to attract tourists to Phuket as many people were avoiding Thailand totally due to the flood situation in Bangkok back then.




When we questioned San on how we could trust his company with the taxi and shuttle van services throughout our trip should we pay upfront, he pushed a name card to us and informed us that we could call his CEO. He added, "My mother would pick up the phone. Coz she is the CEO. And then after that, she would scold me for lying."

We were really glad to have met San as before that, we hadn't planned how to get to our hotel. The same taxi driver who led us to the booth took us to our hotel, IndoChine.



~*Day 1: Our Room at IndoChine-- Ocean Studio*~

Via latestay.com, we managed to book Gaya Studio for our stay except for the first night. We were given a cheaper room --Ocean Studio but we were thrilled that the room was not too bad at all.




A thick maroon curtain separated the huge open-concept bathroom with the rest of the room. This is obviously a couple's room.




Brown and white decor always gives me a rustic resort feel.




We even had a patio overlooking Patong Beach and the hilly terrains opposite.




A nice couch to lounge in with a good book...




... or to snap photos with your gal friend.




Tiffy was really thrilled at the view of the cheaper room.




We were not too sure how clean the water was as it was not supposed to be a Jacuzzi. By the way, do you know that this bathroom is out in the open overlooking the same view as the picture above? There was no curtain to upkeep our modesty so we showered in the night while praying and hoping that nobody from the hilly terrains opposite our room had a mega zoom (x160) binoculars to spy on us. I suspect the designer for this hotel lives in one of those houses on the hill.






Outfit of the day:
♥ No label waterfall cardigan
♥ ClubCouture Signature Tank in White
♥ FleurFaerie Tiered Layer Crochet Shorts
♥ Spinel cork shoes





~*Day 1: Exploring the Streets of Patong*~

Tiff and I were both getting famished and headed out to explore the streets of Patong for our first Thai dinner.




Our first dinner at Phuket was at Champion Seafood.




Tiff wasn't/isn't? exactly very fond of kids (only well-behaved and cute ones) but she was so smitten by this little boy and his older sister. I think it started when the little boy smiled at her.




We waited from daylight to nightfall for our food and it was not hard to see why. There seemed to be only one cook, one cashier and one wait staff. Fortunately, we had our favourite Thai iced tea and endless topics to chat about while waiting for our food.




Tiff and I love Tom Yum soup and Thai iced tea in general and would never fail to order Tom Yam Goong and Thai iced tea at least once a day. Tom Yum soup in Thailand seldom went wrong, the battered prawn was great with the Thai chilli sauce, the sliced pork was so-so and the refreshing asparagus served as the only healthy dish in the meal which is something very important to me. I simply need to have some greens in every meal. And yes, we finished all the food. If you don't already know, Tiff and I could eat a lot.




Our first Thai iced tea for the trip!





~*Day 1: Nightlife at Patong and Soi Bangla*~

When night fell, the streets went abuzz with colourful lights with music blaring from every little pub. Tiff made a joke about Tiger Inn as shown below. She wondered aloud if it meant Thai Girl Inn.

"Prostitution in Thailand is illegal but tolerated as is the case with Patong Beach, especially on Bangla Road." -- Wikipedia




Our very first foray into Bangla Road opened our eyes to the many wonders of nightlife at Phuket. From then onward, we headed there every single night just to be immersed in the crowd of decadence and engaged in people-watching.

"Soi Bangla awakens when the sun sets. That's when Patong's liveliest party zone becomes closed to traffic and ready for action! Famous for its raunchy nightlife, Bangla goes all out to entertain with girls, beers and music that increases in volume as the moon rises." -- Phuket.com

In the photo below, Tiff wanted a solo shot on the road of Bangla but kept getting photo bombed by other tourists.




Tiff and Jo's first foray along Bangla Road!




Some sights in Bangla...




I thought this building was really tacky. It either looked like it was still undergoing construction or it was closed down. Any of you have any clue about this building?




Snapping a picture with a transvestite required at least 100 baht. I had wanted to snap a picture with the PRETTY transvestite whom I had been eyeing for quite a while but a PRETTY unfortunate-looking one with broken and blackened teeth accosted us. We were too polite to decline a picture with her and also too polite to tell the person helping us to snap that his photography skill sux.




When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Ronald MacDonald certainly applied this in Thailand.




Besides Bangla Road, we also hung out at Jungceylon shopping mall at night as there weren't many things to do at night in Phuket but to hang out in places of decadence. Jungceylon is clean though we espied some streetwalkers soliciting outside the mall.




Instead of taking a cab or tuk tuk back to our hotel, Tiff and I decided to be random and walked. Not armed with a map, we just took the path where our hearts told us to. We nearly took a wrong turn but managed to ask for directions from a very good-looking Asian who was working on framing a painting at his shop. I told Tiff we had to walk home again the next night and get his number or something coz he really looked like a very cute Japanese idol. lol.

When we managed to find this road, we knew that all we had to do was to follow the road and it would eventually lead us back to our hotel. There was no pedestrian walkway along the road and we had to keep very close to the sides while constantly looking out for dangers in the form of traffic or humans. There were stretches of dark portions and no traffic so we really had to be very sharp in looking out for human dangers. We were honked at many times but mostly from tuk tuk signalling for us to hop on.




You could see that the beach had not fully recovered from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. There was Tiff observing a minute of silence for those who perished in the tsunami.




The crashing of the waves against the shore with certain intervals of ebb and flow was a little threatening and we did not dare venture onto the beach at night as the water could reach right up to the concrete at times.




Not knowing how long and how far we had walked but knowing that we were approaching our hotel soon, Tiff and I decided to get some happy drinks from a restaurant pub along the way. Boy, were we really refreshed after the drinks.




The only customers then were those sitting at the bar counter.




After much sweat and grime, we finally saw the very comforting name of our hotel!




At the stroke of midnight (13 November), I presented Tiff with her birthday card and gift. (The cute snake drawing wasn't drawn by me. It was a recycled envelope from my group of gal pals.)




Volume 2 would mainly be about our "adventures" at Phi Phi Island and I hope to craft the post soon. I am still in the midst of editing photos for Day 3. I've been too busy feeling pain and watching lots of TV as an excuse to laze in bed due to pain. Pardon me if I don't reply to your comments or visit your blogs as frequently as I have been doing all my Internet stuff through my phone which kinda limits my surfing. Continue to keep those lovely comments coming in though coz I simply love reading them!

I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy Again

My friend from the States shared this Jimmy Kimmel video on his Facebook and I just have to share it with all of you who haven't seen this video yet.

Jimmy Kimmel issued a Halloween prank challenge for parents last year by telling them to pretend to eat all their kids' Halloween candy and filming their reactions.

This year, he decided to do the same, asking parents to upload videos of their children reacting to the horrifying news. Like how most kids would react, many threw wild tantrums, crying fests, screaming and GASP even beating!

While most of the kids responded the same way as last year, there were others (from 4:16 onwards) who simply melt my heart over and over again that I just had to find the original uploads from their parents. Good parenting is exceptionally important! I would definitely be a proud parent of these kids.




I love this sibling pair a lot. Presenting Carter (5 years old) and Ciara (3 years old). Ciara was absolutely adorable when she jumped up and down like a little kangaroo as she answered with a smile, "That's otay." On the other hand, Carter demonstrated understanding beyond a kid's level when he revealed that he was mad at his mum for eating all the sugar in a day and that it was really bad for her health. He was mad coz he loves his mum! How precious is that? I love the way he pointed at his mum so coolly as he said, "I love you too!"




Another adorable little guy who melted my heart with his response is Ryan. After knowing that he mum had eaten all his halloween candies, he replied, "It's alright. I just want you to feel happy." I loved the way he put his mom before himself and if my son were to tell me this, I would simply tear.





Meanwhile, another precious little 3-year-old girl insisted she wasn't mad at her mom but just a little bit sore. She continued saying with a huge smile, "When it's next Halloween, we can share my candy." She was not only sore about her mom eating all her candies, she was willing to share them with her mom next Halloween.

Awwwww...........




~

Last Christmas, Jimmy Kimmel pulled the same prank on kids too, telling parents to give their kids terrible Christmas presents while they filmed their reactions. It is really hilarious, especially when one little guy was shouting for Jimmy Kimmel to suck his b***s. Yes I know, there is a little Schadenfreude in all of us. Once more, I cringed at the brats and also swooned at some understanding kids.

My favourite sibling pair. So well-mannered and respectful to their mom even when they weren't really happy with their presents. You could tell their love for their mom in the original video here:




Have you seen this videos before? What are your views? Do you agree that these videos reflect very well on parents in our society?

An Exceptionally Emo Halloween

Hi boils and ghouls,


As seen from my previous post, I'm still in an emo rut though I'm trying my very best to normalize myself and not dwell in more negativism.


Some of you might know that it is a tradition for my bimbo sisters and me to celebrate Halloween together annually, opening the invitation to our own groups of friends to join us as well.


I enjoy myself every single Halloween and I dare say that my bimbo sisters and I enjoy the whole make up process a lot more than the partying itself.


This year, our theme was The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo. I was an emo kia aka emo kid involved in some slashing and slitting.


Here is my before photo just as I left my house on halloween Saturday to prepare for the next round of make up at Bimbo Xtina's house and my after photo at the club. It was the first time I wore a wig for halloween all thanx to my ex colleague for lending me her fabulous short hair wig.





Bimbo Jo was so emo that day that she contemplated telling the rest of her bimbo sisters that she would very much like to stay at home and slit her wrist. Alas, she knew that since Bimbo Tiff had pulled out due to last minute work commitment, she could not afford to abandon her beloved bimbos at the eleventh hour. Besides, Bimbo Jo was the make up artist aka the wound specialist.





Xtina's hubby, Lester had been such a great help to us. Before we trooped over to her place, he prepared the dough for our wounds beforehand. He also helped us to do various tasks while our hands were dirty. Such a sweet hubby.


Here is Xtina's beloved hubby taking a break on his cocoon swing and watching Supernatural on TV.





The home-made blood I made beforehand looked just like blood but when painted over the dough, the red became bubble-gum red. Bimbo Zanne said it looked like she had long lips on her forearm.





Bimbo Xtina used the hair dryer to blow the wetness away for my next step of creating depth to the wound. She looked sooooo sweet here and not at all like how garang she should be in her jumpsuit attire.





My tummy problem was acting up and I was in quite intense pain so I asked for a mug of cereal. Thanx to Lester again for "being so useful" around the house. In the meantime, Xtina helped me with my wound.




Our scars! You could see the difference between mine and theirs. Mine was just with the fake blood painted on while Zanne and Xtina's wounds had undergone my depth creation process with old eye shadows.





Funny moment:
When I was done with the cereal drink and partial drying of my wound, I asked if Zanne or Xtina could help me with the depth creation of my wound. (Our make-up artist Bimbo Gera had not arrived at that time.)
Zanne had no confidence and muttered, "I failed art in school.
Xtina claimed she was not confident to help me paint as her work might not be up to my standards. In the end, I prepared all the eye shadows and tissue paper in front of me as I lifted my left forearm and shaded my wound with a cotton bud using my right hand.
Please tell me it wasn't too bad after all.




Soon, Bimbo Gera arrived with her boyfriend and another friend whom we were also acquainted with.

Gera's bf, Clement had a creepy alien bursting out from his abdomen.





Look at the sweet couples helping their other halves with the make up process.





No, this was not part of the sweet couple. We told Zep that he had to be made up in order to join us for halloween so I helped him with his "bubble gum" creation. He did not want to undergo the depth creation process and hence his wound looked just like a huge piece of bubble gum.





I had been waiting for Gera to help me put on my wig as I was totally clueless. Everyone said I looked very cute with my hair tied like that and requested for me to do a cutesy pose. After that, the hair was pinned down and covered with a hair net.




The birth of Emo Kia!




I liked that my hair was all over my face. However, I had to paint blood onto my face and so had to sweep the fringe aside.




Gera decided to uglify herself by drawing on devil's eyebrows.





Don't mess with me!





A super random photo with no focal point.





We did some finishing touches before we readied ourselves to head out.





Presenting the girls with the dragon tattoo! Bei was unable to join us for partying but she had so much fun watching the make up process and snapping photos.





The witching hour... we were all ready to head out! We wonder if anybody else heads out so late for halloween.







There was a long queue but fortunately, we were able to get into Zouk as Clement was able to bring us in separately.




The theme was doll house. I hate scary dolls and I hate that my camera died on me after this shot! All shots after this was taken with my iPhone. Actually some shots of the make up process were taken by Bei and Xtina's mobile phones. The photo quality looked quite good but I do not know what phones they use.





The bimbos minus Tiff. Sorry, I meant the girls with dragon tattoos. Hey, where were our dragons?





Gera looked every bit the fierce dragon girl.
Zanne looked like a vampire with her red eyes.
Xtina had maggots on the wound (courtesy of her lovely hubby's work).
Jo was just plain emo kia.




We helped Clement yank the alien out from his body and he died an unfortunate death.





There were creepy broken dolls in those compartments.






Gera was heartbroken that Clement died and decided to follow his soul out of Zouk. The music was really bad at Zouk that night; we could barely groove to the beat. We bade the lost souls goodbye and continued our party at Wine Bar. Zep a freelance photographer was our unofficial photographer that night and he "scoffed" at my iPhone but I must say that for iPhone, the photos turned out not too badly. Could it be Zep's skills as well?

Garang Xtina and Emojo... Emo Jo.





"Please smile for the camera."





Emo Kia and Zanne the Vamp... actually I do not know what her fake id was that day but she looked just like a vampire. Gotta love her red contacts!





Don't forget our dragon tattoos!





While Emojo was outside of the club emo-ing alone, a mother and daughter pair kept eyeing me. The area outside Zouk was an inappropriate area to have a decent mother and daughter pair milling around. I thought I was in their way so I often moved aside but they were always a few steps away. Finally, the mother took out her iPad and asked if her daughter could have a picture taken with me. There were so many people in costume outside so I did not quite understand why the little girl wanted a picture with me. She probably liked my wounds. After snapping on her iPad, I passed my phone to the lady to snap a picture for my own collection as well.





I guess my condition and mood was so affected that I did not quite enjoy this year's halloween. The rest of them also decided to call it a day as the music really sucked. There we were outside Zouk before we headed back.




Away from the Zouk crowd and outside Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.




How could we forget our lovely Zep photographer for the night? I was just wondering, do photographers usually dread being in front of the camera?

Joke for the night on repeat just to annoy Zep:
Zep, did you like put on 10kg since we last saw you?





Full length shot of Zanne and her eyeballing-on-the-bus stockings.




Xtina and her very garang contractor jumpsuit tied at the waist.





I could do an outfit shot with this photo:
♥ Max Mara black fringed dress
♥ Black boots from Bangkok





We had to go back to Xtina's house to get my stuff and at her void deck, we came across a sweet and gentle little kitty. The flashed version of the kitty's eyes reminded me of the eyes of the people in Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart MV.




Cam-whoring shots before I removed my wig... Hey it is not every day that I have short hair so just lemme cam whore.





The emojo phase reigns on... way after Halloween.