I woke up super early today at 630 am Phuket time. Didn't really sleep much as I woke up a few times during the night. Not sure why as I usually have no problem sleeping in a new place. But that means I went to have breakfast early too.
Freshened up with a quick shower and decided to be kiasu. Lol. Packed all my barang barang for a morning of tanning/lazing by the pool after breakfast. Since I left the room at 710am, it was virtually empty at the pool and so I didn't bother doing a "German" and reserve a lounger with my towels.
I like that the restaurant has different settings in the various areas. Yesterday I was seated near the entrance and that had a lazy loungey feel to it with a daybed dangling in the air, supported by chains. Across from it was a mediterranean theme with marine mosiac tiles on the table top and iron-wrought chairs. So today, I sat near the aircon area, with wicker chairs and a cushion to support. Nice.
I totally pigged out today. At breakfast, I tried the new station - noodle station. Pick your own ingredients and inform the chef what you want. I had some meat balls and meat slices (not sure if chicken or pork) with beansprouts and veggies cooked with kway teow in soup. Pretty good.
Also had my usual pomelo and papaya with strawberry yoghurt. Seemed to be the day for sweets as I had a croissant (almost set it on fire when I put it through the grill) and french toast with butter, strawberry jam, honey and maple syrup. Yes, I know. Sweetness overdose. To counteract the sweetness, I went back to savory with an omelette with bits of pineapple rice and fried bee hoon. How's that for really pigging out?
Went to the pool after that. I decided to tan by the old wing pool as it is bigger and more suitable for swimming. I was the first one there at around 8am. Took advantage of that to swim. Somehow the pool was amazingly cool, not cold. Swimming and playing in water, I heard the birds chirping and watched a pair of sparrows (or some other small birds) played with each other, chased each other from tree to tree. It was really nice, just to relax and watch the birds and having the entire pool to myself.
Slowly more people came over to do a "German" and no, they are not Asians. Lol. In fact I was the only Asian at the pool by late morning. Yeah, they just dropped their towels and books to reserve the loungers and then went off to do their thing, so I still had the pool to myself for about 30-45 mins. By then the sun was showing its full force and beaming its rays onto us. Unbearably hot. I had a few dips in the pool to cool off, surprisingly the water was cold. It felt colder than earlier in the morning, maybe it was because I was so hot.
It was close to 11am when I surrendered. Had wanted to hang by pool till noon or 1pm, but it was just too much. And I didn't want to get burnt. Back to the room to take a bubble bath and chill. It was just so nice to stay in the room, in the comfort of the aircon as it was really hot outside.
Ventured out on the other road parallel to beach road to find some lunch at around 2pm. Went to the outdoor food center thing. Noticed many stalls were closed, not sure if for renovations or forever. Darn! There went my beef noodles ala Vietnamese style of pho. The remaining stalls did not have that. So I tried a spicy chicken noodle soup. They just added chili paste to make it spicy. It still was not that spicy and a bit tasteless, so I added some sugar, chili flakes and the sliced chili with sour sauce. Much more palatable. But I had my first Thai iced milk tea. That so hit the spot. Quite expensive lunch. 70THB for the noodles. It used to be 40THB for the pho like thing. Total came to 95THB.
Guessed it is still high season here with more tourists and hence more expensive. Decided to check out the new shopping mall Jungceylon, near Bang La. Jungceylon was delayed in opening as it was supposed to open last year. The place is huge! I just walked the basement and level 1. It sprawled over and had a promenade in the center and a junk ship at one side and kinda with 3 pavilions thing?
Not all shops are opened yet, and the food court is still under renovation. There are VNC, Giordano, Carrefour, Geox, Starbucks, Haagen Dazs, Au Bon Pain, Swensens, Boots and others. In the basement, I had a foot massage at Mantra by the Spa. The place was quite nice, and I liked the chair. Not the typical armchair. Instead it was like a lounger. The therapist was so gentle I almost fell asleep. I didn't like that she didn't do the full 1hr treatment. She only did 45mins. I didn't quibble nor did I tip her. I have been tipping left, right center on this trip. Business must be bad cos it has been in operation for 2 months and I noticed they reduced the price of the foot massage from 350THB to 250THB.
I went around searching for Dunkin Donuts cos I saw someone carrying a box of donuts on my way to Jungceylon. Lol. Finally found it at the Carrefour wing. I didn't like that all the sections were not connected underground or above ground. You have to walk through the promenade in the hot weather. But in the promenade there was a food street with local Thai food. The seafood was amazing - huge cockles, tiger prawns, clams etc. I didn't try any.
I bought a Siam Square donut (square shaped donut with 2 fillings - bavarian and blueberry) which was really soft and good. The iced coffee was great too. Walked around Carrefour and I loved shopping there. It is huge and not so crowded. I bought Lays chips in seaweed flavor. Delish. Went out and admire the junk ship, there is a daily lights show at 7 and 9pm. Indochine will be there too, not opened yet. Plus a new hotel under the Millenium group. I think the mall is really going to change the face of Patong Beach. It is no longer rustic (not that it ever really was) but with mall right in the beach, is really having the typical city world in a beach resort area. Convenient but different.
Wanted to have more sweets and had a chocolate ice cream with roasted almond in a waffle cup from Fudge and Creamery (or something like that). They will place the ice cream on the marble slab and mix in the almonds. The ice cream is creamy, fudgey and chewy. Really nice. Sharing space is a coffee place, new york deli and pizza place. How American is that? You could be in a typical mall in Florida.
Decided to walk down Bang La and back to hotel via Beach road. There were already people at the bars, and I could feel the guys checking out the girls, not that there were many at that hour. And there were definitely more shops now compared to 2 years back. I totally walked past Subway and I wanted to have a sub for dinner as I had overdosed on the sweets and was feeling a bit queasy. So no more fried or heavy meal. Also checked out the tube dresses as friends have asked me to help them buy some. Saw a lady selling and asked her for the price. She quoted THB 550! Crazy. Managed to bargain down to something more decent but I still feel it is ex. Lol.
Next thing to buy will be dvds. Hehe. So I kept walking and finally walked to the end of Patong. Decided to have a Thai massage in those roadside place. Bad mistake, the place is dodgey. I didn't even get a change of clothes, so that will be my first and last time there. I missed Faye - the therapist who did Thai massage for me daily on my previous trip. She has left the shop when I went to look for her last year :( So hard to find a good therapist. So well, the search continues.
As I was too lazy to go back to Subway, I went to this other shop where I thought it served chicken basil on my last trip. It was not on the menu so I had chicken with cashew nuts. It was not too bad after I added more chili to it. At least it helped settle the stomach somewhat. But I think I will lay off the sweets for the next 2 days. Darn.
Back in the room, I watched the 2nd DVD - Aquamarine. Quite a cheesey movie but at least it is light-hearted and not scary. So CNA is still in black and white. Not sure how long it will remain that way.
And so ends my 2nd day in Phuket. 2 massages and lots of sweets.
This is what I bought. I just found out today I didn't have MAC entremauve pigment. I thought I bought it previously but I didn't. Darn! I would have grab it at the sale. I am still searching for the shower gel trio from Origins which I thought I bought during Christmas last year at Metro. I didn't get 3 sets at the sale as the girls were dissuading me from getting them all since I already have so many bath items at home and so I got 1 set. It is great shopping with the girls - we play devil's advocate to each other, preventing each other from overspending and impulse buys.
So we ordered: har gow (shrimp dumplings), scallop rice flour rolls, spare pork ribs, egg tarts, century egg pork congee, siew mai, xiao long baos and paper wrapped chicken.
