Something that scares you on blog is sometimes the clone of your blog or the hijacking of the intelligent property (your thoughts and writings on your blog). I used to write on my blog couple years ago and yet since I started writing on the website of the company that I used to work for, I became so rare to write on my own blog. Hence, something happened on my blog, it disappeared. I had no idea what possessed it disappear.
Let's forget things that interrupt you, go on something fun to talk about. Here we go, I just succeeded creating my new blog. An escape to Phuket seems a good title to be shared on my first post.
It was September 2014, I hosted my couchsurfing friend for the first time, he was Iommy, a traveler from Nice city, France. It was his first visit to Indonesia, especially Jakarta, he's been to many countries in the world, he shared a lot about his memorable trips, I thought it was fun. Couple days after his visit, I decided to buy some tickets to start my solo travel through couchsurfing. I used to go on traveling with family, friends or even relatives but I dared to go to somewhere else beyond my hometown by my self.
I bought some flight tickets from Jakarta-Phuket, Phuket-Singapore, and Singapore-Jakarta. They were quite cheap as I bought tickets at night (as you know, it's always cheap to book tickets at night, after 12 am to be exact, during Tuesday-Thursday). Before my visit to Phuket and Singapore, I sent some requests to many hosts in Phuket and Singapore in order that I could stay in their homes for couple days (free of charge but at least you do something for them too, or maybe giving them some souvenirs from where you come from). It was unbelievable that I found more Russian hosts than local hosts (Thai people). I got responded by many hosts in Phuket and some of them offered me to stay with them. I was thinking that being a mediocre surfer by staying with Thai people in Thailand is a boring thing.
I decided to stay with a Belgian who's been living in Phuket for 9 years (in 2014). We set the meeting point to catch up. The time when I arrived in the international airport of Phuket was at 10 pm and I had to queue up for the immigration check, I went find a free chip for my cellphone, there was an enough credit for some calls and texts. I called my host (Christ) and he directed me to go with the bus to the area of Chalong, however the bus was no longer in operation, it was 11:20 pm though. I finally grabbed the travel van even though the cost was more expensive than bus, it costs around 300 Baht ($8) while the cost of the bus was 100 Bahts ($2.7).
The time travel from the airport to Chalong area was approximately 1 hour. I arrived around 1:30 am and got my host a little bit tipsy in green jacket and blue jeans, waiting for me, next to the closed mall. It was quite creepy as I thought it was a criminal, going to hold me up. Fortunately I was wrong, he's just my host and we finally went home by his old motorbike. He showed me around his huge house with Jacuzzi on the rooftop, it was just awesome and I got my own big room with no curtain, it looked creepy at night though. I went to bed around 2 am and I felt so exhausted.
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| One of this doors is my room's door |
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| The view from my room without curtain |
Day 1 (November 1st, 2014)
It was Saturday, my host got free days of work on weekends. He showed me around the city by his old motorbike (again). I was so relaxed as I could breath some fresh air in the morning, as you know that Phuket is not clean enough but you can get fresh air in the morning. He took me to one of the highest points in Phuket, Promthep Cape. It took 45 minutes from the center of Chalong to this spot. We don't have to buy ticket because the entrance is free and you can see the view of Phuket from hundreds of meters above the sea and the view was superb. Unfortunately the park around the viewpoint was not well maintained. Luckily, it was not so crowded as it was not famous enough for tourists.
On the other hand, we also did some culinary on the first day. We went to some local street foods, I ate tom yum soup as one of the unique foods in Thailand and I know that the taste is much better than any tom yum seafood that I have ever had. I also ate some chicken satay with flour and its unique sauce. The one who sold it was Muslim in white headscarf, she talked to me in Thai and I couldn't respond, I talked to her in English but she's not able to speak in English, she kept talking in Thai and I kept talking in English with our body languages. It was so funny when she thought that I was a Thai, then I said no, I am not a Thai, then she guessed as if I was the Philippines, again I said no, I am an Indonesian. She got surprised that I am an Indonesian, she never thought that I was an Indonesian as my face looks like a Thai or the Philippines (according to her opinion), and then she said that the foods are 'halal' (when Muslims can only eat halal foods, with no pork or lard in it).
After done with eating lunch and having some street foods, we went to another highest point, Big Buddha. We browsed rungs until we got into the top and found some gold Buddha, the biggest one was the big white Buddha. The pylon foundation of Big Buddha is made of ceramic materials with some wishes on it, local people sell ceramics in order that tourists can buy ceramics and they can write their wishes on it before it's affixed on the wall of Big Buddha's pylon foundation. Hundreds of meters away from Big Buddha point, we can see some tourists riding elephants, it seemed fun. I felt tired and we decided to go home afterwards.
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| Big Buddha |
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| Gold Buddha |
Day 2 (November 2nd, 2014)
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| Speculoos sandwich and hot chocolate for breakfast |
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| Wat Chalong Temple from the inside |
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| Wat Chalong Temple from the outside |
After visiting some monasteries and temples, we went to see some famous beaches in Phuket, Kata beach and Patong beach. These two beaches are the most wonderful and crowded beaches in town as many tourists spend their free time there.
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| Kata Beach |
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| Me with the view of Kata beach behind me |
We spent our night around Patong beach, had some wine with the bill on my host as I paid bills for foods for the last two days. We got to see some local show there, including some lady-boys stood up in the center of the crowd and many people took some pictures with them, we can also take pictures with the lady-boys with 100 Baht and yet I decided not to take pictures together.
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| Lady boys in the crowd of Patong |
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| Bangla Walking Street, Patong |
Patong area is the most crowded area in Phuket, especially on weekends, people go there to chill out, buy souvenirs, foods, or even just to do hangout with friends. Besides, Patong area is also known as a place for bad people, you can do whatever you want, including doing some prostitution because there's quote about Patong that says "Good people go to heaven, bad people go to Patong." However it doesn't mean that you have to be bad to go to Patong as many good people with good deeds go there as well.
Day 3 (November 3rd, 2014)
Phuket in the morning was raining and the rain got bigger, I was indecisive to leave for the airport to catch my flight to Singapore. I needed to leave at 9 am since the boarding time was at 11 am. My host covered me with his thin raincoat, we went to catch the bus to the city center. I was unlucky, the main accesses to the city center from my host's home were blocked due to the extreme flood.
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| An extreme flood in Phuket |
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| A car was trying hard to pass through the flood |
We kept trying to look for some alternative access in order to get to the city center before the bus leaves for the airport. We were tough, we hoofed the big rain and got the bus, after getting the bus, my host went back home and I left for the airport, I paid 100 Baht for the cost of the bus. Thank God, I was not late, I got some Baht remained and I changed all my Baht currency to Singapore Dollars before my flight to Singapore, then what happened in Singapore? See you in my next post.
-Angga Permana (30 September 2015).
