Travel Diaries 6 - Phuket

Phuket has some of the Thailand's most popular beaches. Situated in southern Thailand, it also provides an easy access to some world famous islands like Phi Phi and James Bond.

We selected Patong beach for our stay, for two reasons. First, it had nice beaches, Second, it had a good night life! If you are from India, Patong may look like any other area from Goa or South India during day time. It has shopping streets, tuk tuks, fruit markets and malls. You can even bargain during street shopping.

Candles

Lamps

 
People are good and quite helpful. But you may face issues while communicating with the local vendors as their English is not so good. Local food is cheap and good, if you can suffice with the bland taste. For vegetarian people, I am not sure if they have enough options. 


Our first day plan included a visit to cultural show - Siam Niramit .
Siam Niramit is kind of a theme park situated just outside the Phuket town, which lets us have a walk through of old phuket homes, culture and beliefs. It offers a wonderful show with hundreds of performers and breathtaking stage overlaps. Photography is not allowed here, but a few details you can get in below pictures.

The show tells a brief history of Thailand, along with the local beliefs of haven, hell and karma. Breathtaking can be the only word to describe it as you will find floating markets, waving ships, flying angels, huge elephants, scary jungles and gods & demons on a single stage. This is a must watch show in Thailand. At the end, we were wondering why we don't have such kind of a show in India?

On next day, our destination was James Bond Island.  The real name of this island is Khao Phing Kan. But since it was featured in James Bond movies like Tomorrow Never Dies and The Man with the Golden Gun, this is now called as James Bond Island.
The island is quite small with beautiful blue and green water all around. There are few shopping decks. It also has a small cave where in you can climb up and observe the ancient rock structure. Main attraction is this rock which looks amazing from the island.
The only bad part here was food. If you book a tour for this island, make sure you carry something to eat. The food offered during this trip is not much eatable for our Indian taste. In fact we had to rely on the plain white rice during this full day tour. 


We were quite excited for the evening as it was time to see the night life. Patong has an amazing street called Bangla street which in open all night. It has many bars, clubs, live bands, various types of shows and lovely people.  There are some shows by Ladyboys, and till the end, you won't be able to recognize the difference. You can call it a haven for bachelors :) They say, Bangla road is a heart of Phuket's night life. And you will definitely understand why it is called so, when you visit it. We spent around 3-4 hours simply walking up and down the street and never got bored.

Definitely, we had a great time in Phuket and would love to visit it again. This was the Phuket Journey. Our next destination was Krabi. About that, in next post :) 

Travel Diaries 5 - Thailand!

To be frank, we were quite skeptical while planning a trip to Thailand. This was a much needed and awaited break and we didn’t want to screw it by going to some over-hyped place. After getting mixed kind of reviews from friends and some online posts, we decided to visit Bangkok, Krabi and Phuket. Yes, we skipped Pattaya as many of the reviews stated, it’s same as Phuket.

We had some prejudices in the mind, which to some extent were either true or quite far from reality.

 

1.       There would be white sand beaches with crystal clear blue waters

Reality: The normal beaches of Krabi and Phuket are normal :) No clear blue waters as they show in the pictures or travel sites. In fact, these beaches are like just any other beach in Goa. But when you visit the islands like Phi-Phi or James Bond, your fantasy of being on the white sand beach with crystal clear water would be fulfilled. Though the sea at James Bond Island is green, the nature is too beautiful to explain in words at the islands.

2.       It would be crowded as hell

Reality: Bangkok was too crowded, Phuket was moderately crowded and to our surprise, Krabi was relaxed.

3.       We would be accompanied by a lot of Indians wherever we go

Reality: This holds true only for Bangkok. On Krabi Railey beach, we didn’t find any Indian traveler. However, there are some shops and restaurants run by migrated Indians.

4.       The weather might not be good as it’s the month of May

Reality: The weather was good. Though we got tanned around 2-3 shades, the sunny climate was not so irritating. It did rain on couple of nights though. The best part is when it rains, it rains heavy for shorter periods. This did not affect our plans.

                

5.       We would love the Thai food

Reality: Our experiments regarding Thai food was limited to Thai curry before visiting Thailand. But we were quite sure that we would survive on their food. In reality, we didn’t like the food much. For Indian taste, thai food is a bit bland. Plus every dish seems to be prepared in the weirdly smelling fish sauce, which some people might not like at all. God bless vegetarians as we didn't find much options for them, They can take a help from Indian restaurants but what's the fund in eating Indian food in other countries? Also, if you have booked a tour which includes lunch, do get some things on your own to eat as you may not eat the food they are providing. 

6.       Dinner cruise would be a must have at Bangkok

Reality: They try to sell it hard as one of the best packages for Bangkok tour. But it is not. Going to the dinner cruise was one of the worst decisions we made during our trip! Details would come with the next post.

 

Many more posts to come with the complete travel experience. Hold on!

Travel Diaries 4 - Louisville, Kentucky

It’s been more than a month I am here and snow doesn't seem to leave Louisville. With the two snow storms during this period, I haven’t experienced a temperature more than 5 degree Celsius for around 35 days. I do like this kind of weather and I am in complete love with the snow fall. No matter how many times I see and feel it, every time it’s a treat for me.  But on a bad side, this is freezing cold and doesn’t allow me to step out of my hotel!

I think, this is a type of time I might not get back in India, all alone, all to myself which makes it introvert. Many people go on mountains or on remote beaches to meditate and dig at the inner self. But I can assure you, when you are forced to stay indoor with a freezing weather which doesn’t seem to rise to even a 0 degree Celsius, gives the same feeling excluding the fresh air part as all the air I am breathing so far is a warm one from heaters!

So here I am, meditating, reading some good books, trying my hand on paintings, watching some senseless movies, trying weird foods and being nostalgic. Yes, I miss my home and my people too (sometimes :P).

Travel Diaries 3 - Life @ Louisville

Staying alone in states is offering me to do and feel various things that I had never imagined! Staying at France was a soothing experience as I had an awesome team with me. But believe me, first few lonely days in US were really bad! In initial days, I was like 'what exactly on the earth I am doing' but now, its kind of a routine and I have started enjoying it. Following are some of the major impacts. Now these are my personal experiences and does not relate anywhere near to India-America comparison! 

1. This is what I see when I come out on road here and when I come out of road in Pune. See, no people, only geese!

 


2. This is what I eat here and in Pune. Of course I can prepare the food I want to eat over here but as they say, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' I am following 'When in America, eat as the Americans eat' (by food, I dont mean any fast food here!)

   

      

3. These are the tv shows I watch here (as there are no more channels on tv which I can watch) and in Pune

    

So, life is good and its nice to know, staying alone in foreign country is not so difficult. But staying away from loved ones can make you sick sometimes! Right now, looking forward to go back now, stay there till I get bored of the routine life at Pune and wish to come US again :)