Hot in the City

You thought I disappeared? I was away on vacation 2 weeks ago and only got back on Thursday. I went with 3 other friends whose main purpose there was to rock-climb. Of course, I wouldn't have joined them. I've only climbed a wall once in a my life and they were going to rock climb by themselves without a guide!

Even though Krabi was the destination for rock-climbing, the group decided to arrive in Phuket for a couple of days to take part in the Phuket Mountain Beach Marathon. The 3 were going to run the 21.5km and I was going to run the 5km fun run!

We arrived in Phuket on Friday evening. The hotel Golden Sand Inn was a lousy 3 star hotel. We stayed in their bungalows which were wooden-built huts with twin beds and standing shower. However, it has ESPN which was a blessing.


The next day, we went to ride ATVs. We rode these monsters up and down the hill and in the forests. It was lots of fun and nervewrecking at times. Here's the rock-climbers with one of the monsters.

We all ran in the marathon the next early morning. Their race started at 5.30 and mine was at 6am. I wasn't going to run in the first place so I didn't bring proper shoes. Thank goodness my Pumas were still ok to run in. It was really nice to run that early in the morning and the Thais really love to run. The rock-climbers had a much tougher run. Their route took them up this hill which was so steep but all of them made it. YDD even came in third in her category!

I had to rush to the rafting trip immediately after my run. They took us to the hills in Phang Nga where the dam was. It wasn't too tough rafting because the guides most of the maneuvering. Then we went to the waterfalls. It was relaxing but fun.


The Thai girl tour guide who was with the rafting group was really nice. She knew that I was alone that evening without the climbers. The climbers had made their way to Ko Panyee, a Muslim fishing village island by Phang Nga Bay to rock climb. She offered to show me around Phuket Town. We went to the weekend night market, which sold such cheap stuff that it's unbelievable. We even had dinner there. Here's Ann eating this spicy vermicelli dish.


Later that evening, we went to visit a few Chinese temples in Phuket Town. It was the start of the Chinese Vegetarian Festival where the Chinese becomes vegetarian for 9 days. All of them wore white and there were a lot of festivities and parades during that period. It is considered a major festival in Thailand, similar to the new year. It was also my first time riding on the scooter so it was so much fun that evening.


The next day, I went to Phang Nga Bay for this canoeing trip into the caves of Phang Nga Bay. Most of the caves have lagoons in them and the only way to get in is to canoe through the crevices or fly in by helicoptor. Some of the holes were really so small that I could not imagine that I actually went through it with the canoe!


Here's my canoe guide, Tiger, who thought I was beautiful. LOL!



I met up with the rock climbers again in Krabi, after taking a 3 hour bus ride from Phuket to Krabi. The 2 of them went to Railey Beach while YDD stayed with me for 2 more evenings. We went to Phi Phi Island the next day. We have been there before in June but the weather then was so bad that we didn't get to see the famous Maya Bay. This time, the weather was perfect and we got to see Maya Bay.


The snorkelling was fantastic too. There were so many fishes that I was kind of freaked out at first because they bite!


Here are more nice pictures of the surroundings. It's really so beautiful there.


Of course, I would not have forgotten to take some pictures of the delicious food we had while we were there!