The Pizzazzy

To truly feel the essence of Phuket one can just drive around the Phuket town and along the Patong beach area, the laid back life in Phuket welcomes everyone with open skies and lovely beaches. Being an avid lover of Greens and Blooms I immediately noticed that most of the houses have flower pots with beautiful orchids blooming. The two wheelers are a common site, with people cutting lanes from all sides. Some areas remind you of Goa. People are not very good with English but then they can sort of talk the tourist talk and give you enough information to help you locate your destination. Here are some highlights of things to do while in Phuket, compiled from our experience there:

Fanta Sea: A Thai cultural extravaganza, with an area of 140 acres beautifully done up with lights. It has a live show featuring elephants, hen, cows, tiger, birds. This show depicts the Thai culture with great performance by elephants, some magical illusion, 4D effect, acrobatics and special effects. A must see for all visiting Phuket, this must have been the best thing that we did in Phuket. The show begins at 9:30 and the theme park opens at 5:30 but no need to be early here as theres nothing much to do except for having a grand buffet at the Kinnaree.

Simon Cabaret: This is a good show worth seeing and very famous. Every night they have two shows @ 7:30 and @9:30 and both the shows run to a packed hall. This show is performed by ladyboys and transvestites. The show also has some good setup and performances. Some of the sequences are outrageously suggestive. The beautiful and extravagant setup, bright lights, good sound system and stunning dresses are the pluses of the show.

Jungceylon: A big shopping mall just at the end of the Patong Beach is a beautiful pace to hang out. Most of the international brands and some local art and crafts collection can be found here. I picked up a few souvenirs and some novels from here. The bonus is they have this 15 minutes musical fountain show at 1, 3, 5 and 7.

Wat Chalong: A beautiful Buddhist temple. You feel amazingly calm and peaceful here. There are around 4-5 temples here. One of them is completely made out of Teakwood which is very costly and since 18th century when it was built it is rebuilt many times to retain the beauty. This was the main house of the three monks that one can see in the main temple. This is the only Thai temple where one can take pictures anywhere in the temples. Am thinking of dedicating a post to Wat Chalong. So watch out for my next post.

Elephant Safari: It’s a jungle ride on an elephant, and offers some spectacular beach views from hill tracks. Although we did take an hour long ride, I will not recommend this. And surely not buying the pictures that they click for you on the way.

World’s biggest Jewelry Showroom: All ladies don’t forget to visit this showroom. I wasn’t lucky enough as we had planned this on our last day and when we reached there at 7 it was closing down. So set some 2 hours aside exclusively for this.

Phi Phi Island tour: Good to enjoy snorkeling and swimming. If you are planning Phi Phi island tour take the speed boats which can reach the shores and caves where the big ships cannot. Dress properly for this tour. Better to have our swim suit on under some lose fitting clothes. So that you can simply gear up and dive for snorkeling. Not recommended for people with sea sickness like me. I was sleeping throughout the tour only staying awake while at Phi Phi island. From here you get a beautiful view of James Bond island.

Central Festival: Big Shopping mall with many international brands and good Thai Sovenirs. Good eating joints and nice interiors.

Beaches: Nice beaches, the most commercial is Patong beach and the whole strip along the beach has many eating joints offering both authentic Thai and European food. Some joints face the beach so you can simply enjoy a drink with spectacular beach view. You can rent a car or bike and beach hop the whole day. Just a few minutes away are the Kamala beach, Kata beach and Karon beach.

Swimming, Water Sports: All sorts of water sports like canoeing, snorkeling, para sailing can be experienced around Phuket. Due to rain the sea was very wild and turbulent, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying getting drenched in the rain and sea.

Thai Cooking class: This is something unique that Phuket offers. A 3-6 hours cooking session costing anywhere between 1000 THB to 3000 THB is good enough to understand the basics of Thai cooking. We took a 3 hours session at Ramada only. And in this three hour session we cooked three very tasty and mouth watering dishes: Red Curry with Roasted Chicken, Stir Fried crab with Curry Powder and Stir Fried Prawns with Vegetables.

Thai Food: I can’t stop talking about Thai food. As already mentioned in my earlier posts, Thai cuisine is the closest to Indian and being a seafood lover I simply freak out on Thai food. All the days that we were in Phuket we ate only Thai.

There are many other things to do in Phuket, visit www.phuket.com to get good deals and tips.

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We are back from our holiday in Phuket. After those amazing five days among the beaches and islets I am back to my routine at work and blogging. Before I do the post on what to do in Phuket, let me share just brief you on the things that we did.

Before we left for Phuket we had planned many things back to back, but in the end we did exactly what holidays are meant for, “Relax”

This is what we ended up doing while those 5 beautiful days lasted:

• Day 1:
  Reached Phuket
  Rented Honda Jazz (good car, Anand has now agreed to for an automatic car for me, once we are back in India)
  Drove down to Ramada Resort at Karon beach where we had made a reservation
  Explored Patong beach
  Ended the day with Simon Cabaret
• Day 2:
  Explored Karon beach
  Took Thai cooking class, ended having the food
  Explored Phuket town
  Changed the rented car (the car wasn’t locking)
• Day 3:
  Went for Elephant Safari
  Relax at the beach
  Phuket Fanta Sea in the night
• Day 4:
  Phi Phi island tour
  Sleep Sleep
• Day 5:
  Shopping @ Jungceylon
  Visited Wat Chalong (Thai temple)
  Shopping @ Central Festival
  Missed Gems Store, by the time we reached there it was closed.
  Travel back to Singapore

Well the common thing on all days was lots of good Thai food.

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Well I did this really rash thing on Saturday. I needed a facial; it had been a long time since I visited the parlor. And after having a good lunch I was casually window shopping in White Sands mall, I came across New York Skin Solutions. I went in and asked them if they do facials. They said yes, and promptly told me about the promotional offer of $18 for first timers. I was very happy. I was made to fill out a form which asked lots of questions on health and skin.  And I was doubtful of what they will be doing with me in the name of a facial.

My consultant of the day told me that she will first analyze my skin and then suggest what kind of treatment my skin needs. Treatment!! After recovering from the shock of the word, I asked her if she was a dermatologist or a beautician, she has dermatologist and she explained that how my skin needs to be treated. But she didn’t appear like a Dermatologist. Anyways who needed one? She then started her expert talk about how my skin had uneven tone and how my skin was dry but oily. That was another thing which I couldn’t simply understand. I have been using all kinds of oil free products to avoid those acne and pimple b’cos my skin tends to become oily within hours. She further explained that my skin’s oil and water level was imbalanced and it is internally cracking up because of that. Grrrr!

She told me that skin needs to be oily to retain the moisture, it shouldn’t dry out. So they needed to treat my skin for the water and oil imbalance, the collagen which is giving the uneven tone. I could actually see the uneven tone of my skin and really felt I needed them more than they needed me. Alright! I had started having this stupid complex looking at all the beautiful girls walking around with their translucent, lovely skin.

And the next thing she asked me was how much I was ready to spend on my face. Tricky question huh. I asked her what she has to offer. Then she told me before getting into more details I should get into the first session (the promotional one costing $18 only). And she assured me that I’ll be seeing some results. By this time I was almost trapped with a very bleak chance of escape.

It was 1.5 hours session where she step by step first cleansed and hydrated my face then did some oil control balancing, collagen treatment and then eye control. It made me really feel good. Especially after the collagen treatment which she did first on the right side of my face and then showed me the comparison. I am only in my late twenties, and there are some fine laugh lines set in, and I could see that they had vanished. Great work! But wait a minute I never noticed before that I had them and also those dark circles around my eyes. Anyways the whole thing was quite relaxing.

After the session she started her sales talk very aggressively, and no one who knows me will believe that I was trapped by all that rubbish. By the way I negotiated a custom package for 5 sessions of all the above steps for $650. Oh God!! Was I thinking I pulled a nice one by coming down to that from $1800. I just ran a mental calculation of 5 sessions of facial and concluded that it would also cost almost the same and thought okay (By the way this was a consolation thought, kind of save yourself from that kick yourself feeling).

Honestly speaking, I was the right bait and I fell for it, it must have been the look my husband gave me while having that good lunch I mentioned earlier (He also suggested me to visit some parlor soon ). And this sales girl, yes that’s what they are, hit me where it hurts: talking about my skin which used to be really great, a few years back. And so many times I have been reminded of my baby skin by my old friends. It really hurts to realize how my busy schedule, stress, laziness has taken its toll on my face.

After I came out of NYSS, and took a gulp of fresh air, I realized what I had done. But my husband gave me an appreciative look, my skin was radiant (don’t know whether it was the realization of the foolishness or may be the session worked). I kept telling him that I have spent already $700 with the $650+$18+taxes. He kept telling me it was okay and don’t fuss about it and all but when I reached home and sat in front my laptop, I immediately looked up some consumer forums. And Oh! My God, I have been taken for a ride. I am praying nothing happens to my skin.

This might have never made to a post if I really thought I shouldn’t make a fool of myself anymore, but I would really like everyone to steer clear of any such enterprise. If any of you planning to visit New York Skin Solutions don’t even think about it. Or if you go there attracted by the promotional schemes etc, only thing don’t sign up. First check out on the net or friends about the place.

My husband keeps telling me that we ladies enter shops with some thing on mind and come out with something else completely. I think I proved him right this time. Well this can be challenged but some other time, have some pity people.