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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