Ann: Phuket Tripping Part I

My travelogues are something I love collecting but it's quite tiring to compile, sieve and edit all the pictures. The accomplishment of seeing it all done up however, is really satisfying. Contradicting isn't it? My Eurotrip is still... incomplete, oops! I love my pictures and take immense pride in it. 7/8 of the pictures here are captured by G, and all edited by me. Been playing around with colors quite a bit, and my edits seem to be largely influenced by one of my favourite photo app filters - VSCOcam.

This was a trip I really needed after an immense burnout from work. I've been terribly sick at that point of time too, so getting this bit of breather was essential for my system. Plus, I flew off on my birthday, hence I spent a quiet birthday in a foreign land. Probably the most uneventful birthday I've experienced, in terms of having not many celebratory meals back home BUT, best birthday present to myself, ever. Went through quite an upsetting phrase with work and even as G is there to hear my woes, I had to go through everything alone which was really, really tiring. The moment I reached the airport, my mood lifted and my excitement began building up. Escaping from reality for a bit never hurts ;)

Hello Phuket, goodbye worries.

We took an early morning flight so this was captured by G while I slept on... teehee.

Welcome to our villa @ The Village Resort & Spa, says G's very satisfied face.

I regret not capturing more pictures of the interior & exterior!

Beautiful decor and pretty well kept I must say!

Our welcome fruits kindly delivered to our villa!

So gorgeous I couldn't bear to ruin it!!

The passageway to our room. On my left was the bathroom, and the right, a walk-in wardrobe!

Ta-da! Such a huge area with a bathtub, shower, toilet, makeup corner and sink.

Very pleased with the service and our villa. Our only misgiving has to be the abundant mozzies waiting to suck our blood. We have to be so careful about opening our villa's doors because the mosquitos there are commandos -.- They would rush at us and bite us very skilfully. Thankfully, I've got a boyfriend who smacks mosquitos well. He killed ALL the mosquitos that came into our villa. Okay, maybe 99% of them la, hahaha.

After resting a little in our villa, we proceeded out for lunch. Drove off to Phuket Town in search of some good food. We found Kopitiam, a retro looking eating place with lots of old school memorabilia and furniture. So rustic!

The food was not bad! I stuck with the traditional offerings like Pad Thai while G ordered some Pork Chop Rice which wasn't very nice at all ahahha. The Tom Yum Soup is good though. Reasonably priced to boot. Sticking to the traditional stuff pays off sometimes! Worth a try but I would say, don't be too adventurous!

Saved some space in our stomachs to check out this hipster cafe - Mac-chiato House & Cake Box, further down the street. It looks pretty hip and very different from the other shops along the same street but I would say, a growing trend of such cafes is prevalent in Thailand. More so in Bangkok I think!

We order Banoffee, which was YUMMY! (:

This is how a part Phuket Town looks like. It's actually quite a big generic area so you can walk around to explore... which we didn't because we had a car and we were such lazy asses.

We found a great massage place almost around the corner and G loved it so much, we made another trip down before we headed back to the airport on the last day, heehee. Which also unfortunately made us late for our dinner appointment that night.

G booked a special restaurant for my birthday dinner. We almost had a private dining experience because it's low season in Phuket and it's not crowded at most places. We had to drive for about an hour to reach our restaurant, Dedos.

Tomato butter for our bread. A surprisingly lovely combination!

Sashimi platter of Salmon, Tuna and Scallops which was really reasonable for the amount we had. The fish was alright only though, still acceptable, but we were happy because the price for the platter is something we will NEVER find back home :D We also ordered another appetiser but I think I lost the pictures!

Pasta with vodka, smoked Salmon & Vodka-Dill-Cream sauce

Pan seared Yellow-Fin Tuna fillet in Cashew nut – black pepper robe, Tabbouleh & wasabi-crème fraiche

We could have ordered a lot more because everything on the menu looks really tantalising, but sadly our stomachs can only fill so much, plus I was severely sick. I couldn't even hold a proper conversation with G for 1 minute without coughing several times. It was really really bad :(

After being so stuffed, the waiters came out holding a plate of dessert and singing the birthday song together with G. Awww! (: It's a simple simple surprise but I LOVE IT. I love (good) surprises and very blessed that he would take the initiative to request for a birthday surprise for me. Thank you <3

The dessert was sweet (taste and gesture), and thus ended our extravagant dinner at Dedos. Couldn't be happier because I know that this would have cost x2 in Singapore, and having such a pleasant dining experience in a foreign land makes it even better. Happy happy girl that night! (:

I had one of the best dining experiences in a humble area of Phuket. The food was fantastic, the ambience is soothing (too soothing in fact; all the pictures are captured in lowlight), and the waiters are really attentive. Two thumbs up for Dedos, a French-Asian fusion restaurant!

The next day, the sun was out (at least for a while), so we headed down to the beach to catch whatever sunlight we can get before lunch. Yes when we are on holidays, we catch 10-12 hours of sleep! Such a waste of time, I know. But for me, it's impossible to get such luxurious sleep back home because I'm surrounded by work. I wake up to work, I work where I sleep, so yup. It's not a very good environment honestly...

Happy us! (:

We stayed near Karon Beach but decided to head downwards to Kata Beach to explore. Got terribly hungry and sieved through many restaurants before finally deciding on one. Because everywhere is so empty, it's very difficult to decide on where to eat because we are afraid of tourist-trap restaurants. Thankfully, whatever we ate on this trip was nothing short of fantastic.

We stopped to have lunch at this restaurant called Eightfolds (near Kata beach). They had a tripadvisor feature hanging off the wall too so we decided to take a chance!

Verdict? We LOVED THE FOOD. Again we chose the usual traditional stuff, but since you're in Thailand, eat Thai food right?! Haha! It was flavourful and filling! Very indulgent :P

While randomly driving around, we passed by this scenic spot and just had to stop and take pictures!

This, is our pick-up truck hahaha!!! We picked auto so I can have a taste of driving, but honestly I don't feel very safe driving in busy cities except for Singapore... sooo... G drove all the way :P It feels like some times, you need to have the balls to charge your way, people just don't give in and it's not like they are rude or anything, but that's the way things are.

Stopped by a tourist attraction, which is the southern most point of Phuket. Yup, so apparently that is a tourist attraction? Haha. I think, if it wasn't for the rainy season and the clouds, we would have quite a lovely view of the setting sun and the waters.

I LOVE DOGS. Love them. This cutie stopped and obediently allowed me to take its picture, but refuses to face the camera straight. Whenever I'd move, he/she would move too, hahaha.

Yup, this is the view! Quite pretty actually. Plus the winds there were soooo good.

Spotted this dog too. My heart broke after I saw him/her. It was blind in one eye, and its tail had only a small bunch of fur left. It definitely dealt with a lot physically, but it was so cheery when it came up to people, wagging his/her tail, hoping to get some food. It kinda showed me how we should always be.

Life might sometimes deal us a bad card, but we just have to get back up and face the day in the best way we can. We can make it through the difficult times if our attitude is right (:

I was intrigued by all that has been said about Patong being very touristy and all, and I don't know if it's a city girl thing, but I feel like I need to have people around me. Hahaha! I wanted to see what it's like anyway, so we drove down. I'm quite thankful we went in low season, because I can not imagine how bad it would be in high season. No parking lots, crowded streets and beaches. There were many many touters. I think that's the only thing that really annoyed me at Patong!

Again we had to walk around before deciding on where to eat because there's simply too many choices around! We also had my trusty phone + 3G to google and check out the reviews for the places. Finally settled on a place called The Sweet along one of Patong's alleyways, and yes it had that tripadvisor award thing again, haha!