Starting off our Summer: Racha and Coral Island Tour

My roommate has just finished taking an exam for her future endeavor and thought she needed time to get away and relax. She wanted to go to a place we have never been before. Taking advantage of her enthusiasm to see a new place, we decided to have a one day island tour to Racha and Coral Islands.

We searched online for a good deal for these islands day trip. The cheapest one we have seen was worth 1,200THB. A friend of ours suggested a travel company that they usually go to (#suki). The deal was 1,000THB. Perfect for the budget!

It was a Thursday when we had the trip. The sky was somehow cloudy but we fervently prayed it would be sunny in the islands. Again, we asked to be picked up at the hotel near our staff house. The pick up was supposed to be at 8am but the driver came at 9am.

We were dropped off at the travel company's office near Chalong Pier. We had to show our booking voucher to the staff and they provided us with the identification bands.Tour companies use these bands to know the grouping of their clients. Some companies use stickers.

While waiting and because I did not have breakfast, I ate some biscuits in the waiting area. They also have coffee and water ready. For people who know that they are sea sick, they have anti-dizzying medication ready.

A few minutes later we were asked to get a life jacket and walk to the pier.

Chris was our tour guide for the day. He spoke English very well. He called out our names to check our arm bands and let us into the speed boat. While stepping into the speed boat, we were asked to look at a photographer's camera. (They usually print these photos and display them once you are back to the pier in the afternoon. Nice souvenir but I do not feel like buying one.) The speed boat was fairly big. We were about 30-35 people. A lot of Chinese tourists were on board with us.

The trip to Racha or Raya Island was about 30 minutes. It is said to be one of the peaceful islands in Phuket. There were not much people yet as it was around 10am that we arrived. The waters surrounding the island are crystal clear and turquoise in color.

I have read online that less boats and therefore less tourists visit this place. Jet skis or para sailing were banned. Beach chairs can be rented from the hotel in the island but it is fun to just sit down in the fine white sand and soak up the sun.

Next in our itinerary was snorkeling. We boarded up the speed boat again and was transferred to the back part of the island. Putting on our snorkeling gears, we set out to see the fishes underwater. This is the second time I have snorkeled all my life and I can say, I enjoyed it better this time.

While the other tourists were still snorkeling, we grabbed the chance to see the view and take photos from the front part of the speedboat.

After the activity, we were whisked to Coral Island. This island is only three kilometers from the pier where we started. It has been called Coral Island due to its impressive coral reef when one goes diving.

The island was busy with a lot of tourists coming in and out. We had lunch at Koh Hey Restaurant. Koh Hae or Hey is the island's local name.

There were a lot of sun lounger chairs that dotted the shore. I believe they were all for free. Here's the view from where I ate.

Beach activities of varying types were available. I regret I was not able to bring money to do some.
Options were banana boat, diving, parasailing, sea walking and scuba diving.

We just sat on the beach chairs and relaxed ourselves.

At around 4pm we were asked to board the speed boat back and were then dropped off to our house.

It was an awesome day. I will definitely come back soon and try parasailing :)

The joy of writing

I never really knew how to write when I was a kid. Well, who does? What I mean is, I cannot really put some sense and coherence of the words that I know of to make a harmonious story. I was just envious of my sister who knows how to write articles in a nice and engaging way. She always had this gift of making something out of a pen and a paper, of putting the right words in the right way. She was the Editor in Chief of our school's newspaper. For me, I struggled on how to write.

image from www.aacc.edu

Fortunately I was chosen to be trained during my elementary years to join a writing contest. The category I had was News Writing and Feature Writing. News writing was somehow easy. All you had to remember was 4Ws (what, when, where, why) and 1H (how). It is a very factual and straight to the point kind of writing. Feature Writing was more challenging.

With writing feature articles, you can choose any topic under the sun -whatever comes to mind. All you have to do is to translate your thoughts into right words and stick it into the paper. For some this is easy. For me, uhmm, not quite.

image from www.cse.chalmers.se

Being a wide reader may help in writing. I'm a wide reader but it seems the words would elude me when I try to put my thoughts down. How I wished thoughts could become bubbles, like in the cartoon strips. One can catch them and just paste them on paper. But no, I have to try hard to think of appropriate words, think of how to construct a sentence and a paragraph. For some it may be easy, for some it may not. For me, I learned and am still learning through practice. 

In this day and age where bloggers are sprouting everywhere and people are able to share what is in their mind at any time, anyone can become a writer. What matters is, being able to write from the heart. Being able to write from the unstoppable thoughts on one's head that seem unrested until given a vent. To my readers out there who would love to write about things they want to share to the world, the only difficult thing is beginning. Once you get the hang of it and find your own style, the words will flow. Writing is freeing me from becoming an isolated person as I now can share what I think and what I feel. This is how I found the joy of writing.

A visit to Phuket Trick Eye Museum

I have always loved visiting museums. It showcases a lot of things for learning. I remember when I was a child and we had a tour where we went to Museo Pambata. That was a lot of fun!  Now, different kinds of museums have sprouted. For one there was this Camera Museum in Penang, Malaysia we visited. Another kind is what we call Trick Eye Museum.

I do not know if it can be considered a real museum or its coined as it is but in other cities, trick eye museums have been sprouting. They offer interactive 3D paintings for photo opportunities. I guess, what we can learn from this kind of place is how to act to give justice to the background paintings.

My friends and I decided to go and try this museum for ourselves. Adding to our happiness was the fact that we found discounted tickets to the museum from groupon. The usual price for admission for one adult is around 500THB. We paid only around 200THB each. Sweet!

It was one Sunday afternoon when we went. It was late so we had the place to ourselves. We were asked to leave our shoes in the reception. I did not question why, maybe they do not want their floors dirty? Nevertheless, we were happy to oblige.

These were what we experienced inside.

We were chased by bulls!

Thankfully got out alive from a horror train. 

Held hands to save friends from falling off a bridge.

I can imagine how I'd spent this tremendous amount of money :) #feelingrich

Experienced the feeling of only having half a body.

Shopped 'til we dropped.

 Flew with the wings of an angel.

Knew what it was like to almost fall off a cliff.

Channeling the inner public speaker.

It was a challenge on how to position ourselves and to act so that the photos can be realistic as possible. For our group photos, there was a museum staff who assisted us. She also gave tips on how to have the best photos taken. We had a thousand photos taken and loads of fun. Visit a trick eye museum near your place today. Channel that inner actress/ model in you and have fun!

Happy Valentines!

(image taken from valentinesdayquotes2015.com)

I have been laughing with this simple quote/ joke going around in Facebook.

What is scarier?

Friday the 13th or loveless on February 14? or No salary until February 15th?

Well, I believe Friday the 13th is just superstition and our salaries do not come on the 15th of the month. I used to dread being loveless on February 14th but being single for quite a long time, I got used to it.

Sure, the endless posts of dinner dates, showers of flowers and chocolates being posted over social media from ladies with thoughtful partners sometimes gets me. But being content and thankful of what I have now and who are with me makes me grateful and happy.

To my fellow single ladies out there who have not found their good man, I say, continue to be happy with where you are right now. What is for you will find you. It might not be today or on Valentine's day but continue to be hopeful. If you desire in your heart to find a mate, pray for it and wait for it. 

I would love to share this quote from Tovares Gray in his Facebook page Godly Dating.

You are being prepared. Trust in God. For now go out with friends, treat your family, enjoy! The season of singleness may not last long. Who knows maybe tomorrow or next week you will find the one that God intended for you. 

The first and only man that has greeted me today is the man who helped bring me into this world, my father. His email greeting touched me and I am so happy. I also have an Almighty Father who greets me everyday with his love.

I believe Valentine's day is not all about having a partner to share it with. But a day to celebrate love with friends and family. I hope all of you have a great day today. Happy Valentine's day :)

James Bond Island Tour 2014

Because I miss the beach (not necessarily swimming in one but just chillaxing near one), let me have a throwback blog about the time when we went to James Bond Island.

The island's local name is Khao Phing Kan. It is in Phang nga Bay which is north-east of Phuket. It has found its other name: James Bond Island when it was used as the location of a James Bond film titled "The Man with the Golden Gun". This movie paved for the island to be in the international tourist map. 

(image taken from carroll-foundation-trust.com)

Khao Phing Kan literally means hills leaning against each other in Thai. These hills are actually limestone cliffs that vertically jut out of the emerald green waters.

We booked for a James Bond Island tour online. We tried to look for the best itinerary with the cheapest rate. I cannot remember the exact rate we found but could estimate it as around 1200THB.

On the day of the tour, we were picked up from the hotel near us. Island tour packages here in Phuket include pick up from the hotel and drop off as transportation is kind of difficult. While waiting, we took a twofie :)

We travelled about an hour to Ao Por Pier. On this particular tour, we are to ride on a speed boat with about 12-17 people in total.  Our tour guide explained our itinerary. We had to visit a total of 5 
islands. 

Our first island to visit was Panak Island. We just went around the island for sightseeing. There were no island inhabitants except for monkeys. We were able to see up close on how the lime stone rock formation has built the island. 

Next stop was Panyee Island.This is also where a Muslim floating village is near and was noted to be built on stilts by Indonesian fishermen. This was how it looked from afar.

Wikipedia says that the population is about 1,685 people or 360 families descending from 2 seafaring Muslim families from Java. Just had to take a twofie again :)

The village has a floating restaurants where tourist go to for Thai Lunch. It is said that there is a muslim school, mosque and even a floating football pitch for the children living there. We have not seen this of course. We only went to the restaurant to eat and took photos of the views around.

After lunch, we headed to the main attraction: James Bond Island. There were already a lot of tourists as it was already about 1pm. Upon reaching the island, you will be warned.

So, I won't climb. But I just have to have a photo with a cool stone formation.

We had to endure a few uphill steep concrete steps and keep out of the way of some tourists to the spot where cool photos can be taken.

Ah the famous limestone of James Bond Island as my background.

The island also boasts of rock formations like this one. There was also a cave that people can explore.

Ok, please be brutally and frankly honest. Who did it better? James Bond.. (image taken from becuo.com)

Or Me? :)

Since tourists have been flocking the islands, there were already refreshment stalls and souvenir stalls in it. Still, Thai people has made sure that its beauty would not be spoiled. 

After taking all the photos that we can and exploring the island, we were then asked to board the speed boat again and go to our next stop which was Hong Island. This is where the fun begins.

From the speedboat we were asked to get into a canoe. My room mate and I got into one.

 The canoe driver whisked us around the island and suddenly asked us to lie down. 

A clearer view of the entrance.

I was surprised he asked us to do this. Little did I know that we were entering a part of the island which only has a very low entrance that one has to lie on the canoe to get in. There was a great hollow in the island which resembles like a secret pool. We were thankful that it was not high tide as we are able to get in and see the view inside.

Who would expect to see this inside a small entrance?

More views around this island.

The last but not the least island for this tour was Naka Island. This island is mostly underdeveloped as there are no large buildings yet except for one luxury resort and another one being built. It boasts of a long stretch of fine white beach. There are also a few vendors selling refreshments and food. I did not swim as I felt very tired. I just slept on the beach :)

We stayed for about an hour, just enough for swimming and relaxing. Afterwards, we headed back to the Pier and was dropped off to our hotel :)

Tips for travelers:

1. Search for the best deal online. Most of the island tour itineraries are the same but have different rates. I go towards the cheap one but with a nice itinerary.

2. If you are not that sea sick and would like to have fast transportation to your island tours, choose speed boat tours. It saves your time from sitting a lot in the boat and actually enjoy being in the island. If you are the type who likes to cruise or take it slow, then a long tail boat could be best for you.

3. Don't forget to bring a dry bag for your gadgets and essentials.

4. Bring extra money, in case you would like to buy some extra snacks or give a tip to the driver. Lunch buffet is already included in the tour package, but you never know if you want more food. You may not bring along bottled water, these are offered to you while on the boat.

5. Don't forget to put that sunscreen on and enjoy!