Lakbay-freak: Elephant Safari in Phuket

Elephant Safari in Phuket
September 20, 2012


Our tour for today is the Elephant Safari Program C.  But this time, it went a little bit rough.  The pick up time for this tour is 7:15am, so we were at the lobby 7:15am sharp.  We waited and waited until it's more than an hour and all the guests in the lobby were already fetched by their tour operators.  So I started texting and calling but got no replies so we went back to our room.  After a few minutes I got a call from the tour agent saying that they were there this morning and we were nowhere to be found so they left.  Of course I insisted that is not true.  Clearly he is lying because even the receptionist didn't see them.  So after arguing, I just asked him to do something about it and not waste our time in Phuket.  We both hang up and after a few minutes he called back, he downgraded our tour to Program B, which starts a bit later in the morning.  So I settled with that, waited for his driver to pick us up.

The Elephant Safari Program B has a duration of 3 1/2 hours and an hour less from Program C, also cheaper.  It includes accident insurance, hotel transfers, 30 minutes elephant ride, ox cart riding,  Muay Thai show, buffalo picture taking, rice farming demonstration,  Som Tai making and tasting, rubber tapping demonstraion, monkey show and elephant show.   We missed the fish spa, 4x4 mountain safari and nature canoe from Program C.  The tour is operated by Island Safari and cost THB2,200 for both of us.  It was  booked through Phuket Easy Tour.

Elephant Safari Video

• Ox Cart Riding.  Takes you from the reception to the elephant ride take off pad.

• Elephant Trekking.  A 30 minutes ride on an elephant just inside the vicinity, no panoramic views or jungle as they claim on their site.  This is the best part of the tour though.

THB800 for both souvenir photos with frames.

• Muay Thai Show.  Brief history and demonstration of Muay Thai.  I even volunteered as a trainee.

• Buffalo Picture Taking.  Take a picture on a buffalo with lush greenery of plantation.

• Rice Farming.  Demonstration of farming rice then and now.

• Som Tai.  A cooking show on how to make Som Tai, a spice papaya salad.

• Rubber Tapping.  Demonstration for farming rubber from trees and how they are made.

• Monkey Show.  Monkeys performing tricks and stunts.

• Elephant Show.  Elephant doing crazy stuffs such as soccer, darts and massage.  Also one of the highlights of the tour.

Elephant massage.

Good thing our tour agent did something to make this happen instead of just cancelling it and return our money.  We really enjoyed our safari and it's a nice experience.  

After the safari we went back to our hotel.  We were done by noon so we just wandered around the area, went to Jungceylon Mall and Patong beach.  

Watching the parasails. 

See my entire Phuket Trip post.

Lakbay-freak: Underwater Scooter in Phuket

Underwater Scooter in Phuket
September 19, 2012


It's time for our underwater scooter adventure.  There are two kinds of this tour, one is a group tour in a large boat and the other one is a private tour in a speed boat and have your lunch in a restaurant, it is a bit more expensive.  We chose to be on a group tour, included in the package are accident insurance, hotel pick up and drop off, complementary drinks on board, lunch buffet on the boat, 5 minute banana boat ride, swimming, snorkeling and the underwater scooter ride which is about 15 minutes.  The clear canoe is not available during these times and we were not able to do that.  After all these off shore activities, we headed to Coral beach, which is on the other side of the island, it's your free time of about 1 hour, you can snorkel again if you want to or relax on the beach, they have some souvenir shops and a small bar so bring along some extra cash.  Distance from Patong to Chalong pier is about 15 minutes, and from pier to dive site is 30 minutes.  Upon boarding the boat you will be asked to take off you foot wear and have a sea sick pill which is provided.  This is a whole day activity around 8am to 4pm.   The tour is operated by Joy Dive and it cost THB6,600 for both of us.  It was  booked through Phuket Easy Tour.
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                                                    Underwater Scooter Adventure Video

• Swimming and snorkeling.  After arriving at the dive site off shore of Coral Island, the crew prepares all the equipment.  While waiting for your turn, you can go swimming and snorkeling in the clear waters and feed the fish.  

• Banana Boat Ride.  They have a double model with two seating tubes side by side, it's wider and less prone to flip over.  The ride is about 5 minutes

• Underwater Scooter Ride.  It's an underwater vehicle that gives you a scuba experience with speeds up to 4 mph and rides 4 meters deep.  It has a double and single seater models.  It's operable by a push of a button for the motor and handles for steering.  One diver in scuba goes along during the ride.  We tried the double seat, I did the driving and Jona is the passenger behind me.  It rides so slow that it looks like we're sitting still, you will notice that you are moving when the fish runs after the food  as the scooter drags us.  

• Lunch Buffet On Board.  After all those activities, we had our lunch while on our way to Coral Beach.  We had two chicken dish, soup, rice and fruits.  

• Coral Beach.  It's a beautiful place to relax with white sandy beach and blue waters.  They also have shops and bars.  Stayed here for about 1 hour.

• On our way back to the pier they served us 1 round of rhum cola to celebrate the day.   Everything went great except for 1 that bothers me, they literally asks for tip.   There's nothing wrong with 'tips', but for me asking for it is unethical, should be voluntary and please leave the box alone, don't push it to each one of us.  Sorry bro, I'm not giving any.  

On our way back to the hotel we passed by Patong beach, so I asked the driver to drop us off to enjoy for some time at the beach and watch the sunset. We had our dinner and walked back to hotel ourselves.

Arm bar girl at Patong Beach

See my entire Phuket Trip post.

Phuket, Thailand

13 things we did in Phuket
September 18-20, 2012

1. Palm Beach Hotel
2. Phuket Old Town
3. Cashew Nuts Factory
4. Chalong Temple
5. Big Buddha
6. Promthep Cape
7. Snorkeling
8. Banana Boat Ride
9. Underwater Scooter Adventure
10. Coral Island
11. Elephant Safari
12. Patong Beach
13. Food Trip

Photos

Trip Notes

• Our one way ticket to Phuket from Singapore cost P5,447 with 15 kilos of baggage via Tiger.
• Our one way ticket to Singapore from Phuket cost P6,636 with 30 kilos of baggage via Jetstar.
• Phuket is 1 hour behind from Singapore.
• Airport is about an hour away from Patong.
• Booked our hotel through Laterooms.com
• Our 3 nights at Palm Beach Hotel in Patong cost P2,012.
• Our city tour was booked through Gembira Tours.  It cost THB1,800 with airport pick up.
• Our Underwater Scooter Package and Elephant Safari B was booked through Phuket Easy Tour.  It cost THB6,600 and THB2,800 respectively, with free hotel-airport transfer.
• THB1 = PHP1.40

This is the third and final leg of our 3 country vacation.  Coming from Kuala Lumpur, we went back to Singapore for our flight to Phuket.  We could have gone straight to Phuket but there were no more promo flights available and we already purchased our bus tickets.  We stayed here for 3 days in Patong at Palm Beach Hotel.  We visited the old town of Phuket, did some island hopping too and their famous elephant safari.

Lakbay-freak: Sunway Lagoon

Sunway Lagoon
September 17, 2012

The nearest station is Subang Jaya of the Red line.  From there you take an ugly, old, small yellow bus labeled No. 77.  The fare to the Pyramid Mall is RM1.   The same bus will take you back to the train station.   We had a great lunch at Old Town inside the Pyramid Mall and behind it is the entrance of Sunway Lagoon, it consists of 5 different theme parks for amusements, extreme, wildlife, horror and water.  I purchased our all parks tickets online at a discounted price of RM75 each.  Some activities are not included in the tickets.  The park is so huge 1 day is not enough.  We only tried one park, the Scream Park, because it was so hot that we can barely move.  We should have tried the water park instead.  And all the rides in Extreme Park doesn't allow us to bring our things and cameras along.  They have lockers at the entrance but we were too lazy already to go back.   So we just wandered around the park and took pictures.  Going back to the bus station, we passed by my favorite restaurant, Bubba Gump, so we decided to just have a great meal after a day of disappointment.  Then, we called it the day. 

Sunway Lagoon

Scream Park

Water Park

Longest suspension bridge in the world.

At one end of the hanging bridge.

See my entire Kuala Lumpur Trip post.

Lakbay-freak: Menara KL Tower

Menara KL Tower
September  16, 2012

It's a communications tower on top of a hill that offers an array of adventure for its visitors.  Of course, it has the observation deck, cultural village, restaurant, banquet deck, theater, animal zone, f1 simulator zone, pony ride, forest reserve, shops and many more.  I purchased a combo package of observation deck with f1 simulator for RM57.   You can stay as long as you like and have a great view of the Petronas Twin Towers.  The nearest station is Raja Chulan of the monorail and about 15-20 minutes of uphill walk.  There's a shuttle from the gate to the lobby.

F1 Simulator

Main Gate

See my entire Kuala Lumpur Trip.

Lakbay-freak: Petronas Twin Towers

Petronas Twin Towers
September 15, 2012

Petronas Twin Towers Skybridge and Observation Deck.  As I was searching the web on how I can get tickets I always encounter blogs and articles on how bad the situation in getting tickets.  Usually it's sold out if you want tickets for the day.  That's because slots are limited and out already by the time the ticket booth opens at 9am.  They said people queue up as early as 7am and it's a mile long already.  Otherwise, you can get a ticket but for the next day or so.  They don't have online booking so you have no choice but to buy the tickets on site.  So upon searching and searching the web, I discovered "Nash", it's a website where you can ask them to buy the tickets for you, choose the date and time, and will be delivered to your hotel.  You also get a free stamp if your booking is confirmed.  Of course there's a price for all of this, to avoid the long queue and waste of your time, you have to pay more.  The ticket for the Skybridge and Observation Deck cost RM80 each.  Through Nash, it's RM125 each, which I think is fair enough to avoid the hassles.  And most of all, I wasn't scammed. So this morning, the tickets arrived at our hotel together with my free stamps.  From Bukit Bintang it's a 30 minute walk to Petronas, there's an elevated and air-conditioned walkway, so no worries.  We arrived 30 minutes ahead of our scheduled time of 10am and didn't see the long queue I was expecting.  Maybe it's not as bad as what I have read when we were there but looking through the monitors there  were a few slots left for the day.  Booking through Nash was still a good move.  Allow 1 hour for this activity, you are allowed to stay 15 minutes in Skybridge and 15 minutes in the Observation Deck.  The nearest train station is KLCC of Orange line.

• The SkyBridge.  It's a double-decked bridge suspended between the two towers at levels 41 and 42.

Skybridge

• Observation Deck.  Offers breath-taking views at level 88.  You'll also find exhibits, telescope and an interactive screen where you can point the markers on your ticket to the camera and see an augmented reality display of the building on screen.      

View from Observation Deck

View the other twin tower and Menara KL Tower

Twin Towers Model

Interactive Monitors

• After our reach the skies adventure we head outside to take pictures of the buildings.

Petronas Twin Towers

See my entire Kuala Lumpur Trip post.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

10 things we did in Kuala Lumpur
September 15-17, 2012

1. Cube Hotel
2. Petronas Twin Towers
3. Merdeka Square
4. Batu Caves
5. Menara KL Tower
6. Jalan Petaling
7. Fountain Dance Show at Suria Mall
8. Sunway Pyramid Mall
9. Sunway Lagoon
10. Food Trips

Photos

Kuala Lumpur Trip Video

Trip Notes

• Booked our hotel through Laterooms.com
• Two nights stay at Cube Hotel cost RM225.
• Booked our bus tickets through busonlineticket.com
• One way bus ticket cost S$30 each and a 5 hour travel time.  Bring your passport.
• Better buy your bus ticket to Genting Highlands online.  We were at the shuttle bus station by 8 am but the next available bus is by 1 pm.  They sell out very quickly.
• They don't have a card that covers all the train lines so we buy our tickets every journey. 
• RM1 = PHP14

This is the second leg of our 3 country vacation coming from Singapore.  We stayed for 3 days in a hotel at the heart of the city in Bukit Bintang.  Visited the most popular attractions of the city which were accessible by trains.  After this, we'll be heading to Phuket, Thailand.

Lakbay-freak: 2012 F1 Singapore Grand Prix

2012 F1 Singapore Grand Prix
September 21-23, 2012

September 21

At noon, arriving at Singapore from Phuket, we went to Raffles City to redeem my F1 tickets purchased online.  Went home, prepared Jona's things for her flight back to Manila in the afternoon.  She needs to go back ahead of me to take care of the business.

Biting the race day ticket.

3 Day Combination Package

F1 Singapore Grand Prix is a street circuit and the only night race of the season.  Other events are also held during the grand prix like Porsche Cup and Ferrari Challenge.  Free concerts, merchandise and interactive activities are set up for the fans' enjoyment.  

Ferrari Challenge

Porsche Cup

Disposable raincoat and ear plugs - S$2

From the airport, I head straight to Marina Bay for my first F1 experience.  My first day ticket is for the first qualifying event and my zone is at the Bay Grandstand, a section of the race track beside the bay and with the view of Singapore skyline and the Marina Bay Sands.

Bay Grandstand Ticket

View of the Bay Grandstand

September 22

This is the 2nd day of my F1 experience and it is for the second qualifying event and my zone is at Turn 1.  This is one of the best places around the track because at this turn the cars slows down to see them clearly and for longer period and it is where the exit of the pit stop is located.  Turn 1 is also exciting because of better opportunity for the drivers to overtake happening in front of you.

Turn 1 Grandstand Ticket

A Lotus car passes by.

A Ferrari car exits the Pit. 

September 23

Met my cousin Dennis who works there, we exchange some pasalubong and chatted for a while.

This is the 3rd day of my F1 experience and it is the race day.  Drivers compete for points and a place on the podium.  This is Padang Grandstand, probably the less thrilling grandstand among the three I have been in terms of view and track activity.  Just like my Bay Grandstand without the majestic view of the bay area.  A grandstand with a straight track in front of you where cars pass by and gone in a second, a view of the Supreme Court and City Hall buildings, with large monitors for you to keep track of the race.

Padang Grandstand Ticket

After the race.

My F1 Singapore Experience Video

See my entire Singapore Trip post.