Friday, September 10, 2010

Chapter 1 part 2

Still at Phuket (Second day)


August 7th,its our second day at phuket,the rest of of the crew woke up at 7.30 to get ready to pickep up by a driver from a travel agent that we book the day before.We booked a trip to Phi phi island(yeayyyy).we are very anxious,especially me(lol).im the first guy who standing outside our guest house,to waited our driver,unfortunatelly until 15 past 8 they didnt pick us up.

Finally after almost an hour of waiting,a blue van pick us up.Inside the car we have the usual chit chat about the trip and the people back home.It took us around an hour thanx to the driver,who do some personal bussines by go to his friends and etc.Actually the distance its not far away from our hostel at Soi bansan.

We arrive at the harbour(small one).we(actually some of us.LOL) take couple picture as u can see below






Me with my stuff(Tripod,backpack full of shirt and underwear)










                                                  








Jeje<<<<








30 Minutes of waiting and some chit chat with other tourist from South Africa.Finally we got in the speed boat.The boat is content with chinese,indonesian(us),egyptian,spaniard,and last but not least the fussy Iranian.They keep screaming and yelling,thank god they sit in front part of the speed boat.This is there pict(The guy in blue is the leader of the "pack" and the only english spoken Iranian in the boat)

The wave that we through are pretty high.But it doesnt makes me abandon my hobby which is photography.Its pretty hard to take a picture with a dslr while ur in the bumpy ride like that,but i do my best to record the scenery of the trip by keep aiming my camera and keep shooting like crazy.


Well the picture above is the back part of the famous Maya bay beach(the in the Leonardo D Caprio movie"the beach").We didnt very fortunate to go to the maya bay due to the weather.But if it happen to you,dont worry the scenery of the back part of maya bay its breath taking,it is surrounded by gigantic mossy limestone.ohhh man its looks just like heaven.You can swim around.

During midday we have lunch at....hmmm i dont remember the name of the island.but i think for sure the dish its pretty good.they serve a seafood with a cashew nut.Its taste good for me but not for Jeje and the gang.

After we had lunch we heading our way to the last island of the trip.Its just 20 minutes away if im not mistaken.The name of the island is Khai nak island.mannnn ihave to admit this island doesnt over any interesting spot to have some fun,when we arrive all of the sudden its raining,So me and my friends just sat under the shelter,while we talk,the tour guide(I dont remember his name) his a laos born thai.He gives me a tiny bite of local delicacy,and again i dont remember the name is,it is a colored Bakpao with a sweet redbean inside it.Its pretty good pairing for coffee i guess.

5 minutes thats how long the rain pouring the island,actually this happen pretty often when we are in Phuket,sometimes it only took 3 minutes(on my count).Its more like a sprinkle system rather than a rain right???.LOL

Just before we are leaving the island,me and Andre join a volley ball game againts the the crazy Iranian.At the end of the game,"where do you come from?" he asked,"Indonesia sir" i reply.All of the sudden.This Iranian scream to his iranian friends while his pointing finger pointed at us."ISLAM ISLAM ISLAM!!!!".It shock me for a while.ahahahahah.He seem pretty happy if he saw a people with same religion as he is(but the fact im not).In the end i found that the Iranians are fun despite the screaming and whining during our way back home.ahahahaha.U rock guys!!!

Finally we arrive at the small quay that we left before.When we arrive,we realise that our driver is missing.(cool aint it).but shortly after that the tour guide told us that our transportation are swap to another travel agent.hhmmmm.What a shitty travel agent is that.

Well after an hour finally we arrive at our hostel and thats wrap up our day
But we still dissapointed for the fact we miss the maya bay part and the monkey island,the monkey its not as much as in Uluwatu,Bali.If you looking for monkeys Uluwatu might be the place to be.Viking cave??,well we only seen from a distance,i dont think there is a lot of things to do there,its just a cave surrounded by spiky stones.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Chapter 1,Part 1

Hi guys im Andrew,Im an indonesian chinese descent.Im standing 5foot 8 inches(not to short for asian right??).The reason why the blog written in english,basiclly its for the sake of my english and i wanna share to all the people(considering english is international language).

Traveling.Hmmmm.Most of us might love traveling,especially to the places you always wanted since your a kid.In my case i would love to go Africa(hmmm someday).But sometimes I couldnt travel as much as i want to due to the budget(darn it!!).

The couch surfing dot com.Might be an answer for the people in my case.If your budget its tight and you are so curious about the local culture,being a couch surfer might be a good start.Its basiclly just like the others social networking(base on my perception),such as facebook,my space.But through this site we can ask to be a guest or a host.If you asking for the security of this site and the people inside the site,don't ask me but NBC had it aired a while a go and it seems working well.

On August 6th-August 14th 2010,just like we already planted since last year.Im traveling with 5 friends of mine.most of them girls,they are Jeje,veny(Our financial consultant),rika(our super shoppa holic),yenyen(the quite one),and last but not least Andre (the fussiest,@_@).we scheduled to depart on 11 pm but like you all probably know,dealing with bunch of girls means it took time for them to pack up some stuff.

After around half an hour,finally we arrive at Soekarno Hatta Airport.after we pass the security check,we have to que up in a pretty long line.Thank god we still have the time to catch up with our plane.

At the plane,im trying to memorize some thai language,because the thai people doesnt speak english very well."Sa bai di mai(whats up),Sawa thikap(hello),khop khun kap(thanx)"well thats all i learn during the flight.

Phuket



We arrive in phuket AKA the pearl of the south at noon.After we done with the immigration stuff,me and the rest of my friends heading out from the airport to figure out what ride we should take..Well as i already predict,there is a bunch cab drivers from different company offering their services.And some of them using chinese to speak to us "nihao mao",taxi sir,cheap cheap"(with broken english and thai accent).

Meanwhile we still wondering what taxi we should takes,a man comes with an offer.while i keep bargain and bargain for the lowest price suddenlly a dark skinned man approach us and try to convince us to take the offer.And unsuspectedly he spoke in bahasa.LOL.So considering he is a brother from our home land we took the offer.

We ride in a D-max(a SUV which very common used by the people in Phuket) our driver name pong or dong or what ever,he barelly speak English and doenst look so friendly,he is look like a spy,he keep his mouth shut even when i ask him bout something(give some love to the indonesian will you??).

On our way to our guest house,the driver took us AKA Distorted to a travel agent office.Then while we still inside the SUV the woman(not quite sure.LOL),invite us to come in.Well due to lack of experience traveling in Thailand we do what she said.Inside her office,the lady keep giving me a bunch offer which i already know its marked up from the regular off season prices.For example she gives me a tour package to Phi phi island for 1800 baht(No way lady...boy!!!).

After a bunch of offer finally she/he gave up,but we still took the pick up service by paying 400 baht for a deposit (thx for scamming us).O yeah,the name of the travel agent is Phuket evolution or revolution,my advice for first timer that come to phuket is just say no to the offer(later you will know why).

After around 30 minutes ride finally we arrive at our guest house.Well the guest house its ok.They  open a beauty salon in the front part of the guest house.The name of our guest house is sea blue phuket hostel,its actually own by a couple of married,the husband name sean is Canadian,the wife name Lekha is thai..

My experience with the hostel is,its try to understand what the staff saying.For example
Me:"excuse me,i want to have a meal for dinner,which why is it?"
Staff:"its the shittttt"(what the heck)
Me:"what???"
Staf:"yeah you go the left and the shittttt"
Me:oooooo,ok(after humming and try to figure out what the staff said)

What she trying to say actually is,the street food is actually located across the street(not shit).LOL

Juncylon mall its the closest amusement to our guest house beside Bangla road(you know whats in there right^^).well considering i live in Jakarta where the only entertaiment comes in the form of mall,im not quite impress with the juncylon,but its an ok mall though.

After couple hours of walking we finally decide to have our dinner,but not in the shitt(joking).LOL.We have our dinner accross the patong beach.Its a restaurant that is own by a dutchmen AKA kompeni.He is a cool old man with flamboyan dress up.He even talk in bahasa a bit.His grand daddy comes from maluku.

Tom yam khum(is it spells right??) that's the most common meal of thai people that i knew.so with out further consideration,i order the most favourite tom yam khum from the dutchmen restaurant.And the rest of my crew eat some kind like a beef that is chop into tiny pieces.

During our killing time in the restaurant me and Veny decide to check out the tatto studio near the restaurant.Its own by a dreadlock thai tatto artist(i dont remember his name).the studio its not big,its more look like a booth.the art pretty good.But me and veny are little bit concern about the hygine,even judging from the outside look,it looks pretty clean.So we postpone our fiery spirit to get our first tatto.

At 10 PM we accross the bangla road.man!!!!this is my first time that i look at a galore of whore,stripper,and lady boy.The bar full with white dudes,who having a gud time with their thai lover.The pole is everywhere and the ladyboy is in action by seducing all the bule(white dudes).The thing in my head is,what if you met a girl in this country,you make out and ready for action.and all of a sudden a dick pop up from the skirt!!!!!!!.LMFAO.Thats gotta be your most wicked sin isnt it???.LOL

In the street,i cannot count how many times i say no!! to the man or woman who offer me "ping pong show sir",tiger show",cat show","pork show???"(kidding). BRO,"whats up man,come to my club,the girl is hot,come come".LOL.Do you know that those show onlly cost you 200 baht,its probably the cheapest sin you ever done in your entire life.LOL

At late night we got home to our guest house to have a decent sleep because we have to get ready for the phi phi island trip tomorrow.We still "amaze" with the nightlife in this city,Especially bangla.LOL

To be continue