Precious Memories: Phuket, Thailand

Unplanned Phuket, Thailand - February 19, 2016

2016 HAL Volendam Asian Adventure, Day 4

In Port: 7:00AM~4:00PM

Weather: Fresh breeze, clear, 32C/90F

I admit that I did not do much research on this port and I had no information regarding Phuket except on my note, I copy and paste someone's comment "Tuk-tuk and taxis are rip-offs, don't take!" from somewhere on the internet. I was thinking, Phuket is famous for their beaches, we should be able to walk off the ship and walk straight to a beach if nothing else. Was I wrong! The "Explorer" which is a booklet and guide published by HAL on each port did not help either. The map was so vague and unclear that it had arrows for all the places they recommended pointing outside of the map. We had no idea of where everything is in relations to the pier. Well, this could be our day for adventure!

Instead of posting the port agent information on the daily programs, which most cruise lines do, HAL put those information in the "Explorer". It is important to have these information with you in port in case anything happen as emergency contact.

Our ship docked at the pier at 6:45AM.

As we were having breakfast at the Lido, we could see that vendors were already setting up their stalls for a busy day. There is a money changer right by the exit. Tour buses and taxis lined up at the far end waiting for the excursions to begin.

I could see the sea and beaches nearby but did not know if there is a way to get there. Apparently there is no pathway to get to the seaside on the left. As I was watching, I did see people walking off the ship then to the road to the right of the building, so I figured that there must be something in that direction.

Here are the buses and taxis around the building as we walked towards the exit.

...and this was the only road that seemed to possibly take us somewhere. We made a left turned with everybody else at the end of the road.

Let's follow them! They must be heading to the beach with towels in hand.

There were more taxi drivers at this gate where they were waiting for potential customers. Then the groups of people that we were following all disappeared as we continued walking out to the main road. Later on, I figured out that they must have hired taxis outside the gate for their destinations and left. Now, remember, "Tuk-tuk and taxis are rip offs, don't take!" so I wasn't going to get ripped off! No taxis for us!

Port entrance

There is a 7-11 right in front of the port gate.

We kept walking and this is the main road outside the port gate.

Should we turn left or right? There were a couple of people walking on the right so we just followed. In fact, a lady who looked like a passenger from the ship was walking toward us so I asked her if there's anything interesting up ahead. She said she didn't know, she was only looking for free wi-fi and she didn't find any. Without any known information, we just continued our aimless walk. Now that I have a chance to look at the pictures, maybe we should have turned left.

We past by a little bay where some fishermen were fixing their nets. It was not a place where we should stay for longer than five minutes.

We also came upon this little German Pub and Restaurant by the roadside. ChC checked on his phone and said the place had some good reviews and maybe we could come back for lunch later on.

Looked like there's a village across the street. A couple of foreigners riding their motorcycles out to the main road from here.

Then we went past a cemetery...

...some apartment buildings and

...this.

Then we made a turn to a small road on the right and this was what we saw.

Pretty, but no beach.

At the end of the road there were some construction work of a pier going on and we could see our ship from there. We were pleasantly surprised by some of the things and scenery we saw as we walked around.

Back on the main road as we tried to continue walking to the unknown. Then we bumped into a couple of foreigners who were living on the island. I asked them if there's anything up front, they told me "no, there's nothing." Then they suggested that we take a bus or taxi to go into Phuket town where there are more to see. By then, we were near the crossroads where one leads to Phuket.

After we discussed about what to do, we decided to just walk back to the ship. We have probably walked more than two miles by now and it would be OK if that was all we did for the day.

As we were walking back, a taxi stopped on the other side and asked if we wanted a taxi. Well, "No taxis" right?! So we continued our walk back to port. Then this car suddenly stopped in front of us and out came this guy who scared me a bit. What was he going to do? It turned out that this was the same taxi driver who tried to get our business a couple of minutes earlier. He finally talked us into taking a ride in his taxi for 900B round trip. That's like USD $30 for the three of us. He would take us into town, and pick us up after 4 hours and bring us back to port. (By the way, HAL offered a shuttle ride into Phuket for $39pp with 3 hours free time on your own.) Mr. Pisan turned out to be a very nice guy and the best driver we had on this whole trip. He took us into town, drove around and showed us where we should go and where he would pick us up later on. Then he dropped us off across from the Tourist Office where we got a good map of Phuket before driving off.

Getting off Mr. Pisan's Volvo. Yes, we checked, and he had all the credentials inside his car.

The lady at the Tourist Information Center was courteous also.

After getting our map, we walked past this street which looked amazingly beautiful.

Then we went past this Chinese temple by the roadside near the roundabout.

Again, New Year decorations set out in town.

Old Town Phuket

The buildings are like from old time Hong Kong, fascinating!

Just love these old-fashion doorways.

Unlike Penang, we were able to walk under the balconies which made it so much nicer on a hot day.

If you see this young man, make sure you stop for some...

fresh coconuts!

30B each and they were delicious! We did not have enough change and this young man accepted our dollar bills. We spent $2 USD for two coconuts.

He showed us how he cut the coconut whole, with flesh and juice for 50B. Next time, I will get that whole coconut. He taught us how to dig the flesh out from our coconuts and it was delicious!

The Chartered Bank

After walking around we found some benches under the tree and rested for a while watching whatever passes by.

Then we continued towards the direction of Robinson Department Store where we would meet Mr. Pisan later on. Robinson was also the drop-off and pick-up point for the HAL shuttles.

We arrived at Robinson Department Store and it was lunch time. There is a KFC on the ground floor but we didn't want fried chicken. We saw on the directory that there is a food court on the 5th floor so we went up and found that it was just a small restaurant/cafe there. It was nice to be sitting down in an air-conditioned place for some food and cold drinks though.

This was at the home furnishing department.

Seafood rice noodle

fried rice

After lunch, we walked around the store but did not buy anything except a small extension cord. We were running out of local money anyway with 900B saved for paying our taxi ride. There is also a supermarket on the ground floor of the department store. We found some seats outside a bakery so we bought a few items and enjoyed the delicious treats before going outside to meet Mr. Pisan.

Bakery with many tempting treats.

We were to meet Mr. Pisan outside of the KFC at 2:00.

We waited...and waited... and it was past 2:00, no Mr. Pisan. I got a little paranoid by now.

Thank goodness! A man ran towards us and asked if we were waiting for Mr. Pisan and showing Mr. Pisan's business card which matched the one we had. What happened was Mr. Pisan took some people to the airport and got stuck on the way back. He called his friend so he could pick us up and take us back to the port. What a relieve!

Getting off Mr. Suriya's car at the port.

Mr. Suriya was very friendly also. He said business had been slow lately and he was very happy when we paid him the 900B. Traffic was busier in the afternoon and by the time we were back at the port it was around 3pm. It was OK though, our ship didn't leave until 4PM.

(Mr. Pisan's email address: mr.pisan @hotmail.com)

Vendors at port

Ice cold drinks and towels offered when we returned to the ship.

We did not have much local money left and we did not intent to buy anything, so we just went back to the ship instead of checking out the vendors. We certainly had an adventurous day and with the "Tuk-tuk and taxis are rip-off" thing? Well, we were probably very lucky and we did not feel that we were ripped off even though I am sure the comment was an accurate one. It was just that we did not hire the taxi at or near the port and got picked up two miles down the road from port which I read is the best way to get a taxi. I would suggest that knowing how much your taxi ride is worth ahead of time will help you decide on how to bargain. Still, the warning about tuk-tuk and taxis is a good warning.

Our unplanned day in Phuket turned out better than we had hoped for.