My SKROSS World Adapter MUV USB

If you travel to another country, it is a common problem that the power socket is of different type from your home country, and you need a power adapter as a converter to be able to plug in your electrical device to the wall socket.

My SKROSS World Adapter MUV USB designed in Switzerland (and made in Thailand) is my handy travel companion that can be used in more than 150 countries with its unique all-in-one sliders system.

It can be used with unearthed 2-pole devices, including charger for mobile phone, tablet, digital camera, GPS, razor, voice recorder, MP3 player, and even my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro multimode ultrabook laptop.

However, it cannot be used with earthed 3-pole devices which normally have higher power rating, such as hair dryer, water heater, etc.

It does not convert the input voltage, and can work under voltage between 100-250 volts with maximum current of 2.5 Amperes (maximum power of 2.5 x 250 = 625 Watts). This means that if your device can only operate with less than 125 volts, and you try to plug it into a 220 volts socket, it will get burnt.

The SKROSS World Adapter MUV USB has a built-in T2.5A 250V fuse, which will break the circuit if the power drained exceed its maximum limit.

The SKROSS World Adapter MUV USB also has 2 built-in USB charging ports, which provide up to 2,100 mA charging power. Therefore, it is capable to connect to 3 devices at the same time, when 2 are charging with its USB ports and another using its output socket.

If you have a lot of devices that need 2.1A or 2.4A fast charging, you can plug in the Belkin B2E027 4-port 2.4A full rate USB power charger to get more full rated USB charging ports.

This adapter comes with 2 years warranty. Its price of RM149 is not cheap, when compared with non-branded alternatives, but you can have more peace of mind using this branded Swiss product.

Travel tips to New Zealand (South Island)

I have just completed a family vacation to South Island of New Zealand. Here are some travel tips that I would like to share with you, if you are going to travel to New Zealand too.

Weather:

• Even though I went there during near summer time, the weather most of the time is cold with temperature around 5-15 degree Celsius. You will experience cool breeze at places near the seaside or large lakeside. Therefore, warm jacket in your luggage is a must regardless which month you travel there.

Customs:

• The customs check at Christchurch airport is pretty strict. If they suspect you to bring in or bring out forbidden items in your bag, your bag will be quarantined for thorough checking. That will cost you quite a lot of time. Forbidden items include any liquid in your hand carry bag.

Tourist information:

• Remember to collect a free copy of Arrival Magazine at the arrival hall of the international airport. You can find some coupons which is able to save you some activity cost in New Zealand.
• In every major town and popular attractions, you will probably find the New Zealand visitor information center called i-Site. You can ask for information, make booking, and get free maps and tourist booklet there. The toilet at i-Site is also available for your use (the toilet in petrol stations, restaurants, shops, ... only open to their customer only, if made available)
• Check for tickets at BookMe website for the attractions you plan to visit. You might be able to get discount price as high as 99% (in other words, pay only 1% for the ticket price).

Mobile telephony and Internet service:

• Free WiFi is available at Christchurch airport. Need a simple web-based registration before use.
• I purchased a Spark prepaid value pack SIM card at the price of $29 that come with 150 minutes talk time, 500MB data plan and unlimited SMS. The coverage is good, even got one or two bars of signal deep inside Mt Cook Hooker Valley. I always get the availability of Spark WiFi (free for Spark users, with daily quota of 1GB) at YHA various hostels, on top of the free WiFi provided by YHA.

On the road:

• The best way to travel around is to rent a car. There are a few car rental companies near Christchurch Airport. You will need a valid driving license issued in your country. You won't encounter any traffic jam in New Zealand South Island, and there are a lot of road signboards along the way.
• If you plan to rent a camper van, beware that it would be more difficult for you to find parking place. Besides, camper van can only park overnight at designated areas, normally located near major attractions.
• If you plan to rent a car, a GPS navigator with most recent New Zealand maps will be very useful. The mobile Internet data plan there is expensive for high quota usage. I would advise you to bring a Garmin GPS with you instead of using online map and navigation apps in your smartphone.
• The speed limit in town area is normally 50km/h only. The speed limit on highway is 100km/h. The highway speed limit that cross certain small towns is 80km/h.
• There are kilometres of unpaved road in farm areas. If you want to avoid going into such route, set your GPS avoidance accordingly.
• New Zealand drivers are generally courteous. Always follow the speed limit, obey the traffic light, give way to pedestrians at zebra crossing. 
• I didn't see any highway toll in New Zealand South Island.
• Passenger cars in New Zealand normally filled with RON-91 petrol. RON-95 is considered premium petrol in New Zealand. I didn't see any RON-97 or RON-99 pump there.

Parking:

• Most roadside parking is free, but has a maximum parking time from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Certain parking places in Christchurch need to be paid by feeding the machine nearby and display the parking ticket.
• Parking at shopping mall such as Countdown also has maximum parking time.
• Do not park exceeding the maximum time. You might get fined, and need to pay the penalty at the town council.

Accommodation:

• If you are looking for cheap accommodation with free WiFi internet facility, YHA hostel could be a good option. They are equipped with shared kitchen that have the necessary cooking utensils, dishes and glasses, coin operated washing machine and clothes dryer.
• There are quite a lot of motels in New Zealand. Make your booking early while there is still vacancy available. Note that not all of them come with free WiFi and laundry facility. You need to find out the availability before confirming your booking.
• If you want a motel that provide free shuttle service to pick you up from Christchurch airport to the motel during arrival, and from motel to Christchurch airport upon departure, and the pick-up time can be any time (even at midnight), try to look for Airport Gateway Motor Lodge.

Prices:

• The prices you see in New Zealand are inclusive 15% GST.
•  If you want to buy honey or chocolates, the price in small town could be cheaper than the price in airport's duty free shops.
• Don't forget there are discount coupons in Arrival Magazine, and Internet booking discount for certain activities at BookMe website.

Credit card:

• Credit card can be used at most of the places.
• Certain place will impost additional charge if you pay with credit card rather than cash.
• The credit card security measure in New Zealand seems to be very loose. Sometimes the shop doesn't even need your signature. Internet transaction also not making use of the 3 digit validation code at the back of your card.

Applying for ETA online to travel to Australia

I am going to travel to Australia, and I need a visa to enter into the continent. The fastest and easiest way is to apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) online.

The ETA provides authorization for visitors holding a valid passport from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei, Japan, Korea, USA or Canada to travel to and enter Australia.

The ETA is valid for 1 year from the date of application, or until the expiry date of your passport, whichever earlier. With an ETA, you will be able to have multiple entries to Australia until its expiry date. for each entry, you can stay in Australia for a period of up to 3 months.

The service charge to apply for an Australia ETA is AUD$20 payable online with credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, or JCB) when making the application. If your ETA is rejected for any reason, this service charge is non-refundable.

You need to be located outside Australia when making an ETA application. You need to provide your personal detail, contact detail and an email address to receive the letter of confirmation. If you are travelling with your family members staying in the same house, you might find it a bit cumbersome as you need to apply ETA for each of them, and need to repeatedly enter the same contact information (address, phone numbers, etc.)  during each of the ETA applications.

I received the email confirmation almost instantly after making the online credit card payment.

For each of the ETA applications, you will be given a reference number, enabling you to check for the ETA status and expiry date in the same website.

Click here to go to the Australia ETA application and checking website.

Conditions apply to the Australia ETA:

• Working is not allowed.
• Taking short term study course is allowed, but you must not study for more than 3 months.
• You must be free from tuberculosis.
• You must not have any criminal convictions.

A family trip to i-City Theme Park @ Shah Alam

My family spent our recent Nuzul Al-Quran holiday at i-City Theme Park located near UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor.

When we reached there, there are still construction works going on around the place for the development of residential and commercial buildings. The theme park is also in the midst of building an outdoor attraction area.

I have to warn you that the ticket price for I-City attraction areas is not cheap. Luckily, there is a limited time promotion ongoing now for us to purchase an i-Card at the price of RM52 per person (regardless adult or children) which entitles us to visit to the following 5 attraction areas:

• Red Carpet all-stars interactive wax museum
• House of Horror
• Space Mission
• Snowalk
• Waterworld

This RM52 i-Card is only available for daytime visit, and not inclusive for the entrance to the famous Trick Art Museum nor the 5D Cinema in i-City, which need to purchase the tickets separately.

The Red Carpet all-stars interactive wax museum is transformed from a block of vacant shoplots. Now you don't need to travel to Hong Kong or New York to have a look at the wax figures of famous celebrities, politicians, athletes, scientists, and other personalities.

The House of Horror and Space Mission are also transformed from vacant shoplots.

Snowalk is located next to Waterworld. You can experience the winter coldness in this snow wonderland with igloo, ice sculptures and rides. If you want to visit to Snowalk, you'd better at least wear sport shoes. Don't go with slippers or sandals as it might be too cold and too slippery for your feet. Anyhow, non-slip boots are optionally available before you go in, at additional charge. Winter jackets are available for borrow for free (inclusive in ticket price), so don't worry about bringing your own jacket there although no harm for you to do so.

You might probably spend the most time at Waterworld. The main attraction in this waterpark is the Tornado ride. Lockers are available for rent in Waterworld at the price of RM10. You will be given an NFC watch to unlock the assigned locker. Make sure you return the NFC watch to the ticket counter to get a free ride to the Under The Sea attraction outside the Waterworld.

The Trick Art Museum is a place for photo taking. The paintings inside will come into 3D via illusion in your photos.

i-City at night features its City of Digital Light lightscape with colourful LED lights on trees and figures around the place.

We had our meal at Spice of Penang. I felt that it would be better to eat at one of the fast food restaurants around rather than this.

In most of the attraction areas, you will see photographer offer to take photo for you. Photo taking is free, but to take away the photo taken, you need to pay for it.

Family retreat weekend to Felda Residence Hot Springs, Sungkai, Perak

Last week, my family had a nice retreat weekend to Felda Residence Hot Springs, Sungkai, Perak.

Sungkai is a small town near to Bidor, accessible from either North-South Expressway or federal trunk road.

The Felda Residence Hot Springs is quite some distance away from Sungkai town, hiding deep inside an oil palm plantation area. Not to be worried, there are a lot of sign boards showing the way to this attraction along the way, so it is pretty easy to find.

We booked a 3-bedroom villa from MATTA Fair quite some times ago. The price was RM600 for one night stay including breakfast for 6 persons.

After entering the entrance, we need to register our stay and get the key of the villa from the reception, located in a building with a large car park in front of it. The hot springs park and villas are located quite some distance away from the reception building.

The 3-bedroom villa is very nice. It has a quadrangle design with a private Jacuzzi at the center.

It has a nice living room with flat panel TV...

... and a fully furnished kitchen.

Its 3 bedrooms are large and comfortable. This is the master bedroom.

The Felda Residence Hot Springs has a cold mountain springs swimming pool...

... and of course, the natural hot springs pool.

In the place where hot springs flow out from underground, we can have egg boiling activity. The water temperature there is close to 100 degree Celcius.

We had our dinner in Sungkai town. There are a few famous Chinese restaurant in the town, such as Choy Kee (财记) and Sun Kee (新记).

The next morning, we had our buffet breakfast at the restaurant within walking distance from the villa. There is nothing much to shout about the food, but considered quite OK if you don't have high expectation.

One thing to note is that, Celcom has a good HSDPA Internet coverage at Felda Residence Hot Springs in Sungkai, while the Internet speed of Maxis and Digi there is pretty slow.

A family day trip to Sekinchan - paddy field and fishing village

Sekinchan (适耕庄) is a small town located at the south of Teluk Intan and north-west of Kuala Lumpur, which is well-known as the cozy village of fishing and paddy farming (渔米之乡). It is a major rice producer in central Peninsular of Malaysia, and also a main seafood supplier.

Departed from Klang Valley, we passed by a few small towns including Puncak Alam, Ijok, Kuala Selangor and Tanjong Karang before finally arrived at Sekinchan.

We relied on the Sekinchan map below for our trip planning.

You can download a PDF version of this Sekinchan map here.

Most of the attractions are located at Site A, which is in the middle of the paddy fields. Going in from the main road, we drove a few kilometres, surrounded by the paddy fields, before we arrived at Site A.

Each block of paddy fields is labelled.

By the time of our visit, the paddy is not ripe for harvest yet.

Along the way, beside paddy fields, there are also some specially built concrete structures for swiftlet bird's nest farming.

There is a Chinese temple with bright yellow walls which can easily be seen from far. This is a very good landmark for Site A.

There is a mango farm beside the Chinese temple.

And there is a small village inside Site A.

From Site A going towards Sekinchan town, we passed by PLS Marketing which is a paddy processing factory in the middle of the paddy fields. We saw several tour buses bringing visitors there. There are also lorries from BERNAS loaded with rice departing from the factory.

You can find Taiwanese pearl rice (珍珠米) available for sell in PLS Marketing. This type of premium rice can hardly be found locally.

There are also small packets of rice in brick size and shape, in nice packaging as good choice for souvenir.

There are several restaurants in the Sekinchan map above. We asked for recommendation and direction from a man we met at petrol station. He so kind to drive his car and lead us to a restaurant near to the fishing village. Sekinchan is famous for its seafood.

There are a lot of boats along the Bagan fishing village. There is a small beach called Pantai Redang next to the fishing village. The villagers are friendly to provide us the direction to the beach.

There are several tree houses and recreation facilities (such as swings) along the beach, available for free to tourists. The beach has quite a lot of sea shells. Unfortunately, it also has quite a number of rubbish left over by tourists. The nearby temple committee already initiated campaigns and activities to keep the cleanliness of the beach.

A family trip to Lost World of Tambun, Perak

My family just have a one day trip to Lost World of Tambun, located at the outskirt of Ipoh, Perak. It is an adventure theme park built and operated by Sunway Group, which I would describe it to be wilder, larger, and closer to the natural than the famous Sunway Lagoon in Selangor.

If you want to visit to Lost World of Tambun, I would advise you to spend a full day there, because the theme park is really big in area with many places to visit and have fun with. This means you have to reach there around 10am, or else you might not have enough time to visit all the attractions inside.

The entrance fee is RM48 for adult and RM41 for child. You can get a cheaper rate if you buy the ticket online from their website at http://www.sunwaylostworldoftambun.com/.

You will first reach a souvenir stall after entering from the entrance. Then, the water park is in front of you. I would advise you to have fun in the water park as your last schedule, otherwise you might be too tired to visit the rest of the park. In addition, the sun is not too hot at evening time.

There is an amusement park beside the water park, which you can take free ride on Giddy Galleon, Dragon Flight, Perak Parade, Storm Rider, roller coaster, etc.

There is a petting zoo with small animals and lots of snakes. Take the Rainforest Trail to have closer contact with the animals.

There are some small animal feeding shows between 12pm and 3.30pm here.

There is also a swan lake with swans and koi fishes. You can feed the swans and fishes there. You can also ride the water bicycle, which the fee is not inclusive in your entrance ticket (need to pay separately).

Outside food and drink is not permitted to be brought into the theme park. They actually check for your items when you enter. Food and beverage is available at the stalls and food court near the amusement park. The price is not cheap though.

Don't forget to watch the tiger feeding show at Tiger Valley at 3pm. The show is not just about tiger. Before the tiger show, you can see the performance of some other animals and birds as well.

Some other attractions include:

The Tin Valley, with a gallery which you can see an ancient monochrome CRT TV that is still working well.

Kepura Caves

And something erected...

The Lost World Hot Springs & Spa is opened at night, which needs a separate entrance ticket. We haven't visited this yet, probably will be in our next visit to the Lost World of Tambun.

A short trip to French village, Bukit Tinggi Bentong (Berjaya Hills)

My family has made a short trip to the French village located at Bukit Tinggi, Bentong, Pahang (a.k.a. Berjaya Hills), which is near to Genting Highlands and Janda Baik.

The French village is located uphill, quite some distance away from the junction linked to Karak Highway. The road condition is worse than that of Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands. Fortunately, there is not much car on the road.

Before entering the premise, we need to pay RM12 per adult and RM8 per child, which I think is a bit expensive.

There are 2 hotels over there, namely The Chateau and Colmar Tropicale. The accommodation price is pretty expensive. Unless you want to enjoy the calm and silentness of Berjaya Hills, otherwise you will most likely find boring staying there.

During our visit, Samsung was having some team building event there, so we can see some crowd. Otherwise, I think the staff over there will easily outnumber the tourist.

Bukit Tinggi is a good place for photo taking, especially for marriage couples. It has nice scenes, and some good looking swans at the lake near the village entrance too.

 

The French village is actually quite small, takes less than an hour to visit. Beside the Colmar Tropicale hotels, there are some western restaurants selling food at high price, some souvenir shops, a video game center, and SPA center.

There is a Japanese garden nearby, with waterfall, a koi pond, and some Japanese huts. Japanese traditional costumes are available for photo shooting rent in the bigger hut there. There suppose to have a Japanese restaurant, but we couldn't find it.

My overall comment: Bukit Tinggi is not too bad for scenic visit, but it can be much better than what it is now. It has good "hardware" but lack of "software" to make it attractive.

A visit to Farm In The City (FITC) @ Seri Kembangan

Last weekend, my family visited a themed petting zoo called Farm In The City (FITC, 城の农场) located at Seri Kembangan.

This petting zoo was just opened in 2012, and has been gaining publicity with its family-friendly attractions. I think one of its main objective is to let urban children in Klang Valley to have a place to experience kampong-style nature. You can find quite a lot of bloggers already shared their visit and photos to FITC.

The location of FITC is near Giant Seri Kembangan and Pasar Borong Seri Kembangan. It is nearby the LDP highway and beside it is a new business area with newly developed shoplots (still under final stage of construction), making it more prominent with its name.

We took a family package at the price of RM99 for entrance of 2 adults and 2 children. The package includes the entrance wristbands for the day, 2 packs of soya milk, 2 bottles of vitagen, a calendar, 2 certificates of visit for the children, and a RM10 food voucher redeemable at the restaurant near its entrance (same day, on family set meals only).

We also bought 2 tickets for pony ride (RM5 each). Pony ride is for children only, and the ride is only for one small circle (less than 2 minutes). You can take photo while the kid is on the ride.

FITC has a number of animals which we can have close encounter with them, including some exotic animals such as big land tortoises, river turtles, small crocodiles, etc. Animal foods are provided without additional charge for us to feed some of the animals, including rabbits, horses, fishes, tortoises, birds, goats, deers, etc. Children can also experience kampong-style small fish catching activity with net and small bucket outside the rabbit feeding area. There are 2 ponds at its center with fishes, ducks, gooses, swans and other water habitats.

There is also a small little farm with some crops, a well, a cow and a dog.

Our visit in FITC took around 3 hours. It is a fun and joyful half-day family activity.

A family vacation trip to Phuket, Thailand (Part 2/2)

... continue from Part 1

Tour to Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island

The northern end of Phuket is connected to the mainland by Sarasin Bridge.

Our tour began with pick-up by minivan from hotel, leaving Patong and travelled all the way north, crossing the bridge and finally reached the 1st visiting point - Suwan Kuha Temple (a.k.a. Wat Tam) in mainland Phang Nga.

This temple is located beside a limestone mountain cave with Buddha. The cave is a bit alike Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. Similar to Batu Caves, there are steps to climb inside the cave, and there are "light cave" and "dark cave" inside its multi-cave structure.

This reclining Buddha is in the main cave.

The top most cave leads out into a rainforest.

There are monkeys outside the cave, and they are just staying outside, won't go inside the cave.

We continued the tour to a pier, and boarded into a longtail boat. The boat brought us for sight-seeing in Phang Nga Bay, where there are lots of mangrove trees along the Phang Nga Bay National Park estuary. After that, there are lots of beautiful rocky small islands around us in the sea.

The boat settled down in a floating village on the seaside in Koh Panyee. We took our lunch in a Muslim restaurant there. This lunch was inclusive as part of the tour package. There are some souvenir stalls behind the restaurant. In front of the restaurant near the jetty we saw a netted area where the seafoods (crabs, lobsters, etc.) are kept in the sea.

I'm not quite sure what is this. Is it pearl breeding?

After lunch, we boarded onto the same boat and departed to James Bond Island. It is a small island with 2 sandy beaches, once an undiscovered paradise, and after some shot taken in a James Bond 007 movie in 1974 (The Man With The Golden Gun), now it is crowded with tourists.

We landed on the longer beach. There is a row of souvenir stalls facing the beach. Although now is not a peak session, there were still a lot of tourists there.

There are 2 legendary scenes in James Bond Island. The straight wall cliffs...

and Koh Tapu (Nail Island), viewable from another beach.

The last stop is sea canoeing near Talu Island. We landed onto a "platform" formed by 2 cruise ships joined together, and got onto a canoe. A boatman kayaked the canoe and brought us around.

Along the kayak journey, we went through several sea caves. The above is a bigger cave, some required us to lay down in order to pass through.

After that, we returned to the platform, boarded onto our boat, went back to the pier, and sent back to Patong Beach by the same minivan.

Tour to Phi Phi Island

On another day, we went for another tour to Phi Phi Island.

A minivan came and picked us up from hotel. We passed through the Phuket Town and reached a pier. We bought a loaf of bread there to feed monkeys and fishes later on. We were advised to rent a pair of fins for snorkeling, but later we found that it was not necessary. So, if you were told to rent the fins, consider it carefully before paying the money.

Before getting onto the boat, we were briefed about the itinerary with this map (and I found the map later in Internet).

We took off with a speedboat. Our 1st stop was Maya Bay Phi Phi National Park. We landed on a beach lined up with a lot of speedboats. Many tourists were walking around the beach, and some were swimming in the sea.

We followed the path to the toilet, which located some distance away from the beach. We passed through a small forest, and at the end of the walking path is a viewpoint at another side of the island. It is also a diving location near Pi Leh Cove.

Departing from Maya Bay, we went sightseeing at Loh Samah Bay and then to several viewpoints as in the itinerary shown above. We were told that Viking Cave cannot be boardedWe fed the monkeys at Monkey Beach. We took lunch in a restaurant at Loh Dalum Bay and then continued our tour. The boat stopped in the middle of the sea at Hin Klang for snorkeling. There are beautiful corals and fishes under the sea. We finished up our loaf by bread by feeding the fishes there.

Then, there was a long travel to Khai Island with a long beach. The beach was occupied by a row of boats. Many tourists were walking around the shore. There are beach chairs with umbrella for rent, and it was compulsory for use to rent it as our tour guide informed us to bring along our belongings off the boat. Pineapple, watermelon and drinks were served as refreshment as part of the package.

Here is also the swimming and snorkeling spot in our itinerary. Fishes were found swimming around the coast.

The tour ended by returning to Phuket Island and we were sent back to hotel with the same minivan.

Elephant Trekking Tour

On another day, we went for elephant trekking near the foot of the mountain where Big Buddha is located.

This package includes monkey show, elephant show and snake show at the same place.

Siam Niramit Show

Siam Niramit Phuket is located beside an ex-mining lake.

We reached there around 7pm. International buffet dinner was served in a big restaurant at 3rd floor.

Outdoor, there is a small demo village showcasing traditional Thai-style living and a floating market. We rided on a canoe for free, going around the village.

Beside the demo village is a carnival funfair area for some games and prizes.

There was an open air pre-show performance at the outdoor stage, which included elephant show, and then the performance of a troop of ancient elephant army going to war.

Visitors were encouraged to take photo with this elephant army.

The Siam Niramit Show started at 8.30pm in a theatre located some distance away from the outdoor stage.

No photo can be taken for the show, and all guests were instructed to deposit their camera at the counter before entering the theatre hall.

The Siam Niramit Show is about Thai culture, history and believe. There were hundreds of performers including some animals. The show is full of amazing visual and sound sensation, and great thunder and raining effect.

We purchased the Platinum seats which have good location for watching the show.

There is another famous show in Phuket called Phuket Fantasea. We didn't went for that due to budget constraint.

Phuket City Tour

During our last day in Phuket, we visited to some attractions around the island for a 5-hours city tour in a 7-seater 4WD before being sent to the airport.

Departed from Patong, the car went south for sightseeing along Karon Beach and the beautiful Kata Beach. There is a nice viewpoint on top of a hill near Kata Beach.

There is another nice viewpoint at Prompthep Cape with a square and a lighthouse. We visited the lighthouse too.

Then, we visited the Big Buddha located on top of a mountain. The Big Buddha is undergoing some construction work to paste marbles onto its surface. There is a donation campaign for visitors to donate for the marbles to be used.

We dropped by Phuthai Phuket Souvenir and Handicrafts Market. This place is obviously operated to earn tourists money. We didn't buy anything there, as we found the price there is somehow even more expensive than the small souvenir shops in Patong main street. We have already bought our souvenir when we walked around in Patong.

We also visited Wat Chalong, the biggest Buddhist temple in Phuket.

There is a tower in Wat Chalong worshipping precious relics located at its top level.
 
Phuket Cashew Nut Factory is a place for tourist to buy snacks. We didn't visited the actual factory, but went into the outlet for food testing and shopping.

The Premium Outlet Shopping Center has shops of many branded names. The shops have big display area with lots of goods. However, the price in those retail outlets does not seems to give good bargain. It is just neither cheap nor expensive.

Our city tour in Phuket ended here, and the driver took us to airport for departure.

A family vacation trip to Phuket, Thailand (Part 1/2)

This year end, my family has spent our vacation to Phuket, Thailand. This Pearl of the Andaman Sea  is the largest and most popular island in The Land Of Smiles, located to the west of Krabi.

The Flight

We went there by AirAsia night flight. It is not only convenient to book the air tickets online, but also to check-in the flight using their web check-in service 14 days to few hours before the flight and print out the boarding pass for boarding.

However, if you want to travel with AirAsia, be prepared for the possibility of flight delay, and we did face the situation of flight delay on both our departure and returning flights.

When we arrived at Phuket International Airport, it was already close to 11pm.

Getting A Local Mobile Number

There is a counter in the airport arrival hall offering free mobile SIM card to arriving tourists, but the counter was already closed due to the late hour.

We ended up buying AIS One-2-Call SIM card at 7-Eleven and top up 50 bahts to it. After activation, I received several SMS telling me that I was given additional 35 bahts worth of talking time and also 20 free SMS. Not bad. The phone can get 3G network connection too, and I can always get HSDPA speed. Superb!

However, I turned off the phone's mobile network most of the time and manually turned it on when needed, as I think the bundled 3G connectivity could be as low as 50MB only. Anyhow, that is good enough for me to use Google Map and do some news syncing and WhatsApp texting on the road during the few days vacation.

In fact, we bought the SIM card mainly for the purpose of getting contacted with our travel agency. On our last day of stay in Phuket, we used up the remaining prepaid airtime by calling home to my parents.

Buying Tour Packages

The tourism industry in Phuket has a well systematic network to offer various tour packages to the visitors. You can easily find a tour agent counter at hotel lobby, and there are also many tour agent booths along the street.

You will notice that the packages sold by different agent are almost the same. Most of the packages include van shutter service for departing and returning to hotel. The van will go around several hotels to pick-up tourists who bought the same package, forming a tour group of around 10 people. Some packages include lunch at their designated location.

Our main itinerary was pre-arranged with Mayday Travel Phuket.

They offer slightly more competitive price for the packages than you can get at hotel lobby counter or booth on the street. They also have city tour and airport shutter service. We were shuttered from airport during arrival and few days later to airport for departure by their 7-seater 4WD.

The Hotel

We stayed at the 3-star Aspery Hotel in Patong Beach. Patong Beach is the most happening place for tourists in Phuket. Booking was done online with booking.com website. A Deluxe room with a king size bed and another single bed cost us RM2xx per night.

Located at the top floor of the hotel building, our room is spacious, modern looking, clean and tidy. It has a balcony with city and mountain view on the left, and limited sea view on the right. In front is swimming pool view of another higher class hotel. The sea view is limited as the beach is quite some distance away (about 200 meters), and the Nap Patong Hotel beside it also blocked some of the view.

The hotel has a relatively small swimming pool at top floor, good enough for some relaxation water play. I think the swmming pool used to have very nice sea view, but again now is blocked by the taller Nap Patong Hotel.

Anyhow, there is a higher platform built beside the pool enabling us to view the nice scenery around, including the Andaman Sea.

The room has an electronic safe box for us to keep our passports and some other belongings. There is a 32" LCD TV in the room with satellite TV channels, but all the channels speak in Thai and most don't have English subtitle.

There are plenty of electric socket points available in the room, but there is no plug converter for borrowing, and we have to buy one for 100 baht at the reception counter. With this, we can recharge our handphones, digital cameras and tablet.

WiFi is available to hotel guest free of charge, and password is given during check-in. I found the WiFi signal is stronger near the door, and slightly weak on the bed (middle of the room). There are also several PC with Internet near the hotel lobby provided to hotel guest free of charge.

The hotel breakfast is good. If you were to stay at Aspery Hotel, it is advisible to book the room with breakfast inclusive, as food around Patong area is pretty expensive and very likely to be more expensive than the hotel breakfast bundle. However, the breakfast prepared by Aspery Hotel is almost the same everyday. Not good if you are staying for more than 2 days as you will get bored with the same breakfast every morning.

Walking Around

I was told that Aspery Hotel has 2 buildings. The main building where we stayed at is located in strategic location in Patong Beach, while the new building is located some distance away in a less favourable location.

The beach is within walking distance from Aspery Hotel. There are many stalls along the beach, opened from evening till night, making it a lively bazaar. Closer to the shore are many beach chairs for rent. Phuket was badly hit by tsunami before, and now you can see signboard showing the direction to tsunami evacuation place along the beach.

Food in Patong is quite expensive. We found some good places for nice food with reasonable price.

The Joy's Cafe (green building) located very near to Aspery Hotel offers delicious Western and Thai food.

Samero's Icecream Paradise has nice icecream and gorgeous waitresses.

Number 6 Restaurant at the main street offers delicious dishes with cheap price, and is always full of people.

Emotion Massage is famous for its SPA and massage service at reasonable price.

The nightlife happening Bangla Road is full of bars, hot chicks, and tourists. Near to its junction is a big shopping center called Jungceylon. Near to Jungceylon Shopping Complex across the road is DJ Plaza Walking Street.

Simon Cabaret famous for ladyboys show is located further down the street.

The Songthaew waiting for passenger near Jungceylon wanted 200 bahts to send us back to Aspery Hotel. We ended up walking back.

Continue to Part 2...