Solo jalan-jalan in Phuket

What was supposed to be a weekend reserved for packing stuff in preparation to move into our new condo next month became a weekend walking in the streets of Phuket.

Ambert has been there since last Thursday morning for a business conference and he has asked me a few times earlier to spend the weekend there. As we just came back from a holiday in Switzerland last month (which I have yet to even download the thousands of photos) and I needed to pack things into boxes, I declined his offer.

He continued to ask me and even WhatsApp’ed photos to tempt me.

So, I thought, heck with the packing, I’ll just take up his offer. So that night, I went and bought myself flight tickets to depart the next evening.

However, Ambert’s schedule was going to be full all the way till Sunday so that meant that I’ll be alone throughout the trip. I was ok with it though, as this was not the first time I followed him for business trips and had to go out by myself.

My flight departed at 7.40pm on Friday and only reached the Westin Hotel at Siray Bay at 11pm. I have to admit that the villa was really very spacious and impressive.

The next morning, I took photos of the beautiful view from the villa balcony:

Not having any itinerary planned out, I decided to just take the hotel shuttle to Limelight Mall in Old Phuket Town. Unfortunately, the mall turned out to be a really tiny one which took me only 10 minutes to walk around the two floors.

With nothing else to do, I went to get a map from the Information Counter and tried to see where else I can go from there. There was a big mall called Central Festival Mall which seemed to be nearby from the map.

So with the map as my guide, I walked out of the mall but after 5 minutes walking under the scorching hot sun, I decided to turn back and take a taxi instead. It was a good thing that I did because it turned out that the drive took 20 minutes. Imagine how long it would have taken if I really did walk all the way…

Reaching Central Festival, I was glad to see that it was a decent-sized mall (compared to the mega malls in KL).

After spending 2 hours window-shopping, I had to head back to Limelight Mall to catch the shuttle back to the hotel.

My afternoon was free and there was nothing else to do besides pampering myself with a 90-minute massage. After that, I googled to see what I can do at night and found out that there were 2 night markets in town that night.

So I took a taxi from the hotel and headed to the Chillva Market, which was about 30-min drive away.

It was not the humongous market I was expecting though. There were different sections for food, clothes and knick-knacks. I had a quick walk through the clothes section and everything was free-size, meaning nothing that could fit me….

The knick-knacks sections sold the usual souvenirs, gifts, accessories and stuff.

The most interesting section was the food, not because I was hungry but because I loved the colours, varieties and smell.

Within an hour, I was done looking at everything and sat down for dinner. I had no idea what to eat and just sat down where there was space. I also had no idea how to order as the menu was only in Thai. So I just pointed to the bowl of noodles that someone was eating and told the waiter that that’s what I wanted.

The food was cooked by this beautiful-looking pair.

The soup tasted a bit weird, not the usual kind that we have in KL, but it was delicious. Added all the beansprouts in but none of those leafy green ones as I had no idea how it should be eaten.

The pandan drink was very refreshing – and not too sweet.

And that was the night market trip – all done in 1 1/2 hours including dinner.

I had the next morning and afternoon all free as well as the flight was only going to depart at 7.10pm. The other place that I could take the hotel shuttle to was Jungceylon in Patong Beach. I googled it up and saw that it was a big mall so that should be able to occupy my time until I had to leave for the airport.

It was quite a far drive that took almost an hour as Westin Hotel was on the right side of the island while Patong Beach was on the other side.

It was quite a big mall but again, not big enough compared to our malls here in KL.

After window-shopping for more than an hour and lunch at McDonald’s, I ventured out of the mall and took a walk along the streets, with no idea where I was going. There were lots of stall and shops selling all sorts of stuff that were catered to tourists.

And I couldn’t leave without going on to the famous Patong Beach, which I happened to stumble upon.

That was the end of my trip before taking a taxi to the airport to meet Ambert.

It was definitely a short trip but it was good to get away by myself and enjoy my own company. Can’t wait to follow Ambert on his next business trip….