I woke up to a beautiful Thursday morning, ready and excited about my trip to SG & Phuket. Only to be told at the airport that my multiple visa was already expired. To my shock and horror…and my fault, I just checked my working visa which is valid until April next year. The rush of blood I tell you! Felt like I’m part of Amazing Race Asia and I had to catch the next and last flight to SG that day and get my multiple entry before the immigration closes (until 2PM only since it's Ramadan). It was already 10AM and there was just no way I could make my 10:40AM flight. I had to call Shawie and tell her to reschedule our flight to Phuket as well. I guess, luck was still on my side that day so I manage to get my multiple by 1PM and just waited in my flat for the 9PM flight. Sayang, I could have been in SG that afternoon. I wanted to by a new SD for my camera before Phuket since mine always prompts an error (yes, parang PC may error message).
Shawie picked me up at Changi by midnight. And before 7am, we were at budget airport. T’was my first time to take budget airlines. It had an open tarmac so going inside the plane felt like a dramatic entrance for me. But we had to buy drinks and food inside the plane, hahaha. In fairness, the mushroom soup tasted nice, parang hindi galing sachet, lol.
9ish AM, Thailand time: The fun begins. But it was raining and the road was stiff and slippery. Shawie and I gave a sigh of relief coz we didn’t have to be driven to the hotel at midnight seeing how the road is. Kakatakot din and the driver of the van who picked us up drove like he’s having an LBM moment - lumilipad, sumisingit, parang jeep sa madaling araw! It was a 45mins drive so we just tried to enjoy the rainy scenery and chatted our way. It’s been a long while since we saw each other, bulk na ang chikka, hahaha. Halfway to our hotel, the sun welcomed us with its warmth. Yehey! So we were able to walk around a bit. It rained again but we were already on our way back to Royal Palm for a Thai massage. So relaxing at a cheap price – only 17BND.
After that soothing massage, we just changed clothes and was picked up by our tour van for buffet dinner and Fantasea show. It’s a good thing that we had a packaged tour since the van that picked us up also had to get the other tourists from other hotels. So we got to see other places in Phuket which we normally wouldn’t see coz there’s just far from us. Phuket has some of the amazing hotels ^_^.
Finally, Fantasea! Just seeing the entrance and the ticket booth is enough to take your breath away, so shinny and magnificent. Of course, Disneyland entrance is still better but Fantasea offers a different show. And EK has no chance to compete. It only has 1 wizard statue welcoming the guests where Fantasea has this Hollywood style sign and golden elephant displays at each corner of the entrance booth. And the painted ceiling tells of so many local stories pero di ko kinarir masyado, stiff neck ang magiging kapalit e.We look around and took pictures and then headed to the Golden Kinnaree Buffet restaurant, the biggest buffet restaurant I’ve been to. It has 4,000 seating capacity. Shawie and I joked that our wedding or birthday should be held here. Bongga! Inside are statues of the mythical Kinnarees, half-bird and half-woman of legendary beauty and graciousness. So we had our dinner in a Thai mythology inspired atmosphere. Divine.
Few minutes before 9PM, the entrance at the Palace of the Elephants where the ‘Fantasy of a Kingdom’ will be shown opened. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed and it had to be deposited at the entrance counter. On our way inside, we passed by a 2-3 booths that let you cradle baby tigers while they suck milk from a milk bottle (yes, kelangan i-mention saan) and have your picture taken. Wag n lang, takot pa din ako, hehehe. And finally the show: True to what it says in the internet, it was worth the money and the effort going there – a true Vegas style theater show with magical illusions, 4D effects, aerial performance, acrobatics, indoor pyrotechnics, special effects, elephant circus and stunts (in no particular order ha kasi minsan sama2x, ang saya!). And the stage is huge that it still has space left when all 16 elephants did their stunts. The whole show was one for the books, galing talaga. Then we felt sad realizing that PH does not have this kind of show when I’m sure we have so many talented artists. Baka walang makuhang elephants?
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