Phuket tour by bus

Hatyai-Krabi-Phang Nga-Phuket (5D/4N) 31/8/11 – 4/9/11
Super VIP Bus tour organised by Cai Shen Yeh Tour and Travel, Batu Gajah

During the Merdeka / Hari Raya Puasa holidays, Connie and I joined a tour by bus to Thailand covering Hatyai, Krabi, Phang Nga, Coral Island and Phuket. The group of 30 consisting mostly of senior citizens from Batu Gajah, Pusing, Bemban, a young couple from Tronoh and a cute little girl of 2 years old brought along by the grandma and grandpa. The journey started at 12.05 am on 31/8/11 and reached the Thai border at about 7.00 am. We were greeted by our Hakka speaking tour guide, Mr. Lee Yew Choy from Betong. From then on there was never a boring moment for the group because he was able to keep us entertained with jokes, songs, stories, riddles, common words translation from Chinese to Thai which sounded vulgar in Hakka. On the whole, the tour was interesting, good food, good company, comfortable hotels and happy shopping, but the ending was rather distressing because the bus broke down just at the custom check point at Sadao, delaying our journey home.

Tour guide Lee Yew Choy singing

Highlights of the tour.
a) Day 1 -31/8/11- BG to Krabi
On the way to Krabi we stopped at Emerald Pool – nicknamed mini Juijaigo (China). It was a disappointment because the pathway of wooden planks were in the process of replacement with concrete slabs. The beautiful part of the waterfall was not accessible.

We arrived at Krabi at night, checked in Heritage Hotel to pass the night. Krabi is a tourist town, full of activities at night.


Restaurant at Krabi

Heritage Hotel we stayed






Our tour bus

b) Day 2 – 1/9/11 - Phuket
Cruise to PhangNga National Park to see two famous islands, Khao Ping Kan (Hills leaning against each other) and Khao Tapu (Nail ), known as James Bond Islands, in the Andaman Sea. Passed by a Floating Muslim Fishing Village with a few hundred families.
A Muslim Community – beside fishing they are also operating Restaurants for tourists.

The boats went through a sea tunnel before reaching “James Bond” Islands. From the crowd gathering here and the number of souvenir stalls, one could conclude it is a popular tourist spot all because of the 007 show – The Man with the Golden Gun, filmed here in 1974.





Sailing through a sea tunnel


Khao Tapu - boats and ships were prohibited from sailing to this bay.



Khao Phing Kan





A geological mystery – how it happened ?

Look at those souvenir stores.

Lee Yew Choy our tour guide.

Visited a Gems Gallery with ISO 9002 certificate- claim to be the biggest jewelry factory in the world.

Arrived at Aloha Villa, the hotel we stayed for 2 nights at Patong, Phuket. After checked in, it was free and easy to explore Patong and its night life plus some shopping. Patong is quiet and sleepy in the day but bursts to life at night till morning.

c) Day 3 – 2/9/11 - Phuket
Visited a Buddhist temple before tooking a speed boat ride to Coral Island for swimming in crystal clear water on white sand beach. Other sea activities available were snorkeling, parachute sailing, scuba diving, coral watching on boat, etc, all come with additional charge. We wanted to try out parachute sailing (RM70 per minute ) but the crowd saved our money.
After coming back from Coral Island we had a nice buffet lunch at Thai Naan Restaurant
( > 50 dishes )
Next stop was the Laem Phromthep Cape on a hill where we could get a beautiful sea view of the Andaman Sea.

Connie says “I can fly!”

Then, we proceeded to the Snake Farm which houses various types of poisonous snakes. After watching a snake performance we were introduced to snake products. Products from this snake farm included antidote for snake bite, pills for rheumatism, aphrodisiac from snake penis, plus other magical cures.

Playing with cobra

Next stop was a pearl factory

The best item of the day was the FantaSea Show – a variety show of 75 minutes consisting of magic, circus, cultural dance, wayang kulit, etc. Strictly no picture taking in the theatre. Our cameras, hand phones, and video cams were quarantined till the show ended. Even Disneyland do not impose such a fuss. The location is a mini Disneyland with buildings of fanciful architecture and colourfully lighted at night. Entrance fee of RM165 comes with a grand buffet dinner in a ‘palace’ just before show.

Imitation of Khao Tapu

Buffet dining hall, like palace

One of those fanciful buildings

d) Day 4 – 3/9/11 Phuket – Hatyai
We left Phuket for Hatyai.
At a slope, the bus ran out of fuel. Our journey was held up for one hour. We stopped over at Trang for lunch.
Arrived at Hatyai, had dinner before checked in V.L. Hotel. It was free and easy for everyone – shopping, massage, sexy show, etc

Ice cream block with durian flavour we enjoyed

e) Day 5 – 4/9/11 - Depart Hatyai to home – a bitter but memorableA journey.
Arrived at Sadao custom check at 5.00 pm, the bus stalled for the 2nd time, again ran out of fuel. This time it was more serious – battery gone flat and starter coil burned. While waiting for the rescue bus from Ipoh to come, our tour leader’s wife spotted a bus passing through without a single passenger. She ran after the bus and managed to stop her to ask for help. The two bus drivers were young ladies !

Transferring our baggage and goodies to another bus at Sadao Custom check

We were relieved to know that we would not be stranded at the check point till midnight. We stopped at Alor Star for dinner then to Juru to change to the rescue bus from Ipoh, arriving home at 2.30 am. on 5th September 2011 with sweet and unforgettable memories of the tour.

Kuching Tour

Kuching Tour

Day 5, (last day) 7 / 5 / 2011

9.30 am. After breakfast we drove to UNIMAS to have a brief tour of the campus. We were quite impressed with the golf course at the entrance to project a nice feeling for the visitors. The buildings were of modern architecture and the lake garden area was also well landscaped. We drove back to town to visit Dayang Salha Layer cake factory which was located just over the opposite bank. We did some last minute shopping at the Bazaar for souvenirs before checking out at 1.30 pm. We returned the rented car at the Airport at 2.00 pm and took off at 3.00 pm, touched down at Penang at 5.00 pm. leaving sweet memories of the Cat City.

Crossing the Sarawak river by boat - fare RM0.50 per head ( one way )

Sampling many varieties of layer cake.

We got what we wanted

Symbol of the Cat City

A sape nicely framed

Kuching Tour

Kuching Tour

Day 4, 6 / 5 / 2011

We rented a Proton Wira for two days and drove around with the help of GPS. After breakfast we drove to Bako National Park jetty point where we parked the car and took a boat ride to Bako National Park. The boatman was willing to take us for a cruise to see sea-stacks with an extra charge. We spent four hours in the park, walking around looking for animals and jungle trekking. We saw a monitor lizard and a big wild boar roaming around the park HQ area searching for food. Connie and I took a short trail along the coast which took us two hours to and fro. On the way we spotted three proboscis monkeys. After an exhaustive walk, we had a good rest and had lunch at the park cafe before the boatman took us back to the jetty at 3.15 pm. We drove back to town and rested in the hotel room until dinner time.

Boat ride to the Bako National Park

A sea stack with an interesting shape.

A family of proboscis monkeys

The lonely wild boar

Kuching tour

Kuching tour

Day 3, 5/5/2011

9.15 a.m. After breakfast we had a van and driver ready to take us to Semenggoh Wildlife Sanctuary to see orangutans. Yu – N did not come along because he attended the Imagine cup competition at Pullman hotel. By the time we reached there at about 10.00 a.m. there was already a crowd, mostly whites, busy taking pictures of Richie and his family ( 4 or 5 ), some feeding and some swinging from tree to tree. Next we visited the Jong’s Crocodile farm cum mini zoo nearby. Besides crocodiles there were many species of animals like sun bear, otter, civet cat, cassowary ( a flightless bird), arapaima ( a giant fish species from the Amazon ). At 11.00 am. it was “show time” where many hungry crocodiles in a pond were made to jump for a chicken hung above on a cable. To some this show was amusement but to me, this was real cruelty to animals. We left the crocodile farm at 12.00 noon to Bau for lunch. We visited two caves, the Wind caves and the Fairy caves. Since it would be difficult to explore with the two little boys, we satisfied ourselves by just taking a look at the entrances. On the way back to Kuching we visited a pottery, a factory making mainly ornamental vases, a bird nest processing factory and the Sarawak museum. We arrived at hotel at 4.00 pm. completely tired out and enough of touring for the day. After rested we treated ourselves with a nice dinner at “Top Spot” restaurant.

Richie enjoying his feed.

They must be Richie’s kids, still young and playful.

Handsome cassowary – a flightless bird

Poor crocodile : “How to jump so high ?”

Entrance to the Wind caves

Kuching Tour

Kuching Tour

Day 2 4 / 5/ 2011

This was the first breakfast we had in hotel. There was a good spread of food and varieties of Western, Oriental and local delights. After breakfast we had a package tour to the Cultural Village at Santubong from 10.00am. – 1.00 pm. The Sarawak Cultural Village Tour featured different models of Longhouses of Sarawak natives – Bidayuh, Penan, Iban, Orang ulu, Melanau besides traditional Malay house and Chinese farm house. The best attraction of the tour was the cultural dance performance telling stories of happenings in their daily living with nice music accompaniment. We had lunch in the village cafe savouring some local delights like kolo mee and laksa. Our tour guide cum driver took us to Damai Beach Resort for a brief view of this beautiful resort hotel before sending us back to town. After resting awhile we took Justin by taxi to see a doctor for body rashes. We had a bus ride back to town and had dinner in a Chinese hawker store while waiting for the rain to stop. We took a short walk back to hotel shielding ourselves from the drizzle with an umbrella and 2 raincoats. What an adventurous evening !

Justin watching Grandma pounding rice.

An Iban lady demonstrates the weaving of a traditional dress.

An orang ulu playing the sape

Angie climbing up a multi-storey Melanau house with Justin.


Connie demonstrates how to grind wet rice powder using a set of “mor”

Connie demonstrates how to carry a pair of “lor ”

“Justin, would you like to sleep on this cradle ?”

Cultural dance performance

A Simple and Happy Anniversary

1st April 2011

Connie and I were ‘foolish’ enough to get married on 1st April 1973. This 1st April 2011 was our 38th Wedding Anniversary. Since everyone was home, it was a good opportunity to take a family photo for remembrance. After singing and cake cutting ceremony, we all enjoyed ourselves over a tiramisu.

Everyone was struggling to maintain a smile for an auto ‘timed’ shot except Rosalie. She ‘seemed’ to be busy reminding grandpa to look in front while Gabriel gor gor trying hard to attract her attention to look in front.

Kuching Tour

Kuching Tour, 5D4N (3rd – 7th May 2011)
Tour group consisted of Yu – N, Angie, Julian, Justin, Connie and yours truly, Christopher.

Day 1 – 3 / 5 / 2011
Took off by AirAsia from Penang International Airport at 10.00 a.m. and touched down at Kuching International Airport at 12.00 noon. We took taxi to town and checked in our Hotel, Grand Margherita.
After lunch we rested in the room from 3.00-5.00 pm because we were quite reluctant to walk around town under the hot sun, while Yu – N , Angie and their 2 kids went for a boat ride.
We all went for a river cruise from 5.30 – 7.00 pm. to admire the nature and culture view on both sides of the river. The leisurely cruise gave us a good view of this Cat City with many high rise buildings and famous landmarks like the Dewan Undangan Negeri, Astana, Chief Minister’s residence, Fort Margherita, etc. There was also a solo cultural dance performance by the orang ulu tribe depicting a hunting trip with a blowpipe. Cordial drink and layer cake were served on board. The cruise ended just as the sun bid us farewell for the day with a splendid display of its beautiful rays perfectly blended with the cloud. We called it a day after dinner at Ipoh Town Kopitiam (in Kuching not in Ipoh.)

The Cruise Boat - EQUATORIAL

Blowpipe dance

Beautiful sunset scene

A panorama of the Sarawak river view
Sarawak State Assembly on the left bank, Kuching City on the right bank.