Karon Beach

A belated post about my weekend with Pum and his family. On the last day that they were in town, we went to Karon Beach, west of Phuket and south of Patong Beach, to get ourselves wet and (even more) tanned. The sea during the monsoon season is not so inviting to swim as the waves are very strong and often pull unwary swimmers down under the water which make sad news every year. So we decided to just stay close to the shore and not going further than knee-high water, even then many times that we got pulled down into the sea alogn with large amount of sand. Anyway, it was fun and we stayed on the beach for over 2 hours. The result was...I got a very distinct swimsuit mark on my back and slightly red shoulders. (I could no longer claim that I would never ever get a sun burn. =P)

The waves


Pum, resting after a good fight with the vicious waves


Jumping over the waves with Pum's sister, Maprang


The sun was so strong that I almost got a sun burn (lesson learned: should have left my shirt on :S)

(Sea)Shell Museum

My mom and I went to Phuket Shell Museum with Pum and his family after various temple visits. I expected it to be average but I was surprised how beautiful and interesting the displays were. I think it really worths a visit for those who want to take a break from the sun but still feel close to the sea.

Shell beauty can be found in all shapes, colors and sizes


The fish bone shells, they look cool and painful at the same time


I really like the pattern on these shells


Some of these patterns are so neat that they look like they were hand-painted


The diversity of shapes that nature can make


Amazing colors of these thorny guys

Belated photos from my weekend with Pum and my mom

The teacher flat where I live in PSU Phuket campus


Wat Chalong (again) on an awesome sunny day


'Temple cat' at Wat Chalong


Me and my beloved mom with the view of west coast of Phuket behind

Puppies

I visited my parents' house in Trang this weekend. And I was welcomed with a very pleasant surprise from these little puppies of my favourite dog, Macs.

Macs feeding her babies, they are only 1 month old


The little puppies playing around their mom


One of the fattest little cuties =)


I like the look of this one, isn't he a handsome little puppy? Hehehe =)


The walkway between my grandma's house and my house has turned into a puppy land =D

Touring Phuket with mom and Pum's family

My mom, Pum, Pum's sister and mom walking up 78 steps to where a giant Buddha image is being built


View of Chalong Bay and islands in Phang-nga Bay from a temple on the top of the mountain

Exploring Phuket on a motorbike

Three Bay lookout (Karon, Kata, Kata-noi, from far to near)


Thai-style life guard station


Karon Beach on an awesome sunny day


Paying respect to a monument at Phrom Thep Cape after the sunset (which went down behind the clouds)

Old Town Phuket

An art gallery in the old town area of Phuket


Seeing an artist at work


Pictures in the art gallery


Chino-Portuguese architecture in old buildings in Phuket downtown


More colorful old buildings in smaller streets

Koh Phra Thong (Phra Thong Island)

Leaving the mainland of Phang-Nga to Koh Phra Thong in the rainy weather


Wild Orchid at Phra Thong Island


The "tiger" orchid


More beautiful orchid flowers


Trying a local smoking leave (without the tobacco inside, I'm still a good girl =p)

First weekend in Phuket

My first weekend in Phuket alone happened to be a long weekend as Monday was a substitute holiday for Coronation day which was actually on Saturday. I decided not to go home to Trang because one of my favourite 'seniors', the term I use for Thai friends who are older than me, happened to be in Phuket for holiday. It was good catching up with P' Yok who then became my savior from having to be stuck in the flat alone (my flatmate took off to travel since Friday evening).

The weather was amazingly good for both Saturday and Sunday despite the heavy, continuous rain on previous days. So to celebrate such luck with the weather, I let myself be talked into trying some water sports. We went to the water sport park near Kathu Waterfall which is a medium size (man-made?) pond with sling running in the middle. I started with knee board which is not too bad except when it comes to turning a corner, I always fell into the water. It was exciting enough trying this kind of thing for the first time but it got even more thrilling when the guy who is in charge if releasing the sling force me into trying the ski. I was really scared but thanks to a lot of pressure the same guy kept giving me, I was able to take off from the platform without diving into the water. But then again, I did fall into the water every time the corner came. After about 1 and a half hour, my arms got no more strength to hold on to the handle and that was it for the water sport for me for the day. Too bad that I didn't have any photos to post as my camera was misbehaving again (post effect from the lake incident).

It was still early in the evening so we went to Patong beach to have a look around. I got to go into the water again, this time without hurting myself. The waves were small and it was just perfect for floating in the water looking at the blue sky. It was the best weekend I could ever imagine for the first week in a new town.

Patong Beach

Looking towards the southern end of Patong Beach


P Yok, my visitor and guide at the same time =P, with the view of the northern end of the beach


Blue sky, white sand and the two locals on 'Farang Beach' =P


After the swim in the calm sea under the blue sky


Before the sunset

More photos of Wat Chalong

Another impressive piece of architecture in forms of a tall tower


Inside the building, there are many Buddha images that people donated to the temple


View from the top of the tall tower

Phuket

It's my 4th day in Phuket and in a 'real job'. A quick update for everyone, I'm now working at university in Phuket as a lecturer. My working hour is quite flexible for now as it is a school vacation. As a university staff, I can live in the flat inside the university for free. It's only 400-500 meters away from my office so that is really great. It's not a big campus but there are facilities like tennis court, basketball stands and foodball field if I ever feel like doing some exercise. My first day in the job was on the 1st of May. I met the dean of the faculty, filled up several forms for the HRM lady, moved my stuffs into my flat and that's it. Since it's the vacation and my office is not ready yet, they don't really have anything for me to do for now. So I got to visit a famous temple of Phuket where I could pray to the holy monks for smooth transition to this new town and into the working life.

Part of architecture in Wat Chalong, the famous temple of Phuket


A resemblance of a monk cottage where wax model of the famous monks are displayed