Traveloguette: Penang-Phuket Cruise, part 2

(This is a continuation of part 1. For clarity's sake, the cruise lasted from June 27-30, Sunday to Wednesday. "Present" time is Tuesday, June 29.)

Woke up on Tuesday morning to discover that the ship wasn't rocking as badly as the night before. In fact, it wasn't rocking at all. Curious. I quietly crept out onto the balcony and took a look outside.


Buses!

Apparently, the ship had docked earlier, and other day tourists were already moving out to the coaches in droves. It didn't look like we'd docked at Patong Beach, which we had expected. A quick check with the reception desk confirmed that we were not, indeed, at Patong Beach; rather, the beach was on the opposite side of Phuket island. And that we were too late to join the coach that was heading there. Doh!


Islands in the sun

Since we weren't in any hurry to catch the bus, we took a leisurely breakfast at Bella Vista (nice ambience, so-so food). By this time Mum had woken up, and we headed down to the dock to find some transport out of this pier-in-the-middle-of-nowhere.

Haggled a little with the taxi driver, before agreeing to take in the sights at Phuket Town instead of Patong Beach (Patong, he said, was in its low season - monsoon period, too rainy, few activities open). I was surprised to discover that his ride was an old silver Honda Civic, with lowered suspension and huge 17-inch rims; definitely not the typical taxi I'd been expecting to see. The side windows and rear windscreen were plastered on the inside with what looked like cheap purple anti-glare film, and the leather seats were torn in several places.

On the way to Phuket Town, we discovered the pitfalls of having a terminally-low suspension coupled with oversized tires. Every time he took a corner - even gently, mind - the rear outer tire would come into contact with the mudguard, producing a nasty plasticky scraping sound. Despite that and his fuel needle hovering dangerously near 'E', he accelerated rapidly and drove fairly fast.

Our first stop was a place that sold gemstones, jewelry and other tourist-y items. We got out of there fairly quickly, it was like the Penang shop. True enough, as we drove out of the premises, the driver told us that they'd give him fuel stamps for bringing in customers.

The next stop wouldn't be giving him a stamp, he promised - the Sea Store just sold local foodstuff. J and Mum bought quite a bit of stuff, which the store packed nicely into a box and sealed up for us. I saw this hawker selling corn in the store's carpark, and bought a bowl from him for 10 baht (kinda in exchange for letting me snap away at him).


Tasty corn, only ten baht

We went up to a hilltop lookout with a fairly decent view over Phuket Town, but I didn't manage to get any photos that I was happy with. The driver then brought us to a waterside restaurant to have lunch. Being low tide, the bay that the restaurant sat on was mostly mud with a few visible trenches of water. Halfway across the bay, people with shovels could be seen working the muddy ground in the hot sun for mussels and other shells. Nice quiet place to have lunch, fairly picturesque.


Relax...

After lunch, J and Mum checked into a massage parlour for a Thai Massage. Armed with my camera and about two hours to spare, I got the driver to bring me around town to take photos. This next photo was a lucky one, shot from the hip, the camera pointed in the man's general direction. The lines converging into the man makes the shot interesting.


The cable guy

The temple just further down the road shared its grounds with a school. Kids played in the shade of the trees, safely protected from the scorching sun. It must have been a recess break or something, as they filed towards the school building shortly after.


Obligatory temple photo


The next Thai sports superstar

Several stretches of old houses had been earmarked for conservation, the driver explained. Owners were allowed to repair their buildings and repaint them in different colours if so desired, but were not otherwise allowed to change their original facade design. I turned the next shot into black and white using Photoshop's Channel Mixer function.


Shuttered

I was then brought to a Chinese temple, but I couldn't find anything interesting to take except for the building on the opposite side of the road.


Blue hues

Along one of the canals that led out to the sea, wooden boats such as these lined the sides. During high tide, the boats would be taken out for fishing. At low tide, they proved to be interesting photo subjects. :)


Beached

Back near the bay where we had lunch was a little footpath which led to a wooden walkway overlooking this mangrove swamp. The sun coming through the trees turned the ground into an interesting texture; a moment later and the sun would disappear behind the clouds, making the swamp look gloomy.


Trees and roots

Out of places to go, we headed back to the town area, where I walked around on my own for a bit. The local taxi drivers could smell 'tourist' a mile away - I kept getting asked if I needed a taxi. Smile, shake head, wave hand, walk past, ignore the heat, and look for interesting stuff to take photos of, like this flower cart.


Splash of colour on a hot day

Thai public buses are small and rickety, compared to what we're used to calling a bus back home. I caught this one as it whizzed past.


Zoom-zoom

Met up with J and Mum after their massage, and we headed back to the ship. Unfortunately, we didn't get back too early this time, and had to contend with the long boarding queue. And of all the luck, it started to rain heavily when we were halfway down the queue, causing pandemonium as shouting passengers rushed to squeeze up the gangway or under the nearest available shelter. The rain didn't last very long, but we were thoroughly soaked by the time we got on board.

The gala dinner that night at the Samurai Restaurant sucked pretty bad. Stick to the "inclusive" restaurants, when you don't expect too much you won't be disappointed.

The return trip down the Straits of Malacca lasted from Tuesday night through Wednesday evening, and was pretty uneventful. We avoided most of the public entertainment areas on the ship, and spent most of the time lazing around until it was time to disembark.

Looking back, I probably wouldn't pay for this cruise if I had to do it again. Too crowded with too many annoyingly inconsiderate and pushy folks. I'm not complaining too much though, since we got the cabin for free. :P