Three things to do for a full night in Phuket: #2 – Get your massage on!

 2011, Thailand  No Responses »
Jul 292011
 

Everyone knows that massages are super expensive in North America. The prices can be sticker shocking even for people who’ve never left the continent. I can only imagine what South East Asians must think when they come to places like NYC and Toronto and see what these people charge. Yet another reason, I don’t go to spas back home. However, when I come to Asia – I go “buckwild” on massages.

#1 : Get some food in your system
#2 : Get your massage on:
#3.1 :Ride a Tuk Tuk

So when you finish your dinner on Rat-u-Thit, then wander anywhere on the street and look for the signs or the loads of ladies that are hustling for massage services (no dirty massages either)

I’ve been here for three nights, so far and each night has started with an hour long foot massage for 200 baht. The foot massage includes the following

  • Massage of both feet and thighs
  • Shiastu massage of upper back
  • Head massage and neck effleurage
  • Khmer Shoulder massage

You’re going to ask, then why is it called a “foot massage” … well in reflexology, they assume that the feet contain nerve connections to all parts of the body. Hence a massage of feet must also include a component where they close the stimulation loop … “touch a pressure point on the foot that affects your head, then we must also close the pressure point in the head”

The prices listed above are the actual prices with your tip being optional. So for an hour, a foot massage would cost the equivalent of 200 baht/30 = $6.70 CDN – which is a phenomenal deal.

Three things to do for a full night in Phuket: #3.1 – Ride a Tuk Tuk

 2011, Thailand  1 Response »
Jul 292011
 

As the last thing to do on a night in Phuket … after you’re done with your eating, shopping, massaging and drinking on Bangla Road, then you need to cap it off with a drunken Tuk Tuk ride back to your place to crash.

 

Three things to do for a full night in Phuket: #1 – Get some food on Rat U Thit.

 2011, Phuket, Thailand, Thailand  2 Responses »
Jul 292011
 

So you’ve had a long day touring the Phi Phi islands, or Phang Nha or speedboating to Krabi. You’re sore and tired, possibly sunburnt and dehydrated … you now have two choices

  1. Be a sucker and call it a night, by hitting your hotel/hostel/resort/camp – ULTRA WEAK!!!
    OR
  2. Make a hardcore long night of things on Bangla Road, cause you put the “S” on Superman’s chest!

If you’ve met anything who has visited Phuket, then there is no introduction I think is needed for this place. Phuket’s nightlife is storied but Bangla Road is on a next level of things – it has something for everyone. By day, this place is completely boring and stale in most tourist ways, but it erupts at night after 9pm. It’s also the heaven to those ‘desperate old, ugly white men’ – like seriously, it can be a bit much to look, sometimes!

#1 : Get some food in your system:

First thing to do is to get off Beach Road. You have a million choices for dinner, but instead of having dinner at your hotel or at some touristy restaurant on Beach Road, I would walk one street parallel off Beach Road to Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road. This is the second busiest road in Phuket and runs parallel to the Beach Road for over two kilometres.

However, I really do hate the name of the road though for two reasons:

  1. Any blasted name with Rat will make me hate it. Period!!! Thai people, you want western people to do more – then don’t have vermin in street names, especially since western people think that Asian/South Asian people actually eat the fucking things.
  2. I have no idea how to say Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road with any sense of normalcy. These are my issues though, it might be something special in Thai … I could go research it, but why bother; I’m OK with my thought process on this one.

Anyway, for places to eat, I would just go with anyone of the street restaurants. The touts encouraging you to come in and eat, can be a bit annoying but a firm head shake is all one needs. At random, we picked a place where we saw Thais and tourists eating at : Champion Seafood

It can look a little sketchy to the Western eye – but don’t let that put you off. I find it’s best just to ignore certain things and go with the flow. Everything that you would expect in regular restaurant will be found on the street – just no A/C. If you’re too hot, ask for a cold napkin or a beer.

Once you’ve sat down, review the menu and ask the prices for their seafood. All seafood is sold by weight – so if you want to avoid any nasty surprises – do this first and everything should be smooth after that. Everything will be fresh or on ice having been caught that day.

As for the food … it really shouldn’t be anything but awesome. Our dinner included the following menu

  • Chicken Pad Thai (50 baht … yep)
  • Stir fired Morning Glory (100 baht)
  • Seafood fried rice (50 baht … seriously!)
  • 1/2 kilo of fresh prawns – good with chili garlic sauce (350 baht)
  • Seafood Tom Yum Goong (150 baht … absolutely phenomenal taste)
  • 2 large 1/2 litre Singhas (@120 baht)

For a grand total of 940 baht.

Pad Thai, Morning Glory and Tom Yum soup

I think the most innovative part of the meal, was the steaming Tom Yum Goong, in a bowl heat by coals in the center. This is the only way, this soup should ever be served.

After your meal … then you need to move on to the #2 thing to do.

5 notes for eating on Rat U Thit and being happy about it

  1. Don’t look too hard at your surroundings. If you’ve travelled, then you’ve seen worse.
  2. An average meal for 2, without large Singhas should be no more than 250 baht (8$ CDN)
  3. An excellent meal for 2 with large Singhas and 1/2 kilo of fresh prawns, will set you back 950 baht (30$ CDN)
  4. Do ask for the menu and assume nothing unless you see a menu and listed prices.
  5. You will get a bowl of lime water for washing hands – I recommend using your own hand sanitizer or wet naps.

Borobudur is a wonder … even thought the sunrise tour is overrated …

 2011, Indonesia, Yogyakarta  2 Responses »
Jul 272011
 

In my first post about Borobudur, I mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for the whole “sunrise” experience. This being said, one of the main reasons for me coming to Yogyakarta, was to photograph and see Borobudur.

After the morning debacle with our guide Daniel (who you can email directly here … he is awesome, friendly and well known at Borobudur – since he works there - danielwaluyo@rocketmail.com :P ), he felt really bad about the poor sunrise, so he took us through the employee entrance (i.e. “We didn’t pay again to get in“) … VIP style. It was awesome not getting hassled or anything.

If you’ve been to a couple old temples or ruins in the world … Angkor Wat, Teotihuacan, Pompeii; one could argue that they all look alike in some way. This is remarkable when you think about places/structures that are 1000′s of years old, geographically and culturally independent and yet supposedly people never travelled around before Columbus discovered the “New World”. Think about it!

Anyway Borobudur, is pretty phenomenal in the overall context of sacred places. The structure is remarkably well maintained through grants from the Dutch government.

The bas reliefs are stunning in their detail and complexity. The reliefs show the stories based on the manuscripts of Lalitavistara, Jataka-Avadana and Gandavyuha. The Lalitavistara reliefs, consisting of 120 panels, tell us about the life of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. It starts with the descent of Buddha from the Tushita heaven. Born as Prince Siddhartha, Buddha’s childhood was isolated from the outside world’s misery. Accidentally witnessing the misery of sickness, decrepitude and death, young Prince Siddharta decided to escape from the worldly life and commencing his search of freedom from suffering. Siddhartha’s long and painful search finally led him to the highest level of enlightenment and made him Buddha, the Enlightened One. This story ends with Buddha’s sermon in the Deer Park near Benares.

Even the floor is a jigsaw puzzle all put together without cement/mortar/plaster – each section with its own keystone that unlocks the floor for cleaning. Daniel was also clear to mention that under the floors, there are a lot of snakes.

At the top, there are, 72 stupas circle the huge main stupa that crowns the top of the temple. The circular form represents the eternity without beginning and without end, a superlative, tranquil, and pure state of the formless world. There are no reliefs on the three circular terraces.

All but the largest central stupas on the upper levels contain a (more or less) life-sized statue of the Buddha kneeling, although many of these statues are missing or damaged. There are also many alcoves along the lower levels which contain similar statues but many of these are missing or damaged as well.

5 Essential Details for seeing Borobudur and being happy about it

  1. The lighting is best for photography around 2pm – the harsh overhead sunlight at noon make pictures taking tough
  2. Read about the structure, the history and the details of the reliefs. It will put a lot of the structure in perspective.
  3. Find a reliable guide to take you around and explain the history of Borobudur. Getting from Yogyakarta to Borobudur takes an hour by car. Vehicles with a driver can easily arranged for about $30 a day.
  4. Plan to climb some steps. Stop a while, take some pictures and enjoy the daytime view
  5. It should take about 2 hours to walk the grounds and take pictures.

Video

Borobudur

  • rishiray's photo
  • rishiray's photo
  • rishiray's photo
  • rishiray's photo
  • rishiray's photo

View photos at SmugMug

Monday Morning Consultant – Bali Edition – The Lagoon Resort and Spa Nusa Dua Review

 2011, Indonesia  1 Response »
Jul 252011
 

Heading into Bali, I tried to book for 4 free nights at the W Bali Resort in Seminyak, but due to the lack of availability of “standard” rooms, I couldn’t get the first night in – so instead I had to book 1 night at the Lagoon and 3 nights at the W Bali.

As for the room, I would have liked my free room to be a suite, but it can’t happen everywhere, even just for one night. This hotel is a “luxury collection” hotel, but in the end – no upgrade, even for one night is a pisser. There is super extended check out though till 6pm .. we left at 6:30pm for Platinum SPG guests – which was actually pretty nice.

The room was a standard resort room with enhanced bathroom.

The bathroom was a standard bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.

There are no truly special platinum upgrades that the hotel offers outside of the free internet – which is standard in any SPG hotel across the world (forget that it is 20$ USD a day). The hotel doesn’t also have available Wi-Fi, which is really becoming a pain in my ass – each hotel so far, has had great wired connections but little or no Wi-Fi presence throughout the hotel.

The hotel is pretty spectacular from the lobby at night.

Where this hotel does excel, is the actual lagoon swimming pools, grounds and waterfalls. At night, you get the sense of what is available in the day time.

As for the daytime

The daybed at the  beach are amazing .. just out of the movies

Overall :

Great hotel, just no upgrade because of Hilary Clinton – so I can’t fault the hotel for this one (The staff at the hotel were profusely apologetic about the lack of the upgrade). Great resort ground and pools, definitely a honeymoon type resort.

Platinum upgrades and lounges are generally not available here. No Wi-Fi connectivity – I found a signal but the staff has no idea on how to allow access to it (Two front desk people I spoke to on this)

I’m not a resort person and we’re moving on to the W Resort in Seminyak. We’ve been told that it “was just as nice” as the Lagoon Nusa Dua.

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