“Phuket Mafia Trip”

Today is my girl birthday, “Happy Birthday Sweet pIe”. Called her just now. It was a smooth conversation, just the way I want it. Hope it will stay that way.

3.00 a.m in the morning. Here I’m at my hometown, Seremban, visiting my parent, a day after return form the “Sin City” – Phuket.

Phuket Mafia Trip. It’s all started a few months back when me and the boys were hanging out at kedai mamak after our “project” meeting. One of my friend (D Consultant) is getting married next month, so an idea pop up right away.

D Consultant : since I’m getting married next month, why not we all go to Phuket, as a boys vacation.

Crowd : Agreed! So, what’s the code name?

D Consultant : Phuket Mafia.

Crowd : Cooooool..(done it with the face.)

So, that’s the history. Hehehe. It sound quite “over-gitu” but what-ever! Just to make it more interesting. That’s all. So the journey started. For me, this is my 1^st trip out of this country. So, of course I’m excited. After all, I really need this vacation to clear my head a bit .

Preparation has been made. What should been settled has been set. So everybody should gathered at our check point, KL Sentral at 10.30 a.m Yup, boys will be boys, coz there were late comers. However we manage to get on the bus to the airport around 11.15 a.m and arrived at the airport around 12.00 p.m. Since our flight is 12.45p.m, after check in, we decided to have some smoke first. The time is 12 past 20. So we move to departure gate with our back packs. Suddenly, one airport police stop us.

Mr. Police : Is there any liquid inside the bag?

Crowd : Yes sir.Why?

Liquid tragedy started. Flight passenger can only bring any sort of liquid that below 100ml which it written on the liquid container. What the fuck! Just imagine 7 of us have to dig inside the bag, and hand over one by one our toiletries for approval. But a lot of our stuff kantoi. Most of the so called “illegal” stuff has to leave behind. But we can’t leave bottle of Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Esse Miyaki and other brands of perfume just like that. Another 5 minutes, our flight will take off, decision has to be made. Luckily, there was a luggage services. So what we did, we put all the stuff inside one bag and kept it at the luggage services which cost us about RM 50. Damm. What a waste of money and time. We were the last passenger aboard before the flight take off.

We reached Phuket around 1.15 p.m (Phuket time) and arrived at Patong beach around 2.00 p.m with 2 taxi cars (Toyota vios and the new 1.8 Honda Accord). After a few circle at Patong town, we managed to get 3 stars hotel at cost of RM 50. Quite cheap I think. Lunch time. Now, the task is to find a Halal food. Quite challenging though. However, thank god there was a Macdonald.They called it Mc-Thai. After order has been made, it’s time to pay. It quite confusing coz of the currency. At first, It shocked me when the display at the cashier shows the total amount is 155. But after a bit tuning in the head, It was in Bhat, which equal to RM 15.50. Hehehe…

Transportation. It was cheap to rent a bike in Phuket which only cost about RM 20 for one normal motorbike(below 110cc). So we rent 4 bikes. Another headache comes. My bike got flat tire just right after I want to refuel my bike at the Petrol Station. Then the batteries went out. Damm. Problem has to be solved. It took me 3 hours to settle that issues. Got replacement bike with extra money added of course. This bikes nightmare doesn’t stop here. The next morning, I lost my bikes key. What a day. I have to walk side by side with the bike to the owner shop and then went to the locksmith to make a new key. Cost involved. Enough with all this bike problem. We decided to rent a car.With a bit skills of negotiation, we got a Toyota Fortuner at cost of RM 160 per day.yehaaa!

Lost and Found. With the Fortuner, 7 of us went to other beach in Phuket beside Patong such as Karon Beach, Kata Noi Beach and Kata Beach. After taking our lunch, we decided to hang around at one of the beach. One of us, D Duck, wants to take the pleasure of swimming. He took the bag out from the car, and went to changed. However, coz of hot weather, he canceled the swimming part. So we all went inside the car and drove all around the island. After a few hours, we stop at Promthep Cape. I split from the group and went to the merchandise shop. After bought some goodies, I regroup back with the group. When we want to leave Promthep Cape, I was looking for my bag to put the stuff I just bought.

Me : Where’s my bag?

Crowd : Should be in the car.

Me: Nope. It wasn’t here!

D Consultant : Are your sure? My Handy cam was in your bag!

Me: Shit! When the last time we saw the bag?

Crowd : At the beach!

Quickly, D DrunkSea, drove the car back to the beach. After he stopped the car, everyone rushing out of the car and went back to the last place we sat. One of the beach boys saw us, quickly grabbed the bag and handover it to D Consultant. What a relief. Because of the incident,
they was a small fight among us.. However, it been settled with a table talk. One evening gone just like that.

Below is the “legal” list I plan to do at Phuket:

1) Rent Harley Davidson (at least sportster or Dyna-It cheap there!)

2) Went to Maya Bay (The Beach film location)

3) Snorkeling near Phi Phi island

4) Watch Muay Thai (Thai Boxing)

5) Taste the feel of shooting at phuket shooting range

6) Ride an elephant (Just added to make the list longer)

Out of six, only one I managed to do. Snorkeling. However, it’s only for a few minutes coz of the bad weather. Damm. Time and money constraint. So, I’ve been there. ....Everything is expensive except renting services and liquor. So to whom that “kaki Tanik”, this is one of your places.

What attract me the most is the people. There are welcome you. Everyone is your friend. So far I didn’t encounter any problem with the local. This is because almost 95% of their income(patong) from tourism. I couldn’t found any of the local wearing suit, tie etc, like KL.

The construction there also done neatly. A few building is under construction, but it hard for you to realize it. You can’t hear the bagging sound and other construction noise. Everything was done smooth and neatly compared here.

Well, now I’m in K.L, still finding the tune back. Hmm… who knows, maybe there will be a Phuket Mafia | Revisit… heheheheh.

-vCoke, 18 August 2007-