Phuket Town in A Day

My sister had complained that I was not a good travel mate for her. When we traveled together to Phuket, instead of spending so much time wandering around to see what’s happening here and there, I chose to a be a lazy person. In my defense, we stayed in touristic area called Patong, where the famous beach was only couple of steps and many fancy restaurants around. Moreover, our hotel has nice swimming pool at the third floor with the view right to the beach. So, who cares to walk around as crazy?

Normally, in the morning, after having breakfast, I would go to swimming pool, with my books, and some cold drink and snacks I ordered from the reception. After spending one hour to swim, I would get out of the pool, sitting on the lazy chair with my books and being spoiled with fresh air breeze and  beautiful views in the same time. My sister was there too, just sitting, watching at me realizing how good life had threatened me. She didn’t swim, by the way, and seeing me enjoying my freedom for being lazy in the pool irritated her.

When I satisfied with my morning rituals, we would leave the hotel and walk to the Junceylon, the famous shopping mall in Phuket. Here, that was my turn to get bored. My sister loved to see the things even though she didn’t have any intention to buy them. She was totally opposing me. Avoiding to hear my mumbling while she saw some Thai crafts in the building, she would let me go wherever I liked that I accepted with full of happiness. So, I would spend my time at the coffee shop in the building, trying to finish the book I read during my trip. In one of our visit to Junceylon, while waiting for my sister, I accidentally found a retail offering Thai massages and I didn’t miss the chance to have wonderful massage for two hours.

In the evening, we would go back to our hotel through a famous “Bangla road”. This road is full with night clubs along the road, that started to open since afternoon. Usually, they just served some drinks during the day. Once the sun went down, some attractions would also start. We didn’t drink, so what we did just enjoy the sparkling lights from the club buildings.

But that day, my sister successfully convinced me that we should leave Patong beach for a day. She kept saying that she wanted to see the famous Big Buddha. I didn’t want to leave the image of stubborn sister to her, moreover traveling together is not something that we could always do together. So, I agreed to leave the beach and heading to Phuket town using the public bus together with the locals.

Once we arrived at the city, a Thai man with his son aged 8 years old probably approached us. He spoke in Malay to us, which was surprised me by the way. Before that time, I never knew that Thai people could speak Malay too. He offered us to take us around the city with his car and gave reasonable price for five hours. When my sister said something about Big Buddha, that man immediately said, “OK. I know that place. Don’t worry. I will take you there”

So, he took us to one Buddhist temple in the city, with huge Golden Buddhist Statues sitting in the middle of temple compound. I found that the name of the temple is Was Khao Rang. It’s exactly located in Phuket downtown, on the slope of the Rang Hill. Beside the big Buddha statue, visitors also could enjoy the beauty of scenery surrounding. When I read more explanation about the temple, the statue is considered as the first big Buddha image in Phuket before the Giant Buddha was built in the other Hills. I started telling myself that this is not the Big Buddha that my sister actually wanted to see. But, seeing how excited she was, I didn’t want to distract her happiness and didn’t mention anything about my doubts. Moreover, I was also quite happy seeing this beautiful statue.

The next place we visited was The Butterfly Park. Again, I let my sister to decide our next destination. This garden was built in 199o that has various variety of butterflies and insects. One of staffs working there told us that the best time to visit the park is during the sunny days since it attracted butterflies to be more active. We came during the cloudy day, but still we found it attractive enough with colorful butterflies flying around. It was delighted seeing colorful butterflies flying everywhere. The park doesn’t keep the alive butterflies only, but also there are some preserved rare types of butterflies in one exhibition room. Still in the park, we could find the silk museum that show us the process of silk making, including the yarn spinning machine.

The driver took us was so friendly and his son was amazing too. The son even assisted us to open and close any door we passed that I actually found was a bit too much for me. I was just not used to to be served as much as this. Overall, I was happy with them. Thus, we separated in Phuket town. In the city, we didn’t need the car since we just want to walk around how the city was. My impression to Phuket, it’s okay. In my opinion, it was not so particular place, even the city reminded me as the old town of Medan, the city where I came from.

After a while, we decided to go back to Patong. On our way back, my sister told me, “I think, the big Buddha that we’ve just seen was not the Big Buddha that I wanted to see”.