My Teaching Journal

It was raining so we couldn’t go to the beach. To make the most of our time we caught a train to Little India and Sim Lim. The trains are like the tubes in London – not that I’ve been there. The trains played a loop of bomb threat videos. It didn’t feel great watching the Madrid bombings etc while traveling on a train. The shopping wasn’t that cheap and the markets looked like there would be more action at night. We went to a big department store called Mustafa’s. There were soooooo many cheap cosmetics and I purchased quite a lot of stuff. 

On the way back we had dinner at Harbour Front. The food in Singapore is quite cheap. Food court meals are only about $4-5 for a big meal.

We spent the morning swimming in our resort. It was a lot busier because of Singaporeans going to Santosa for the weekend. I did ‘water aerobics’ which the cheesy lifeguard led.

After we freshened up we took the free local tram to Dolphin’s Lagoon where we saw PINK DOLPHINS. They did cool tricks and was a once in a lifetime experience! We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the other man-made beaches on the island and went to Underwater World. Outside the aquarium a man came up to me and put a snake around my neck…I was so terrified the snake wasn’t around my neck long enough to get a photo. It felt pretty smooth and was quite heavy. When we were in the aquarium we patted stingrays – I was quite cautious as it wasn’t long after Steve Irwin had passed away.

We started the day with a swim at the beach/pools and then caught a train to Chinatown. After a tasty lunch we went back to Mustafa’s to get some more treaties .

At night we went to the Night Safari. It was amazing seeing animals at night time and traveling in a little tram. We watched a show called ‘Creatures of the Night’. When the animal trainer pretended there was an animal on the loose, Simon touched the leg of the lady next to us. She JUMPED UP and started SCREAMING. Everyone looked!

What a mission to pack up all of our shopping!

Singapore was sooooo clean and green. If you spit or throw rubbish on the ground, you get a massive then and have to clean rubbish from the streets…even if your a doctor! It was weird being in a place where most people speak English. Santosa was only 25 minutes from the airport. Our resort (Santa Rosa Resort) was VERY flash, however our resort in Phuket had better pool facilities. Santa Rosa Resort is located ON the man-made beach so when you’re sunbathing you just have to step across two metres to switch between them. Our room had a massive poolview balcony with sunbathing chairs and a phone next to the toilet! There was even a volume control next to the toilet so you could listen to the television in the bathroom. Another standout feature in the bathroom are the TWO showerheads!

After getting over how cool the bathroom was we treated ourselves to room service and they delivered it covered with a big silver dish – just like how they do it in the movies. We felt very pampared eating our meal in the robes and slippers that the resort provided.

Ohhhh it’s good to be back to our buffet breakfast, the pancakes are really good! After we went for a swim and went to the gym, yes that’s right!!!

We caught a tuk tuk to Patong in the late afterenoon.  After some fantastic sweet and sour pork we went to an ‘entertainment show’. I won’t say anymore…Anyway I bought another handbag. It’s hilarious seeing the signs that say "Come see my secret room" which basically means come see my stash of fake Gucci and Prada. There were so many lady boys tonight! Some are really quite stunning!

Well I don’t have to type much for today.

We….

Swam…

Sunbathed…

Swam…

and Sunbathed!

We had to best Masaman curry around the corner from us..mmmmmmmmmm.

Elections today.

After our buffet breakfast at our hotel we had a wee wonder though the town and caught a longtail boat to Long Beach (80B). We swam and sunbathed for a few hours before catching the ferry back to Phuket. Our ferry had a couple very large groups of Indians who were very noisy with their children running around. Taking a nap was impossible.

When we arrived back at our resort we had a swim and went out for dinner. It was pretty quiet because it was the night before the elections and apparently illegal to sell alcohol.

We caught a ferry to Phi Phi which was a pretty smooth ride. We stopped at Phi Phi Leh (the smaller island) and saw Viking Cave and went snorkeling in Maya Bay(where ‘The Beach’ was filmed). There were a lot more colourful fish and coral than Chicken Island and they swam up really close to you. We were able to take photos underwater with a special waterpoof camera case that Si bought. We stopped on Long Beach (Hat Yai?) for a buffet lunch, a quiet beautiful beach with a really relaxed feel. Next we WALKED to Ton Sai to find some accommodation. I felt really sick, I think it was heat stroke?

After having a long nana nap we ventured out into the town. The food was a lot cheaper than I thought. It was rather nice not to have taxis, tuk tuks or motocycles. The locals all ride bicycles and go around warning people with their bells…if they don’t have bells they go around saying "beep beep!!!!". People are a lot relaxed and they are younger. They are so many tattoo parlors!!! I would of loved to stay here for a week.

Hmm they really promote the Beach movie here..

Today was much more relaxed. We swam and sunbathed at the beach today and not a soul pestered us, it was great! After the beach we swam and sunbathed at our resort…ohh this is the life. We had a drink at the bar in the middle of the pool, a bit pricey but we felt pretty cool. We got a little burnt today, pure aloe vera gel is the best! There are a fewer older European topless women at our pools, even though it says it’s rude to in our hotel guide hmmmm.

After our lazy day we walked to the market sfor dinner. We had 50B pad thai, by the the cheapest food in Phuket we’ve seen so far. On the way from walking back we got pedicures done for 100B ($4)

I’m so excited to go to PhiPhi Island hehe