Phuket Get-Away

The Cinema Online football team in Phuket

Back, fm left: Ezra, Prem, Sheldon, Suresh, Pramugh

Front: Davies, Jovan, Jimmy, Daddy Marcel and little mascot & lady luck Leticia

The football field in the background

Cheering for Daddy's team..go team go

Mommy & Leticia with the Cinema Online banner

Leticia at Patong Beach on a Sunday morning

Mommy & Leticia enjoying the waves

Daddy and Leticia testing out the sand's sturdyness for a sand castle

Leticia's first tuk-tuk ride

Daddy at the go-kart course

Leticia splashing at the pool at our beautiful hotel villa

The gang in a tuk-tuk to town

At the spa & massage palour, very nice

Delicious dinner at the road side stall, full of tourists and tourist-priced cuisine

Yay...mommy says I can jump on the bed

Daddy's team won the 'bowl' trophy !

Lunch on the final day at the Jungceylon mall

The team at the departure lounge, to fly back home

It's been a super holiday! I had a blast!

Leticia and I followed Daddy and his football mates to Phuket last week. They were scheduled to play in the international 7s tournament. This trip had been planned and confirmed months ago, and it’s a ‘guys-only’ trip. I had urged Marcel to go ahead with it as it’s something that he had been looking forward to. But he wants Leticia and I to come with him, so there we were on the night of Friday 21st Nov at the LCCT airport, to fly to Phuket on Airasia with the rest of the team. We were fortunate to be able to get tickets on the same flight just the week before. Yen had been so excited, having only made her passport the week before and this being her first time on an airplane. She was practically bouncing with exuberance, and in no time, got comfortable with the ‘uncles’.

The guys played footy on Sat afternoon and Sunday morning, though Leticia and I only went to cheer them on Sat. The only other lady there was Jynet, Jimmy’s other half. It was a rather professionally organised tournament, with yummy thick pork sausages on baguette for sale for 100Bhat (RM10). We stayed at Thanthip Villa, a really nice and cosy hotel that’s only less than 5 minutes walk to Patong Beach.

We built sand castles, or at least attempted to, as the sand was just too soft, rode on the tuk-tuk, had a foot massage (me, 300Bhat for an hour) and Thai massage (Marcel, 200Bhat for an hour) while Leticia did some colouring on the Mickey Mouse activity books that I had bought for her specifically for this trip, next to me. It was a very clean and impressive Spa and Massage Centre that opened just 3 days ago, not some dingy place.

Phuket was surprisingly clean, and though the traffic was somewhat heavy, it was a sort of orderly chaos. And the traffic actually stopped to allow pedestrians to cross the street. We’d never have that in KL. Tourists were aplenty here, with even street-side food being tourist-priced (RM12 for pineapple fried rice) but it was delicious. Even the food court food at the Jungceylon shopping mall was really tasty. At least the fried rice here is RM7. Could only order fried rice for Leticia as everything else would be spicy, and pizza. Marcel and I tried the tom yam at several places and it was good.

It was a good and relaxing trip, to get away for a while, but we did not forget Matthew. We talked about how he would enjoy the beach, for we had never taken him to one before, of how he would enjoy digging the sand, laughing at the waves lapping up on his legs and chase the waves and splash about. Leticia talked about how he would enjoy the tuk-tuk ride, and how he would not sit still on it and we can imagine him shrieking loudly with delight, having the wind in his hair.

After the game on Sunday, the guys went go-karting, while Leticia and I were at the beach. It was a Sunday and there were lots of people at Patong Beach, having picnics on mats under the shade, while the Mat Sallehs were baking themselves to a lobster-red. With so many people around, I felt safe and we walked quite a bit along the beach. There was even a playground there.

On the final day (Monday), we all went to the mall with the guys. Most of them are Dads, and I presumed that they are under orders from their wives to buy back some ‘trinkets’ for their kids. As for us, we bought t-shirts for ourselves; 3 for Leticia, 2 for me and 1 for Daddy, simply to finish up our Thai money. Saw some cute little shirts that would be so nice for my son, but…sigh. The t-shirts were the only thing that we bought, with the rest of our money spent mostly on food. Was not in a Christmassy shopping mood. It was really nice and relaxing, no rush as our flight was only at 9pm, and we got a late 6pm check-out from the hotel. Leticia even shared a Swensen’s banana split with Uncle Davies.

Our flight home was delayed for an hour, and Leticia played her travel-size monopoly with Daddy and Uncle Suresh at the departure lounge. The guys were all wonderful and thoughtful, and we three thoroughly enjoyed the trip. And the guys won the bowl trophy! What an achievement.