Food exploration: Chai Thai Food Restaurant @ Soi Khoktanod Road

The first place we went for lunch is at Chai Thaifood Restaurant. This place has many good reviews on Trip Advisor for having good food at reasonable prices. Saying this, bear in mind that food in Phuket is not cheap compared to other places such as Koh Lipe.

We ordered 3 dishes for lunch: Tomyam Goong, Stir Fried Morning Glory and Cashew Nut Chicken

The tomyam came with 5 medium sized prawns for the price of 120B.
Taste wise, it was below our expectation because it wasn't spicy nor sour enough for our liking. Pardon me, I always compare the tomyam I have with the one from Xantana (Alor Setarians will know).

The morning glory was good. Fresh vegetables cooked with salted brown soya beans (tow cheo) makes us so happy. This costs 80B.

The last dish we ordered was disappointing as I believe we have tasted better versions of Cashew nut chicken here in Malaysia. the chicken was tasteless and overall was bland. This costs 120B.

Overall, the bill came up to 450B (including 1 coconut and 1 soda water) which is reasonable.
Based on the many positive reviews from Trip Advisor I dare not say that the restaurant fail to serve yummy food. I believe there are other in-house specialities which we did not have the time to try or maybe we our Malaysian taste buds are just top different from Ang Moh's. No offense!

Day 1 (Night): Exploring Kata Town at Night

As we did not exactly plan where to eat for dinner, we just walked out of our hotel towards Kata town. It was roughly a 10 minute walk. There were shops (optical, tattoo parlour, souvenir shops, 7-11 to name a few) and restaurants (The Boathouse, Re-Ka-Ta, etc) all along the way.

Road towards Kata Town

There were so many tourists around, notably Russians. We noticed that many of the signage were also in Russian.

We visited the Kata Plaza where one can find all sort of souvenirs for sale.

In fact, there are many things you can purchase such as dry bags, swimsuits, T-shirts, beach-wear, handmade souvenirs, beauty products, you name it!

It is also convenient for those who wants to exchange money or withdraw cash as at almost every few meters there is one money changer/ATM.

We bought almost all our souvenirs from this shop.

Day 1: Kata Beach

After siesta and feeling more refreshed, we head out for lunch (will be on a separate post) and then made our way to Kata beach.

Although May is the beginning of the low season, the were still a large number of tourists at the beach.
We were there around 2pm. The beach was clean although the waters were not as clear as those of Koh Lipe.

Kata Beach

The waves were quite high and I almost lost my sunglasses if not for my quick thinking hubby.

After spending about an hour or so, we walked back to the hotel and decided to go for a swim in the pool.

Next post: Exploring Kata town at night....

Sugar Marina Nautical - Kata

Sugar Marina Group has several hotels all over Kata/Karon (e.g. Sugar Marina Surf, Art, Fashion, Nautical). The one in my opinion has the nicest decoration is the Sugar Marina Nautical.

This location of this hotel is strategic as it is near a stone's throw away from Family Mart, some massage parlors, restaurants and the Kata beach. The hotel has a parking lot for cars and motorbikes.

We arrived at 10 am, 4 hours before check-in time (2 pm) but amazingly they had a room ready for us, so we could go in and freshen up. The receptionist speaks good English and we had no problem communicating throughout our stay.

The exterior: 

Hotel exterior

Lobby

The pool

See the lighthouse?

We managed to use the pool for 2 days at odd hours (2-3 pm).

Our room was clean and tastefully decorated.

 The hotel provides shampoo and shower gel as well as other basic toiletries (shower cap, cotton buds, soap) and hair dryer. There is a safe to store your valuable belongings. The hotel provides a minibar which is replenished daily (2 mineral water, 1 chang beer, 1 tin coke, 1 fruit juice and 1 chocolate bar). They also provide bathrobes, beach towels and slippers for use to the beach. How thoughtful!

The 4 day 3 night stay costs 4449.24B (RM 548) which we booked directly at the hotel (http://www.sugarmarina-nautical.com/)

Our balcony overlooks part of Kata town and if you look closely, you will spot the beach (far left) and big buddha statue on top of the hill.

Loved our stay at Sugar Marina Nautical. Highly recommended!

Phuket Anniversary Trip (14 - 17 May 2016)

Last November, I managed to purchase reasonably cheap return flight tickets from Air Asia to Phuket for 2 for RM 550 (inclusive of one 20 kg luggage and breakfast for 2 - one way). Fast forward 6 months we have just gotten back from Phuket. I will be sharing some details about this trip.

The journey to Phuket takes about 1 hour 20 minutes. We arrived at Phuket International Airport (HKT) around 7.45 am (Thai time).

Almost there

 The first thing we did after collecting our luggage was to purchase a Thai simcard for tourist. There are 2 options, a 3 day or 7 day data plan. The 3 day plan costs 200B while a 7 day plan costs 299B. We went for the 7 day plan.

Next is to decide how to get from the airport to our hotel at Kata. From my research online, a single trip from the airport to Kata/Karon via private transfer costs 850B. To save some money since we had ample of time, we decided to use the airport minibus. This costs 200B/person/way.  It is actually an air-conditioned van which the driver will wait until the seats are full before moving. We didn't wait long until the seats were filled up. The journey took about an hour since we stopped at several places including Patong.

The driver stopped us 500 meters from our hotel so we had to walk to our hotel.

Note: The last day we had out hotel arrange a taxi to send us to the airport. It costs 1000B.

Coming next up: Kata Accommodation...

Restoran Hup Fatt @ Mantin

This place is no secret to locals living in Mantin. Located at the same row with KFC Mantin (on the left side if you are coming from Semenyih/Kajang/KL), this coffee shop serves really good noodles.
We found out about this place a couple of weeks ago and once we've tried their noodles we've been back almost several weekends in a row.

We've even brought my family here for breakfast and they too enjoyed the noodles very much.

We've so far tried 3 types of noodles; Hakka Mee, Wonton Mee with Stewed Pork and Wonton Mee with Char Siew. While all 3 types are really yummy, my favourite is still their Hakka Mee. In my opinion, their Hakka Mee is definitely better than the so-called famous Hakka Mee at the Seremban Market.  The noodles are springy and bouncy and topped with generous amount of minced pork cooked in their special sauce. Each plate of noodles comes with a bowl of soup with 3 pieces of wonton.

Here's their Wonton mee with Char Siew.

Wonton Mee with pork and fungus (cha nyuk). See the bottle of pickled green chilies below? You must eat your noodles with these pickled green chilies.

There are other types of noodles sold here which we haven't tried. I've seen people ordering their curry laksa, yong tau foo and wonton mee with siew bak (roasted pork).
A small (mind you..it's enough for an average eater) plate of noodles costs RM 4.50.

Will surely be coming back for more:)

GPS coordinates: 2.8235903,101.8912138

Lala Chong Seafood Restaurant @ Kayu Ara Damansara

Last weekend, we had lunch at Lala Chong Seafood Restaurant. It was to celebrate the birthdays of hubby and my sister. We arrived around 1.20 pm and the place was rather empty except for 3-4 tables. The place is clean and you can opt to sit inside (air-conditioned) or outside.

We quickly browsed through the menu and selected 5 dishes.

Here you go:

Paku (ferns) cooked with belacan (RM 15)

Lala in wine broth (RM 28)

Buttermilk crabs (RM 80/kg)

Fried Mantou (RM 2/pc)

San Bei Chi (3 Cups Chicken) - RM 18

Salted Egg Sotong ( RM 20)

All the dishes were good.  My mom liked their paku; all of us loved the crabs in buttermilk and salted egg sotong. We felt that the wine in the lala dish is not strong enough. I personally felt that there should be more basil in the 3 cups chicken but the rest of my family seemed to think that the basil content was just right.

The total bill came up to  RM 204.05 inclusive of rice (5 pax), drinks (tea in pot), tidbits (mango appetizer) and 6% GST.