After a 5.5 hour delay, I finally boarded Cathay Pacific's CX121, I will end up missing a family dinner but will push that out to Tuesday evening. It is a short trip mainly to visit a friend with their new born, and have been tasked to take some pics of her new bubba.
A rough flight and a late check in to the Hyatt Sha Tin who were very hospitable ! The wet weather seems to follow me to Asia and it was no surprise I woke up to ... well RAIN !!
Blue skies mean nothing in the air !!
Rushing out to my afternoon shoot
A quick sampler from the Baby Kieran shoot
Some quick shopping in between the shoot and family dinner, I feel for HK men !
Dinner at Torimen in Central Hong Kong, my cuz's suggestion never lets us down. Nice food and Kiran off the tap.
Hopefully no special ramen from the chef
Yep, that's it for HK. A quick run on the treddy in the hotel to burn off the beer fromthe night before, and then off to New Town Plaza to shop for Lightning McQueen stuff for my nephew back home in Oz. Checked out of the hotel by midday and then off to Phuket !!!
And yes check this forecast out... THUNDER STORMS ... RAIN !!!
If only Yahoo weather would be off this week !! I leave on Monday !!
Yep but who cares... check this pool out
Just beautiful... water is a warm but what a pool !! Hyatt Regency in Phuket
Local Kamala beach town
Souvenir clothing stores ?
The local tailor doesn't seem too happy
Flight Center has not made it to Phuket yet.
Scuba gear that comes with warnings ?
Yep, you do not need to hail a cab town, you go looking for him. He is not going anywhere.
Crab's ... I'll let you think about it ? Dinner at Andara Resort's SILK restaurant
Off to the Bond Island tour for the next day. This is where they filmed some of "The Man with the Golden Gun", back in the 70's. We take a boat and cruise to Phang Nga Bay. On the way there we canoe around Koh Panak and the caves around Phang Nha. Also we visit the Sea Gypsy Village, Koh Panyee where there is a population of around 2000 people, and apparently they have their own 7 Eleven, mosque and school. You need to pay Baht if you want to take photos of locals. We go visit Lawa Beach where I finally get to jet ski !!
Ao Por Pier .. no return now ...
Praying for nice weather and calm seas as we head out to Phang Nga
One of the most remarkable things I have ever seen, a call out to the eagles and they come on down... fly like an eagle .. .as Seal sings ...
Canoeing in Phang Nga. Quite spectacular.
In the caves we go
Quite a spectacular view.. and yes the weather holds up
Oops spoke to soon.. here comes the weather now ...
Great job dude... well worth your 100 Baht.. sorry if I was cursing you about my camera battery dying...
In search of Bond Island
Leaving it to Popeye .. check those arms out
Without fear our Captain takes us to the James Bond Island, and well this is where the famous scenes were shot. I bet you it was sunny !!!
Koh Panyee
Koh Panyee alley
Koh Panyee alley
The locals need to sell local produce or souvenirs
Local school kids playing around before prayer time
One of the many boats at the water village
Leaving Koh Panyee
Lawa beach, there is really nothing here. The tour group basically has their own setup where you can hire a jet ski or canoe and buy drinks
I don't think I need to see a lady boy show now
Off I go... 1000 Baht of 15mins of fun, cheaper than driving the Ferrari 458 in Vegas that is for sure
That's our touring group !!
We headed back to Phuket after this and well it turned out to be a turn for the worse for me. Got back to the hotel and literally puked my guts out. Not sure what happened... but it is time for R&R.
Checked in to The Shore resort at Katathani and gee was this Luxury with a capital L. The view was remarkable
The picture does no justice and even the crummy weather can not make this view look bad
Managed to get my stomach back in some order after yesterday was a complete write off. Decided to take it easy and visited the closest site nearby. Which was the Big Buddha. We actually didn't know that the elephant trek was nearby also. We weren't exactly dressed to do elephant trekking so we tried to put that off the next day.
The Big Buddha site is not complete, although this still is a huge statue !.
A famous movie quote "Look at the size of that thing"
The weather was really at its best today and well.. the Buddha hike kind of wore me out and I'm still kind of recovering. We decided to take it easy and head out to Phuket Town. Yes 4/5 days (depends on how you look at it as the first day was a write off anyway due to the late arrival) in the trip we decided maybe to head in to town ? yep got our feet eaten by fish ! For a 150 Baht I felt sorry for the fish. Looking carefully some look dead ?
I swear I did not step on any .. any maybe they got food poisoned ?
Back to the hotel, a quick dip in this magical private pool and off to dinner we went to the famed "Kan Eang@Pier". This is a must for "tourists", I do stress that but how can you refuse fresh seafood ?
One word and that is "BEAUTIFUL" what a view. I will definitely miss this view .. this pool .. and well Phuket
This is a gigantic prawn !!
A typical sized mud crab
Goodbye 8842 on Dolphin Valley .. till we come again !!
