cruise can be quite boring unless u went w e right grp of ppl..
why?
cos u see nothing but sea all day.. so even if u r a sea lover i has e naggy feeling that one will still yearn for something else so that's when u need a grp of onz ppl.. =P
another alternative is that one indulge himself/herself in eating.. there are 5 to 6 meals provided everyday, u realli can eat till u drop man.. however, the food quality varies across the different restuarants and by e 3rd day we are all complaining about the lack of variety.. end up eating alot during e cruise.. dunno if i actualli gained weight.. lol
e cruise is part training conference and part holiday so daytime we are quite occupied with seminars n talks. so night time is where all e fun starts..
1st night end up playing asshole dai di until like 2-3am?
n someone actualli broke arjun's record!! kudos to him =P
2nd night is real fun.. we have a grp dinner that include some games..
then our grp end up dressing a guy into a gal n make him go half-naked! =P
e game is to dress up e person using whatever that's provided in a bag n we realise its all gal stuff but we alr arrowed this guy - HR earlier on to play e game so poor him, becomes e victim..
luckily HR also quite onz, he din complain n jus let us 'dong shou dong jiao'.. haha
then when he went up to parade, it created an uproar..
there are also 2 other guys dressed like women though none of them is half naked with enhancement..
and boy, all e guys are very 'sao' n flirty when asked to perform some dance!
even e MC is not spared from the flirtiness, guess they wanna bribe/charm the MC into awarding them more points ba.. =D
then when its down to e 3 guys to determine e winner, e other 2 guys concede defeat cos they claim that their b*** not as wei da as HR (e photos will tell everything later..)
not surprisingly HR is e winner for this game and when our CEO is supposed to pass him e prize he couldn't bring himself to do it.. end up its e sponsor rep who presented the prize.. anyway i think HR's sacrifice is worth it cos the prize is $200 or $300 worth of shopping vouchers!! eh, how come e 'dressers' are not rewarded ar? lol..
aft dinner we went to play asshole dai ti (yes, again) and that's when i intro them to other ppl and all seems rather amused at how e game is played.. still wondering who is e inventor.. n me plus 3 more ppl very best.. cos we were playing bridge at e ktv lounge, when it closes at ard 2am we moved on to the mahjong room and continue playing all e way till 4+/5am! OMG, never realise my stamina in games can be so good.. haha..
but i must say that bridge is a good game, intellectual and can be quite addictive.. lost count on e num of times where I skipped lectures when im still in uni just to play bridge..
but we also paid a price for staying till so late.. so we landed at Phuket on e 3rd day so all 4 of us only slept like 3 hrs?
however we still got e energy to travel ard Phuket and dun feel tired.. at times i realli marvel at e human body.. =D
anyway we - a whole big grp first took a minibus from e port and went to Phuket town.. from there we spilt up into smaller grps. so i was with Dan n HR. cos i wanted to go to Patong beach, we end up walking like 1-2km to catch e public bus. quite a good experience cos i got to cover part of e Phuket town and i was mentioning to e 2 guys that Phuket is realli like M'sia except that e words are in Thai.. =D and while walking we saw a sign that's pretty funny cos it says "Turn Left Free" (see photo at e end of e post) and we were like "Then turn right got ERP issit?" =P well, cant blame their eng and i also dun think its e most hilarious ones.. cos my sis got told me alot of jokes from e signboards in Taiwan which is realli CMI. this one is just grammar error but we just too 'qian bian' to think of e next pharse for it.. heez
anyway e Thai bus is super different from that of S'pore and M'sia. There is no door, the back of e bus is where one board/alight. And there are just 2 row of seats which are parallel to the windows.. so u can say there's no privacy. cos anything u did will be seen by e ppl sitting opposite u. then e bus driver is seperated from us by this metal windscreen, just like wat u see in e mini van in spore. e fare is 20 baht which is approx S$1, comparable to spore rate, surprisingly quite ex but e catch is its a flat rate! that means its best if u r travelling long distance which we are.. heez.. and e bus seems to be private owned and not belong to any bus co cos i dun rem seeing wat's e bus num, we just asked e bus driver and attendant whether this bus goes to Patong beach. and they also dun collect money first, its only halfway during e journey tt e attendant started collecting $.
anyway e journey is quite long, took ard 50 min but IMO its quite worth e time cos Patong beach is realli nice.. comparable to Tioman! except tt its realli crowded, even though its a weekday! and seems like this is realli popular with e Ang mohs cos everywhere i go i see ang mohs from all directions.. have this naggy feeling that asians are actualli e minority. there are quite a num of seasports ava but i tried none.. somehow not in e mood and found it quite ex, like paraski cost S$50 to S$60 and the duration is less than 5 min. and also no shells for me to pick =( so end up just strolling on e beach and enjoying e sun and sand. that's also when i saw some jaw dropping scene.. saw one lady had an umbrella over her head while walking on e beach and another lady who is fully clothed - wearing quite formal and pretty walking near e waters with a hat on.. realli wondering if they understand there is this item call sunblock and a category of clothes called beachwear.
considering patong beach is such a popular tourist attraction, its no surprise that there are quite a num of shopping centres and numerous rows of pasar-malam like stalls littering e whole area within 1km radius of e beach.. and they sure sell alot of inspired/fake goods! super look like e authentic items lor.. but they are too mani stalls selling t-shirts which im not interested in.. plus it also din help by e fact tt e rows of street stalls are quite deserted at daytime until i dun realli wan to shop cos i dun wan to feel pressuried by e boss/asst.
and one thing to note, if u wanna get something bargain real hard.. ppl always tell me to start from 10% of e asked price but usu i dun cos i find that too unreasonable. but its in Phuket that i realise u realli need to start from 10% to 20% if not its U that's at e losing end. what happened was that i saw an inspired Fendi bag (i say its inspired cos i dun rem seeing any brand name printed on e bag) and i was thinking if its going for less than wat i saw in sprees i 90% will get it.. so i asked wat's e price and e person actualli replied me 3000 baht (which is like S$130!!!) !!! obviously i walked away immed cos spree is only going for S$50. then once i walked away, e person say 'why not 1500 baht?'... straightaway a 50% discount leh! i ignored him and continue walking away..
wat do u think e person will react if i turn back and bargain for 800 baht? i know for most young ppl we will be like 'wa, sure anot?' but im alr kind enough to qutoe approx 27% of his asking price. and e reserve price is 1000 baht so actualli i ought to quote a lower price.
moral of e story?
1. dun be 'heart too soft' when shopping in Thailand, esp popular tourist destination like Phuket.
2. dun speak eng!! if not all e more they will quote higher! tested and proven in M'sia, Thailand and Indonesia!
well, e one regret of Phuket tour is that there is simply not enough time (its only a day trip)!!! i haven try e Thai massage, din go to e temples, din cover e whole of Phuket town, din shop enough and the list goes on.. oh no.. one more travel destination on my travel list for future travels.. who like to go w me??
then when back to e ship at night, we went back to ktv lounge to play bridge, again! but this time round i also got sing songs. and i actualli sang in e midst of playing bridge! gals sure can multi-task, lolz. but there was once i asked my partner to help me play out e last 2 sets of e game cos i sort of forget e lyrics of e song im singing and e tv is quite a dist away and we can still win.. haha.
tt night also got singing competition (or it may be e prev nite, cant rem le) and tts when i realise many of my colleagues sure can sing! e ktv competition winner is one of my colleague and he sings 'Xin Yue Tuan' songs veri well. his 'fake voice' is real good! Jack has competitor liao.. =D next time i think my co can hold a singing competition. sure of high standard! ^^
for e final night we went back to e ktv lounge, again(!) cos my co got booked a room for us and e sponsors rep to mingle.. not surprisingly it ended up as a massive drinking session. we were drinking like there's no tomorrow. n i guess both parties (my co colleagues and sponsors rep) were equalli surprised plus gald that e other party can drink so much.. got drinking khakis liao.. and both parties initially wanted to get my co management ppl drunk.. some of them got quite high and siam from e lounge before we know it so e 2 parties ended up 'playing off' against one another.. =D then HR got fairly drunk and were dozing off at one of e sofa at e public lounge and quite a num of us were posing pics w him while at e same time doing funny things to him.. he realli classic leh..
then when back in spore i participated in e BFC game of life (similar to Amazing Race). but now i become part of e organising team instead of being a participant which was e case last yr.. anyway this game of life is my most memorable time in BFC, a perfect example of marrying training w games.. so i joined in e organising team partly to allow myself to be transported back across time.. however this time round e route that e participants covered is different from mine last yr.. but this route is definitely more scenic and e places are much easier to find (good for e participants)
overall have a fun time and e feedback from e participants are positive too! *happy*
rather eventful week for me last wk, but also notice that im spending ever more times with my colleagues.. not a bad thing but jus tt comparatively almost never see my econs + astro frens le. perhaps i shd start organising badminton sessions again?
