Phuket & Singapore 2009 – Day 6 – Phuket FantaSea
Our first free day..we had a nice leisurely breakfast at 9..a huge buffet with cereal, yoghurt, soups ..a bakery all fresh breads, croissants, cakes & a chef who makes fresh donuts / waffles, another chef who makes eggs – fried poached omelette etc, all cooked foods – bacon, sausages, pancakes, potatoes, French toast, oriental foods , juices & a huge variety of fruit. We caught the courtesy bus down town to the Jung Ceylon centre ( big dept shops ) & waited 5 min till it opened at 11am, had a look around, I bought a small stingray leather purse & a shirt for Brendan. David wanted to buy a tent but settled for a 10lt waterproof bag. We found a ATM & got some more money 5000b & they charged us 150b for the privilege. We aren’t as rich here as we were in Cambodia..We then hit the streets looking for bargains, I must say that shopping here isn’t that great & apart from a few shirts which are a light quality & shorts which feel plasticy the prices are similar to home. We had been walking around for a few hours & Brendan needed to go to the toilet..do you think we could find one.we ended up at..wait for it..McDonalds’, yes they had a toilet so while we were there had a quick burger – much to David’s disgust, I was surprised at how many people actually eat there.
We continued to walk up & down alleys & paths buying bits & pieces until we had, had enough, (well at least until I had had enough, both David & Brendan had had enough hours ago! ) we bargained for a tuk tuk to bring us back to the hotel for a rest. We had another long cool swim & a drink at the poolside bar – this time I had a coconut cooler – a pink cocktail served in a coconut mmm yummy. We then got ready to go out to Fantasea, we were picked up in a pink mini bus which had a picture of the elephant on it & drove for about 45min We were greeted by some formally dressed women..picked up out tickets & were free to roam around – it had side show alleys & gift shops etc. We went in to the jungle adventure which led to 2 white tigers in a glassed area, we took a multitude of photo’s. Brendan has his photo taken with the many characters found walking around. We then walked up to the restaurant, where we saw elephant rides taking place – we had already done this so we didn’t pay the extra to do it again & the elephant palace which looked similar to the temples in Cambodia, we took a few photos & went in for tea. We were at table D51, there were 12 to a table, 6 tables wide by 20 rows by 3 rooms – lots of people.
The food was a buffet of various curries, meats, soups, rice, fruits & desert. I had a Fantasea Dream cocktail – was purple in colour & tasted pretty good. We were seated next to 2 women from Sydney who gave Brendan a voucher for a free popcorn.
We went into the arena, you couldn’t eat or drink so we tipped the left over’s of the popcorn out & lined up. You also couldn’t take any camera equipment in with you & had to hand it in , you were given a numbered tag to pick it up on the way out. We passed thru the entrance & there was all characters & elephants to be photo’ed with – they charge you..no wonder you couldn’t take in camera’s. We had walked about 10m when David said ok I bet we will be buying one now….ooh you could have your photo taken feeding a baby tiger..too right we were getting a photo. We lined up & seemed like every one else was going in but us, so David moved Brendan forward & we were next. The tiger fur felt course I thought it would have been fluffier. I held a bottle of milk in his mouth – geez he was hungry & we all held onto him.they snapped a shot ( far from my best), then they took him away..we were the last ones.oops sorry to those behind us.
We took our seats & the show began. There was a dance show about a prince & his magical elephant, war, shadow puppetry, fluorescent acrobatic above us, a magic show & elephants dancing on the stage, We bought a program & DVD of the show. The show ended at 10.30 & we picked up our camera’s & photo, had a juice before heading over to station 1 where we caught a light green mini bus back to our hotel – luckily we were the last in & didn’t have to wait for another, to go. We got back around midnight, Brendan fell asleep in the bus – he was really tired. No plans for tomorrow so we can sleep in.
