Sawadee Phuket! – Day 4

June 17, 2015 JZ

Today would be the fourth day of our Phuket holiday. We all awoke lazily, with my Dad and I taking an early morning swim in our hotel swimming pool before all of us heading to breakfast later on. The spread was similar but different each time, with some dishes unique like soup noodles and their Thai noodles changing every day, but we were still not sick of the same dishes just yet, and the spread was indeed quite impressive. We had an early and heavy breakfast before returning to the room. We already decided to do Go-Karting today, so some transport was arranged, and we headed to the Patong Kart course.

As it was pouring with rain, the race-slicks of the kart could not grip onto the road, so I had to improvise. Almost every corner would be a drift, with me entering Turn 3 and 6 sideways, as these 2 corners were culprits of absolute no-grip zones. I had a lot of fun driving individually, but then Ashley wanted to ride with me, so we had booked a 2-seater kart, where I learnt the track even more. As the rain would not stop, conditions got worse and worse. This session was quite uneventful, as I span out several times trying to get the longer wheelbase kart sliding into turn 3.

However, Ashley wanted to go for another round, and this was when another family went onto the course. This 2^nd kart was amazingly new, and the actuators were almost brand-new, allowing me to countersteer into corners a lot better than the first two karts I was driving. Because of this, I was able to basically drift the entire course with ease. It was when I lapped the other family the second time, a woman from the course was severly cross with me, telling me to slow down, and telling me to think before I have a crash, to which I replied, “No worries, I (probably?) wouldn’t crash.” I was later challenged by a man through turn 6 in his full sized adult kart against the dual-kart that I was in. From his entry into turn 6, I could tell that he wasn’t very adaptable to the weather. When Ashley told me to pass him, I just told her : “No need to race him, we’ll just wait for him to spin.” This prediction would come through, as he span-out in turn 3, the most no-grip zone of the entire course. I thought that he might have felt a little embarrassed, losing to a two-seat kart. Besides the four times I was reprimanded for going fast in the rain, Ashley and I had a great time drifting around the course, as there was absolutely no grip in the course. For now, this is my favourite activity.

After this, the driver had actually waited for us at the go-kart track, and he dropped us off at Jangceylon, a shopping center that was apparently quite a big attraction in Phuket. Unfortunately, we were all really bad shoppers, and after ten minutes, we were already bored and exiting the shopping center. At this point, Ashley got really hungry, so we went for a short pit-stop at Subway to load up on Subway cookies for snacking purposes, and also to fill Ashley’s stomach for the moment. We walked in the direction of the hotel, looking for a place to eat on the way back. We stopped at a store, which was named “The best Mango Sticky Rice in Patong”. It was widely decorated with comments from various tourists, showing their delight at the food served at the store. We ordered Tom Yum, Noodles, Pineapple Rice, and of course, Mango Sticky Rice. All of these dishes were very well prepared and tasted fantastic. Personally, I preferred these kind of stalls, where a small, cozy outlet with not many seats. It felt more authentic to me. The Mango Sticky Rice was definitely the star of the show, it being one of the best we had tasted ever. The Coconut drinks served were also very well prepared, being young and full of coconut goodness. We left towards the hotel for some well deserved R&R before heading off for dinner.

For dinner, we decided to go to Poo Nurn Tong, which was originally located near the coast of Patong. It relocated to its new location, on top of a hill, after the Tsunami hit ten years ago. The location was out of the way, but we were about to realize that it was worth travelling to. The taxi from the hotel charged us 300 Baht for the trip (one-way), which seems very steep, but as it was quite out of the way, we decided that the cost would save us quite a bit of a headache.

We ordered a plethora of dishes, Tom Yum, Green Curry, Crab with Indian Curry, Fried Shrimp, Fried Squid, Pineapple Rice and Spring Roll. All of these dishes were very well prepared and was very delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed some dishes that we can’t get the quality in Singapore, like the Green Curry and the Tom Yum soup. We also contemplated coming back again tomorrow, so that we could ensure a delicious last meal. The restaurant also arranged a taxi ride back to the hotel for 300 Baht, so our trip was entirely hassle-free and delicious.