The Twist - Day 2 - Phuket City Tour and Fantasea

We had the ABF – American Breakfast. Coupons were included. I pigged out on fried eggs, bacon, sausages, potato salad, toast, lots of coffee, pineapple and orange juice.

Our guide came and took us for the Phuket Town tour on the 2^nd day. Among the stops were the Cashew Nut factory, a gemstone factory and the last stop was the crappy shopping mall in the middle of town.

The Cashew Nut factory was an eye opening experience. I never knew that the cashew nut came from a fruit and there’s only 1 nut sticking out of each fruit! I also didn’t know that the Cashew fruit could taste so good. They were selling the juice of the fruit mixed with soda which turned out to be a Zappel-like concoction, called Cashewy. Nice!

The Gemstone factory seemed vaguely familiar. Then I remembered we had gone for a tour like that the last time we were in Bangkok. A huge place with precious stones and jewellery. The only thing different this time around was the free iced drinks after the tour.

The final stop (because we told the guide we wanted to go shopping while he was trying to get us to go to Phi Phi Island and other beaches) was somewhere in the middle of Phuket Town at a place called FJ Robinson’s. And that place was absolutely shit! Sure, they had a KFC there. After looking around at clothes and stuff, I decided to check out the toy section. A poor selection if you asked me. There wasn’t that rare black Spider-Man figure although they did have some of the others. Shitty. And I can back it up.

It’s fine if you don’t stock “rare” Spider-Man 3 action figures, but when a place like Carrefour in Jungceylon sells PSPs and Playstation 3s. Yes, my friends, you read that right. Carrefour sells PSPs and Playstation 3s in Phuket. FJ Robinson Mall – you suck!!!!!

I think we stopped at Jungceylon, but I can’t really remember now. Because I remember having Burger King on one of those days.

The only time we took transport was to and from the airport, as well as for the trip to Kamala Beachto visit the “Fantasea” Theme Park on Day 2. There was a live show called "Fantasy Of A Kingdom" that was highly recommended by our guide and it was voted "Best Attraction"

It was a theme-park with enormous buildings. The show that we went to watch was the “Fantasea” stage show. Tickets were 1600 Baht per person including a pre-show buffet dinner at the "Golden Kinnarree" Buffet Restaurant. The buffet started at 6:30 pm while the main show at the "Palace Of The Elephants" Theater started at 9:00 pm. The show was alright, the air-con just right but the seats were pretty cramped for tall people.

The show was supposedly a cultural/historical show but there was a magic/illusion act in the middle. The 2 "magicians/hosts" were looking for volunteers to assist with the trick. And then they kept picking on this poor petite looking girl who assisted in the first trick. At first I didn't think much of it. But as I watched on, I realized that the girl must be one of the planted performers in the audience. Thank Christoper Nolan's movie "The Prestige" for that.

True enough, she was selected to do about 3 different tricks which included sawing her into half and the disappearing act amongst other illusions. Best thing to do to get a better understanding, would be watch "The Prestige" starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Come to think of it, that movie kinda spoils what magic is all about.