Hotel Recommendation: Pacific Club Resort (Karon Beach)

So, it's low season in Phuket right now, aka summer season or green season. Over the years I have been busy reporting on the weather, trying to prove that Phuket is pretty darn nice year round. Yep, you are going to get some rain sometimes, more likely in low season than high season, BUT there's a big advantage. You can book the best hotels such as the Pacific Club Resort at much lower prices than high season. You can stay here for just over 1,000 Baht per night at this time of year. And the weather is still nicer than "back home"!

The Pacific Club Resort is one I have meant to write about for some time and was just reminded of it by customers who came in yesterday who were staying at Pacific Club. This resort has something special about it. Must do, since it's rated as the best hotel in Karon Beach by TripAdvisor users, and is listed in the top 10 list for Phuket.

• Top 10 Hotels in Phuket

For me, it has several plus points. Firstly - location. It's on the hillside overlooking the north end of Karon, with the jungly hill behind and the Andaman sea in front. Some might say that's a poor location. Some people want to be right by the beach, but it's only 10 minutes walk to the beach, and the hillside location is quiet and gets plenty of fresh sea breezes. Second - it's not a huge resort. There are only 40 rooms, so it's not crowded at the pool, or the gym, or the sauna.. a lot of facilities for a resort of this size. Wifi connections in all rooms too (not free, but they only charge 18 USD for a week).

And then there's the food. The Pacific Club owner, Eric, is also a chef and ran the Karon Cafe and Restaurant for many years before opening this new resort. They specialise in steaks and lamb, fresh pasts dishes, seafood, texmex food. And it's not expensive either. In fact I think I will go eat lunch there next week one day and do a restaurant review here. Just been checking the menu online and can see that my diet is ruined!

Pacific Club Resort - Booking & Reviews

• Pacific Club Resort - Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Pacific Club Resort - Hotels Reviews


Pacific Club Resort - Photos

 

 

Phuket Hotels - More Information - Online Booking

• Phuket Hotel Info and Booking at Agoda.com
• More of Jamie's Phuket Hotel Reviews
• Jamie's Top 10 Phuket Hotels
• Thailand Hotels at Agoda.com

Meei Shih Seafood Restaurant at Kulai, Johor

Meei Shih Seafood Restaurant (N1°39.889' E103°35.543') is located at the junction of Jalan Bunga Ros 3 & Jalan Anggerik 3 of Kulai. The name 'Meei Shih' is direct translate from Mandarin, meaning - Good Food.


The restaurant was almost full when we arrived. We believe the foods they serve should be nice! My advise is go there earlier than dinner time, you might not have a table of you are late! :)


We visited this restaurant because of their 'Salted Egg Crab'. It's recommended from my friend - 'Mr Lok'.

Our order :-
1) Salted Egg Crab
2) Steam Kampung Chicken (low fat)
3) Pork Belly Hot Pepper Soup
4) Vegetable

Salted Egg Crab - MYR48.00 per kg

Steam Kampung Chicken

Pork Belly Pepper Soup

Vegetable

The Damage : MYR116.00 for 3 adults and one child. (The price was reasonable)

The crab cost MYR75.00 (MYR48.00 per kg)

The foods serve in less than 10 minutes! That was fast! Overall, the Salted Egg Crab was really good and delicious! The pork belly was just nice (not over cooked), the chicken was tasty and the vege was fresh!

I will make the Salted Egg Crab as a Benchmark for myself, it's better than we had it at Hong Guan Restaurant Permas Jaya which is Famous with their Seremban Marmite Crab. If you are looking for good salted egg crab, please try this first! :)

Meei Shih Seafood Restaurant
69, Jalan Anggerik 3,
Taman Kulai Utama, Kulai, Johor.
Tel : +607-6624549

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Related topics :-
* Seafood Restaurant Hong Guan, Taman Permas Jaya - Johor Bahru
* Jade Garden Seafood Corner at Sungai Rengit, Johor
* New Storey Restaurant at Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru
* Grand Straits Garden Seafood Restaurant, Johor Bahru
* Long House Seafood Restaurant, Batu Kawan - Butterworth
* Dinner at Restaurant Asli, Taman Perling, Johor Bahru
* Famous Authentic Seremban Baked Crab
* TKK Restaurant, Teluk Jawa (a.k.a. Megah Ria Seafood Village)

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Phuket Flower Fair

Today is the last day of the Phuket Flower Fair which has been running since 24th July at Sapan Hin, a recreational area in the south of Phuket Town. There have been many events there recently such as the Halal Festival and the OTOP Fair. It's a popular place for locals to go running or for a picnic by the sea. The area has recently been tarted up to make some nice paths, lots of new trees planted, a raised walkway through the mangroves etc..







The Flower Fair includes many stalls selling orchids and other flowers, trees, garden ornaments and of course some local food stalls. This kind of local event is always interesting to me, great for people watching, great for getting a bit of local culture. A flower fair is a world away from the tourist beaches of Phuket! I did drive down to Sapan Hin after work on Sunday 26th July, but being that this was the opening weekend of the fair, and Sunday afternoons are the busiest time for people to visit Sapan Hin anyway, I found the place packed, nowhere to park the car and in any case it was getting a bit late for photos, so I went back again on Wednesday afternoon when it was less busy, although even on Wednesday it seemed like half of Phuket town were out buying flowers!



I am an orchid lover. My wife too. We have a fair selection in our garden. Orchids are amazing plants. The variety of colours and shapes is beyond belief. And at a flower fair, you can still find orchids that make your jaw drop, just when you think you've seen them all.







Some of the orchids had been entered into competitions - the one above had a 1st prize rosette beneath it, reminding me of the old flower show my grandfather used to organise back home when I was a kid. Prize winners were always very proud to have beaten all the local competition and very proud of their winning entries.



Some more orchids...















Even if you are not bovvered by flowers normally, you have to admit that orchids are bling, orchids are well cool, orchids are the kings of flowers.



Everyone was enjoying a sunny evening walking around the fair, I think many people were just out for a walk, but there was certainly plenty of business being done. I read that the fair was likely to generate 50 million Baht in income. If you are driving around Phuket, you'll find garden shops everywhere. I pass about half a dozen between home and work. Gardens are big business here! The report in a local news site noted that the fair this year is much bigger than last year, with 70 flower stalls compared to just 20 in 2008. Economic downturn? Not for orchid sellers!







There are many small local events in Phuket, and it can be hard to find out when they are on, I miss some myself sometimes. The small events are not well advertised, though sometimes mentioned in local websites. Otherwise, I keep my eyes open for roadside signs. Next week there is something happening near my house called "Kathu Street Culture". Not sure exactly what it means, but it's on from 5th - 7th August. Or you can just lie on the beach and enjoy the beautiful summer weather we're having in Phuket at the moment.



One last orchid. This was also a 1st prize winner.

Hua Mui - The Traditional Kopitiam with Colonial Touch, Johor Bahru

Hua Mui Kopitiam (N1°27.438' E103°45.857') is located between the junction of Jalan Trus and Jalan Dhoby of Johor Bahru town.

Hua Mui Kopitiam of Johor Bahru town

This Kopitiam existed since 1948, it's 61 years ago...and I believe the boss today might be the second generation of the family.

I Love it because I called the Kopitiam of Malaysia. You will see all the Malaysian customers in the Kopitiam at anytime, no matter what races or religions you are from...all of them just like to have cup of coffee over here. The area will be crowded at most of the time.

The customers of the Kopitiam

Beside the coffee and tea, they are famous with the toasted bread. Till today they still using the charcoal oven! And I ordered their Signature dish - Hainanese Chicken Chop. Overall it was Delicious! It's crispy and tasty!
The cost of the foods & drinks here are reasonable price.

Hainanese Chicken Chop (Cost MYR9.80)

Honestly, I still haven't come across the second kopitiam like this in other corner of Malaysia. It's really show the True of Malaysia. That's mean the Kopitiam for Everyone!!

* Kopitiam - it's direct translate from Hokkien Dialect, meaning simple or traditional coffee shop.

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Traditional Watch Shop at Bukit Gambir, Johor

Traditional Watch Shop

Spotted this watch shop at the town of Bukit Gambir. Think of keeping this photo for the future....because I believe it's really difficult to find this kind of Watch shop nowadays in our daily life....
Do you see any shop like this in your area?

Apologies of the poor quality photo, it's snap from my mobile phone.

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Wat Sam Kong Temple

It seems to have been a long time since I blogged a temple. I have a vague plan to blog all the Temples in Phuket, though it could take for ever. A lot of temples in a small area! Some are important, some serve small local communities, some are easy to find, some are hidden away. A couple of weeks ago I visited Sam Kong Temple (Wat Sam Kong) which is only a few km from my house and we've driven past the entrance hundreds of times.

Sam Kong (meaning 3 hills) is in the North East of Phuket Town. The area is an older part of town, and like Kathu just down the road was an important part of the tin mining industry in times past. Like Kathu, many of the locals in this area are Chinese Thais who came to Phuket during the tin mining boom in the 19th century. There is a Chinese Shrine close by too. The Sam Kong temple entrance is about 200m along the bypass road from the Tesco Lotus junction (officially called the Sam Kong junction) towards the main airport road (location on Google Earth).



As usual for a small local temple, not much going on, just a few monks sweeping up leaves. The main building was locked up. A few dogs lazed around the grounds and then all dashed off at once to picked a fight with a visiting stray.





Not a big temple at all, but as always I felt that temple calm despite the 4 lane road a hundred meters away! Flowers had been placed around a tree. The monks had certainly kept the place leaf free. There was a nice lawn in front of the bell tower ("hor rakang" in Thai).





The day before I visited had been Asarnha Bucha Day, one of the most important Buddhist days remembering the first sermon of the Lord Buddha. A few people were still coming to receive blessings.



One of the older monks decided to stop sweeping and have a chat. I think he wanted to practice his English. I asked if he'd been a monk all his life. No! He had never even served as a monk when he was younger. Been too busy getting an education. As far as I could make out he'd worked in the local government in a town in the north of Thailand and now was retired. After working all his life he said he needed some peace and so had come to Wat Sam Kong for 3 months.



After a chat it was time to buy some new brooms from the broom man. Only 20 Baht each.. or maybe that was a temple discount? The temple at Sam Kong is near a busy road, a couple of hundred meters from a shopping mall, only a few miles down the road to Patong Beach. The quiet side of Phuket is never far away.

Jade Garden Seafood Corner at Sungai Rengit, Johor

Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant (N1°21.056' E104°13.435') located at Jalan Hee Seng at Sungai Rengit of Johor.

"Sungai Rengit is a town in southeastern Johor, Malaysia, located near Pengerang. It can be reached from Singapore by boat from the ferry terminal at Changi Village.

Sungai Rengit is essentially a collection of fishing villages and is very popular with seafood lovers. The town usually comes alive during its weekend flea markets. There are also regular Chinese opera performances which liven up the atmosphere for the local population. From Wikipedia."

This small fishing village has a nickname called the Lobster Village.

Initially we don't know which restaurant to choose, we simply drive around and passed by few like Good Luck, Sin Kong, Sg Rengit & Jade Garden. Among all of them, Jade Garden has more customers than others. So we decided to have our early dinner (about 5:30pm) here.

Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant

The fish tanks at the right side of the restaurant are full of Lobsters!

Lobsters Heaven!

While we walked in, their customers are almost fill up the tables! We quickly order our dishes immediately.

The Restaurant environment

1) Spicy Lala clam

2) Vegetables

3) Sweet Sour Crab

4) Steam Fish

5) Signature Lobsters

Spicy Lala Clam

Vegetables

Sweet Sour Crab

Steam Fish

The Lobsters (cost : MYR90.00)

The Damage : MYR205.00 (For 4 adults and 1 child) included drinks.

It's reasonable Cheap! No wonder everyone willing to drive all the way from Johor Bahru to Sungai Rengit (About 110KM) to enjoy the cheap seafood over here!

My comments on the foods : If you want to enjoy the seafood over here, you have to order the Lobsters beside other seafood. Because A)...this place is famous with the Lobsters, and B)...the way they serve others seafood are not as good as those seafood restaurants around Johor Bahru (even there are fresh). Therefore, the only reason for me to dine here is just because of the Cheap Lobsters! Not others seafood....

Foods rated : 3.5/5

The Lobsters : 5/5


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