Ethnic Show Phuket Fantasia

On the first day in Phuket, after having a few hours city tour, we checked in to the Patong Tower apartment. My friend was kind enough to offer me the very competitive price using his membership. The apartment was quite spacious, the main room was big with king size bed and a bathroom. In the living room another king size bed was available also another bathroom. A dining room with kitchen and refrigerator was available for you to cook including a dining table. It's suitable and convenience for family staying a few days in Phuket at Patong beach area. The view from the balcony could be to the city or to the beach. Just 5-10 minutes walking distance to the popular Patong beach.

The car was waiting for us changing clothes to go to the next destination, Phuket Fantasia cost 2200 baht for the admission fee including the buffet dinner, show and transportation. We had to rush as we need to get there at least at 19:00 to enjoy dinner before the show would begin at 21:00. Arriving at the place we were welcome by beautiful girls wearing traditional Thai clothes. A photographer took our picture, then they would sell it during and after the show would be finished.

The place was very nice, it's an entertainment park was a beautiful pool with some statues full of light decoration. There were some artists performing music, acrobat, dancing, etc. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to enjoy all of them. We had to rush to the dinner area to catch the show.

Entering dinner area, called Golden Kinnaree Buffet Restaurant. The restaurant looked pretentious, it's painted with golden colour surrounding with fountains. Going inside, it's very huge area with many long tables capacity around 4000 persons. The ceiling decorated with Thai's picture and story was inspired by 7 half-bird half-angels called the Kinnarees. Various kind of food set just next to the wall against a background of the legendary Himmaphan Forest, guest wouldn't need to have a long queue as they always refilled the food.

After dinner we went directly to the show area, "The Palace of the Elephants" around 20:00. It was a unique creation inspired by the ancient stone palace of the pre Sukhothai era. We're not allowed to bring camera, smartphone, etc. which's possible to record the show, all of them must be deposit in the locker, that's why it took a long time for entering the theater which's capacity for 3000 people. The "Fantasy of a Kingdom" was a spectaculer Thai cultural show, provided in both Thai and English which last around 90 minutes. The stage was over 37 meters wide with extendable side stages to 24 meters on each end. With cutting-edge technology and special effect element, the 4-dimensional stage could be changed dramatically from rice field to river to village including the traditional house, etc. to describe the journey of the Prince of Kamala in discovering and learning to be the perfect Thai person. It was very amazing show some angels also flying on the stage, big population of the real animal such as elephants, sheeps, chicken, etc enliven the show. After the show ended, we were queing again to take our camera and went out the theater.

No street performance anymore, the park was closed already, so we only could take some pictures with shiny beautiful light decoration. All your welcome pictures were set near to the gate, you could buy if you like it. I was not satisfied with the photo result, so I decided not to buy it, unfortunately the beautiful girl showed a very unfriendly face when she knew it. I think, she should treat the guest well whatever the condition, it's not an obligation for the guest to buy, so she should keep behaving well, with her friendly attitude as Thai's girl trademark.

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Legendary Lake Louise

Lake Louise is one of the heart of beautiful place in Banff National Park, within UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's right behind The historic Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise at 111 Lake Louise Drive, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada T0L 1E0, which is popular for tourism. It was raining and windy when we arrived there, it was quite cold. Our tour leader suggested us to take a buffet lunch cost US$50/person in the one of the hotel restaurants in order to explore the hotel.


Going down from the bus, the tour leader brought us to the lobby, explaining about hotel areas. The chandelier in the lobby was very nice, describing ladies bringing lamps which were in the history the woman brought the lamp behind the windows to show the way home to her husband. He showed us the "Poppy" restaurant location for lunch, there was 1.5 hours before lunch time, so we were free to go around the hotel and exploring the lake.

He brought us the the backyard, while he explained about the lake, we prefered to take picture and enjoy the scenery as it's very attempting looking from the window. We walked fast to the lake, taking pictures in front of a majestic lake, surrounded by snow Rocky mountain peaks and Victoria glacier right at the middle of the background.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

The iconic chateau also had a very beautiful garden full of flower, you could take beautiful pictures from many angles. Some wooden benches were available for people to enjoy the scenery, unfortunately we could not sit there as it's wet because of the rain. There was a unique flower called Poppy which only grows in that place, it's a pity I didn't take any picture of the flower as I'd just realized after leaving the chateau when checking internet.

As the rain getting harder, my younger sister decided to go back inside the hotel as her coat didn't have any head cover, we didn't bring any umbrella, while 3 of us continue taking some pictures at the edge of the lake. As we didn't have much time to go around the lake and it's still raining, we didn't stroll along the lake, just walking for a short distance. The lake water was very cold when we tried to touch it.

We decided to go inside the hotel as my younger sister as our coat became wet and the weather was colder. We walked exploring the spacious hotel interior with wooden stairs and railing, also some arches on the aisle of the stores selling various merchandize, post office, etc.

We sat on the couch enjoy the marvelous vista of lake and mountain through elegant big glass Palladian windows in the Lakeview Lounge. All rooms and interior inside the hotel were maintained as the original one. In the middle of a hall there was a lady playing harpa wearing traditional clothes, if you're interested to her music, you could buy the CDs.

An hour lunch time in Poppy Brasserie restaurant was not too impresive. The food taste was not too special, although there was a small live music band entertaining the guests. It was so crowded with guests, only available a few seat next to the window, those had been occupied by the guests who could come earlier than us. The service was not too good, we had to serve ourselves even we had to wait quite a long time to have a clean spoon or fork.

Only around 40 minutes spent for eating we hurried to decide to go to the lake again as the rain had stopped, the sun shone so bright, unfortunately we didn't have much time to go to the edge of the lake, as we had to go to the bus soon. During winter season, you could play ski on the frozen lake.

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