Countries – Page 21 – Simply cycling around

Patong beach temple, day off

That’s another day off today. We overslept a bit this morning as this temple is so quiet. Then we moved out until night time to see how Patong lives during the moon hours. The prices here are super extra high! An everyday drink cost about 30-50 baht in Thailand. Here, once you get inside one of those night clubs (and I love them…) The price rises to 900baht!!! What?!!! Fortunately the concurrency is very high so we could divide the price by 3 but the choice of drink shrinked a lot too. Well, that’s a touristy place…

Patak road > Patong beach temple (12km)

We did not do much cycling today. We stayed again in one of those expensive bloody Starbucks to update our blog. We only left the place towards Patong beach late this afternoon. This is one of our shortest trip, 12km haha :-) This one is called Karon beach and it’s not as “cute” as the Krabi’s beaches. Anyway, let’s cover those few kilometres and see how looks one of the most famous touristy destination in Thailand.

Mu Ban Khalita > Patak road (23km)

First day visiting the Phuket peninsula. The roads are steep and windy here! We have done only 23km but it’s like we did 50km. Today we cycled at the northern point of the peninsula, following the coast, visiting some lookouts and finally arrived at Kata beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

Wat Dittatharam temple > Mu Ban Khalita (Phuket peninsula) (88km)

Last night was quite good in the Buddhist temple except I’ve forgot that monks wake up very VERY early each morning. At 4:30, the prayer started and last maybe one hour. At 6am when we woke up, we saw monks walking out of the temple to collect food for the day. When we left the place, the monks were not back yet but we could say “Kapunkaaap” to a woman who were sweeping the ground. The biggest surprise of the day was, very hard to guess, elephants! Soon after we had breakfast, we saw an elephant and it’s “owner” walking on the side of the road. There is a place called “Sangtawan safari” nearby. I imagine these elephants are accompanied outside daily to have something to eat and maybe to do some little work once a while. Today we did enter in the Phuket peninsula for real and saw even more elephants used for tourist trekking. Finally, we finished the day by camping next to the beach in a cemetery.

Tha Pom Klong Song Na > Wat Dittatharam temple (88km)

Now I’ve discovered how look pineapple fields I see them everywhere :-) Last night was not as we expected, it was nothing like peaceful. For the first break of the morning we stopped at a petrol station overwhelmed by american comics icons like Hulk, Spiderman and many other. That’s strange to have these here. For lunch, we found a tiny place along the road where a woman was cooking under a shed. One of them, the older, offered us the meal. Wow, thanks! Today, my GPS died… I had problems since I left Sydney. They got worse and worse until the end, today…We finished the day by visiting another huge Buddhist temple and slept in an other one where we got invited by a very nice monk. That’s the day of today :-)

Ao Nang > Tha Pom Klong Song Na (29km)

Today we left Ao Nang and headed towards Phuket. We were back on the road only around 4pm because I was waiting for a shop to open and pick up some clothes I left there for repair. But that’s fine. All we wanted was at least to leave this place after nearly a week spent there. Time runs too fast! The first thing we appreciate after leaving the area is the price of food. It came back to normal cheap and very nice food. Look at this wonderful salad :-) I explain what’s in it in more details inside this post :-) Cheers!

Ao Nang, Bloggy day off

Nothing Special today. Since three days now we are still working on our blog. I’ve worked on my pictures, some simple video editing and the maps. That takes a very long time and it’s far to be finished. Anyway, two days ago we’ve met another cyclist :-) His name is Clement, from France too. He has been touring for the last 16 months from France to here (obviously). Of course he has a blog (in French). He is writing very well so if you feel like reading some good French, better that my poor english, have a look :-)
About the picture of the day now; Since we are in Ao Nang, in Krabi area, the prices for food a more expensive. We spend all our time in that bloody cold starbuck cafe to work. Each time, we buy the cheapest drink or piece of cake possible and stay for few hours until our stomach tells us to eat something. Eating here would be handy but far too painful for our wallet. After few days here walking or cycling around the same streets, we found some good places where to get some cheap food. Most of them are situated at the next beach called “Noparrat Thara Beach”. Other there, there is some honest places where to eat some nice Thai food.
This actual place on the picture above is situated just between those two beaches. The prices are honest (like 50 baht for a meal and 30 for a drink). Better than the 250 or 350 Baht for a burger on the main touristy street of Ao Nang! The atmosphere here is very rural and relax. There is the road, along it, several ambulant kitchens and behind few tables. The kitchens are a side car scooter with a roof and all the stuff in. There is not much space around but it’s nice, colourful and people are happy here. That’s all we want :-)
Tomorrow we are back on the road (normally). This time, the next target is Phuket. I did not want really to go there at first but my friends, the team with the wonderful sailing boat I’ve met in Darwin and then in Singapore are now in Phuket! That’s interesting how we keep bumping to each other even if they travel by sea and myself by bicycle :-) See you there!