Day 12 - South Thailand Tour 2016 - Phuket - Kuala Lumpur

Today was the final day of our 12 Days in Thailand, the entire tour was another good experience of my cycling adventure. We were blessed with a safe completion of the tour and I like to say thank you to all my travelling mates for a successful trip especially Andrew for all the meticulous planning and hope that we will do it again.

I woke up early in the morning and decided to cycle one more time in Phuket before we leave the hotel which I have another 2 more hours to kill.

I shall cherish my 2 nights stay in Phuket and hopefully I shall come back to explore further.

Meanwhile Kit & Roger were on a rented motorbike hunting for their breakfast.

A day before I have managed to salvage some card boards for my bike packing. These boards will be served as protective linings for my folding bicycle in a storage bag.

I cut the boards into 6 pieces and my used Dimpa storage bag is now ready to be padded with these boards. 

Just before 9.00am our transport arrived and we were ready to load our stuffs and bicycles.

The time taken from the hotel to the airport was nearly an hour, well the traffic was quite bad as bad as Kuala Lumpur on a peak hour.

As usual Roger would box his bicycle after it was scanned by the security.

We were early and had the luxury of time for a meal at the Airport.

Two folding bikes in Dimpa bags were ready to be checked in.

My bike including my helmet, basic tools, spare tubes and clothing weighted only 18.2kg, I have over purchased which I brought for a 30kg allowance.

Bye bye Phuket Sawasdee Krab till then we shall meet again.

That's it we were on our way back home after 12 days in Thailand.

Air Asia airlines landed at KLIA2, we had no problem whatsoever going through the custom nor the immigration. I headed for a KLIA Transit train.

To my surprise I was entitled for a senior citizen fare, ages more than 55 years old are considered senior citizen by ERL. I love it.

These were the only bags I used for my travel an IKEA Dimpa bag & my Brompton "T" bag and it has proven that these are sufficient.

I un-bagged my Dimpa and discarded all the boards at a nearby bin.

I was mobile again with my wheels.

Since it was peak hour I decided to cycle back home from the station. And I have to say sawasdee krab one more time and till then we shall meet again for another cycling adventure with my small wheels.

Day 11 - South Thailand Tour 2016 Old Town Phuket

 Good morning Phuket the sun was fiercely rising from a distance making a reddish old Phuket Town, every morning we could see monks everywhere offering blessing to the locals during our tour.

A lovely morning scene of the facade of Old Phuket Town. I was taking a brief solo round before the guys decide what to do for the day.

I managed to strike a market place called Downtown Plaza and I love visiting markets wherever I go.

I like this capture the mural and the walking nun.

Another shot at the opposite of the walking lady with her goods trolley.

One of the many Chinese temples seen in Phuket and I can tell you there are really lots of them indeed.

Moving back to the hotel at Queen Sirikit Park there stands a golden sea dragon known as Hai Leng Ong, yhe protector of Phuket.

Come noon Andrew & myself went out to explore other parts of Phuket. Our target was to check Phuket Jetty and my Oregon just came in handy.

As we drew closer to the jetty we saw many boat related places. 

Hand made boat seen on our way to the jetty.

Phuket Rassada Pier, we found you and it is about less than 5km from Old Town Phuket. A jetty where you could ferry to other islands like Phi Phi, Lanta and Krabi.

This was seen at the wall at the pier indicating the schedule & fares to the various destinations.

We then cycled toward western south of Phuket where we passed by this roundabout a Seahorse circle known as Nimit Circle.

Saphan Hin seaside park a popular leisure spot among the local Thais where many celebrations are held here like the Vegetarian Festival in the month of October, Loy  Kratong and Red Cross Fair.

After visiting the seafront of Saphan Hin we came to Soi Bang Yai, a road that runs along this canal with many boats parked at both sides. There are some paths and amenities that are old and seems forgotten.

Then we slowly moved towards north and back to the hotel I decided to show Andrew Downtown Plaza, the morning market with some street arts. Most of the retailers have already closed for business. Anyway we were not there to market but just to see the place.

I really like this mural.

I got electrocuted with this piece and one for the album.

A secret passage out of the market that I used it in the morning and again in the afternoon.

A visit to Kim's Massage & Spa which was near and a mere walking distance from our hotel. We spent 2 hour relaxing time here.

My lunch at a Muslim stall at Trick Eye Museum for an economy rice with kengsom fish cutlet and a fried egg, it was simple yet delicious.

A prawn noodle after our massage was surprisingly delicious, a shop behind the Trick Eye Museum and how I wish I could have another bowl this now, I am drooling as I am writing this......

Day 10 South Thailand Tour 2016 - Klong Thom to Phuket

It was time to leave Khlong Thom after two nights and both Andrew & Joe were in a better condition to travel. We have to change our plan and have to leave for Phuket directly, our original plan to go island hopping but it has to be aborted. 

We hired a truck to Phuket for 5,000baht and it was a crampy two hours journey to Phuket.

We checked into The Pho Thong Phuket for two nights located at Montri Road GPS :7.884063, 98.392844

After the food poisoning incidences we were then very careful with our selection of food, porridge and clear soup noodle were seem to be our safe choices. It was a short walk away from The Pho Thong Phuket and everyone was happy with the dinner. 

After two days of resting I just could not wait to peddle around the Old Town of Phuket.

While I was cycling a voice came from behind and we started a conversation, I met Larp Meekomeng also another keen folding bike enthusiast. Well now I have a new friend in Phuket. He said "same same" he got a Brompton too.

Phuket is just like Penang or Malacca with influence of European and Baba Nyonya interest. I love seeing the buildings in this old town. During the night it has it beauty and I simply enjoy it.

As usual I am excited seeing street art and I will try to take pictures of it.

I guess these were visitors too happily taking photos of the mural.

I was fortunate to witness a street procession in fairly a big scale which look like something of a 9 Emperors festival (on the month of October).  

Though it was a short night stint in Old Town Phuket but it was lovely. I will see more of Phuket tomorrow. Good night then. 

A clip of the street procession