North Phuket by Scooter

03 May 2010

The next morning we jumped right on our rented scooters and took off to conquer the coasts of Phuket province (an Island) which we hadn’t done the previous day – the north coast. We found some good riding, some nice views and covered some decent miles. James really liked a laid back resort beach we came across called Nai Thon Beach – the sand and water did look superb. The midday and afternoon sun was really hot and I’m sure I must have got sunburnt somewhere (probably my forearms) despite applying lots of sun cream multiple times [It turned out that I didn’t get sunburnt- sun cream worked well, or maybe a better ozone layer here]. Half way through our scooter trip we stopped and had a drink (I had a coconut) at a waterfront bar/restaurant just north of Yamu Cape. On the table to our left there was a big group of locals and they were having a mega feast. I have decided we really needed more people to get the best of Thai food so that we can mix and match lots of dishes like the locals did.

Round-a-bouts even this far away from Bangkok are still intense, numerous lanes with no one actually trying to stay in their lane. Despite the apparent craziness of the roads we got through fine and back to Patong Beach with no scratches on ourselves or the bikes. I would have to say that the lack of road rule enforcement does not seem to be a problem. A couple of our taxi rides have been a little hairy but when riding on the road on our scooters there was not one incident which I would consider ‘close’, I had no issues with other drivers acting dangerously, rudely or inappropriate.