Day 4: Phuket Town to Kata Beach (20 mi / 30 km)
[ This is Sally. It’s Tuesday. We’re still here on Phuket island, catching up on blog posts. We’ve ducked into a little internet shop to dodge a wicked looking rainstorm that just crept up on us. ]
Day 4 was our first true launch into the bike tour. We bid farewell to Mr Tee and the nice people at the Thalang Guest house (highly recommended!), stopped by for some cart food and pedaled out of Phuket Town with a late start, around 2 or 3pm.
We took the scenic route down around the southernmost tip of Phuket Island, through Rawai beach where we stopped for Thai snow cones covered in condensed milk. From there we made a wrong turn, and did a healthy climb up to a scenic view where we could see Cape Promthrep. There were paragliders sailing off the cliff in little chair harnesses, and older guys flying remote controlled stunt planes, doing barrel rolls and back flips. Locals and tourists alike gathered for a beautiful sunset and we realized we needed to figure out our accomodations for the night because the sun sets very fast here.
We figured out our navigational mistake, got our bearings, and pedaled back down the hill again, then headed north up the west side of Phuket island. Next up, a burly climb - much more than we had anticipated.
With our wayfinding mixup, we accidentally didn’t eat or drink nearly as much as we should have, especially given the heat and the amount of gear/weight that we’re towing. So, on day one, Sally bonks on the big climb — major bonk. Hopefully the only bonk of the trip.
Had I felt better I might have been more swept away in my surroundings — we pulled over for my bonk beside an elephant camp! The folks there saw me and checked on us to make sure we were ok. Tommy fed me some food, I drank some juice, chilled for a moment, but we were racing the sun and still had to finish the climb so I sucked it up and we climbed, climbed, climbed.
Tommy and I both are decent enough climbers, and the hills here aren’t too terribly tall all-told, maybe 400m tops — however, they’re very steep! These are dramatic, presumably volcanic, protrusions that shoot up suddenly out of the ground and make for some very steep grades, especially given our 50 lbs of gear + another 30 lbs for the bikes that we’re each hauling. I think these streets are graded much more aggresively than roads in the US because most of the vehicles are small, mostly scooters. Climbing is one thing. Climbing in muggy heat is another. Post-bonk, muggy-heat climbing dragging an 80 lbs rig up a steep hill is another story.
But we made it! We bombed down a fun hill (for every climb there’s always a fun payoff, the downhill) and rolled into Kata. Probably a bit more touristy than we would have preferred but the sun had set and we knew of a nice restaruant/bar that we wanted to check out — the Ska Bar. It’s built around a giant dipterocarp tree right off the beach, really pretty!
We had a couple beers and dinner — well deserved I’d say. We didn’t cover much ground in terms of mileage but today was a big effort. We’re still accilmating to the heat, the loaded touring rigs, the Malaria meds, the left-hand driving, and everything else. All-in-all a lovely day!
2 years ago