Phuket On A Bike

12-13 Feb 2007

Many Singaporeans have gone to Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is famouse for its beaches, water for diving and its resorts. But few of you have travelled around Phuket on a motorbike.

I have. I shared with you my 2 days in Phuket.


Getting There By TigerAir

I choose to fly to Phuket using Tiger Airways because it is one of the cheapest, S$25 niah! Excludes airport tax; at this kind of price, you can also forget about being served any food and beverage on the flight.

But I warn you first, if you want to fly Tiger Airways, you must CHIONG for the seats one.
Because free seating. First come first serve.
So once the boarding gate is opened, all the men, women, uncle, auntie, ah gong, ah mah, ang moh, xiao jie all lose their composure and all chiong for the seats.

Tiger Airways, the survival of the fittest and fastest.

Aiyah, mai hiam (don't complain) lah. S$25 is really very cheap you know. The whole airplane got only 100 people or so. I don't know how our $2,500 total plane fare is enough to pay for the jet fuel, let alone got 2 pilots and the few stewardess and the mechanics servicing the plane.

At Phuket Airport

2 hours later, I reached Phuket airport liao.
After clearing the custom, I stood outside the airport looking for a taxi to get me to my hotel.
Before coming to Phuket, I did my research liao. And I heard that here you must dare to bargain. If not you sure become Cai Tai (cabbage) and let people chop. Means kena ka-tok.

I decided to practise my bargaining skill.

I stepped out of the airport and immediately a Thai man came to me and offer me 450 baht (1 sing dollar=23 baht) to take me to my hotel. I shake my head to indicate No, and said 200 baht.
The Thai immediately left me.

Soon, another thai man came to take his place and offer me again 450B. I thought maybe I offered too unrealistic a price the last time, so this time I offered 300B. He also left me immediately.

I tried it out on several other Thai taxi men. And finally I found a satisfactory offer and hop onto a taxi. The taxi fare remained at 450B.


Bang Tao Beach

Phuket actually got many many beaches. The one that most singaporeans go to is called Patong Beach.

I wanted to book a hotel at Patong beach also. But because I booked too late, all the hotels at Patong Beach area are fully booked.

Na bei. Must be all the kiam siap Singaporeans all flocked to Patong Beach to avoid staying in Singapore during upcoming Chinese New Year period in order to save on ang bao costs.

So I hum tum one alternate beach. The Bang Tao Beach. It is slightly north of Patong beach.

The resort I booked is called Best Western Premier Bang Tao Beach Resort & Spa. The name si eh dern (very long).















Best Western Premier Bang Tao Beach Resort & Spa.
The resort is very nice.

If you stay at Patong beach, you will have access to a very big shopping area. The downside is that Patong street and beach itself are very crowded with tourists.

Bang Tao beach is much quieter. So if you want a quiet relaxing stay just by the beach, then you might prefer Bang Tao beach.















The lazy beach of Bang Tao beach.

While I was at the resort, I noticed the people around me. First, I am the only asian staying there. The rest of the tourists are all ang mohs. I think the asians all like shopping so stay at Patong.
The second thing I noticed is that the Thai people are really thin. You can hardly find a fat Thai girl. Must be the slimming effect of all the Tom Yum soup they drink.

Renting a Motorbike

I want to go to Patong shopping area to jalan jalan. But the taxi fare cost 550B one way. Two way costs 1,110B.

Then I saw on the street, the ang moh zooming around on kup kia (small 125cc Honda wave type of motorbike). I figured they must have rented these bikes.

But I a bit worried. Wah, never ride before in Phuket, don't know I will lang-gar the traffic or the road, or not. Wait get lost how?

Then I see another few ang moh zipped past on kup kiaps, wearing no shirt, no helmet and carrying their girls behind them. Then I think, "Basket! Cannot lose to them! They got no motorcycle license also dare to ride. Back in singapore, I ride my 1,000 cc motorcycle on thousand kilometre rides to unfamilar places in malaysia, so how can I be scared now?! No balls is it?!"

I immediately walked into a shop by the road side with the sign board, Bikes for rental.

After paying 200B for 24 hour rental (so cheap!), and signing a form which basically says you die not their pua sah (not their business), I collected a filmsy helmet and the key to my bike.

Me and kup kia, my transport around Phuket.

The kup kia bike is a Yamaha. I don't know its exact model. Even though I owned and test ridden so many 600 and 1,000 cc bikes, I am a bit nervous as I have never ridden before a kup kia.

There is a choice of automatic gear or manual gear one. I asked for a manual gear one as I have never ridden before a auto bike. Good choice on hindsight as later on, I need to ride up and down some very steep slopes. And the manual gear allow me to have better engine braking going down the steep hill.

I am surprised by how light and how agile the kup kia is. The one thing I not use to is the flat 2-piece heel-and-toe gear selector. I am used to the normal motorcycle's gear selector which you use the front of your foot to step or hook below the gear level. There is also no clutch lever. The bike will never stall. It took me quite a while to get use to it.

To Patong Beach

The brown line shows you the route I took to travel from Bang Tao beach, southwards to Patong Beach. The distance is about 13 km and it takes me about 30 minutes in the day to cover.

I just ask for as many free maps from the bike rental shop. Above is one of the free maps. The maps are good enough as there is usually only one route from one beach to the other.

So I just wack and bashed towards the right direction. Along the way, when I feel lost, I just stop and ask the local Thais. "Patong? Patong?" I will say. The Thais are very helpful and they will point which direction and off I go towards where they point.

The busy streets of Patong Beach town.

Patong town is really very happening compared to Bang Tao. Everywhere are tourists, tu-tu (taxi), kup kia and sellers.















Compared to the beach of Bang Tao, the Patong beach is very very crowded.
It is so crowded that to sit on any of the chairs at the Patong beach, you need to pay.
Like machiam in Singapore you must pay for parking. Bang Tao beach is free seating.
But of course, Patong beach more happening. You see carefully above photo.
Got one person is doing para-sailing.

Shopping at Patong Town

What is there to buy at Patong you ask?
Well, you see the wordings on the T-shirt below and you can tell what are the more popular tu-chang (local produce).

What you can get at Phuket

Here, I decided to give my negotiation skill a try again.
This time I am more successful. Whatever the seller offer, I will start by countering back by one-quarter the price! Yes, one-quarter the initial offer price! So if they offer a T-shirt for 400B, I counter with 100B.

They might say no, and counter back. So the counter back-and-forth goes on. Thai people are very very friendly and smiley people. They enjoy bargaining. So don't bargain with them with a serious face. Othewise wait they give you a muay thai kick. Do your bargaining with an equally friendly smile. The best tactic is to walk away. They may call you back.

At the Patong town, you can get away with half to one-quarter the original offered price, depending on the item you are buying is commonly available or not.















Big Bikes available for rental at Patong Beach.
I don't know how much the rental is.

I was surprised to hear the growl of big cc bikes at Patong shopping area.
These are the ang mohs who rented and ride bikes like the latest Honda 600cc Fireblade. There are also R6s, 400cc shadows. But I not sure with the crowded streets of Patong and the windy country side roads, how fast can you really go on a Fireblade there.


I tried to learn some Thai words. There is the Sawadi-Krup. Which means good morning, good afternoon, good night, hello, all also can. There is also Kup-Kun-Krup which means thank you. The ending Krup is used only if you are a man. You should end with Kup as in Kup-Kun-Kup, if you are a woman or ah kua.

Alternatively, for short, just Krup. I assumed it is a short form for thank you. So I just Krup here Krup there and Krup the rest of my way in Phuket.

James Bond Island

What else is there to do at Phuket besides sun-tanning at the beach and shopping?

You must take a boat ride to the so-called James Bond Island. Why is it called James Bond Island? I think the story behind is that there was one James Bond film where they filmed at the island.

To go to James Bond Island, just sign up for a half-day or full day tour with your hotel.















The boat ride to James Bond Island.
It is very fun and the scenary is really beautiful.

The Rock.
This is the famous and amazing rock as part of the tour.

The tour includes sitting in canoes, paddled by Thai boatman.

They will take you to explore the interestingly shaped rocks and islands.
Including paddling below a very very low cave, as seen in this picture.
The two tourists in front have to lie down as they start to enter the cave with a very low ceiling!
It is very fun!

But there was one incident that made my ball shrink.
My thai boatman brought me to a quiet secluded spot to explore.
As I was marvelling at the steep walls, the Thai boatman, who is a well built young Thai (from all the paddling) asked me "Where are you from?"

As I was busy taking photographs, I nonchalently answered, "Singapore".

After I answered, I immediately realised, Oops, there was a lot of recent bad press in the newspapers saying the Thai are upset that our kay-kiang Temasek went to buy over their national jewel, Shin Corp telco. So I was a bit worried that the Thai, including this boat man, might be upset at we Singaporeans.

The Thai boat man, next said, "Singapore very rich".
Oops. Wah, how to answer?
Then he followed by, "Singapore very clever. Win the soccer asian cup. Yes?"

O-Oh. He was referring to the recent soccer finals where unexpectedly, the singapore team beat the home and hot favourite thai team to claim the championship.

Si Liao! Die! I was sure I was dead meat.
He must be upset at Singaporeans. Here I am at his mercy.
No one around me, but water.
I die here also no one will know.
I was prepared to jump over board into the water and start swimming for my dear life.

But fortunately, the Thai boatman is true to the friendly Thai attitude and such a gracious loser (not like our jeng hu). So he was just asking innocently and praising Singapore. He paddled me around the rest of the caves, not knowing I was very nervous inside.

What Else

What else did I do?

I rode a horse!
This is me and Billy. She is 19 years old.

I thought I can play cow boy. But Billy has a mind of her own and I could not really control her.
My saddle was also not adjusted properly. So whenever Billy starts to trot at a faster pace, I will bounce up and down. Next day, I kar chen pain.

A beautiful view looking down at Patong Beach.

This is the nice thing about being able to ride around on your own on a bike at Phuket.
I can stop anywhere I like. To take pictures. Or to look and buy things which catch my eye. Or to eat and taste interesting food.















I will leave you with this beautiful photo of the setting sun at Patong Beach!