Day 973 20th March 2019
28 miles (Ko Yao noi to Phuket old town.) Average speed 9.7 mph 28 mph
A great day after a dodgy early start.
I was awake at 3 and took a pee, but when re-entering my hammock I went a little too far and ripped the mosquitoe netting, which meant lots of mossies inside attacking me. At 4am I gave up and packed up.
I stopped at Extra Time bar to use their WiFi and book a hostel. Then again at a mosque for a shower before the call to prayer and it was a good shower. Then I went for coffee and breakfast at a roadside restaurant before going to the ferry. Sunrise was beautiful.
Sunrise
The first was an expensive speedboat so I took the 7 long tail boat instead, where I met a lovely couple from Somerset and we chatted during the beautiful crossing.
After less than an hour we arrived and I changed in a garage toilet into my cycling gear. A short distance later I saw a gibbon sanctuary and went to explore. It wasn’t open until 9 so I used the loo, had a fanta and sat by the lake with pretty pink lilies.
Lake with lilies
There was no entry fee to the sanctuary as it tries to exist on donations and volunteers, but some of the stories were very sad. They have 4 permanent residents that you can see and more behind that need to avoid contact with humans to complete their release to the wild. One female had to have a hand and foot amputated due to blood poisoning and although she looked happy enough she had suffered awfully. I stayed over an hour and then hit the busy road to Phuket.
Gibbon sanctuary
A permanent resident
I arrived at the hostel at about 11 and thankfully they had a bed ready for me. I parked the bike at the back and took another much needed shower before going for a walk to find somewhere to repair Ji Ji’s hammock.That turned out ok as it cost 150 baht and will be ready Friday at ten. The lady was very helpful despite her lack of English.
I then had a much needed siesta and found a night market for pad Thai made with cheese for 50 baht. Then I took a ride around in the cool of the evening, but found myself climbing a hill to see a wat. Then back at the hostel I had a beer and showered before heading to a blues bar. It only had a handful of old boys so I found a local bar with live music for another beer or two. It was called Lacur with lots of cool and trendy youngsters, but I don’t care if I don’t really fit in!!
Lacur – young and trendy bar
with music
Hostel box Poshtel 189 baht