June14 - Phuket trip

Out of the blue, one day Keat Seong said let’s go for Phuket Marathon. I’m like huh? Somemore no need to take leave. Just a weekend trip. Plus MAS having cheap fare. I’m like…ok. This is what happens to kiasu people.

I have nothing against MAS since I prefer their planes & services compared to Air Asia. Everything is always down to budget. I find their seats more spacious plus we get free food. Too bad no in-flight entertainment.

The night before my departure, mom was already making noise about the H1N1 hitting Phuket. Gomenasai!! Semua sudah bayar. The registration fee wasn’t cheap either.

Leaving the hazey Kuala Lumpur was a blessing but I didn’t quite expect much from Phuket coz I thought the burnings was spread around Malaysia eg. Thailand and Indonesia. To my surprise, we touched down Phuket Airport to clear blue skies. Good thing was clean air. Bad thing was we had to run under this hot sun.

We took the taxi to Laguna Resort THB400 (RM40) to collect our bibs. Being an international run, it wasn’t really well received, with only 24 females age 30-39 & 31 males age 18-29.

The expo tent was air-conditioned with well organised collection of bibs, testing of time chip & collection of gift/vest bags. I guess coz there were few people, nothing to fight about.

Sponsors like Nike & Timex were there trying to make a sale. Also were counters for Thailand’s local runs like Khon Kaen Marathon & Bangkok Marathon.

After collection, we had to find our way to our hotel. Luckily a tuk-tuk drove by. No harm in sitting Thailand’s famous vehicles. Wrong!! Amora Hotel was only 10mins away from Laguna Resort and we were charged THB300 (RM30). Errr…the airport was about 20mins away and we only paid THB400. Grrr…

Being a non-peak season, the resort was really quiiieetttt. Feels like we were the only occupants there. Dropping off our luggage, we went to explored the resort.

I was really shocked why “No Swimming” signs. Thought it was due to the heavy wave tide. But then I guess just caused there’s no lifeguard around. So if you wanna swim, you’ll just have to walk towards the next beach.

After paying numerous amounts for transportation eg. taxi, Keat Seong & I decided to rent a motorbike to get ourselves around, cheap.

Now, time to look for lunch. Problem is it’s the day before a run, what can we eat, safe in a foreign country?

I know its weird, but we decided to go for another foreign food in a foreign country. We opt for Australian Pies. Hahhaha…

Carbo loading dinner was provided to runners at Laguna Resort restaurant. I didn’t dare to eat too much coz my tummy is the most sensitive part of my body. Keat Seong was figuring how to pack the oranges and bananas he “ratted”.

Laguna Resort was so accommodative towards the runners. They actually organised a “Breakfast to Go” to take to the race start.

On the final day, we were waiting for our check-in at the airport, we hung out at Burger King. The price was unbelievable. THB245 for a whopper set. That’s RM24.50!!! I could get nearly 3sets in Malaysia. Gilar!!