Travel Tips

ATV TOUR

Everyone was very excited and keen to do this tour, everyone except me. I was very nervous and not at all excited to be doing it. Boy did that soon change!!

We were picked up at our hotel at 11.00am. Once there we were given cold drinks, fruit an introduction to ATV tours plus shown a DVD which covered how to ride the bikes, safety etc, then we were kitted up in helmets and gloves.

This tour was such great fun, after about 15 minutes (and crashing twice into trees) I started thinking, this is ok, I can do this.

So my frozen position on the bike started to change, no longer was I hanging on for dear life, I relaxed and could even look behind me or let go and wave, instead of just putting along I wanted to go fast ha-ha, if someone in front of me was going slow it annoyed me, so look out, when there’s enough room I’m coming through.

For 1.5hours we burned thru gravel trails, mud & water trails (loved that section) jungle trails, up hills, down hills and beach trails.

Wear old clothes, as hopefully you will get very dirty, especially your sandshoes.

Gary and I went to Big C and bought the ugliest cheapest runners we could find and just left them there when we had finished the tour. I think I paid the princely sum of 140 baht for mine.

Then its back for more icy cold drinks and loads of fruit before the second half of the tour, during this break they show movie of your first half (a little guy just keeps popping out on trails shooting video) you can then buy a DVD of this for 500baht which is ready to pick up after the second half.

Well worth every cent.

By now everyone is keen to get going again.

We are hot and dirty (some more than others, thanks Richard, you hoon) but raring to go.

Well the next stage was very different, tiny tracks thru thick jungle, our lead guide, with a big stick was brushing away huge cobwebs and spiders hanging across the track so we could get through.

We found out later they haven’t used this advanced track for awhile but thought we could handle it, yeah right ha-ha.

There were steep hills with inclines, another part I remember was going thru a big muddy section with a hill at the end of it, the person behind me RICHARD said to go slow thru the mud and I should be right, so stupid me did as he said, of course I couldn’t make the hill and got totally bogged, soon learnt my lesson, don’t do what he says ha-ha.

One quite hard section was a very steep climb that had a sharp right hand turn with a big incline to the right.

Our guide told us (the girls) to give it a try but if we were scared or couldn’t do it, they would take the bikes up for us and also to remember if we get in trouble, hit the brakes.

I decided to give it a go (only because Angie and Di after a couple of try’s made it up). At the bottom I floored it and up I went – about 6 feet and that was it, I forgot all about the brakes and the bike started sliding down and turning sideways, there I was left leg nearly on the ground, right leg stuck up in the air, so couldn’t hit the brake even if I had remembered, luckily I slid into a big tree and that stopped me instantly ha-ha.

The guides took my bike to the bottom of the track again and I said that’s it, one more try. I floored it again and up I went, yippee I made it, though at the top I got off the bike and was very shaky for a few minutes.

This tour was a huge thrill, we all loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you have young children, and they have easier tours (no scary bits) for one hour.

We did the 2 hr tour (but we were riding much longer) and it was so much fun. There are also a few interesting stops along the way at interesting points like illegal workers homes. Phuket Richard organised everything for us contact him at richard@phuket-scuba-diving.com

Lots More Photos Here

Check ut ATV Phukets website for more info and prices on various tours.