To celebrate Mother’s Day in Thailand today, I went on a mountain hike from Chalong to Patong. As you can see on the map below, the trail is mostly forested. (And by “forested”, I mean “rubber plantations”.) But it is very wide and easy to follow, except for the steep mountain parts.
The screen shot above is from the Runkeeper app that I had going on my iPhone as I hiked. Runkeeper kept track of the location, time, and even elevation. I think the green elevation chart is pretty cool. I crossed the mountain once, did a loop in flat Patong, then climbed the mountain again. And luckily my iPhone 4 battery held out with the GPS running full time, but just barely.
Even though it is only a few miles from Chalong to Patong on the map, if you were to drive between these two places, it would take 30-45 minutes. Rumor has it that there are plans to build a road on the trail where I was hiking, and sure enough, it does look like they have started some work.
The beginning of the road is actually looking pretty good. But then some problems occur and finally it just becomes a rutted gravel trail.
After the three and a half hours on the mountain, I came home and promptly took a two hour nap. Hopefully as I continue my exercise program, a hike like this will become easier and easier. I look forward to doing this trail again soon!
Interesting – how did you find this particular trail?
Hmm. That’s a good question. I don’t remember exactly, but I might have seen it mentioned on another website when I first moved here. But the talk of putting a road through comes up in the local news every now and then. I really hope they will do it. It would turn a 45 minute trip into 10-15 from my house to Patong. Not that I want to visit Patong that often, but I think it would really help out the traffic situation here.
Looks like more development for Phuket!
The pace of development here is crazy.