Get in touch with Jurgen Zack, he lives there I believe, and coaches a pretty big team there. You can find him on FB or hear even..

Cheers

There is a large tri community there based out of Laguna (where Jurgen's squad is) and I would personally take your tri bike and join in with them. The road they ride is along a highway for a large part before they turn off into the less used roads and is pretty flat. I did the Laguna race two years ago and all I can say is make sure you have the gearing to get over the hill. It is a flat course with a few tough hills towards the end. A 28 you can get over on but I personally would go a smaller gear as that is severely grunting. The descent is pretty scary to and I got overly bold at the top before I started riding my brakes on a wet road hitting a hairpin type bend and wasn't going to pull it up. I tried my best to make the corner rather than lay it down (there were hay bails), there was no run off just a concrete culvert and I ended up breaking 14 bones in my back. While waiting for the ambulance a lot of people came down there. It is a pretty cool race and I would have liked to have made the after party...

Where about In phuket are you moving too? Jurgen is based in Laguna or Bang Tao area so make sure you are close by
There are quite a few hills to climb in Phuket, it really depends on what route you wish to take. The ride to Patong area has a few steep hill including Kamala and the east coast (where the old 70.3 course is) can be relatively brutal. But a TT bike is good enough as i made it up those hills in a TT but it was a struggle

Why not take both bikes. You can race LPT on either a TT or road bike. I raced there all four years we lived in Bangkok. All with a road bike outfitted with tri bars. The race starts with about 7 kilometers of flats then you start climbing over the Tiger Back, three steep hills. I almost threw up from stomach pains on the steepness. Came back the next year with easier gearing and no issues. After the climbs it's mostly flat and with curves through the rubber plantations. The highway through downtown is flat and fast. Then you head back with smaller climbs along the water and back into the resort area. Beautiful, hot, humid, and fun race. You can also get to races in Vietnam, Singapore, Bintan (an island off of Singapore in Indonesia), Taiwan, and elsewhere. There's lots of great races over in OZ if you can travel there.

In Thailand, there are lots of motorbikes so be careful, very careful of traffic. I developed bike handling skills that I didn't know were needed but came in handy. (I never raced in bike road races so never learned those skills until there). Also consider a highbred or mountain bike, or even a cruiser. Comes in handy getting around. Also, you might to do some recreational biking in Up Country (the Northern region of Thailand), or in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam or elsewhere. Thai food is awesome. Some great bike riding in Khoa Yai in the mountains north of Bangkok. The culture is different in Phuket and the southern part of Thailand compared to the rest of the country. Sawaddi Khup.


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Phuket, why not take both?

Cheers all I think I will take the roadie and ship the TT bike to take the slow route.
We are moving to the east coast of Phuket, to work at the British International School.
(which is rather exciting, not that NZ is a bad place to live)

beat me to it.