PHUKET: One new arrival on Phuket today, a tourist of sorts, will be taking one step at a time to solve problems the whole world shares.

You'll know him if you see him. He is carrying a wooden staff that has a map of Thailand on it, and he will be on foot.

We met up with Apipat Baothong, 41, as he crossed the bridge from Phang Nga to Phuket yesterday, having seen him on the road a couple of days earlier, walking.

He has been walking since January 1, every day, heading down from Nongkhai in far north Thailand, wearing out six pairs of shoes and three backpacks along the way.

''I walk for the King, and for peace,'' he told us. It's also a head-clearing exercise that has made Khun Apipat leaner and given him the chance to think about life.

''I have plenty of time to sort through what I have done right and wrong so far,'' he said during a brief pause, standing close to the Phuket Gateway and within a few hundred metres of the Phuket checkpoint.

Khun Apipat has lost 20 kilos, he says, and now covers between 50 and 30 kilometres every day.

He sleeps in temples if he is lucky enough to find one in the right place, and packs a small tent so he can stay on the roadside verge if necessary.

Rain doesn't slow him down. He has an umbrella and a jacket. He talks to his family occasionally but doesn't like to contact them too often because they tend to worry.

He keeps a record of his journey and takes snaps of the people he encounters along the way. So far, so good.

He's also on the lookout for a spot that might suit to reopen the garage business he closed so he could walk around Thailand. Perhaps Phuket will suit.

He asked us to write in his ''visitor's book.''

We offered him a ride down to Phuket City, about a day and a half's march away. He looked temped for a fraction of a second, then said ''no thanks,'' and was taking his next steps soon after.