27 Dec Hitchhiking Across Thailand

Gina and I arrived at the Chumphon Ferry Station at about 5am Christmas Eve morning. We ignored the calls for taxi, bus, and ‘where you go!?’s and sat down to relax and think about our day. We had already long since decided that we would attempt to hitchhike to our next destination.

Some of you may be shocked by this. Questions of ‘don’t you have enough money’, and ‘you should support the locals’, and ‘it’s dangerous, you might get robbed or raped’ are probably just a few of the many running through your mind. Even Joey in Koh Tao was concerned when I mentioned it.

But you all forget – there are more good people out there than bad. There will always be a risk when you involve yourself with strangers, but having a good head on your shoulders and believing in the universe can lead you to some incredible adventures that will rarely lead to disaster. It helps that I wasn’t traveling alone as two are less likely to be targeted.

As for the finance part…Gina and I were not hitchhiking to save money, though it became an added bonus. We had planned to buy meals and/or gas for longer rides and so forth, which would have added up to much more than a bus ticket and our own food. We were hitchhiking for the fun of it. To see if we could. For the grand adventure of meeting people we never would have met and seeing a different side of Thailand. Sure, we could talk to locals on the bus. However, we wouldn’t have had to. We would have been sitting next to each other for however many hours and had no indication to chat with those in the seats in front of or behind us.

I think hitchhiking was one of the best Christmas’s I’ve ever had!

Day One

So anyways, back to the dock. We caught up with Naomi over the phone to say Merry Christmas and enjoyed the free coffee until the place cleared out. Ours was the only ferry arrival of the day, so once they realized we weren’t going to ride with any of them they shuttled everyone in their cars and left.

We packed up and started walking towards the main road. We walked on the left side of the road with our arms out, palm facing down. This is the sign for hailing a taxi in Thailand, but is generally recognized as just needing a ride. We didn’t get far before a pickup truck with a man and his wife pulled over for us. We tried to explain that we were going ‘north’ however far they could take us, and they motioned to hop in the back.

Our first ride!! Look at those grins 😁

While hitchhiking is being seen more in Thailand, it’s still a confusing concept to the locals. According to online resources, many people think that you need help or to get to a bus station. This couple took us to a school where he dropped off his wife and another woman who spoke a little English came to translate. She seemed confused that we didn’t want to go to a bus, but the man agreed to take us back to a main road and drop us off. He pulled over and got out and tried to explain to us the next major towns along our route, but had to run as another truck was pulling in. We thanked him profusely and again started walking north.

Again, we were not walking long when another pickup pulled over. This one had a bunch of construction workers in the back and were on their way to a site. They agreed to take us to the next town. One of the younger men tried to converse with us a bit and mentioned that he really wants to learn English. Pretty sure he was the one who convinced his boss to pull over, but flying along the highway it was difficult to talk.

They dropped us off before heading to a smaller town off the main road and we again started walking. The next person to stop was a woman and her son. They spoke fantastic English and were heading all the way to Hua Hin, which is about half way to Bangkok! Gina and I are super stoked by this point. It’s only mid-morning and we are making great time with little trouble finding rides, and now we get a single car over a long distance!

Our driver is Pali and she is taking her son Sean to visit some friends for Christmas. Pali is from Thailand, but lived in Canada for several years before moving back. She lives in the far south of Thailand and told us a lot about the local culture and her plans for building a business and homestay there. It was a fantastic ride, and they were so generous. She told us about this great tea place in Hua Hin and instead of moving on we decided to go into town with them and check it out.

The tea place is Roti Teh Tarik, and Pali and Sean joined us there for some Roti pancakes and Thai teas. Pali told us that the young man working there started this business when he began university in Hua Hin. He did not want to borrow money from his parents so he learned how to make pancakes and tea (in style!) from YouTube. Right across from the old train station, it was incredible, delicious, and fun to watch.

Pali refused to let us buy their share, paid for everything, and only asked us to send some good chocolate from the USA to Sean once we are home. We most certainly will do that, and once her homestay is up and running I will share that information as well!
When they left we headed again to a main road, but it was like the city never ended. All we could get was taxis pulling over, and after a couple of miles we decided to get a Song thiew to the next town where it gets more rural. Of course, by that time there were no more trucks passing, but luckily we saw a minibus that had a stop in Cha-am, so we caught a ride for 30B each. From there we walked out of town and quickly caught another ride.

This was Krit, and he was heading back home to Bangkok to meet his family. He said he would take us there to find a hostel. All the way to Bangkok! What a treat! As we rode and attempted to chat he said if we wanted we could stay with his family for the night. Later, he said we could stay for as many nights as we wanted, and that we could come and go. He was so kind!

Krit brought us to his grandmother’s home to pick up the family, and everyone was giggling and asking us questions. They asked if we were scared to stay with them, because they are strangers. Gina asked if they were scared of us. They just giggled some more. We went to their home, a small, clean flat with two bedrooms upstairs for the five of them and a bathroom, living, and kitchen area on the first level. We went out to bring back dinner, and sat on the floor eating together. We watched Thai music videos and tried to talk about culture and their lives and goals. It was a beautiful evening with beautiful people, and it made for an amazing Christmas Eve dinner.

They were going to clear one of their two rooms for us to sleep. Can you imagine? All five of them moving into one room just for us?? The kindness of people amazes me! We refused and slept downstairs, waking up bright and early at 4am so Krit could take his daughter to work. They dropped us off at a train station and we showered them in thanks that could not convey all the emotions I felt. Language barriers 😣.

Day Two

We had decided to take a train to Ayutthaya to start hitching again, since it would be too difficult in the city. It was only 12B per ticket, and when we arrived we took our time before moving on. For us, it was Christmas morning! So we got some coffee and I talked to David and my parents on the phone to wish them a merry Christmas.

We walked out of town and were picked up by a young woman who lived nearby. She took us maybe a mile to the highway where we might have more luck finding a ride. From there we walked a good ways before a truck pulled over. We were tentative approaching it, mostly because we couldn’t see inside and weren’t sure if he was pulling over for us or not. But after the window rolled down and we heard some shouts and finally the unlocking of the door we were pretty sure. We asked where he was going and he said Chiang Rai, then Laos. Our final destination was Chiang Mai, so this would take us most of the way! We cheered our good fortune, climbed up the ladder and in, and asked if he would take us as far as he was willing.

Our driver’s name is Ron, and he is the shit. He said he would take us as far as he could, and suggested we check out Chiang Rai. We discussed and decided…Tam mai la? Why not? He is from Chiang Rai and wanted to show us around, but since he was driving to Laos for work he would not be able to this time. We decided to go and explore some coffee or tea farms and relax.

Our ride was long, hilarious at times, and a lot of fun. He was thrilled at having companions on the road and laughed about it with his friends over the phone, which he was on constantly. We stopped at intervals to share meals with the other truck drivers going to the same place. It was incredible food. We each got a plate of rice and a few dishes for everyone to share. We also got to try some roadside snacks, most notably mango with chili sugar and a ‘naked’ coconut (best concept ever!!). We had many conversations using google translate. We would go back and forth talking into our phones, then reading or playing the message to each other. He even got us some Christmas beers for the ride!

We ended up not getting to Chiang Rai until one or two in the morning. He found us a hotel and made sure we were settled with a room before hopping back on the road to finish his journey. He refused any payment or food, but gave us both a big hug and said to come visit again. I think that sounds like a plan!

Day Three

The next morning we walked into the city center and asked some motorcycle rental shops about their service so we could visit some of the farms. As we are moving around, a man stops Gina and asks if we need a room for the night. We hadn’t planned on staying the night, but it turns out the man’s wife didn’t like the room and they couldn’t get their money back. They said if we just gave them 200B for their deposit (which we would then get back from the hostel) that we could have the room free of charge.

Say what? So we decided to stay. We spent a relaxing day exploring a bit, eating delicious food, and walking through the night market. I bought some tea, got a massage, and there was a lot of awesome live local music. Not a bad day trip!

Final Notes

1,258 km or 782 miles later…

We had no expectations for our hitchhiking experiment. We were fully prepared to stop and get a bus or train if necessary. We did not know if we would find rides or be able to communicate. We did decide after the first ride to mention the names of the next few towns before saying anything about our final destination of chiang mai. That seemed to help people understand what we were doing, even if they did think we were crazy. We also had to wave off about a million taxis and Song Thiews that tried to pull over.

It was a better experience than I could have imagined, and I had the perfect partner for it. We had a blast and met some wonderful people. Not a single one of them had ever picked up a stranger off the side of the road before, and here they were…sharing meals and homes and experiences with us. What a grand couple of days! I can’t imagine what adventures may come next.

Postscript: We used http://hitchwiki.org/en/Thailand as a reference and copied the first hitching letter in Thai to show to people if necessary. We only showed it to our first ride, since they were confused, and it did help. Everyone else we were able to make our intentions relatively clear.

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