UK Van Lifers Unexpected First Impression of THAILAND

UK Van Lifers Unexpected First Impression of THAILAND

Low quality driving skills, no  adherence to law or standards, expect everybody to come at you! It’s going to be an interesting day! After spending the past 3 months exploring  Malaysia in our UK campervan, it was time to head into Thailand, and get one step closer to completing  our around the World drive,

But the process of getting into Thailand wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, because we can’t go back into Malaysia and we can’t go forward. We’re stuck! Arriving at the Thai border we were told that Trudy couldn’t enter without written permission from the Ministry of Transport,

So we spent the last 10 days in the Border Town of Dannok unable to move, whilst we wait for the correct paperwork to arrive. Finally it arrived! We’re legal and now we’re ready to start exploring Thailand. Travelling, it leaves you speechless,  and then turns you into a storyteller – Ibn Battuta Thank you bye-bye!

We’re all checked out but before we hit the road we’re going to get the map on the side of the van and just share with you our  plan for the first day driving here in Thailand   Okay so this is where we crossed into Thailand here the Sadao border crossing.

So the plan is today we’re going to drive up through Hat Yai, all the  way up here cross over towards Trang, and then head further west and then come down to Koh Lanta which is where we’re going to spend the night tonight  

We went there years and years ago, on holiday with our kids, actually we’ve been there twice! and we stayed at a place called Where else? and the owner Mr Wee, we haven’t seen him for 20 years,

But we’re going to go there and see if we can find  him, because it would just be lovely to see him again, and if not Koh Lanta is a beautiful stop  on the way North.

I have actually Googled Where else? and it doesn’t seem to exist in the place of it, there’s some something called Somewhere Else? So I’m not even sure if he’s there but it  will just be really cool to try. Right North we go!

It’s a beautiful sunny day, it’s definitely seems that we’re north of the Malaysian Monsoon now, because the weather really has been quite  dry whilst we’ve been here. So far the roads aren’t too bad, it seems to be quite well tarmac. all these lorries there’s miles of lorries waiting to cross.

It’s going to take a while to get used to  all these different bikes and it just looks so different. I mean look at this one here, bike carrying water by the looks of it. I think it’s going to be an interesting drive up through Thailand.

We were excited to be finally hitting the road after such a long wait, we’re not very good  at staying still for too long. We have been warned that the driving is  a little more chaotic in Thailand, so we’ll have to just see how that goes,

There’s definitely more motorbikes up here from what we’ve seen. All of these trees on the right here have got little cups on them I think they’re probably rubber trees. being in an aircon hotel for so long you seem to forget how hot it is out here,

And even though it’s quite cloudy, it’s just so warm, I think once we get to the north of Thailand, Chiang Mai, the staff in the hotel said it’s going to be  a lot cooler, I said how cold they said 20°! I said that’s like a summer’s day back home!

But that will be nice we’ll be able to sleep back in Trudy, and not have to rely on aircon keeping us cool and healthy. The signs are in Thai and English characters which is very handy for us,

And we’re using the waze app to to navigate here in Thailand that  all seems to be working good so far, The wiring down the road I can’t get  used to that! There’s a lot of wires Lots of beautiful architecture, temples  and that sort of typical Thai look,

Which I absolutely love, I always find it amazing how  you cross a border, literally within a mile it feels like you’re somewhere else, well you are somewhere completely different, You are in different country, but it’s literally just right there, if that makes any sense at all?! Okay Chris maybe that was a bit confusing,

But just crossing a border I’ve been transported into a place that just feels so different, it’s been around 20 years since we were last in Thailand and I’m sure like everywhere it’s  a lot different than it was all those years ago. Look at this for a little bus taxi thing here,

I love that! there’s a truck with seating on the back! That’s so cool, there’s there’s another one,  I think I want one! Can we get one? can we get one of those? maybe we could go on adventure in one of those? What do you reckon? food stand off his motorbike,

Selling bits by the side there look, snacks nice big wave there, there’s actually a guy stood on the back of this truck look you can just see his feet! it reminds me the first time we came to to Thailand,

We arrived from Langkawi to Satun and we got a taxi up towards Phuket and we ended up standing on the back of this truck on the bumper, holding onto the roof rack going down fast roads, which when you think about it is absolutely Bonkers! We’re just going past the city of Hat Yai, as we head north.

We normally like to take the smaller roads but there isn’t  really any other route at the moment to get to where we want to go. So we’ve got to take the main roads. But as we get out of the city and stuff they will  get smaller and more quieter and more natural.

Looking at some of the trucks  they load them in a special way here, it’s also quite common to have motorbikes and vehicles coming the wrong way down the hard shoulder! I love the way they’ve adapted the vehicles to suit their needs,

Can you do that in the UK ? Can you just adapt the vehicle? Definitely not? I always find that self-driving through a country gives you a unique perspective and freedom that you don’t get when you’re on  a tour or using public transportation, and that’s what we love about driving around the world in Trudy,

Although after driving over 55,000 Miles since leaving the UK, she might need a little bit of TLC and a holiday by the time we eventually get her back home. There is a car going the wrong way down the road!

I think the guy that was writing about driving in Thailand on the internet may know what he’s talking about! I think he might! The scenery is starting to get more hilly. There’s quite big mountains in the distance there, and we’re about probably about 40 km east of Trang.

So when we get to Trang we’ll probably stop and see if we can find somewhere to grab a bite to eat. I love that the roads are just opening out. Yeah! definitely very green, very lush and very  beautiful coming through these hills this morning, We’re just coming into the  outskirts of Trang,

So yeah we’ll try and find some somewhere to  grab a quick bite on the way through. Okay so we stopped  for some lunch at this service station Chicken with kaffia lime  leaves, rice, egg, I’m not sure what these are, looks like lettuce leaves? I love the you can hear the chickens.

You don’t like that? I don’t know what that  is! cucumber and then some spicy chili sauce. I’ll have the chilli sauce, you can have the  Cucumber. I really like the taste of Kaffir lime leaves, it’s such a unique Thai Flavour and a chili sauce, as you would expect in Thailand is very hotQ

Your face is very red!  it’s hot, I like it, but it’s very hot! After that quick pit stop, we got 1 hour  45 minutes to go and a car ferry ! so we had a few comments about the aircon in Trudy, asking why we don’t install aircon?!  

Well we’ve already explained that we don’t  have the battery capacity or the space to put more batteries, but Trudy does have aircon in the front, but it’s not that effective and a few people suggested putting our curtain up behind us to help keep the cool air in the front,

So that’s what we’ve just done, and I think  it’s going to work pretty good! With the heat of the midday Sun our air con is always going to struggle, but did the curtain help? Maybe a little bit…. Turn right, then turn left on Rural road.

We have definitely turned on to the smaller  roads now, compared to this morning! Driving through the little Villages, lots of banana trees, palm trees, the odd cows tied up outside people’s houses! Corners…. I love the little temples outside  people’s houses as well, and selling things on the road outside their houses.

It’s like the honesty boxes you get home. It’s Not Unusual to see eggs and vegetables outside a farm and a little tub for you to put your payment. in fact we used to have a lot of chickens  in the UK, and often we had more eggs than we could use,

So we too used to place a  little honesty box outside our house. Koh Lanta! we turning off the road to Koh Lanta, which seems absolutely mad! As we came here on holiday,! Wow all those years ago as I clung to the back of a pickup truck and headed down this exact Road….

I would never have imagined that one day we would be here in our UK van! oh he’s turning, is he telling me  to go? or stop? one thing you do have to watch out for is  cars overtaking and coming straight for you! They are overtaking the overtaker!

Yeah they are quite Brave on the road! Mangroves at the side of the road, look at that so we are definitely getting near the coast Wow! All the way down the road by the side they’ve got these little seating areas with the cool roofs, that you can just stop and rest in there’s another one!

There you go, we’re coming down to get the  ferry, and this is exactly, this is exactly, where we came last time. Though I seem to remember here  there was just two small Huts selling coffee? Do you remember two little really rural places. How do you pay?

I think I’m going to go behind the Lorry. oh yeah there you go he tell me to come down, oh yeah he’s waving you down this one. Oh foreign tourists 50 bhat, fortunately the ferry is on the other side,  so we got a bit time to find out.

Okay Marianne’s just ran off to go and get the ticket. It was 270 bhat, amazing can I have the ticket? yeah the top one, the scan-able one. there you go right Koh Lantaa here we go! Have they got space for little Trudy? Yay – just about! Look at that! Oh my goodness,

Does this remind you when  we were travelling with Sam and Andy? yeah going up to the Arctic Ocean! Okay Colin is sunk in the mud coming off the ferry! Right how cool is that? It’s very cool, I can’t believe we’re actually doing this! 27 years or 25 years since we came here on our honeymoon?

So there’s just a short ferry ride to across the water, Koh Lanta’s just opposite us there. There’s one of the ferries coming  back from the island Koh Lanta, and I’m just going to go up here, there’s Trudy down there, that’s how they transport the mopeds,

And then we’re going to be going over there to this side of the island in fact you can see the ramp that we’re going to over there. Okay we’re off the ferry, and we got about  20 minutes to get to the South Island, so sit back relax and enjoy the first view of Koh Lanta!

As soon as you come off you can see lots of tsunami evacuation route signs, because this island this region was hit very badly in this tsunami, in the early 2000s in fact Mr Wee and where else which is where we were heading now, we actually saw it on Google and the wave hit that area,

But they managed to escape to High ground. So this is a new bridge, this  wasn’t here when we came 20 years ago   going over to the South Island, and there you go, that’s where the main town is down there.

All I’ve got to say is from memory this road was like a single track lane road heading south down through the island, and now it’s huge! yeah and I remember there been lots of potholes, and then sometimes cement road sometimes mud road!

Where we’re going is  actually off this road which is not how I remember it at all, but isn’t that often the case you go somewhere 15-20 years later, and it’s changed, but it’ll be interesting to see if our friends are still here?!

Okay so we think it’s down here  there’s a monkey sat in the middle of the road! If I was a monkey I’d be  sat in the middle of the road ! ha ha  oh there’s more than one monkey, there is a whole loads of them! Hey guys! Okay Wrong Turn!

We’re back on the main  road we’re going to try another road… let’s try again, it should be straight down here …. so this is more what it used to be like here before it obviously got developed, and I think it’s at the end of this road? Somewhere else? this has got to be it?

Can you imagine if we actually managed to find him after all these  years? I don’t even know if he would remember us? Oh I tell you what my knee is giving me  real jip at the moment, it’s an old injury.

I’ve dislocated my right knee twice in my life  and had two operations, but today it seems that the tight muscles just feel like it’s pulling the knee out of alignment, and walking was very painful! Anyway we’ve arrived and we’re going to  go and try and find reception and see whether Mr Wee is here?

It’s changed a lot since we’ve  been here, That’s if it is the same place? He might have sold it years ago, Somebody’s just pulled up for us to ask. So the original Where Else has moved, but apparently it’s still run by the same family. This is actually Mr Wee’s brother,

And they’ve moved the location but Mr Wee apparently is still on the island! So he’s going to call him and see if it’s possible that we can meet up with him while we’re here … that’s amazing 20 I think what year was it, uh 1999? We’re trying!

He asked his brother if  he was able to pop down and didn’t let on that we were here, but he agreed and he should arrive in about half an hour’s time. Okay so they’re actually full here for the night, but The Neighbours coming to see where we can park Trudy,

And he’s got a little place just behind here. We ok and you? We come again! You remember us? you haven’t changed at all!! When we visited in my mid-20s, we bought a beer so we could sit  and watch the sunset, I spotted a bench that we could sit on,

I sat down and it broke in two and I literally found myself flat on my back! Mr Wee came over to make sure I was okay  and couldn’t stop laughing as I just sat on a table – it wasn’t a bench after all!

I sit on your  table and break oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you big guy !! and then we bring the kids. How are you? okay! we come to see you …. oh thank you very much ! Wow!

We showed him a picture we took with him from our last  visit…. long time ago! Yes, long time ago 20 years! I couldn’t believe it and and neither could he… We invited him for a drink and sat reminiscing about the good old days…

We were so pleased  that we managed to find him after all these years … How amazing is that to come back and see  somebody from 20 years ago! Lovely, oh absolutely unbelievable we had a lovely chat had a coffee  and stuff, now we’ll go and check into our hotel

And then we’ll go back to somewhere else for a  little dinner tonight, it’s a great start to our time here, I think we really really shocked and surprised him, he’s said, I have friends that I’ve known for longer than you, and I haven’t seen them for so for so long,

And you came after 25 years! It’s amazing, just a wonderful experience. Here you go this is our room for the night, we got twin beds that’s all they had available, but that’s okay. We’ve got a little balcony… Trudy’s right there so we can keep  an eye on her, amazing!

How’s the bed? oh it’s lovely, it’s bouncy! We’ve got a fan, aircon! oh so good shower and toilet what more do we want! That night as we stood on the beach gazing out to sea, it took me back to our honeymoon… it’s been a good day!

Later I headed for a Thai massage although painful the next day I had no pain in my knee. What a great start to our Thai Adventures

After leaving the UK in Jan 2020 it’s hard to believe that we are now in Thailand. Let the van life Thailand adventures begin !

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Travel vlog 629 | Filmed January 2024| Thailand | Country 38/197

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