25th of June, 2023.
Hitchhiking in Thailand: Hua Hin
I spend a few hours in the airport, and try to catch some sleep. I will hitchhike from the airport to Hua Hin, a popular spot for tourist, half way to the South of Thailand. But I’m not staying there, I’m actually volunteering in a small village near the town.
Outside the airport, I wait for quite a long time. Perhaps is because my sign says Hua Hin, and it is quite far from Bangkok. But I don’t care! I like challenging people! If I press them, they will get to understand that, if they are going on the same way as I, they can drive me until certain point, and from there, I carry on. Right?
Finally, somebody stops. A nice woman driving a pick-up, and she’s accompanied by a man. They are both very nice. She can speak English so we are chatting. I don’t recall exactly where she drops me off, but it is somewhere outside Bangkok, perhaps nearby Samut Sakhon. But it is a busy place. It is actually a gas station.
I am starving, so I ask around if somebody can give me some food, explaining that I have no money. This will be my first experience with Thai food. Some lovely young ladies from a small bakery talk with the people from a food stand. They prepare a vegetarian fried rice for me (Khao Pad). It is simply delicious! I am so happy now! And I tell everybody, the young girls and the people who prepared the food, how grateful I am.
I ask the people in the cars stopping at the gas station about a lift to Hua Hin. That’s because there’s no way I can hitchhike by the road. It’s more like an avenue.
At certain point, some people decide to help, and talk with the people from the bus business, by the gas station. I don’t know exactly what kind of arrangement they do, but tell me I can come with them for free until another town on the way to Hua Hin. I think we drive for about 2 hours or so, and then I am by the road again, this time in a very good spot.
Soon enough, a lovely couple, Top and Lek, and their young son stop their pick-up. They are just so sweet! They tell me they are not going exactly to Hua Hin, but they can take me there. I try to refuse but there is no way out: they really want to help me. With this couple and the previous lady who picked me up, I start to realize how Thai people are actually extremely kind and helpful. For the majority of them, at least for everybody who picks me up by hitchhiking, doesn’t matter what, they will drive me to my destination and it is more than just an honour for them to help, it is their duty.
When we arrive in Hua Hin, I need to contact my host, so I ask the couple to drop me off by a Starbucks, in the centre, so it’s easier to go around.
I get to know that I must go to a shopping mall called Village Market, where the wife of my host is participating in a farmer’s market. She will take me to the farm and show me everything. Well, kind of.
Even though I arrive around 5 p.m., when it is still daylight, the market only finished late night, around 9 p.m. Then, I help her packing everything (it’s a lot of stuff), and we leave to the farm sometime around 10 p.m.
We have dinner in a food stand on the way to the farm. She is nice but we don’t talk much.
At the farm, she just quickly shows me the small cottage where I will stay, and leaves with the promise that tomorrow she will come back to show me everything at daylight.
10 Years Around the World 