Hitchhiking in Thailand: Xayaburi to Thang Chang to Phitsanulok, Thailand
18th and 19th of November, 2024.
Koon and his wife Mae give me a lift until Muang Ngeun. They actually live in Vientiaine but are going to a village after MN to check something for Mae’s work. Koon took a few days off work so he could come with her. They are very nice people and we stop to have lunch somewhere on the way. They kindly offer me to pay for my food, but as I have the food which Lasamy gave it to me, there’s no point on accepting it, so I just ask for a bow with hot water and eat my instant noddles, the baguettes and the sardines. We get to the MN sometime around noon, I guess, perhaps a bit after.
I’m still a few kilometres away from the border. As I start walking towards it, still arranging my backpacks as I walk, I see a pick-up coming and make a signal for it. It stops. A lovely young lady is driving it, and she tells me she can take me to the border, even though she is going a bit before. How sweet!
At the border everything is fine and the officers are very sweet, very Thai. Laugh.
As for the location of the border, not so much. And to make it worse, the roads are under restoration, so it’s dusty and a mess. There are almost no cars coming, even though this was my best choice in terms of “car activity”. The only few cars which pass don’t stop. I stay here for a while.
A woman and a man finally stop. I ride in the back. She tells me they will drive about 40 Km only, but as I need to get out of here, I take it. Once those 40 Km are done, after dropping off her daughter at this village, she tells me they will drive me about 15 Km more, to a better spot for getting cars going to Bangkok, that’s what’s written on my sign. I had no idea she was being really precised about these distances.
The town she drops me off is called Thung Chang. It’s after 16.00 hours now, and I am thinking that it doesn’t worth it starting hitchhike now, as there’s a chance I can get cars going straight to Bangkok from here, but not at this time. So after eating the delicious purple sweet bamboo sticky rice which that nice woman gave it to me, I start walking, looking for a family house to camp in it.
Again, by the end of the street, I see a man by his house, and he’s wearing a yellow shirt, so I assume he’s a teacher. And I’m right! His wife is also a teacher. I explain everything to him, to what he tells me he will take me to his neighbour’s house. O-K…
The house belong to Sompsong, a monk and police officer, and the best version of both occupations I have ever met. Teacher O., the one with whom I first spoke to, tells me that Sompsong used to host a foreigner teacher here in his house for about one year. He also stays around for a little while, just until Sompsong show me around and to my room. Oh, yeah! Sompsong said I could stay immediately as we asked, but not for camping, just taking one of the free rooms available in his house.
His house is very nice, with lots of outside space, lots of nature too, and it’s also quite big. He has three adorable dogs: one big and happy, and two small grumpy ones. In a few minutes, Sompsong invites me to come and see his farm, only a few Km from here. We get into his tuk-tuk, and the big dog join us. The farm is huge and gorgeous, quite an idyllic place, full of coconut and other fruits trees. There are two lovely ponds, clear and turquoise water, a gorgeous tree by one of them, and also a guest-house. He keeps his cows and his bull here too. I meet his bull, it’s an extraordinary animal. He comes straight forward to me, and even though I think Sompsong was a bit worried about it, as soon as I start to cuddle the bull’s head, everything is fine.
Back at his home, I meet his wife, also a teacher, Yaowaret. She tells me we can go for dinner after I have a shower. We walk to a noodle shop nearby. The noodles are delicious but as I am starving, and noodles normally tend to be a small portion, for the first time in my travels around Asia, I have a second one. Laugh. Well, actually, Sompsong and I have a second one, although he shared his with the dog. At least, I am full after the second bowl.
We walk to Yaowaret’s school after dinner. It’s only some hundred metres from the noodle’s shop. It is a big school, in the same parametres of other Thai schools. It’s a nice walk as the sky is brighten with stars and the weather is pleasant.
Back at the house, I do some thing in the phone and then go to sleep.
19th of November, 2024.
I get up around 6 a.m. next morning and say good bye to Yaowaret before she goes to school. Sompsong has already brought a breakfast buffet for us, apart from the dark purple stick rice he cooked, and the Thai omelet he prepares it. The tables is full with delicious food: curry, soup, different coconut dessert, sweet sticky rice desert, fried snacks, onion and eggs pie, plus my beloved fresh soy milk. We also have some coffee. Everything is absolutely delicious and we finish almost everything. The remaining stuff, Sompsong gives it to me for the road. Yay!
Then, the craziest thing happens. Since Laos, I’ve been thinking about start doing meditation but I need some guidance, mostly regarding the breathing. What a surprise when, out of nowhere, Sompsong starts telling me about meditation and how it has everything to do with the breathing. We are using the translator on my phone. We chat for about one hour, and he says some really nice things, including, many times, that nothing happens for coincidence.
I wait outside Thung Chang for quite sometime and nothing. For some reason, this third time of me hitchhiking in Thailand is about to be the worst one. Never before it took so long for someone to stop. Until now, Thailand used to be a paradise for hitchhiking, the best of all South East Asian countries I’ve been, and that’s why I was so excited to be back. I thought that, finally, my troubles with hitchhiking were finally over.
But I do get incredibly luck when officer Air stops for me. He actually forgot something at home and came back to take, and that’s why he could stop for me. Yay!
He is going to Uttaradit District, almost at the border with Laos, where he works for one week, then works another week back home, and one week he rests. He tells me he can drive me until Nan, about 100 Km from here, which is a big city and will increase my chances to get a lift to Bangkok. Great!
As we talk and I tell about my travels and life to Air, by the time we arrive to Nan, he changes his initial plan, of taking a side way road his final destination, a road by the mountains, as he tells me, and decide to go through the highway; this way, he can take me a lot further, about 300 Km in total, which is absolutely great for me! What a nice person!
We listen to some really nice music and talk about many interesting things. Out of nowhere, in a small, almost hidden coffee shop, I have one of the best coffees of my life, if not the best coffee of my life. It’s an arabica grain, mix of Brazilian and Thai coffee. I have a cappuccino and it’s absolutely delicious! The name is only in Thai though, which is really not a good marketing for the place. Perhaps they simply don’t need it, or don’t want it. This is the name in Thai though: โรงคั่วกาแฟ น.น่าน.
A little later, Air takes us to another nice place, this time for lunch. It is right about the intersection to where he will go to left, and I will carry on straight to Bangkok. The name of the restaurant is Lom Yen. Apart from the really nice atmosphere and decoration, the food is absolutely delicious! It’s a buffet kind of restaurant, I have some mushroom, veggies and omelet, and everything is great! I have to tell the manager before I leave how much I love their food. She is so happy to hear that!
When officer Air drop me off at a service station by the intersection, I tell him that he basically saved my day. He also redeemed the name of police officers a lot, by being so nice and really helpful, two things that most police officers are not.
Another gorgeous place for hitchhiking. Soon enough another officer stops, this time a military young man. I wrote his name down, but now I am confused with my handwriting, as it could be either Dhat or Phat. I’m sorry! He is going to Phitsanulok, which is actually my only intention right now, as it’s almost dark already.
Dhat / Phat is a very kind man and I explain to him that I must find a pagoda somewhere near the highway to Bangkok. He knows a few pagodas and take me to a big one, which seems, geographically speaking, better. But as we get there and I see how touristic it is, I explain to him that, most likely, they will not allow me to stay. Personal experience. So he takes me to another pagoda, nearby, but much smaller and simpler. To get there though, we pass through a military complex, which is pretty cool. He just turn on the inside lights and, as the guards see him in his uniform, they let us in and out. He explains to me though that tomorrow I will take the regular road to go out, which I definitely will as that is the short cut to the highway anyway.
Once in the pagoda, he is very patient to walk with me around, find the monks to talk about my staying, and only leaving after everything was settle. The monks are very nice and caring, and arrange a place for me inside one of the temples, as there is a fan and it’s closer to the toilets, as they explain to us. I say many thanks to the officer, so he can finally go home.
I do some sewing on The Hulk, so her top part doesn’t get even more ripped. I still have the chocolate bread and the pie which Teacher O. brought me, so I have that for dinner. I already finished earlier the remaining from breakfast. I put up my tent, as I prefer to face the heat than the mosquitoes. Plus, other possible living things that might come at night.
10 Years Around the World 