22nd of November, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Thailand: Surat Thani
It takes some time until somebody finally stop. He is going to Bang Saphan, about 170 Km from here. Great! Pui a nice man and he drives really fast. Laugh. He tells me about his father, who is eighty years old and have some healthy issues, so he’s looking after him. When I tell him about my travels, he also says I am coming from the sky. Second person in two days.
Before we arrive to Pui’s home, he invites me to stay overnight if I want, to meet his family and have a meal with them. He says that his sister is also vegetarian, so she can cook for me. And that’s because on our way to his home, we stop to have lunch in a small restaurant, and I told him I am vegetarian. I actually accept, and at that moment I thought it was a good idea, you know, interacting more with the locals and all that.
His home is actually really big, with a huge outside area, with beautiful trees and flowers. The space where his father is staying is a separate building, with his room, an open lounge and kitchen. I meet his father and he seems happy to meet me. He has one or two nurses to help him.
I also meet Pui’s sister, and his mother, an adorable lady. They have a big convenience shop in the ground floor of their house, and for what I can see by walking around, they have almost everything that you might need. It’s a massive shop!
As I check the time and notice it’s only 14.00 hours, I decide that is for my better interest if I carry on for a bit longer today. I still have many hours to cover, and I must be rational. Pui understands and reinforce that if I don’t get a lift, I can just come back and stay here. That’s very nice of him!
I start walking again. And for quite a while again. A car stops way ahead of me. He is a senior man, and he’s going just to the next big city, but it’s OK for me. He can speak a little English, and I explain to him where he can drop me off, according to where he is going in town, after asking him to show me on the map where was he going. We pick up a friend of him, kind of the same age as him, on the way. Once we get to the town, I notice that he probably made a confusion on where he was going because he already takes a different road. Then, he wants to drop me off in the middle of the city. I explain to him, again, that it’s not good for me for hitchhiking, and it’s getting late already, and all that. So he and his friend come up with a plan to drop me off by the highway, taking another route. Some of the roads are flooded.
OK, so I’m in the highway again, and we’ve had some rain on our way here, which is still falling a bit. After a few minutes I start walking. I spot a nice hitchhiking spot ahead, but I don’t even have time to get there, as a car stops before it. A really nice woman tells me I can come with them. My sign reads Trang. She wakes up her son and try to get him to explain to me where they are going. I don’t know for sure but I think it’s a couple of hours driving, so I get in.
The woman is a lovely lady, and immediately after I tell her my story, she invites me to come and stay in her home. I am about to accept, of course, but then the young man, her son, seems not to fully agree with it, as he keep insisting on showing me where they can drop me off on the way to Trang, or as I tell them, Malaysia. If I had continued driving with them, I would get many kilometres ahead, even though next morning I would have to return to the highway. But for whatever reason (fear, perhaps?), the young man didn’t want me in his home. I eat some nice chips and some delicious coconuty treats. They have lots of food, like snacks and traditional things, which they bought on their way here.
At some point, we arrive to a PTT Station, and they say this is the further they can get me on the same highway to Malaysia. OK. It’s sometime after 20.00 hours, I guess, so I will just camp here.
It’s a massive PTT Station, and they even have two hotels. But they seem to be budget ones. I make a lot of plans about what time I’m going to sleep, what I’m going to eat for dinner and for breakfast, as I must finish my THB. They have a food corner here, and they tell me they close at 2 a.m. I ask for the wi-fi at the hotel and do some planning. I also make two new hitchhiking signs.
I ask the people from the gas station where can I have my tent, and they show me a place. There are many trucks staying overnight here too, and I see even some women with them. I decide to take my shower tomorrow morning, as it will be probably very hot inside my tent tonight, so better start my day tomorrow clean, than get clean now and all sweaty again overnight.
Early morning I have a shower at the station. They have free showers. Coffee and cheese sandwich from 7-Eleven, and then I start all over again.
10 Years Around the World 