Thailand Trails: A Road Trip Adventure

Out of the blue, a friend sent me a Whatsapp note asking where I was. Knowing his proclivity for international travels and knowing my schedule, we both could have been just about anywhere on the planet. “Thailand”, was my reply. I had recently arrived in the Kingdom, immediately following three months in the Caribbean and Colombia. Remarkably, he said he was in Khorat which was only about 2 hours north of where I staying. It had been years since he helped saved my life in Nepal and we had seen each other only a few times since then.

With a few short conversations we quickly had an itinerary planned. He would rent a car in Khorat, pick up my friend and I and then would head down to Chumphon where he would drop us off and we would catch a water taxi to the island of Koh Tao.

Our adventure began the day after his phone call. It became quickly obvious that defensive driving was not one of his strengths. He told us, “my driving is an expression of my personality”. In his case, absolutely – matching his larger than life character. Rather than focusing on the road, his attention was typically directed (including his gaze) at my friend in the front seat and often his head was swiveled toward me in the backseat while the car was speeding down the highway at 150km/hour. On numerous occasions he shared intimate pictures of his sexy girlfriends while driving with his knees or without grasping the steering wheel at all.

Three times we avoided potentially fatal accidents when he caught himself at the last moment – the car swerving over into the lane next to us causing parallel cars to swerve, or accidentally veering far onto the shoulder, careening towards a deep ditch. My old friend usually falls asleep immediately on road trips. He quickly grasped that doing so this time would perhaps be hazardous. Fortunately he stayed alert and shouted out warnings at the last minute from the passenger seat.

Our destination was Chumphon Pier, but instead of driving this entire length in one go we stopped at a fancy resort in Hua Hin. During our visit, only a handful of guests were staying here and the large beach was completely empty. It reminded me of visiting beaches in southern Thailand immediately following the terrible tsunami in 2004.

And the prices. Wow! For a huge room with two beds, we each spent only $15/person/night. We stayed in a room on the ground floor within only about a 20 second walk from our door to the pool. All the nearby rooms were completely empty. With a liberal use of marble, a huge pool, a swim up bar and a great restaurant, one would normally probably spend well over $100 per night here.

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