Circa 2019 — Road Tripping Thailand, enroute Cambodia…Part 1
By: Shivani Shastri
Tags: Travel, Koh Samui, Backpacking, Thailand, Roadtrip

Thailand trips for Indians are generally associated with a lot of preconceived notions. Most popular being, spinster/bachelor party plans if you are going to Pattaya, honeymoon plans if you include Phuket in you itinerary and hippie alert if you try to trace the offbeat Ko samui and other islands…

Back from a road trip across this country, we now know that there is so much more to Thailand than what 1st meets the eye…

When we started planning, we could hardly find any information on Road trips, and so here’s a synoptic account of Thailand December, collected from the open window of Toyota Camry, driven across islands…

Total trip, covered by road. Car submitted @ Krabi Airport after 4 days

Initializing… @ Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok

Our 11 day long itenary, accommodations and ferries to be taken at each place were all booked and sorted in advance. That’s anyways Visa On Arrival requirement for Thailand. Thai govt decided to exempt visa fee for 17 countries eligible for Visa On Arrival. That meant 3 hours of waiting for our visa after our flight landed.

After this ordeal, we directly went to Budget Car rental counter to kickstart our actual trip. The kind salesperson at the Airport counter upgraded our booking to Toyota Camry for free and fed our exhausted souls with protein rich complimentary juices. The process of getting the car was smooth, all T&C were explained elaborately and paperwork was so clear that even minute scratches on the car were mentioned explicitly. Yet, the process took less than 45 minutes.

Quick Tip: Make an advance booking for your car. Also get your SIM card from various options available at the airport. Car rental need a valid credit card for security deposit of 5000 baht and also a reachable number.

Toyota Camry: rented from Budget, with bumper to bumper insurance cover and 2 drivers added.

Kay’s Place (Airbnb https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/14493164)

Bangkok traffic is absolutely crazy. We slithered our way through to reach Kay’s place. Kay made a joke about our big car and yet, light backpacks. His place was thoughtfully decorated and was perfect for backpackers. We met his malaysian guests and had an interesting dinner conversation with him and his mom. He helped us plan our trip by drawing a map and suggesting interesting places to stop by on our way.

Quick Tip: Kay was also our reference for VOA documentation. Check with your host prior to getting your visa.

Kay&Apple, My Review in a guestbook provided in our room and Kay’s planning for our road trip in my diary

The Drive…

We woke up @ 3:00 A.M, collected the boiled eggs packed for our breakfast by Kay’s concerned mother(Moms are the same everywhere) and drove right off the flyovers and highways of Bangkok city. It was pitch dark and we could drive past the city and into the shades of greenery covered highways in a jiffy…Roads were butter smooth and Camry was gliding through at 120 kmph.

Quick Tip: Be aware of the posted speed limit on specific roads though, avoid traffic violations. They have 📷 placed at regular intervals on highways.

We took short coffee breaks @ Gas Stations alongside the highways before making our 1st big stop at Hat Wanakon National Park.

Hat Wanakon National Park

This is a quiet little beach, ideal for birding, listening to the sound of sea waves while enjoying a lazy picnic day with family or for a quick snack if you are on a road trip like us. The quiet surroundings won't fail to give you a much needed break in your journey…

Hat Wanakon National Park and the species of birds you can spot there.

Saphli Villa Beach Chumphon

This beach has the most beautiful panoramic view. We simply couldn't get over it even when the screeching afternoon sun was right up. Witnessing that small village boy fishing so meticulously and that winning smile on his face when he caught that weirdest looking fish gave us a live example of perseverance. We had our lunch at a shack, served by a really patriotic Thai lady, trying to teach us her language while we enjoyed her fresh catch from the sea.

Saphli Villa Beach Chumphon, and the many panoramic views.

Our next stop was a 5 minutes linguistic struggle to buy a Thai fruit (Durian) from a local fruit vendor alongside the highway.

Krom Luang Chumphon Khet Udomsak Shrine

This white buddha temple in Chumphon has a beautiful symmetry and archaeological patterns. The pond next to it is filled to the brim with fishes and turtles. Perfect for architectural photography, and again, a good pitstop for this road trip.

Cute little village boy near the temple pond, old Thai Navy ship and fresh catch from the ocean in the local flee market.

Raja Ferry Port, Surat Thani

Islands near Raja ferry Port, Surat Thani. Captured by Pixel Night Mode after failed attempts from Canon 700D and iPad. :D

And we reached just in time for our ferry. Our tickets were kept ready in the counter as we had done online booking. We could just drive past the checkpoints smoothly and right into the ground floor of the ferry, after briefly waiting in a queue of vehicles ready to load. Everything was well managed and disciplined.

As we entered the port, the sea before us presented a scene which can be described by nothing short of poetry…And so, we decided to spend our ride staring at it from the 2nd floor(rooftop) of the 3 storied spacious ferry…

Moonlight adorning the waves. In my imagination, a mermaid danced in this spotlight. Her face looked familiar, like someone I had once seen in my mirror…

With a zillion thoughts playing a beautiful symphony in my mind and moonlight guiding our way forward, the ferry carried us and the Camry loaded in its basement to the island of Koh Samui.

Koh Samui, Lazy Days Resort (Airbnb : https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/4457262)

We reached in the dead of the night, drove our way to our beautiful resort-Lazy Days. Our cute little white cottage, that small pool with a water slide in front of it, their restaurant by the beach, breakfast by the sunrise and dinner with the moonshine… All this was nothing short of a romantic fairyland setting…

Vrinda Viewpoint

Just a short drive from our resort, following a very narrow trail, we reached this paradise with a splash of color all around. Through our conversations with that Italian gentlemen and Vrinda herself, we soaked in the positivity of this place, meditated for a while near the fish pond and saturated with this experience, left with a big smile on our faces…

Vrinda Viewpoint, meditation and chanting room, fish pond and positivity spread through inspiring quotes all over the place…

Hin Ta & Hin Yai Rocks

Also known as grandfather and grandmother rocks. Well, nature as its own designs and formations. Crazy as I get in proximity of water, I went too near the shore, slipped on the rock and fell in the ocean. And still, the coconut ice-cream looked so yummy even in those desperate circumstances that I relished it to the core, not caring about my wet clothes.

Fishermen’s Village Bophut

We heard a lot about this beautiful marketplace by the beach which serves the best seafood in Koh Samui. So we planned to explore Fishermen’s village at our lunchtime.

Lunch by the beach @ Fishermen’s Village

No matter how much we wanted to maintain the weights of our two 7.5 kg backpacks, we couldn’t stop ourselves from shopping at this place.

That merman like stuntman, dipping completely down under the sea and coming out as effortlessly was a sight to watch wide eyed.

Wat Phra Yai & Wat Plai Laem

Wat Phra Yai

These traditional buddhist temples have an architecture which is common to many other temples in Thailand. As a rule, devotees must cover their shoulders and knees before visiting buddha temples. Wat Plai Laem temple with 18 armed statue of goddess Guanyin has many other deities common with Hindu mythology. As we had seen earlier, thousands of big and small fishes and turtles inhabit the surrounding lake.

Wat Plai Laem

Lamai Beach

After our busy day of visiting the gems of Koh Samui, we could just manage to have our dinner here. However, Lamai Beach is famous for its crazy parties and the neighbouring Ko Pha-ngan island, for its full moon parties which we missed by a day.

It was difficult to bid goodbye to this beautiful island, but we had an early morning ferry to catch, to continue rest of our road trip till Krabi Airport… We had many more adventures to follow and memories in making… Stay Tuned for all of that in Thailand, enroute Siem Reap, Cambodia- Part 2…

And for getting a glimpse of the historic city of Siem Reap through my sunglasses, Read on… Part 3.