UK Van Lifers Surprised by THAILAND’s West Coast

As we continue our van life adventure around the world, we explore Thailand’s west coast along the Myanmar border. A once in a lifetime road trip.

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Travel vlog 631| Filmed January 2024 | Thailand| Country 38/197

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Well I didn’t expect this! That one is chicken hearts. Did you just say Lane control? There isn’t any!! Over taking you on the corner! Welcome to Thailand! We’ve visited Thailand on holiday a few times before but we’ve never had the opportunity to explore it with our own transport.

It may seem a little mad to drive our UK campervan here from the UK, I mean we could have just rented  a scooter like everybody else does. either way you just can’t beat the freedom of having your own  transport, and we’re excited to be heading north,

Up Thailand’s East Coast for the first time. Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret…… Oscar Wild This room’s been fantastic, a lovely double  bed nice and quiet, huge Air con and all within nature, there’s been chickens wandering around!

Hasn’t it been lovely? It’s been fantastic and I’m pulling myself away from this place, because it has just been the perfect nature Retreat after Phuket City! Absolutely and we could definitely stay here longer,

But we have to hit the road, so before we go, we’re going to go and get map on the side of the van, so you can see the plan for today! This is where we’ve been staying on the farm stay just south of takuapa,

And the plan today is we’re going to be driving up this  Coastal Road here up to Ranong, we’re going to spend a couple of days there a market we want to see in Ranong, get a bit of town life and then we’re going to head across parallel  to the Myammar Border,

Then cross the centre of Thailand here to the other coast, and then we’ll find somewhere on this Coast to park up by the beach. That sounds like a pretty good plan to me, ready to hit the road? I am! I’m excited to go north!

So we’re going to drive around and say goodbye to the ladies running the place, and ask them to stick the Thai flag sticker on the side of Trudy! It’s another lovely sunny day and it’s very hot but today Maranne’s woking up with a crick neck! I have!

So she might be looking a little bit stiff today! Thank you very much it’s been amazing! See you again – thank you so much, thank you very much Chef for all the wonderful food! Okay! Thailand…. Thailand…. yay!! We love Thailand! We love Thailand too!! Welcome to Thailand! Thank you!

I love you, thank you very much, we love you too – thank you very much! Oh it’s been so amazing! Bye-bye – Thank you !! oh it’s so beautiful ,so pretty, with all the flowers and the animals …. it’s been perfect! Just wonderful !!

Yeah the drive up to Ranong it’s about 3 hours, so sit back relax and enjoy the Thai scenery! Just driving through the local  town you got all the food stands starting to open, all the motorbikes, I just love it! It’s got a very cool feel does isn’t?

It if we hadn’t already had breakfast, I’d be stopping over there cuz it looks like she’s doing banana fritters, it does look like banana fritters! Motor bikes, little side cars take  your whole family out for the day!

You don’t really see those back home anymore, side cars, do you? No – with goggles and scarf flapping! Like Wallace and Grommet! Yeah! I think that’s the last time I saw it! Oh we’re at maximum speed! We’ve decided that you have to drive a  bit like a ninja here in Thailand,

Because the lane control is quite interesting! I haven’t managed to capture it on film yet, but they tend not to stick to their lanes, no – hold on, did you just say Lane control? There isn’t any! There is no Lane control!

I think it’s going to be interesting when we eventually make it up to Bangkok traffic, because I think it’s going to be complete chaos! Actually I get a lot of comments about driving and people say if  you think that’s bad wait till you get to there, and I actually find that thoroughly amusing!

And really, not a challenge, but I just think it actually excites me! It’s like every country is worse than the the next one? Yeah! Although my best driving lesson ever, was in Istanbul! Oh my God – this is Carnage!

I got so many comments from people saying – we’re Turkish, and we would never ever go in our car, at that time, to those roads, well done! So let’s see what happens! did you just say  Turkish T I did say Turkey – ish? Yes I did !!

We continued heading, north singing along to our saved Spotify playlist, it seems like we know most of the words now, but I guess we should after four years of driving !

After all that time away from home, I wonder if we’ll recognise any of the groups and singers names in the charts by the time we get home? Probably not! It is lovely driving through these little  Villages we’re away from the tourists now, as we head north. Banana trees everywhere! We’re in Thailand baby, we’re in Thailand!

How mad is that? I still can’t get over the fact that we’re in Thailand, but we are in fact in Thailand! The landscape’s getting more  and more hilly as we go north, much much greener it keeps getting greener! Palm trees, banana trees, forests up on the sides of the Hills! It’s a beautiful drive!

It’s spectacular! Over taking on a corner! oh my goodness that was close! I hope that motorbike is not contemplating  overtaking on the inside CU that would be insanity !!   There is a very fishy smell coming from somewhere! There is, what is that! Motorbikes do some pretty crazy manoeuvres here in Thailand luckily this one didn’t!

We’re just arriving in the outskirts of Ranong, and we found a little hotel right in the center with parking for Trudy, which is always great! A couple more kilometers we should be there! It’s getting a bit tighter down here, the mad wires as always! It’s an interesting little town. One kilometer more…

There’s a market there selling loads of food. all these taxis. it’s looking a bit interesting, isn’t it? it is! Okay yeah that’s the hotel, there should be a little car park here. I am loving that place! There’s a Union Jack!

Well this hotel looks a bit wacky, it’s quite a colourful place, so I think you should be able to park here?! I don’t know that we’re going to get under it… yeah you will, just go straight into one of those and see what happens.

They have got a little Land Rovers here it’s even got a GB and a Union Jack on the side! meant to be… so that is the hotel! The B in Ranong, we got a nice view over the town. 203 …. 202! There you go Marianne, lead the way! Oh lovely! This is nice …

That’s great – concrete with colour in it, and then splashes of these really Bold colours, that’s great! Bed, TV, air con there. clean towels – we can probably just about see Trudy …. if we bring her down a little bit, bathroom, toilet and a shower, there you go! perfect, what more do you need?

Okay so we’re heading out into town, because apparently every Saturday evening, at about 17:00, the main High Street is closed off for a market. and it’s 18:00, it’s Saturday evening, so we  thought we’d go and see what all that is about,   and maybe get some food!

Hey hello! I’m loving this old little bus here look, the the hotel seems to have quite a few little old Vehicles, look there’s an old VW parked in the garage here, yeah that’s very cool, another little truck there and then an old Dodge over there.

I can hear music love, let’s go and see what’s going on! I feel like we’re missing a party!! oh wow look at this … well I didn’t expect this! The whole street, look oh it’s just being transformed isn’t it? I don’t know where to start?

I don’t know, look it’s going all the way down there, let’s head to the music! Everyone was coming out to enjoy  the slightly cooler evening temperatures it had a fantastic atmosphere, the  music was blasting with performers dancing, and the air was filled with the  wonderful smell from all the street food stands.

Then we spotted a man cooking what looked like a giant poppadom over a charcoal fire, we bought one to try later. There is food everywhere! Nuts, corn, fruit…. Well I didn’t expect to come out to the  hotel to see this tonight, it’s literally the whole length of the High Street here.

I’m getting sucked into retail therapy !! You got like these giant like poppadom style things that look absolutely amazing! And cashews, we’ve seen a lot of cashews in this area. They’ve got the best cashews! Oh wow look at that… is that Sushi? okay we spotted a taste from home! Yeah  strawberries!

Well that’s better than the Goldfish at the market back home isn’t? and they’re Siamese fighting fish – you can’t have two in a tank or they kill each other! oh yeah that’s true! They got salad, beans sprouts, chicken and egg – noodles frying, it looks and smells delicious too!

Yes it smells really good! I had to try that! We sat down and waited,  watching the world go by! Here we go, how good does that look? And yes it tasted as good as it looked!

As night fell we stopped for a beer to take in the atmosphere before heading out to see what else we could find. What are those? So we just spotted these little things deep frying, these balls…. potato ! Oh potato? We will try …. nice, Thai chips?! oh thank you just so much food everywhere!

Pots of curry. oh look at that… that looks lovely, that looks so good. We have spotted all these sticks! They are 10 bhat each. Google translate – chicken, that one  is chicken hearts, chicken, chicken liver. One, yeah we try, thank you very much. We got a chicken and a barbecue chicken,

Mind that’s not chilli! Oh it’s so good! it’s very good! Oh my goodness, that barbecue sauce is so sweet and tangy!! I’m not sure if that’s a chilli though? Can you eat that bit? Oh look at that, that’s like a crepe? sort of a crepe? Pancake? oh it smells good!

Now we found a noodle stand, do you want some noodles? I think I might have to take one for the team! looks delicious! I can’t quite figure out everywhere still got Christmas trees and we’re months after Christmas!!? Marianne – there’s Christmas trees everywhere?

I think some people love their decorations so much, it cheers everything up and they don’t want to take them down! I think that’s what’s happened here ! I think you might be right! Chicken! thank you. Okay we bought so much food to try, that I think actually we we’re just walking past the Hotel,

Trudy’s parked just down here so I think that we’re going to go and sit in Trudy. What I didn’t realise is that the car park has got a spotlight, it looks like she’s all displayed. We’ve escaped the madness, we’ve come back into Trudy – we’ve come home!!

There’s so much music that if I try and talk about any of this food on the street, we’re going to get a copyright strike from YouTube! but yeah, I want to try these giant poppadom looking things, how cool is that to see those being cooked ? We’ve got such a selection, let’s open it out !

Oh that is nothing like a popadom! oh isn’t it? it’s actually slightly sweet, it’s like a very thin sweet crispy crepe or something? is it like a crepe? Yeah it’s very delicious! These are I think …. oh they’re still so  hot! They’re potatoes, what’s really funny  …

I’m going to have to leave those a minute, I  can’t eat those yet! but they actually smell like chip shop chips! But here is the eggy vegetable noodle, which is right up my street, that looks lovely! Yeah that’s mine! is it? I could eat all of that, easily!

This looks like one of the curry Puffs we had in Singapore, but I think it’s a chicken pastry? Yes – that’s good, it’s got like chicken curry inside! Okay I’m going to try one of these potato ball things… what a strange texture?! It tastes nice,

But it does not taste anything like a potato or a chip! is it like a donut? Oh look at that!! Oh it’s a bit stretchy and glutenous, maybe they mix it with flour or something I don’t know? like a giant gnocchi?

I would say it’s like a potato donut? that’s how I would describe it – Potato donut! That’s about right, a purple potato doughnut ! slightly sweet, not overly, but there is definitely sweetness behind it !! We still  had time for a quick night cap in the hotel bar! The Next Day

Good morning, we’ve had a great stay here  in Ranong, but today we’re leaving after that very cool market last night, we’re going to slowly make our way up North and cut across towards the East Coast, and hopefully get a glimpse of Myanmar on the way.

All right Marianne? I’m all right! Trudy’s is ready? Trudy’s all ready, why did I say that before I checked?! She’s looking good! So the plan today I think we’re going to head about an hour north, and stop somewhere for lunch on the way up,

Because it’ll be lunchtime, and then we’ll carry on driving another hour or so and then find somewhere to stay a little bit further north. Left Marianne, it’s hard to believe that this  whole street was covered in markets!

It was, it looks so different now all the food stands have gone away, but it’s been a it’s a lovely little stop off point, not as touristy as some of the Big Towns, I think a lot of people head down through the middle, but yeah it’s been really nice.

There’s been a fair few tourists around, but nothing like Phuket. it’s another warm day, sun is out, Turtle dragons! that’s a new one! Right 100 m Marianne, we’re turning right, that is a nice big road some of the side roads are really really small.

Motorbikes all down that side  of the street, and all down that side of the street I don’t know whether this is coming out, but  right in the distance you can see a body of water,

Which is a massive estuary and on the other side it’s Myanmar, so the route today we’re going to be following the river, until the road starts cutting across towards the east coast of Thailand, but yeah we’re heading down to the water. Maybe we can find somewhere to stop by the river.

As we are driving along I got a glimpse of a lovely waterfall coming through the trees there, wow what a drive! today Seeing all the guys sat in the back of that truck, it must be so hot, just being out in  the sun like that in the midday sun.

One of the things I love driving through  Thailand, you don’t have to go far to see beautiful statues and temples, I suppose they are like our churches back home, they’re just in every town, every village has a temple.

I think as well people individually have some kind of religious shrine in front of their house as well, because we’ve seen lots of little individual ones  dotted around, yeah temples, burning joss sticks. Just passing a massive group of cyclists,  who look like tourists, they do, who would be cycling in this heat?

Are they mad or Brave? Yeah – fair play! They are like superheroes!! I’ll take my hat off to that! Absolutely, or clinically insane?! yeah!! Not not for me? not for me! Motorbike is about as far as I’d go! Just looking at Google Maps we’re  actually very very close to the Myanmar border,

So we’re going to turn off the main Road in a minute, and see if we can go down into the little village down here, and get a glimpse across the river into Myanmar, which I think would be very cool!! Okay we’re turning off 1 km to the river! I love these wooden buildings!

You never quite know when you turn off these roads  how small they’re going to get! For me as well as the electric cables, they hang quite low so I’m always concerned if there’s any going across the road like these, yeah yeah that’s that’s high enough, yeah. There’s a market going on,

Let’s see if we can get down to the river? let’s go and have a look … so yeah we found out from somebody that the red number plates means it’s brand new…. so I’m not hitting that one! Mattresses! Loads of mattresses! there’s a market selling mattresses!

Cool little town though, there is a market, a funfair back there, with a carousel, it’s where everybody’s hanging out! 500 m to the river and the road will come to  an end … look that means that Myanmar is that green in the distance? It is! that hill is Myanmar !

Oh it’s opened up now, much wider and we can just park up here, and then just have a little walk down. It’s literally right where that red building is. So there you go, we’ve come right down to the end.

That’s looking over to Myanmar there on this estuary, Marianne wanted a photo of Trudy with Myanmar in the background! so that’s it! yeah this river goes out to the Sea down there, it’s very common, most borders are either mountains, rivers,

But what a beautiful spot, look at this…. that is Myanmar the little town over there is in Myanmar just the other side of the river. There you go, they got the Thai import regulations there, I’m not sure where the people cross, there doesn’t seem to  be any immigration office on this side  

These buildings are incredible, I can’t get  over how beautiful they are, a new paint job, yeah   That would be a stunning building, it would make a good hotel, that would right by the river. A little boat coming over now, So yeah the boats go backwards and forwards,

This looks like there’s a Post delivery or a  courier going to send something over. Yeah packages going over to Myanmar there look. Interesting, your first glimpse into Myanmar?! It honestly…. it’s fascinating! Especially that there’s a boat just come over,

To pick up something from like a delivery service to go back! It’s just wild! Okay so now we’re going to drive probably  about 10 km North, I think I found a restaurant with a balcony where we can have lunch looking over the Myanmar jungle! How does that sound? that sounds epic!

We think we have gone past the restaurant that we’re trying to find, we have parked Trudy back there, and I’m pretty sure that this is the place which has a restaurant?! Look that is the river, right there, Myanmar in the background, so we’ll try and see if they’re open for lunch,

Yeah lovely little area here. Oh up here? food? Okay maybe we didn’t overshoot after all, because it seems like there’s another restaurant, this one’s closed, so we’ll try a little bit further down the road. I can’t believe how hot it is! Okay I think this one probably looks  better, let’s try. We can sit there?

Yeah? Wow look at this! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s exactly the kind of seat I want today! Wow, what a cool restaurant ! How incredibly cool is my life today, right now!! Look at this! Good job Marianne!

After to that delicious lunch, and an amazing view, and they have a fridge full of different cheesecakes, but I resisted but it was hard!! We were good, yes we were good!! We’re going to jump back into Trudy who is baking in the sun, and we got about probably another hour to the next town.

And then we’ll park up and find a hotel to stay in. Loads of police cars coming down the road, I think there’s a maybe a diplomat or somebody special! Someone special coming? is that’s us? ha ha I don’t think so Marianne – I think it’s Trudy maybe!!

Little military check? Is that military? army? don’t know I can’t read that sign! Hello where are you from? England. We’re  going to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and then Laos. just two people. Yes two people,  thank you, have a good day, thank you you too – bye! 

Oh nice guys just asked where we were going, the problem with the masks you  can’t see their smiles, oh but you can see the smile in his eyes, yes he was smiling, he was happy. So we’re just coming into the outskirts  of Chumpon the town, over on the east coast now.

And we got about 10 minutes I found  a place online, so we booked what looks like a very nice little room for a couple of days. Wow that’s nice look at that, just getting a glimpse of a golden Pinnacle  coming up the top of the hill which I presume is part of a temple.

Of course there a car coming  the wrong way down the road! Expect the unexpected in Thailand! 850 m we turn left and then we  should be there. we’re in the sticks! we’re in the suburbs! 100 m on the left, chalicha Resort, now hopefully they got parking? Oh yeah there’s parking there!

It was tight, but there is Trudy, she’s  parked up! Right let’s go and check in! Nice – oh wow look at that, we’ve actually  got our own little parking spot so Marianne’s just gone to grab Trudy, to bring her around.

We got a bit of greenery out there, and then oh my goodness we have a massive bathtub! and an outside shower open to the  sky, amazing! I’m loving this, this is great 20 a night you can’t go wrong can you? Perfect the room’s lovely.

It’s perfect as well because when shade and I’m really worried about Trudy cooking and melting! bed test, what do you reckon Marianne? I don’t know, but I’m hoping for great things!!

Oh it’s quite firm, is it? very firm!! you got two pillows though, which is always nice!  And look there’s a flower for you! What a fabulous couple of days exploring that was, that’s why we love doing this so much,

And I know there are many more wonderful experiences and places to discover as we continue north towards China and beyond…