Once back from our trip to the North of Thailand (article here!), half of our visa exemption duration (2 weeks) is already gone. We could apply for a proper visa but it would mean a new, unexpected expense when we are already close to having spent our total 6-month budget. We leave Bangkok once again to continue our way along the Thai train lines, this time towards the Southern border with Malaysia.

Come aboard along the Southern line:

• Strolling between storms in Hua Hin
• Supporting for a day the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WTTF)
• Getting a reality check in Koh Lanta
• On our way to Malaysia, featuring an eventful weekend in Hat Yai

I am grateful for these train lines serving as backbone of our travel itinerary, as it makes planning significantly easier and faster. After months of travelling, the more we can wing it, the better!

Strolling between storms in Hua Hin

First stop of our 2-week travel in Southern Thailand: Hua Hin. Hua Hin is one of the oldest coastal resort locations in Thailand, and is still one of the top destinations for the Bangkokian looking for a relaxed seaside weekend. We are mid July, already well into the wet season for Thailand so we plan more on walking on the beach than on lazing around in the sun (something that we don’t enjoy doing in any case, Dimitri saying that he is tanned enough and I am well aware of the limitations of my vampire skin).

Hua Hin is not only a holiday spot, but seemingly hosts a dense foreigners community. Even if Thailand prevents foreigners from owning a land for more than 50 years (somehow similar to Vietnam), the country officials have since long associated non-Thai residents with juicy income. Remote workers or digital nomads are especially targeted and can benefit from a dedicated, simplified visa created to cator to their needs. It sure begs the question of turning one’s life around, to work in a beautiful country bathed in sunshine and cheap delicious food…

Among the many tourists, we bump into several international couples, always following the pattern of a white middle-aged or elderly man, with a younger beautiful local woman. Given everything I read about the sex industry, I end up being highly prejudiced against what might be genuine, happy couples. They say that travelling opens your mind; I still have a long way to go!…

Our activities in Hua Hin are simple: enjoying local restaurants, comparing local beers, having a little swim in the crystallin Thailand Gulf, walking on the beach carefully stepping between the thousands of tiny crabs, avoiding the storms and watching said lightning and rain showers with delight from our balcony. Admiring all the shades of blue featured on the darkening beach is plenty enough to keep us happy.

Not even another food poisoning for me darkens our moods – I get one every two months since we have started travelling, so I know the drill now! Electrolytes bought at the local pharmacy, a loooot of water, a full day of rest and plain, dull food for the following day(s). And I am back on track like a trooper! This time around, I really want to recover fast, as I have booked a day trip to the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand…

Supporting for a day the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WTTF)

When we were in Chiang Mai, we shared a taxi with a French woman who just finished volunteering for a wildlife protection organization in Southern Thailand, named the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WTTF). She had worked for a month with many endangered species, including elephants. Given how the so-called elephant “sanctuaries” were advertising activities that are known to be harmful for the animals, I didn’t want to try my luck there. Fast-forward to our stay in Hua Hin, when I notice that the WTTF is located nearby. I do some further research and book a one-day visit, leaving Dimitri alone for the day. Let’s go see animals!

The Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (website here) has been created in 2001 by Edwin Wiek, a Dutch man who ditched his job in fashion to focus on his true calling: rescuing the poor wildlife illegally detained in Thailand. This is no little task. Pangolin scales, ivory, endangered species,… : just name it and you will find it on the Thai prolific wildlife trade. Wildlife trafficking is a profitable business, and many animals are passed through Thailand to reach other nearby countries, China being one of the biggest customers.

The mission of the foundation is to save these prisoners, heal them and do their best to help them readapting to living into the wild. Though their release is unlikely: a whooping 90% of the animals hosted by the foundation will never be able to leave it, as they would not survive by themselves and/or their habitat has been destroyed by mankind. The staff of the WTTF does their best to ensure that their residents enjoy their retirements, at the very least.

The visit of the foundation is quite heartbreaking, as you hear all the traumatic stories of wild animals kept as pets by careless people, exploited for the likes of unaware tourists or simply harmed by electrical wires (many monkeys missing limbs because of them). The staff and volunteers make sure that they are healthy (with a busy veterinary clinic) and work patiently with the animals, so that they start trusting again, opening themselves up to new buddies from the same species until they find partners and can be moved to bigger enclosures, step by step.

What shocked me is the amount of wildlife falling victim to their cuteness: I seriously did not expect people in our days and age keeping chimpanzees, tigers and other as pets solely because they were cute as babies, ignoring that they could not be held hostage indoors when fully grown. I was perhaps too innocent – I’d never watched shows like Tiger King showcasing owners of tigers in the US, for instance.

Incidentally, Tiger King did not raise awareness about the situation at all; all the contrary, organizations have witnessed a rise in illegal tiger adoption afterwards. Depressing stats of the day: it is believed that there are more tigers owned as private pets in the US than tigers in the wild in the world.

I felt in love with the gibbons. These small, fluffy apes live in families, and are famous for their incredible speed of swinging. They can walk on fine lines like funambulists, until they throw themselves into the air to catch another twig. Look it up on Youtube, this is mind blowing!

The very existence of this type of places raises hope: at least there are people who care, and who are dedicating their time, effort and money to help building a better future for all living beings. I am glad to have supported them a bit buying this one-day visit, and I would highly recommend anybody in the neighborhood to do so as well.

The caretakers let us give a snack to two elephants at the end of the visit. I thought that it was better for tourists not to interact with the animals themselves, but the caretakers explained me that they were to feed them anyway. This lady is blind due to old age, so it throws their trunk at random, in search for the sweet treat. I am not a light weight, but I immediately felt how quickly it could have thrown me flying…

Getting a reality check in Koh Lanta

We have taken so much our time in Thailand, that we need to speed up a bit now. We have carefully avoided it when we could, but we on-board for a 24-hour travel when I am back from my visit to the WTTF. After a night in the train, a minibus ride, a ferry and another minibus, we are in: welcome in Koh Lanta!

Our month in Thailand would not have been complete without a stay in the very much praised Thai islands. You likely have heard about Phuket, at the very least. Staying at luxurious resorts is not our type of travel (we don’t have the money for that anyway), so Dimitri searched for a relaxed experience and we settled for the Koh Lanta archipelago. If you grew up in France, this name surely rings a bell: it is where the first French survivor TV show took place, in the 2000s.

More softies than survivors, we stay at Koh Lanta Yai, the biggest island. The wet season is an off season for the Thai islands: most of the resorts are empty, all tour agencies offering snorkeling and kayaking are closed until October and life itself feels slower. We are very few tourists, in places otherwise crowded. We can sense that we are getting closer to Malaysia: the locals are Muslim, the women wear the hijab and the calls for prayers echo across the island.

We have all heard about plastic pollution, especially about the toll it takes on the oceans and seas: it is in Koh Lanta that Dimitri and I grasp the full extend of it. The beaches are littered with plastic, trash brought by the waves onto the shores. We saw a serious littering problem in India and in Nepal, where people threw their plastic bottles into the wild without a look back; Koh Lanta shows us another part of the global issue, when locals have to fight back plastic coming from the sea.

Hotels clean the beaches used by their clients daily when tourists are here, but it is otherwise up to the local organizations. There used to be organizations in Koh Lanta that were organizing trash collection events, but they took a big hit with Covid. I know that tourism brings its fair share of pollution as well, and I am aware of the paradoxical situation we are in, looking for magnificent nature across the world while damaging it by our mere presence. The example of Koh Lanta cleaning shows though that tourism can also be a lever to protect areas.

Speaking about spending money wisely, one of the top activities on the island is visiting the Lanta Animal Welfare (official website). The organization was opened 20 years ago by an European woman and focuses on stray dogs and cats. 20 years ago, Thailand was facing the issue that nowadays India faces, with packs of strays becoming a threat to the locals. Thanks to sterilization campaigns and putting a few for adoption, it is now fully under control and it is due to the hard work of organizations like the Lanta Animal Welfare. Don’t expect a walk among puppies when you go there: you are shown the complexity of handling animals brought often with open wounds and needing special training before being put for adoption. The size of the board used to monitor the walks of the dogs only gives you an idea of how serious this business is! We leave with a few goodies, just to give another donation to support their work.

I make it sound like Dimitri and I are in a mission, but rest assured: we take it as slow as always. There are still beautiful beaches in Koh Lanta, such as the one facing the small island where was shot the first season of the French TV show Koh Lanta.

We play in the waves under a pouring rain, our stuff wrapped in my rain coat on the beach. We dine at a fancy restaurant on the beach, likely fully packed during the high season but giving off an eery atmosphere when you are the only customers. We go several times to the same family restaurant (one of the few still open nearby us), where we laugh when we see the toddler being bathed in a bucket on the street. Dimitri gets his first beard trim ever, like the manly man he is.

We stay a week in Koh Lanta – I could have stayed more, for sure.

On our way to Malaysia, featuring an eventful weekend in Hat Yai

Back in the train again. Due to our freestyle planning, we end up stopping for one night in the small town of Thung Song. We pass through suburbs where the houses are built within the lush vegetation. We spend the evening at the laundromat, ordering in and eating with our hands as no cutlery nor sticks are included for once. Classy, as always! 👌 We leave the day after, from a beautiful train station facing the mountains.

Our last stop in Thailand is Hat Yai, the 5th largest city in Thailand, well-known among the Malaysian tourists due to its close location to the border. From here, it is easy to board a bus to reach Penang / George Town, the first big city on the Malaysian side. Hat Yai is apparently famous for its shopping centers – not exactly our goal here. We are by the way happy to report that we are still going strong with our 10 / 2-kilogram backpacks!

The heat is close to being unbearable in this urban area, so we head towards the Magic Museum (yes, mostly advertised towards kids but why not?). The Magic Museum is a new kind of museum, which is basically a collection of trompe-l’oeil backgrounds for you to pose, a few paired with animations that you play on your phone while taking the picture. Perhaps you have visited a similar museum before, but it is a first for us. We have fun like kiddos; it must be a nightmare during the weekends, though! Kudos to the parents and their infinite patience for their children. 🙃

What we will remember the most about Hat Yai nonetheless is a whole evening adventure failure, courtesy of my inventive self. I had read online about the city park, supposedly great for an evening stroll and to get nice views over the city. It turns out that the city park is in reality a massive forest on a hill, crossed by concrete roads. Here we are, climbing with our flip-flops in the fading evening light, walking along roads surrounded by imposing trees, some monkeys active in the distance. Some joggers pass by, looking puzzled at our tourist attire. When we arrive at the viewpoint, we are sweaty, we cannot see a thing due to the thick tree cover and the temple is closed.

The show climax is still to come… I go to the toilets nearby the temple. Guess who is locked in, in toilets at the top of a hill, in the middle of the evening? Dimitri tries his best to open the door from the outside, and ends up kicking the cheap plastic door apart to free myself up. We leave the crime scene like cowards. What an eventful evening… 😬

Luckily, Hat Yai offers a delicious dish to comfort ourselves: the boat noodle soup. Best when served by one-dish restaurants, this thick broth is paired with meat and noddles, whose thickness is up to the customer. It gives us enough strength to go on with our last massage before leaving Thailand, where we are treated as locals: we are dressed in basketball outfits (acting as massage costumes) and are modeled like PlayDo with a strong massage. My masseuse is on the phone while doing it; Dimitri is taken care of by a male masseur, and leaves the place in pieces. Authentic Thai massages, for sure!

We wait for our minibus to Malaysia in a trendy café, with a crazy expensive breakfast just to end up with bland European food. It is an important lesson learnt: never order food in a picturesque café, especially when it is filled with youngsters taking pics of themselves.

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This concludes our month in Thailand. This is by far the country where we felt the most taken care of as tourists. The level of service is unbeatable, prices are affordable, the food is incredible and travelling through the country by train will remain one of our best memories.

I doubt that you can achieve this level of expertise without dealing with masses of tourists every year, though, and I believe that we loved our stay mostly because we were there in the low season. If you wonder when to travel to the Land of Smiles, off season can be a great option. 😉

We are now in Malaysia, our last country in our South-East Asia trip. This is a special place for us: Dimitri lived there 9 years ago and it is also the last country where we will travel together. This partly explains why I have been so late in publishing the last articles – we try to enjoy our time together the most. See you very soon, for our first article on Malaysia: George Town and the Cameron Highlands.