UK Van Lifers Seek Thailand’s Most Unique Food Vendor

UK Van Lifers Seek Thailand’s Most Unique Food Vendor

After spending the past 4 years driving  our UK camper van Trudy around the world,   we’ve seen quite a few unique places, and we’ve tried some pretty unusual Foods! Kokerec is sheep’s intestines! But whilst driving up Thailand’s East Coast we’ve discovered a food stand that cooks its food in a way that we’ve never seen before!

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new Landscapes, but in having new eyes – Marcel Proust Good morning, welcome back to Thailand! We had a good night stay here in this little hotel in Chumphon, I think that’s how you pronounce it?

Although the cockerel that you can hear, did wake us up at the crack of dawn!! It’s a little bit of a grey morning this morning, the last night we had dinner in the restaurant and it was absolutely hammering it down, and I mean proper hammering it down!

So we couldn’t leave, and the lady in the restaurant kindly lent us her umbrella, so we’ve got to return that before we leave. How are you? The lady yesterday let us  borrow the umbrella, The weather’s actually being pretty dry here in Thailand,

It’s the beginning of their dry season, we had a lot of rain in Malaysia because of the monsoon, but so far this is the first batch of really heavy rain we had and boy did it thunder last night? Right above our room! I was woken to the largest clap ever! Thank you.

Okay so this is where we drove up, we went to Ranong to the market there, and we cut across, and this is where we’ve been staying here in Chumphon, and the plan today is we’re going to be heading up to Hua Hin here, as we make our way towards Bangkok,

But I think we’re going to try and take the coastal Road, take the  smaller Road as far as we can, because this main road I think is a dual Carriage Way and won’t be quite as interesting,

So we’re going to try and Weedle our way on the smaller  roads when we can on our way up there. ready to hit the road? I am and when we get there, there’s a very funny story about Hua Hin! There is!! Trudy in the bushes! Oh it’s a bit tight this morning.

We have actually found a bridge that looks quite interesting just on  the way out of town that we’re going to stop off and have a look at, and because the journey up there I think is about 4 hours, so we’ll probably have to stop for lunch on the way as well,

But it’s been a nice little hotel, the staff here have been great, it’s reasonably priced, it was about £30 a night, the food is great too, yes, the food was good, there is also a swimming pool over there, which we never had the chance to go into but looks very nice.

Right let’s go! it’s very convenient in Thailand they’ve got  lots of these u-turning Lanes in the towns like Malaysia, which makes it…. and Korea! Yes, and Korea as well, which makes it much easier to get around rather than thinking am I legal to do a U-turn or am I being naughty?

Because Marianne can sometimes be a little bit naughty! is this when I say, that’s why you married me! One of many reasons my sweetness, one of many reasons! Hopefully the rain holds off today.

You can see outside, lots of the shops  and business is in fact most of them they have these little temples or shrines outside, obviously wishing their business good luck yeah giving thanks for good business! We should probably have one in Trudy to make sure we get across China and Beyond….

Okay I just had to stop because I’ve seen a papaya tree, you see lots of them but I haven’t managed to catch one on camera, so there you go outside this house here right there there’s massive papayas! how great is that? They got chickens running around the yard and there’s also a banana tree!

You can see they’ve put a bag over the papaya that they’re trying to ripen, we saw that in Turkiye and other places over bananas, so that must obviously be a common way of ripening  up your fruit,

But there you go Aunt Julia that’s one for you because Aunt Julia loves her papayas and has them every day! Maybe they’re from Thailand? I really like these elaborate Gates that you see, wow we’re following it around to the left, oh it’s a temple look at that ! Beautiful!

Traditional wooden buildings there, I think we’re about to go over a river as well? Nice!  Thailand’s very very beautiful to drive around, I never thought I’d be saying I’m driving around Thailand, but we are!

It’s fascinating actually with all the buildings and the shrines it’s just  very very different to the other countries we’ve visited here in Asia!

One thing you have to be careful of in Thailand is Car’s just stop! They just do, he was good he indicated! Yes, he actually  indicated but most of the time they just stop! So always watch your stopping distance.

Okay the bridge should be just down here on the right, I think you probably have to park here? There’s a chicken, there’s another thing you got to watch out for is chickens! Oh there’s a lot of chickens! they’re just all wandering around !!

There’s a lot of Cockerels but they all seem to get on though. I have no idea what this park has in store for us, but I think it’s worth it already for you Marianne?! it is I love chickens!! And there’s lots of chickens, they’ve all come over to say Hi to Trudy!

There’s even a mum with her little chicks wandering around there! Hello girls how you doing? Amazing there’s chickens everywhere! Some nice elephant statues there. yeah we haven’t got a clue really where we’re going, or what this place is really, we’re just being spontaneous,

So we just thought we’d come and have  a look on the way, we spotted it on the map and thought, oh okay that might be interesting. Be careful it’s very slippy, lots of algae on the floor. the birds sound so different don’t they? This is lovely and there’s nobody here,

It looks like an almost  abandoned Village, I’m going to just go and have a look. this looks  like it should be like an old kitchen? Very strange, it literally feels  abandoned! there’s got to be people around somewhere? where? there’s….  I can see the bridge through the trees!

What is that on the side of the tree? is that like a bee hive or something? I don’t know? It looks like a bug Nest doesn’t it? It does! They’re all coming in and out, and running up the tree! Oh their … like little ants? yeah!  

And then they’re running up the tree  and they’re going all the way up to that! So maybe it’s an ants nest? I don’t  know, no, if you know what it is, yeah, we need clever people! Let us know in the  comments! that’s a funky looking Bridge!

There’s actually a picture of a hornet, maybe that’s what was in the nests?! And then they’ve got a sign here it’s  the Resok Tembage Bridge, but that’s all in Thai, so I don’t understand that, and then that looks like fish food, that’s carp food ! Yeah that’s fish food !

They’ve also got a cow with a beautiful egret over there, I can’t see any deer, oh there’s loads of them, loads of cows over there! Hi, Hi! Now there you go, so we’re coming up  to the highest part of the bridge,

There are hornets flying around! Maybe it’s because it is a wooden bridge, we were taught a trick, in fact I was in Thailand!  Probably about 30 years ago, if you click your fingers it’s disrupts the air and they don’t like it – believe it or not, but it works for us! Wow!

That’s the end! The path’s come to an end down there, but I think this was like a Nature Park in Years Gone by, that’s maybe been killed off from during covid times? or something? but look at that! I guess that’s some kind of massive termite mound!? I mean that comes up to my chest!

Look at the size of that! Yeah I think you’re right, we saw something very similar in Namibia? I think it was? or South Africa? yeah it’s definitely termites,

It’s got to be and there’s there’s quite a few of them dotted around and then there’s more at the bottom of that tree, it’s being built up up as well. Okay, North we go! Looking at the colour of that Sky, I think  they’re might be another storm like yesterday coming,

But there is good news our roof is no  longer leaking! Yeah – that’s true, it’s no longer leaking! Although the mat on the van was very wet this morning, because I think we didn’t close the side door properly! Another little rookie mistake there! But now the floor is clean… yes it is !

What’s interesting on all the these trees you can see they’ve cut them and the sap is dripping into bowls, which I think is rubber? I think that’s how they get rubber – I’ve seen those in Malaysia in the good old days, lots of them in this area!

It has just started to rain, the guy on the back of the bike in front’s just putting his little poncho on to keep himself dry! It doesn’t look as dark as did though, driving through lots of palm trees and these plantations, it’s always so much nicer driving down these small back roads,

Rather than the big dual carriageway, yes, way more interesting! The locals give you quite strange looks, when you drive past, and as soon as you smile and wave, the biggest grin ever appears on their faces,

Yeah that’s something we’ve noticed you know it’s it only need needs a smile and a put your hand up to say hi, and everybody that’s looking at you seriously, suddenly gives you the biggest smile ever,  it’s lovely isn’t it?

It is, and randomly if you think about it, if you saw something like a Japanese ice cream van driving down your High Street, you’d be looking at it really with one of those puzzled Expressions, definitely! So many birds, what the hell are they ? I don’t know but they’re massive! Pull over for a second.

What are they? Wow, how many birds? it looked like a clip from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds! Well I have no idea what birds  they were, but they were absolutely massive they look like some kind of water bird, a stork or something …. So if anybody knows, drop us a comment.

This road’s now going along the sea, so you should be able to see the sea! Yes, look it’s there! Look at that, wow it’s lovely,  even on a cloudy day it looks good. So because it’s 1 o’clock, we thought we’d see if we could find somewhere for a quick bite to eat,  

On this road by the Sea, because there’s lots of little restaurants, let’s just go a little bit further, okay we spotted this little restaurant right by  the Sea here, which looks lovely, oh it’s closed…. it’s a shame it’s closed.

I guess it must be low season, but we thought we’d come and have a quick look at the ocean while we’re right here. Look at that ! It’s a very cloudy day today, oh that’s beautiful!

What do you think? I think that hammock, if this restaurant was open, I would have be in that hammock!! oh it’s lovely, there’s actually a tree look they’ got the palm tree straight through they’ve built the seating area around it! Yes it is still alive and growing coconuts!

Oh well it’s closed but we’ll just keep driving north and I’m sure we’ll find something somewhere, but we got to see the ocean today, which is amazing! Right, attempt number two! No joy on the restaurant Front yet, and we’re turning away from the sea now actually,

We found a hotel in Hua hin it’s still 3 hours 10 minutes away, and it’s half one so we’re going to probably  go the most direct route, just because we don’t want to arrive after dark, if we stop for lunch somewhere, so we’ll see what we find,

And the heavens are still trying to open, but we’ve been  lucky so far! okay the road is turned into red sand, yeah what is that? it’s so red as well though, is this the main road? No, this is the quiet small road that I tried to get off,

The main road we’ll be joining further down on this road, when it runs out! Whoopsie – good job we’re doing  it now then before we wash the van. Google where are you taking us? We’re on the back roads,

I think this is a shortcut, this is a Google shortcut, well I don’t know, it is scenic ! Who knows, we’ll find the most spectacular thing! it’s only for 10 miles, so we just stopped to show you these rubber trees, so this is the little cups they put on the side,

And then you can see the sap dripping in there, very very slowly, and they put little  cuts into the trees, and there’s all of these! I think we’re in the middle of  nowhere love! I think it’s official, we are in the middle of nowhere! But there are rubber trees! so we’re doing okay,

Going into another little town here, mind the dogs! We’re on another small road where are you  taking me? Well this way if we go straight for a while we should hit the big main road that runs north, Because I don’t want to get to Hua Hin in the dark,

No absolutely and you are the  chief Navigator! it’s very pretty though and there are bananas! Yes bananas, palm trees and I’m still loving these motorbike with the side car. Going through the little Villages, is that one of those water towers? yeah.

This is a nice drive!  coconut, bananas, you would never need to go to the supermarket again would you? no! I can’t believe the rain is held off  I’ve got my window open, I know! it’s not so hot today it is only are you ready  for it 25.7!

It’s quite cold, we feel cold, we’re going to need a jumper! we might need a jumper for the time we make it back home! Cool looking houses here  colourful one, oh mind the foliage love! We’ve seen something else that we  haven’t seen before on this trip,

Pineapples growing! So that’s where you get your  pineapples from back home, that’s what they look like, they actually don’t grow on trees, they grow on these plants that look a bit like aloe vera! yeah when I saw I shouted to Chris, what is that? I thought it was …… what do you make tequila out of?

Ah that stuff! Whatever that stuff is!! Okay we’ve made it to  the main road and boy what a big road this is! It’s like three lanes either side, and a road either side as well! So yeah, sit back relax we got 2 and a half hours to Hua Hin!

So we’re just trying food again, everywhere  we go seems to be closed, I suppose it’s that is a quarter to 3! Bowl of noodles? Egg noodles and barbecue pork? that’ll do! We spotted this little noodle shop, so we’ll give it a go see what they’ve got?

Egg noodles and pork one, wonton with pork, pork pork we got some pork Noodles coming, and Marianne doesn’t eat pork so they’re  going to the guys going to do a little bit of Veggie, Yes some Veggie noodles lovely,  and a soup ! There you go,

And we got a nice little dog, hello mate! wow look at that that looks amazing! I got pork we got some balls, some won ton, some soup, some Veggies – that looks exactly what I want! Amazing!

Is that delish? It’s very good! 100 bhat,  which isn’t a a lot – it was delicious food, and now we got another couple of hours to go, north we go that’s where the pineapples go that truck is full of pineapples! loads of them! it’s obviously the pineapple region!

Is it the man from Delmonte, the man from Delonte he say yeah!! I think they’re selling flowers for the temple, I think the little thing outside people’s houses, you know the little temples or shrines that’s the word I’m looking for!

I think people buy those to put on their shrines as an offering because I’ve seen them hanging on the little shrines outside people’s houses. Yeah what are the those fruit? I am not sure, they’re like … I’m not sure, I’ve seen them in Malaysia, but I can’t remember what they’re called? But that’s definitely loaded up!

In fact overloaded trucks seem to be quite a common site here in Thailand, Okay we pulled off the main road we got 1 km to go to where we’re staying it’s good we’re just on the outskirts of Hua Hin, so it shouldn’t be too busy,

Over the train track, are we all clear? yeah I’m going to do what they doing Japan, which is stop fully stop! Yeah okay. The roads are getting slightly smaller, we should be there in a few hundred meters, Budget Hotel here we come! That is the hotel, the Takya Beach Resort,

Park straight in there, right in front of a security camera! that’s perfect for me! That is my dream parking spot! They put the aircon on already! toilet, shower, oh it’s lovely this is nice, But hold on nice  we got a view of the Hill and there’s a balcony! Nice!

Right we’re all settled in and we thought  we’re going to see if we can find some local dinner! I’m suggesting we go for pizza – not tonight! that’s a lot of wires Sky spaghetti as I call it! Look at that building there look how funny that that room is at the top! that’s very random!

Three chef’s bistro?! Let’s see what they got! oh it looks nice what a great way to end the day chicken satay and a comforting bowl of massaman Curry and rice! The Next Day

Okay we’re heading out for pizza! Pizza you ask? I can hear you all saying why are you having pizza when you’re into Thailand? Although Pizza is great food! There’s a bit of a funny story, so about 20 years ago we  decided we wanted to open our own business!

And we discussed all sorts of ideas, but looking online we found a pizza restaurant here in Hua Hin that we seriously considered. so we thought this afternoon we should have an honorary Pizza! Who knows maybe this restaurant was the one!

Good morning, we’ve had a nice little stop  over here in Hua Hin as we head north towards Bangkok, it’s been raining a little bit this  morning Trudy’s looking a bit wet!

There hasn’t been a lot of rain but the day that I left the window open, and had to run down to close it, because that is the day it rained!! Always!! today we’re heading north up towards Bangkok, we found somewhere quite unique to have lunch,

If it’s open, and then a market with a difference! Then it will be the big time to go to Bangkok to try and  get our extension for Trudy and our Chinese visa. All right let’s hit the road!

Oh there you go, you can see one of the  little shrines outside the hotel here, which is what they were selling the flowers for by the side on the road on the top of that. turn right my sweetness and then should take about  an hour and a half to get there,

Just in time for lunch, do we need to get some more mosquito spray?  7-Eleven has been really busy here, but it’s quiet today so we should just pop in and buy a bit of Mozzy spray, the mosquitoes here have been absolutely Savage,

I got mullered the other day, but the little local mosquito spray that you can get is pretty cheap and it’s very effective, I always find that the local stuff works the best. Two things of Mozzy spray bought we’re prepared!! Right North we go!

So Hua Hin is definitely a destination town we haven’t seen many locals in the short time we’ve been here most people tend to be tourists on holiday or people living here, but yeah you can get every Western food as you saw we ended up having pizza last night,

So yeah we’re we’re looking forward to getting off the Beaten Track a little  bit later as we continue our adventure North, so hopefully it’s a little bit brighter  further north where we’re actually going, because I won’t give too much away but the  destination that we’re going probably relies on having nice weather!

So yeah you’ll see what I mean when we get there, in Thailand the weather can change very quickly it’s actually dry season the staff in the hotel were saying that it’s very unusual for it to be raining this time of year,

But it has been on and off the last few days, the little buses here, there you go all the guys on holiday all there crammed into the back, it’s a definitely much more comfortable driving in Trudy! What’ you reckon? Yeah, I love my girl! She’s amazing!

So I think we were staying on the outskirts of uh Hua Hin and now we’re downtown traffic’s gone a little bit heavier, but this is downtown Hua Hin, I’m sure it looks a lot prettier on a sunny day – it’s a shame that it’s so grey

It’s definitely a bit busier this morning isn’t it? I love these wires, there is spaghetti in the sky! that was a song wasn’t it? Was it? spaghetti in the sky…. you know that’s where you go, when you die!

I don’t….. I know the song you’re talking about – Spirit in the Sky – oh it’s Spirit! Sorry I’m just being silly!! ha ha ha    oh okaym spaghetti in the sky! I thought you were being serious!! it looks like spaghetti in the sky – dad joke ! 

Dad joke for sure! Oh it’s rammed, I think it might take us a bit longer than an hour and a half! I love all these Gates every time you  come in and leave a city very decorative   there’s always a picture of, I   think it’s the king of Thailand on them.

We turned off onto a smaller  road now, and it’s looking like it might be brightening up I’m hopeful! that would be great – the rain has gone! The sun is out ! yes, the sun is at out!

I love it the truck in front has got a couple of guys being transported in the back, and they’re actually sitting on plastic garden chairs! That’s great! We are pretty well there, the sun is out and this is our destination today, and the Sun is really important today!

Okay let’s go and see what’s going on! What makes this place a little bit special  is that the chickens are cooked by solar! There you can see solar panels, like mirrors  here, they’re cooked by mirrors!

So this is exactly what we were looking for, so we’re going to have some solar cooked chicken and pork with rice for lunch, and then I think the gentleman that runs the place is going to let us go a couple of km down the road,

And we should be able to see the chicken cooking,  which will be absolutely amazing ! So there you go portion of pork, portion of chicken, this pork looks so good, I just got to try a bit,

It is moist, the fat is lovely and soft,  and it’s almost got like crackling on the outside, absolutely delicious! how’s your chicken? it’s really moist, I was expecting it to be maybe a little bit frazzled around the edges but it’s super super moist!

Oh thank you, oh what is that a little pudding or  something, ah okay, thank you, pudding from across the road I think, oh it’s a bakery there  you go lovely we got something new to try for pudding !

Soup soup oh we got some  soup oh thank you very much, lovely we got some lovely soup as well, oh that’s so good, so good! such wonderful hospitality and this pork rice is seriously the best I’ve ever had. okay now we got this item here I pretty sure it’s looks like a pudding,

It smells like a pudding, kind of looks like oh like a creamy pudding, That’s nice, is it nutty? it tastes a little bit like thick semolina, do you remember semolina you used to have as a kid? Yeah I was never a fan of semolina, to me it tastes like a thick sweet version of semolina,

With coconut, yeah it’s not my thing, they give me oranges too, thank you, okay Marianne’s just grabbing the van, and then the gentleman has very kindly offered, To jump into Trudy, he’s going to come with us and show us the chicken cooking on his solar setup, which is amazing! You can sit in the front,

And I think he’s brought some chicken to put under the solar, okay we jumped out Marianne’s just  parking because I don’t think we’ll get over the bridge to his house, how nice is that for him to invite us to his house to show us the chicken setup,

Even more amazing is that there’s a petrol pump here just outside that you just put coins in and you can fill up! oh he’s got a lovely house look at these two seats here, that’s his house,

And then he’s got his solar set up he’s setting it up to give us a little demo  of how it works. this is fantastic! What an amazing setup he’s built this all out of little mirrors, he’s got two setups, there’s one here, and one here,

And he can basically cook a batch of chickens in 12 minutes from the Sun! You want to know how to cook free food? 20 years ago Sila Suatherat was stood by the side of the road as a bus passed he could feel the intense heat being reflected onto him,

And that gave him the idea to see if it was possible to use that heat for cooking, nearly a 1000 pieces of mirror later he devised this amazing solar cooking contraption, he says that the chicken comes  out more tender and evenly cooked than the traditional charcoal grill. What a genius!

With the rising energy costs around the world he’s found a way to cook without getting that big Bill, Thank you very much guys, thank you,  it’s been amazing! so nice of them to feed us, and show us that, it was amazing, well worth a visit,

So after that amazing little experience  there with the solar, we’ve jumped back into Trudy and we’re heading north about another hour and then we’ll find somewhere to park up for the night, and continue tomorrow morning, but the sun is still shining and how lucky are we that the sun came out for that solar experience!

Just passing lots of people doing salt look at that! There the salt plains here…. join us next week as we arrive in  Bangkok! Will the Thai Customs extend Trudy’s permit? More importantly for our drive home will we get the Chinese Visa? Subscribe and join us next week to find out what happens

After driving our van across 38 countries we seen a lot of amazing street food stands but we go in search and find one that is unique.

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Travel vlog 632| Filmed Feb 2024 | Thailand| Country 38/197

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