Wild Adventures in YALA Province Southern Thailand
hello everyone and welcome to another episode i'm just going down a dirt track here under this gorgeous little bridge over this wooden little thing oh my goodness and we're in yala province and if you've ever wondered what yala province is like to travel in to travel around on a motorbike or not just generally just you know exploring and this is the video for you i thought i'd start the video on my bike today so you don't have to look at my chubby cheek face all the time and uh we're on our way to a town called beitong in this southernmost part of yala province we left the city this morning not a lot happening at the city to be honest just roundabouts in one park not that interesting so we've left and we're headed to one of the most highly recommended places along the way we're going to stop off at a cave we're gonna go to a beautiful dam we're going to eat some local food and hopefully fingers crossed the roads pick up nicer and less bumpy and gravelly and the the views remain as beautiful as they are right now okay let's let's roll the intro and pick up when the road gets better and we're nearly at the cave oh my gosh enjoy the video my name is paddy doyle and this is my little honda dream and welcome to next level adventures right now we are attempting to visit every single province in thailand we've had some incredible adventures already but the best part is we're only just getting started so subscribe and join us as we discover this incredible country together welcome back we're uh we're about 30 kilometers away from yala town now and we're heading to a cave and uh i just thought i'd show you like a typical town we've driven through like 20 of these already and as you can see it's pretty normal guys there's not a lot to worry about if you're coming down to yala ordinarity why all paternity i mean i found i sound like a broken record because i was worried about coming down here and yes you do see the odd random soldier or or like policeman or whatever walking around with a with a rifle or sometimes you'll see a truck like this but it will be a military truck and there'll be guys in the back with guns and rifles and they'll be driving to a base or something but they smile at you when you smile at them they smile back they're like yo and there's lots of lots of checkpoints which you just drive through and nobody checks you'll hike or checks your license or asks you questions or harasses you they're not harassing anyone or pulling over anyone that i've seen i don't you know maybe they do but not today not yesterday not the last two days i haven't seen them interested in anyone it seems to be just like security really each town has their own security here's another mosque and then we'll pick up at the cave they've got these beautiful silver domes down here i'm not sure if that's normal in malaysia too but and lots of 12 year old kids driving motorbikes with no helmets we'll see a lot of that so that's the first time i've seen the actual army dudes on the street i mean they're so heavily heavily heavily armed it's ridiculous and they're on the middle of a country road out here you know we're going to a cave so yeah so that was the first time we've ever seen armed guards soldiers on the street waving people through and you know on the big checkpoints on the big roads you see them but they're all in the shade just on their phones they're not doing anything and then to see them out here in the countryside for some reason makes it much worse like it makes you feel like oh my god you know where are we going omg look at these guys and there's an army truck here and there's dudes with guns what is it about this cave is this a military stronghold i see people chilling out and there's school kids here somebody count this is amazing at all the stalagmites guys look at that next level this is an experience it's just a casual picnic spot in a giant beautiful cave that would be one of the most popular tourist spots in any other part of thailand but here it seems to be a local hidden gem people just chill bring the fan just jungle vibes that way so we'll turn around and uh look what an incredible strange experience this is wow look at the look at the uh hole in the sky and all the stalagmites coming down and there's families over there can you see over there they've got a big picnic and kids playing i don't see any fish not much water and there's this broken road i'm going to continue to the dam the dam's not far this is beautiful but um you know it's not somewhere that i really want to hang around with armed guards everywhere it's freaking me out a little bit yeah everyone's leaning lovely but for some reason the the armed the armed presence doesn't make it feel that relaxing because these guys are in a different uniform so the people we saw earlier i'll try and drive past so i don't know if they're gonna drive up there and have a massive fight or what but these guys here just chilling having a lunch break they've got a kind of different uniform with thai flags on it and they're kind of in a green color whereas the guys before we're in a black color i know i'm being stupid it's nice people having a picnic in a cave but i don't feel comfortable getting off the bike and hanging around i just don't feel right in my heart so call me stupid but we saw it we drove through it we had a nice time it is freaking insanely beautiful here let me show you look at this guys this is real southern thailand here in the middle of god knows where deep south yala and you know just you know when you just don't get a vibe from a place where you're like um yeah a nice cave but why are there soldiers um where we're gonna go next we're gonna go to a dam and the dam is back on the main road okay so directions which way do we go okay we go back the way once we came back to the main road turn left easy remember it's just me guys i've got no back up here i've got no tie guide here i've got no production crew no producer i've got no armed guards of my own just me and dreamy okay let's go to the damn so watching this back in the editing at a sweet that is my dorm room um i can see that i probably overreacted the problem is is well look i'm not used to seeing armed police military rifles m16s you know armored vehicles that's not something that i see growing up in england we're fortunately you know living in a country uh without turmoil and the rest of thailand as well you never see this and so i was a little bit taken back plus that morning you know i'd seen a lot of military guys moving around in trucks and in back of the back of pickup trucks so i didn't know if they were mobilizing i didn't know if there was going to be some trouble and you know if i had a thai person a local person with me who would have said something like oh you don't worry there this is all this is they're always here don't worry it's fine just chill you know maybe i would have unwinded got off the bike enjoyed the cave a bit more i just didn't feel comfortable you know they were cleaning their guns they would i don't know what they were doing i don't know what they're doing i just look i didn't feel comfortable or safe hanging around and it probably was over the top and dramatic but it was just how i felt in the moment so i left anyway this is not to take anything away from yala province i've loved it so far and just just seeing the military just gave me the spooks let's just put it like that i continued driving and i was in such good spirits to be honest you know regardless of being a little bit put off by the military i was on the winding roads i was driving through the mountains and uh eventually we came to a giant reservoir with an amazing bridge and a viewpoint and uh yeah i was i was back on form wow beautiful amazing incredible ugh let's have a look at what bikes they've got he's got newcastle badge on his back this is my football team this is my football team newcastle hi careful buddy so they've got these big 800 bmws lovely and uh for your information you can rent these in places like chiang mai and bangkok and just drive around for a daily rate hi and the helmets have got they've all got intercom so they can all talk to each other and stay in touch and then this is a this is a really good bike as well the forza it's 350. sometimes you can get a 150 or even a i think they go up to 650 cc massive things beautiful really comfortable but you know they've got nothing on a honda dream are they let's be honest i'd love an iced tea i'm hoping that there's a cafe over there that i can see where we can sit down and have a little cup of tea iced tea lemon tea but either way so some form of tea and then we're gonna go to a fantastic viewpoint i've gone for french fries classic lemon iced tea now when you're in thailand you just want to say chai manao chai manao it's like lemon iced tea beautiful view and uh from here it's about 30 kilometers to a viewpoint and from there it's about another 50 kilometers to the town of baitong i don't have any accommodation actually so i think we're just going to drive into the town and see what happens it's raining up on the mountains and it's big rumbling of storms in the distance so that's kind of giving us a bit of drama to the afternoon along with the military guys with their rifles but we're calm now because we've got lemon iced tea and french fries and fantastic views oh country road take me home up the hill next to these wooden houses get the right gear my honda dream is a piece of [ __ ] okay we made it up to the top i think it's the top but this is annoying let's check this out they won't let you drive the last few hundred meters or whatever it is i tried to just drive past them but they were having none of it and then there's an army of taxi drivers now i don't know if this is job creation or just the easiest way to make money just put a fake sign stop people from just driving to the top and charge the money i don't know i don't know i don't know how i feel about this uh let's see what happens hi to the top yes no helmet no okay brilliant these ladies refuse to pay or get on the bike and the father's carrying the baby so i hope this guy doesn't charge me money look we're here now it was literally what was that a minute a minute to get up here why can't we just park up here thank you 20 baht classic okay that's pissed me off already look wow they call this place the sea of mist let me just clean you up there yeah this place is called the sea of mist because in the mornings as the sun rises this valley is uh a blanket of clouds but it's about 40 clicks away from the town of baitong so and there's not many places to stay here there's a few wooden huts that's it so if you wanted wanted to come here for sunrise you'd have to wake up at four to get up here for five five thirty sun comes up six o'clock prime and i bet it's amazing but uh you know if you drive all the way here and the weather's like this or it rains out you'll be gutted you woke up so early so i'm debating not really coming here for sunrise to be honest i'm just i'm just happy to be here now it's called the skywalk at something something and i'm just underneath right now they make you pay 30 baht for some like covers for your shoes and the lift isn't working so you have to walk up here i made it to the top i don't like this place i'll explain to you in a minute okay so you've got the scam at the front where they make you park your car and park your bike then they make you pay 20 baht to drive you 200 meters right now 20 baht they're probably they probably want 20 baht to get back to my bike right so that's 40 baht just for reference in bangkok that will get you halfway across the city on a little motorbike taxi they make you wear these uh things and yet the glass is still dirty and not clean so what's the point oh jesus she's brave views are good but look you know if you're a kid you know you can't tiptoe and get a good view over the top and then i went up there and looked down and uh the staff are rude as well they're very rude just not happy to see anyone so it's just a bit of a shitty place hmm i don't trust this at all that's kind of cool that above the canopy it's pretty high up guys i'm not gonna lie and the views are fantastic i mean come on except for this stupid thing and the last thing is there's this racket guys are like sawing something drilling something i don't know what it is so it ruins any vibe of nature of being in the canopy it's like being in the building site i'm gonna say not worth it the views yeah the views are amazing but you see these views on the mountain road so thumbs down 20 bar to go 200 meters if you know me i hate getting ripped off even if it's 20 baht it's a principle look i'm all for job creation okay and these guys got to make a living but i have an idea so tourism board or the gangster who's in charge of this big metal scam listen up here's what you should do charge foreigners 100 baht because i know you guys love to charge us more so charges 100. charge thai people 50 and then let these be like a free service and pay them a salary instead of having to like make everyone feel like they you know are getting scammed out of 20 baht each way and nobody's getting a lift back because everyone's like screw these guys it's only 200 meters and it's downhill and it just leaves a sour taste in your mouth am i being a whiny prick or do you feel me let me know maybe i'm being too harsh on them but i just think it's a little bit of a joke nobody's got a smile on their face when they get down from there everybody's like that was shite skywalker more like shite walk okay okay at least you know what the best part about coming up here was guess what it was of course it was the drive and we have the pleasure the privilege of going downhill now into beitong we're gonna find somewhere to stay enjoy the afternoon drive enjoy the views enjoy the mountains no more skywalks these guys don't know how pissed off they're going to be when they have to pay 20 baht to park their bikes up and then get a lift up the street to a metal monstrosity with with rude staff anyway i've i'm i'm over it are you over it because i'm over it avanti let's go let's next place jesus good old thailand i always like to throw in a spanner in the works uh google translate by the way is a winner watch this i have a booking tomorrow but i'm here one day early where is it okay this handsome man is uh is losing his mind that i uh that i'm driving around thailand so he's offered to buy me well pour me a free beer cheers chocolate cap nice welcome do you recommend anywhere they come in anywhere or maybe anywhere there's many many anywhere many many you know iu wing skywalk skywalk now i don't like it you don't like it no let the food all the food is good and the people like this chinese food chinese food chinese food yes and handsome men like me and you yeah okay so i had three big beers with moo that was the name of that guy and his family and uh what a great great adventure today was lots of uh adventure lots of roads lots of uh just lots of yellow let's put it like that and uh she's gonna take a rest i'm gonna take a rest gonna pop into the town find dinner nothing interesting tomorrow will be a rest day and then i think the day after i'm gonna smash beitong and the surrounding area and show you what it's like around here because as you can see lots of tourists come to here because it's supposed to be beautiful and lots of things to see and do so thank you for watching see you in the next adventure next level adventure i should say and yeah what a ride
2021-04-27 03:41
