Walk Across Thailand in a Day

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Mike

Walk across Thailand in a day

Now if I asked you could you walk across Thailand in one day I wonder what your answer would be?  You might think its a trick, but no it is completely feasible to walk across Thailand in one day.  Or more specifically the narrowest part of Thailand.

Let me explain. I spent yesterday  touring around the Thap Sakae area of Thailand which is a few miles South of my home.  The purpose of the trip was to visit some temples and a bat cave I had heard about. Travelling South on Highway 4 the road passes a point that is the narrowest part of Thailand, being some 10.96 km from the Gulf of Thailand to the border with Myanmar(Burma).

Now I have often passed this point in my travels  but yesterday for some reason I thought about walking or cycling from the coast to the Myanmar border.

When I got home I did a bit of research on the subject since I was fairly sure someone would have done this walk and documented it. Well I was  right on that score anyway because I found and excellent article by travel author and adventurer Steve Van Beek that had been published on the Tourism authority of Thailand(TAT) e-magazine, entitled Walk Across Thailand in a Day.

Steve’s article is very comprehensive including GPS co-ordinates and maps as well as lots of useful information about the walk and how to organise it.

I’m now left wondering if this is something I should tackle given my enjoyment of walking and finding little bits of unseen Thailand. Now its only 11 km(6.83 miles) which would have represented a walk in the park to me back in the UK, but what about the climate and the climb up to the border?

I think I need some inspiration, a bit like Thiva Supajanya, who made the following comment when asked to accompany Steve on the trek:

……..I rang Thiva, inviting him to join me. “But I’m 65!” he said. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Why not? I’ve never done it.”

Well that’s got to be inspiring given that I too am in my 60′s. Now all I need is a travelling companion or two,  anyone fancy taking a walk across Thailand in a day?


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  • http://www.thaisabai.org Martyn

    Mike if you took the walk really slowly, here’s what you might see:

    On the twelfth hour of walking,
    I had truely seen
    Twelve guitarists strumming,
    Eleven snipers sniping,
    Ten soi dogs sleeping,
    Nine bar girls dancing,
    Eight cows milking,
    Seven drunks singing,
    Six expats swaying,
    Five baht golden rings……,
    Four sexy birds,
    Three chased hens,
    Two ex loves,
    And a python in a pear tree!

    Christmas is coming.

    BTW your floating retweet and facebook icons are bang on eye level, in my opinion they need raising up a touch.

  • http://paulgarrigan.com/ Paul Garrigan

    I love walking Mike and it would be nice to join you, but I just don’t have the time at the moment. I always find walking in Thailand a bit of a hassle; the heat and lack of pavements. A few years back I would try going out for a stroll every evening but you could hardly walk a 100 feet before people would be stopping to offer you a lift – this was in rural Thailand. When I go back to Ireland on holidays I enjoy hitting the pavements.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Martyn what can I say….idle hands :-) Very good. BTW the floating icons are supposed to be at eye level….positive reinforcement……i.e. more folk likely to tweet……well thats what it said on the box anyway :-)

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Paul, no pavements on this walk although there may be plenty of soi dogs. I agree about folk offering lifts, that’s why I tend to ride my bike now. I remember rural Southern Ireland as a lad (boy scout camp) folk there were similar, they just stopped the pony and trap :-)

  • http://paulgarrigan.com/ Paul Garrigan

    I think you are really giving your age away again there Mike :-)

  • http://www.thaisabai.org Martyn

    Mike what I meant by eye level is they get in the way of what I’m trying to read. They do for me at least.

  • http://www.phanathailife.typepad.com Lawrence

    I’m tempted, Mike. But I think this summer I learned that I can’t walk as well or as far as I used to. Maybe in the cool season? I’ll check the Van Beek link, and walk it in my head. (I’m reminded of one of my faourite poems: ‘An Ordinary Day’. It starts : I took my mind a walk / Or my mind took me a walk — / Whichever was the truth of it.
    I fMartyn thinks it’s almost Christmas, he’s on a different timetable to me!

  • http://thailandlandofsmiles.com Talen

    Mike, Awesome idea… I love to walk myself and that sounds like it would be a lot of fun…especially if there is a cold beer waiting at the end.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    It should be off the post on the background, left side, which browser are you viewing in?

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Lawrence I reckon November/ December and a couple of old boys could do it. We could always have mobile support from Pensri and Duen ;-)

    I reckon Martyn must be on one of the walks you describe……..mind you I think he is nights this week

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Talen no cold beer at the top(Myanmar border) but plenty down near the beach.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Paul, I was 12 at the time ;-)

  • http://paulgarrigan.com/ Paul Garrigan

    I was watching a documentary recently about people climbing to the top of Everest. They kept one guy at advanced base camp to monitor everything and provide advice when things went wrong. Maybe I could be your base camp supervisor and together we will get you to the end of that 11 kms. You would have to take an iPhone with though :-) Advanced base camp would need to be in Minburi though.

  • Basil Seven

    Mike: How about using “Walk across Thailand in one day” as a way to raise $ for local school in your area, the wame concept as “Walk-a-Thone”. Have people sponser the Walkers and pledge $ per Km. Just a though. B
    Basil Seven

  • http://www.phanathailife.typepad.com Pensrilaw

    At the TOP? I must have missed the mountain bit in the original post. And cold beer at the beach? Seems to me the best idea would be to walk from the Mynmar border TO the cold beer.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    BS an excellent idea and one that is certainly worthy of further thought. I wonder if I could organise an event to attract walkers from around the country. Thank you for planting the seed. Oh almost forgot welcome to TB hope to see you back again.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Lawrence its not really a mountain(according to SVB), mind you he is a bit of an adventurer. I was thinking of coming back by truck. Basil Seven has now planted an idea in my grey matter. Watch this space.

  • http://tambon.blogspot.com/ MaewNam

    If I were in the area, I would certainly join. When I am in Thailand, I enjoy to explore Bangkok on my own by walking, even in the hottest days of April. Only advantage in BKK is that it has a Seven-Eleven every half kilometer, to cool down a bit and to refill the water reserves. When I did like that the first time, my wife only asked wondering why I haven’t used a taxi, but it is the slow pace and direct experience which makes it worth for me. But now my family has accepted this strange farang habit :-)

    When you take the walk, don’t forget to take many photos, so you can make both a nice interactive Google map together with your article, and also collect photos for every square kilometre in case that Thai Geopgraph website (the one mentioned in One Tambon One Photo) ever comes into life…

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Thanks Andy, you would be most welcome. No taxi’s though :-) I am seriously thinking of organising something but in the cool season(if we get one) so November/December are best here.