How to ask drivers not to take me to the bus station when hitchhiking in Thailand?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 28 Jul, 2023
- |
I had this problem constantly while I was hitchhiking in Thailand. What I did was save several phrases in Google Translate for offline use.
First, I would approach someone (or someone would pull over) and show them the "I am trying to travel {north|south|east|west}. Can you help me?" message.
If they agreed, I’d show them the "I don't want to go to the bus station. I want to travel with local people."
Usually that would work, but if that would spark a lot of conversation in the car or they looked confused or whatever, I’d have a third message about my philosophy of travel and why I enjoy to hitchhike.
I also saved the Thai keyboard on my phone and if someone wanted to say something back to me, I’d switch Google translate from Thai -> English and converse that way.
Don’t forget to smile!
You can say. ผมไม่อยากไปที่ท่ารถ. ผมอยากไป ..(fill in your destination).. ช่วยพาไปหน่อยได้ไหมครับ. ผมเป็นนักเดินทาง. ขอบคุณครับ.
It means:
I don’t want to go to the bus station. I want to go to …, please can you take me there. I’m a traveller. Thank you.
Here’s how you’d say it:
Pom mai yak pai tee ta rod. Pom yak pai tee ..(fill in your destination).. Shuai pa pai noi dai mai krub. Pom pen nak dern tarn. Kob khun krub.
and phonetically:
P̄hm mị̀ xyāk pị thī̀ th̀ā rt̄h. P̄hm xyāk pị ..(destination).. Ch̀wy phā pị h̄ǹxy dị̂ mạ́y khrạb. P̄hm pĕn nạk deinthāng. K̄hxbkhuṇ khrạb.
and IPA transcription in case if you prefer.
A brief IPA guide for beginners: aː denotes long vowel; Tones: à = low; â = falling; á = high; ǎ = rising;
[pʰǒm mɑ̂i jàːk pɑi tʰîː tʰâː rót].[pʰǒm jàːk pɑi](destination)
[tɕʰûɛi pʰaː pɑi nɔ̀ːi dâːi mɑ̌i kʰáp . pʰǒm pen nák dɤn tʰaːŋ . kʰɔ̀ːp kʰún náʔ kʰáp]
Let me know if you need anything else. Then you can print the transcript out and show that to people.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘