Frog Tour in Trang, Thailand

One thing to do in Trang, Thailand is rent a Frog (tuk tuk) and have the driver take you to all the sights. Normally this is not our style but with an afternoon to kill before flights, heck why not.

You can find the Frogs driving around town and some will pull over to ask if you want a ride or you can go to the train station and find them all hanging around out front. We simply walked up and stood beside the Frog and within moments a driver came over to ask if we wanted a ride or tour.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

He told us for a 1 hour tour for 250 baht ($9.89 CAD) for 4 people. He would take us around to see the sights in Trang. We figured he would take us to the sights, stop, let us out, grab a quick picture and we would be on our way, which seemed like a good way to kill an afternoon. So we agreed and all climbed in back and we went off to see Trang (again) this time from a Frog.

It was a bit tight back there with 4 people and a points it sounded like the Frog was struggling a little bit carrying all of us. The Frog's are loud, you can hear them coming normaling and sometimes backfire a little bit too.

Our first stop was the Trang Church, he pulled over beside it and let us out. Walking over to see the church, you can not go inside and once you reach the top step you are asked to remove your shoes. We grabbed our pictures thinking we were done here. Could we not have been more wrong! What we did not know was that our "tour" included a personal photographer with a photo session at each stop AND directions on how to pose. This turned the entire tour into non stop laughter.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver Photo Credit: Frog Driver

After a few minutes at the church and all of us laughing at each other we moved onto our next stop. But first he wanted us to take a picture with the Frog in the parking lot.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver

Our next stop was some street art. Back onto the main road and off towards the Clock Tower. He did not stop at or point out the Clock Tower, he kept going and started weaving down some side roads. This guide had poses already planned out for us when we arrived. We spent 5 to 10 minutes laughing constantly, at the poses he had us do and the people watching us as they drove by.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver Photo Credit: Frog Driver

On to the next stop, the former Prime Minister of Thailand’s garden. This would never have been on our site seeing list, but it was really interesting when we got there. Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, served as Prime Minister for 2 terms in Thailand from 1992 to 1995 and again from 1997 to 2001. He is currently President of the National Assembly of Thailand as well as Speaker of the Thai House of Representatives. His house/garden is one of the main streets of Trang, with a large gate and the house set back into the property.

The driver didn't say much, there was no security when we parked or walked into the courtyard. A man greeted us saying this is his brother's house, please enjoy the garden and there is coffee and tea over at the building if we would like some. We walked around the garden, it was filled with lots of beautiful caged birds and very beautiful lush gardens.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver Photo Credit: V.Gray

We took 15 minutes to walk the entire grounds. As we were leaving we got a bit of a surprise. Chuan Leekpai greeted us and stood to speak with us, none of us were expecting to see or speak to him. We spoke for 5 minutes about his grandson in Germany and Thailand. We did see a bit of security at this point but not as much as you would expect.

Photo Credit: Unknown Photo Credit: Unknown

Chaun Leekpai asked us to write a comment in the guest book about our time in the garden. Before we left we took a few minutes and wrote a thank-you from the 4 of us. When we left the garden, we ended up having to pull over on the side of the road out front of the house for a few minutes. The driver said there was something wrong with the frog and needed to fix it. We couldn't see what he was doing exactly but we could hear him bagging around in the front of the cab. We then carried on to a temple that he told us nothing about.

We walked around the temple, we followed Alanae's lead on protocol, her family is half Thai so she knows what to do. We all took a turn and shook a stick out of the basket to get our fortune told, walked up stairs, took a quick look around and started heading down back to the Frog. It was getting to be mid afternoon and we had been on our tour for an 1.5 hours, we were all getting hot and a bit restless.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver

When leaving the temple it was not so quick and easy. We thought he would move directly onto the next stop. We stopped outside of the main gate for 10 or so minutes doing another mini photo shoot. Before we carried onto the Dugong roundabout up the road.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver Photo Credit: Frog Driver

At the Dugong roundabout, we politely told him we had been here already and seen the roundabout. This did not stop him from parking in the middle of the intersection and telling us to get out for pictures. At this point it was around 2:30 pm. It was really hot out, no breeze and we were all out of water. Politely we smiled, took the picture and then got back into the frog.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver

On the ride to our next stop we all agreed we had had enough of the tour. We were tired and hot from travelling. At this point it had been almost 2.5 hours. Talking about it in the back of the frog we figured out, it wasn't a 1 hour tour for 250 baht. The miscommunication was it was 250 baht per 1 hour for a tour until you say STOP!

On that note, we all agreed this was our last stop. We all wanted a break from the heat and a drink. When we got to the temple he didn't give us the name, all he said was similar to one in Bangkok. There is one temple in Bangkok Ryan and I went to called Wat Saket Rtchawore Mahawihan that we noticed the temple was similar to.

Once we had taken the one picture that the driver requested, we had started walking back to the frog. We thanked him, told him it was a lot of fun but politely asked him to take us back to the train station. He told us there was more to see! We declined, asked to go back and end our tour.

Photo Credit: Frog Driver

When we got back to the train station and talked to the driver he said " 250 baht hour tour, 2.5 hours 625 baht ($25.48 CAD / 4 people)". We had figured this out on the way and had already prepared ourselves for this miscommunication on price. We smiled, thanked him and paid him the 650 baht for our tour.

This tour was fun and we did see sites we hadn't seen on our own tour around the city. The first 50 pictures of this mini photo shoot were fun. However we walked away with over 175 photos from this tour, I am also certain there are pictures he did not send us. This was a good way to kill an afternoon or generally some time in Trang if you do not want to rent your own scooter to see the sites or if you are unsure what you want to see.

Cheers!

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray **