Malaysia...truly Asia! (Col's favourite advertisment theme tune)

We made it to Malaysia via the Thaleh Ban (Taliban??) National Park. Thankfully we discovered it wasn't a training ground for Al Qaeda but a beautiful national park (at least the entrance was) and we upped our snake counting tally driving past it. The border crossing was cruisy on the Thai side but one of our more complicated crossings on the Malay side namely because:
- no one could change USD which we needed to pay for our 3rd party insurance;
- no one could sell us 3rd party insurance (so I had to march back to Thailand);
- and none of the guys there new what a Carnet de Passage was (as they were all new staff, so I had to run them through the process of filling in the form step by step, which was good fun!)

Meanwhile poor Col was struck down by the intense heat and humidity and had to ask a stranger to help spray him with Jerrogi (the name of our garden sprayer), while I was galavanting around the border.

On a positive note, upon crossing the border Col immediately spotted a Dusky Langur (a charasmatic little black faced monkey) and we headed for the chaotic and humid town of Alor Setar where we spent a night before legging it down to the Cameron Highlands in search of cooler air.

Here in this 3500+ feet tea growing region, we had the novelty of paying $17 to sleep in our van, outside some big fancy, schmancy resort in their car park. We even got a receipt for it, although are still perplexed as to what time check out is and why the cleaning staff haven't turned up to change our sheets ( :) )

It was also a priceless moment last night when the waitress asked us what our room number was, after eating in the hotels restaurant and Col joked that we should charge it to S144 MCS (our car's registration number).

Now we need to leg it down to Port Klang to begin the process of shipping Miranda to Oz, as apparently Miranda is not allowed into Singapore, as she has a bed and stove fitted. Sorry for the lack of detailed blogs but we haven't had much time due to all the driving. Watch this space...

PS. A Malaysian advert. It is very juvenile of us but this poster seems to be lost in translation.

Our journey through Thailand

Happy New Year.


Since being in Thailand we have...

• crossed the Lao/Thai border without anyone stopping us.
• returned to the border to stamp our paperwork.
• watched a drunken Thai man do a cross between a rain-dance and a lap dance outside his pickup with a blaring sound system on New Years Eve (after a long days trucking).
• filled up with Shell V-Power Diesel (Miranda is loving it!).
• spotted Asian Elephants during a traffic jam, which was very exciting (they stood taller than Miranda).
• eaten lots of street food (ordered by pointing to ingredients).
• slept in the van at the ‘world famous’ Khao Yai National Park en route to Bangkok (outside a toilet block).

• spotted our first game – a barking deer (outside a toilet block).
• spotted/met Ben Matthews’ lookalike in Khao Yai – a hungry Macaque.

• driven and navigated through Bangkok’s megalopolis like naturals.


• shocked the staff at the Ban Sabai Hostel with our surprise visit (old friends in Bangkok).

• slept in pristine National Parks on the Andaman Coast – the Tsunami Coast (for free in the van).

• driven many sweltering hours during our journey south.

• dosed up on fiery Thai curries, which we have sweated out in our humid, enclosed, airless, sweat filled van (the mozzies are as big as golden eagles – Chrissy describes them as bastards, so we cant open the window at night).

• returned a thousand smiles and greetings.

• felt happy to be on the road again.


We are now staying in the van next to the King's palace ( I mean on the other side of his hedge) on Hat Khlong Muang beach. Tomorrow we will continue on our mission south and we hope to cross into Malaysia in the days that follow.

Ps. James Hughes and Vorghan, thank you very much for your comments.

We made it to Bangkok

We are having to pinch ourselves to realise we've driven from the UK to Bangkok. We are now on a trucking mission to make up for the lost ground, which means lots of sweltering hours left to go.