SUPER VARIO WORLD

Sawadee from Hua Hin on the East Coast of the Thai peninsular!

We left Vang Vieng as planned and had a good drive south to the capital Vientiane, but ended up right in the city. It took us about an hour to get out and find the Friendship Bridge which was our route into Thailand. That was only after asking locals for directions, you’d think an international border crossing would have at least some signposts!

Getting out of Laos was time consuming and frustrating as we were passed from one official to another, but nobody wanted to deal with us. There were also signs everywhere suggesting we would need to pay processing fees and we must keep the receipts, but everyone was telling us these would not apply. In the past we have been turned back at the border for not having completed all the correct paperwork, so we continued with some trepidation. As it turned out all we needed to do was pay a toll to cross the bridge and we were in Thailand and back to driving on the correct side of the road! The Thai border was extremely relaxed and if it were not for us stopping to buy motor insurance, we probably could’ve driven straight through. They gave us our 30 day visa without any questions and Mario was ‘imported’ for the princely sum of £4.

Our aim was to get to Bangkok as soon as possible to pick up our carnet, so we just drove for two days, staying in cheap (£7 a night) hotels and eating street food. All was going well and we were enjoying good roads until we came to Korat. Here, when we stopped at the hotel, we noticed a smell like something had died under Mario. On investigation, Bry didn’t find the cause of the smell but did realise the off-side rear axle hub was leaking diff oil. Bugger!! Being 260kms from Bangkok, we knew we couldn’t carry on and risk breaking the whole rear axle, so needed to get it sorted in Korat, which luckily is Thailand’s second biggest city.

So, the next day we landed on the doorstep of Mercedes Benz Korat and met their extremely polite and helpful Service Manager, Art. He was most apologetic that they didn’t have a big enough lift to work on Mario, but had no qualms with Bry getting his tools out on their forecourt surrounded by brand new Mercs. He helped diagnose the fault as a leaking axle seal but again was very apologetic that the necessary part was not available in Thailand. However, he and his boss, Nueng, then proceeded to make phone calls to find somewhere that could help us. As this was going on, Bry was inspecting Mario and with the wheels off, he realised we had broken another suspension leaf! Twice bugger!! It was the leaf that lay next to the one that broke in China, and was probably weakened as we had to drive so far with it damaged.

Not phased by this further development, Art knew exactly who could sort us out and gave us detailed directions across town to a suspension specialist. He then told us to come back the next day, when he would put us in touch with someone to sort the axle seal. All while this was going on, we sat in air conditioned luxury in the very posh showroom, being given drinks and even offered lunch from their free menu – there could be worse places to be stuck, even if us and Mario were lowering the tone somewhat! We even got talking to some of their customers, including Leo and his beautiful, immaculately dressed wife who were most interested in our travels. If you are reading this Leo, thanks for coming to talk to us and not being put off by our oiled covered clothes!

So it was off to the suspension guys, who were obviously expecting us as they were all stood in the street waving us down as we approached! Good job really as we had the garage name in English, but all their signage was in Thai! Before we’d even put the brakes on, the boss had his crew primed with jacks and airguns, just like an F1 pit-stop! They soon had the broken leaf replaced with much less hassle than the garage in China, they clearly knew what they were doing. However, they then realised there was a broken leaf on the other side! Thrice bugger!! So they got to work on that as well and 4 hours later, £200 lighter we left, but still with a leaking seal.

Not knowing how long it would take to sort the seal, we decided to stay another 2 nights and tried our luck at a posh looking hotel in the city centre. As we walked into the 5-storey high, marble covered atrium, with fountains, waterfalls and a grand piano playing, we pretty much decided we probably couldn’t afford it. Imagine our surprise when they said it was only £30 a night, including breakfast and use of their rooftop pool! Back of the net!!

Sadly the following day wasn’t quite so productive. We met Art at the Mercedes dealership and he decided it was easier for him to show us where the garage was, so led us there on his scooter. On arrival the mechanic wasn’t around but Art said that he would be there soon. However, after 6 hours of watching TV and playing Scrabble in the waiting room, still no-one had turned up, so we went back to the Merc garage. Art was most apologetic, made some more phone calls and assured us it would be sorted the next day.

So we go back to the garage the next day and it was like a different place! Whereas the day before there was just some sort of caretaker wandering about, now it was swarming with mechanics and lots of older European luxury cars coming and going. They soon had the hub stripped down and the offending seal off. One lad bombed off on his scooter with it and returned about half an hour later with a replacement. They then set about laboriously cleaning and re-greasing all the parts before putting Mario back together. We were there for 6 hours, the labour cost us £25 and the seal only a quid! We’ve done 500kms since with no leaks, so job’s a good un!

Next day it was off to Bangkok, 3 days later than planned, to meet Teresa and pick up our carnet. Rather than take Mario into the city, we left him at the airport and got a taxi to Teresa’s beautiful apartment overlooking the river. We’d never met Teresa before but we guessed that as a friend of Sharon’s she would be entertaining and we were correct! We had a few drinks on the balcony admiring the amazing views of the city and then headed to Silom Soi 4 to meet Teresa’s lovely Welsh friend, Helen. After tapas and beers we headed further into the red light district to the Muzzik Cafe to watch a couple of excellent live bands and even more beer. It was a fantastic night but we were all suffering the next day, but our hangovers were helped by the full English breakfast Teresa cooked for us. It was only a flying visit but Teresa treated us like old friends and we hope to meet her again.

With carnet in hand we could now start planning shipping Mario from Malaysia to Australia, so we headed further south to find a hotel with decent WIFI so we could start contacting shipping agents. We ended up here in Hua Hin, a holiday resort popular with Thais, Chinese and Scandinavians. It’s busy but the beach is quiet with white sands and turquoise warm waters. There’s even a waterpark a short bus ride out of town, which of course we’ve been to! As we laugh in the face of danger, we scoffed at the signs telling us to wear helmets on some of the slides. However, 6 hours later we hobbled out of the park nursing various minor injuries – perhaps we’re getting too old for such japes! In typical theme park fashion, you can buy photos of yourselves on the rides. While we were looking at our photos the attendant was insistent on Caroline buying a photo of some random Western woman. Despite Caroline holding the photo up to show it was not her, the attendant was having none of it. It would appear we all look the same to them!

It’s a weird feeling being in Thailand, as it is such a popular holiday destination and one that we have previously enjoyed. Just the fact that we have driven here is bizarre, we still can’t get used to seeing Mario parked underneath palm trees. The knowledge that we’re not going home in 2 weeks gives mixed emotions, as we still desperately miss our friends and family and it would be lovely to see them so soon. We also miss sleeping in Mario – our little bit of home, but it’s simply too hot and he has no air conditioning, swimming pool or WIFI! On the plus side the roads are great (signs and tarmac), the police are polite and even give us a thumbs up as they wave us through checkpoints, and the food is varied and plentiful.

We’ve now been in Hua Hin for 5 nights and have made a bit of progress getting responses from shipping agents, hopefully at least a couple will be able to sort us out. Tomorrow we plan to go further south to what promises to be a quiet, seaside village – we will keep you posted!

Finally, Happy Birthdays to Brother-in-Law Alan, Sister Karen and Niece Jordan – we hope you all have great days.

TTFN