Update Map
One Night in Bangkok
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
In a Lorry, In a Tube??
We’re still in Laos, now in the very touristy town of Vang Vieng. We’ve made base at the Thavisouk Hotel & Resort – a basic room but it’s got a balcony with views of the river, there’s a swimming pool, WIFI and breakfast is included – all for £20 a night! On Tuesday our travel companion Rob moved on, since then we’ve been enjoying some relaxing time to ourselves. Everything is so cheap here we’ve easily slipped into tourist mode; wasting time at the pool and enjoying the bars and restaurants. We’ve been gorging ourselves on Western food and our average dinner bill, with beer, has only come to £7 for both of us! We’ve also enjoyed some local specialities, particularly laap, minced beef fried with mint, chives and other herbs, served with sticky rice.
The restaurants are a real mix of different styles, from small rooms in a house serving traditional Lao food to huge backpacker places serving all-day English breakfasts while continually screening episodes of Friends. As sad as it may be, we have wasted a few mornings in the latter! We even went to an Irish bar for a Halloween party, although sadly for Bry it was too hot to dress up! There’s obviously not much choice in fancy dress round here as all the live band could do was dress up as Batman and Robin!
Vang Vieng doesn’t have much history but there is still an airstrip that was used by Air America during the Vietnam War, which has now become part of the road network. With its location on the Nam Song River and beautiful karst landscape, it has attracted tourists since Laos opened its borders to foreigners. Unfortunately it turned into a party capital for backpackers centred on the activity of ‘tubing’- floating down the river in an inner-tube, stopping at numerous bars which provided alcohol, drugs and 10 metre high zip-wires. This lethal concoction resulted in 27 deaths in 2011 so the Government stepped in, pulled down the bars not owned by locals and regulated the tubing ‘industry’. Now it is a much more relaxed town, attracting tourists who want to explore the surrounding countryside through trekking, kayaking and cycling.
The tubing still goes on but now there are only a handful of bars on the route, no zip-wires and people are counted in and out. Happy that we weren’t going to float to our certain death, we decided to give it a go and it was a very relaxing way to spend a few hours. We were offered free shots at the bar where it starts, but we politely declined and the barman chuckled when we said ‘maybe 20 years ago’. After about an hour on the water, we decided to stop at a very quiet bar set up in the trees. We got there by the barman running down to the river’s edge and throwing a rope to us, pulling us in and we enjoyed a nice cold beer. We then floated down to the final bar, Smile, where we sipped a couple more beers in the hammocks at the water’s edge listening to chill-out music. Later that night we Skyped Bry’s Mum to say we’d ‘floated down the river in a lorry inner-tube’ but she thought we’d said ‘in a lorry, in a tube’ and she wondered how that was even possible – oh how we laughed!
We are still acclimatising to the tropical weather, which is so different to what we experienced in South East China. It’s amazing that a reduction in a few hundred metres of altitude can make such a difference. At this stage we are unsure if we’ll ever get used to it enough to sleep in Mario, but luckily accommodation is cheap and plentiful. No point soaking our bed sheets in sweat when we can do it to someone else’s!
It’s been great to spend a week here, just doing nothing, just what we needed after China. However, the ‘touristyness’ of the place has been a double-edged sword, great for relaxing and some much craved food, but the tackiness of massage parlours, cheap souvenir shops and constant harassment by tuk-tuk drivers to take their ‘blue lagoon tour’ means we won’t miss the place.
Part of the reason we have been happy to kill time here is that we have been awaiting our Carnet that we need to get Mario into Malaysia. We are very grateful to Caroline’s Mum and Dad for helping us organise this with the RAC in the UK and also to Sharon’s friend Teresa, who kindly agreed to let us have the paperwork sent to her home in Bangkok! In theory we should get a 30 day visa upon entry into Thailand, but we may only get one for 14 days if we can’t convince them we have adequate plans to leave. We therefore wanted to make sure the paperwork had arrived in Bangkok before entering Thailand to give us enough time to pick up the carnet and then spend some time in Pukhet.
Teresa should have the paperwork in the next couple of days so we will enter Thailand tomorrow and see what visa we get and then decide what our plans are. We would like to spend as long as possible there, but we do need to arrange shipping of Mario from Malaysia to Australia, which we may only be able to do once we get to Kuala Lumpur, so our time in Thailand may be limited.
TTFN
Pictures near this update:
Holy cow, we're in Laos!
After all the time and effort getting into China and the bureaucracy registering our vehicles when we were there, getting out was very straightforward – it was as if they couldn’t wait to see the back of us! No customs, no vehicle inspection, we just drove out and into Laos. Here we said a fond farewell to The Sprinter Crew, Richard, Lawrence and PooChian, who were heading west to Northern Thailand. We and Rob (in the LandRover) were heading south, so agreed to keep together.
Loas is beautiful. Basically the same environment as South China, but rather than being continuous tea, banana or rubber plantations, here it’s still natural green jungle interspersed with villages of wooden shacks on stilts. Huge palms, thousands of butterflies and it’s warm and humid. It’s coming to the end of the monsoon season but we’ve still had the afternoon/evening downpours.
The road from China was fine for 100kms, thanks to Chinese investment, but then it just turned into a wet mud track through the jungle and the next 100kms took us 8 hours. It was good to have two vehicles together as some of the conditions were bad. Seeing trucks skidding about and fitting tyre-chains to get through the mud was a bit daunting.
We made such slow progress and due to failing light, we had no choice but to wild-camp in the jungle next to some nice bloke’s wooden shack. We were a bit nervous at first as he had a big machete in his hands, but then we soon realised everyone seems to carry a knife as they walk about picking food from the jungle. We slept for about 12 hours as it gets dark at 6.30pm, lulled to sleep by the cacophony of insects, birds and God-knows what else! We were awoken at first light as the trucks started to use the road again, blowing their air horns on the blind bends. Then the shack owner put on some really loud music, which we took as our signal to leave!
Buying supplies from jungle roadside stalls comes with its own risks. We picked up a bottle of Pepsi which came with a free massive spider, it reared up its abdomen and sprayed fluid at us. Caroline ran away and Bry yelped like a girl and dropped the bottle as the spider ran for his hand. The shop owner stamped on the spider, but it still ran off on its remaining 6 legs.
We’re now in Luang Prabang, a backpackers’ haven on a peninsular in the Mekong with a heavy colonial French influence. You can buy baguettes, crepes and croissants from street sellers, alongside chicken heads, chicken feet and sticky rice. It’s very chilled and a welcome relief from the stresses and strains of China – we’re planning on staying here for 4 nights. There’s loads of Westerners around, so it’s nice just to blend in and do our own thing – although we are tempted to get t-shirts made up that say “Actually, we drove here”!
We’re staying in a nice little hotel just outside the main part of town, as it’s got a decent car park. The only drawback with this is that to get to town we have to walk over a rickety old bridge about 200 metres long, made up of wooden planks that you can see through to the Mekong flowing a hundred feet below. Bry’s not great with heights when he doesn’t feel safe, and this bridge definitely doesn’t feel safe! Even the locals have put signs up asking the town to repair it.
After having some downtime here, we plan to continue south to Vang Vieng, onto the capital Vientiane and then into Thailand. We can stay here up to a month, but probably won’t be more than 2 weeks, but we will see how it goes. It’s nice to be able to make these decisions again!
Finally, we’d like to say Congratulations to cousin Simon and Danielle on the birth of their first child, Barnaby! We’re really looking forward to seeing you three at Christmas!
TTFN
China - definitely an adventure - NOT a holiday!
We’re now in Laos and have proper internet connections again – yay!
As we weren’t able to update much in China, we thought we’d give an overview on our journey over the last month.
Highlights
The scenery through Tibet was stunning and some of the hairpin roads make the Alps look like Norfolk. Bright blue skies, snowy mountains, raging rivers, constantly changing flora (some in autumn colours) and suicidal yaks, pigs and goats all made for an unforgettable experience.
Lhasa was beautiful and peaceful, we were really glad to have stayed there for 3 nights. The Potala Palace there was amazing, full of monks, Buddhas, Dalai Lama tombs, such bright colours and the smell of incense – really atmospheric. Sadly we weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but they wouldn’t capture the serene feel of the place anyway. The most memorable thing for us was seeing the pilgrims complete their journeys from all over the country. Many had walked over the mountains for years, some pulling carts with all their possessions on. Others would walk 7 steps, stop, do 3 claps, lay on floor and then sweep their arms across the ground like swimming a breaststroke, then repeat. We’d seen these people on the road slowly making their way towards Lhasa, which was moving enough, but to see them finally reach their destination was awe-inspiring. There are 400 hundred steps up through the palace, which for us was enough effort, especially at the high altitude. Seeing 90 year old women practically leap up the steps to finish their journey was very humbling!
Shangri-La was lovely too, another place with a very relaxed atmosphere, particularly in the evening. Touristy, but in a nice, understated way (it’s only been called Shangri-La since 2001, after the fictional place described in the James Hilton book Lost Horizon purely to attract tourists!) With its narrow, cobbled streets, wooden buildings and red lanterns, it was the first town we’d visited that made us feel we were in the China we’d been hoping to experience. It has the world’s biggest prayer-wheel at 21 meters tall, which takes at least 5 people to turn it – we know as we had to recruit 3 other travellers to get it to move!
Tiger Leaping Gorge was another beautiful drive and the power of the water over the rocks at the bottom was immense and deafening – it sounded like being at Niagara. The gorge is one of the deepest in the world, being up to 3900 meters from mountain to the Jinsha River. We drove to the middle of the gorge where we stayed overnight and visited a restaurant with amazing views over the river below.
Lijiang was mental – imagine Bourton-on-the-Water meets Ibiza. Full of tourists day and night, thousands of shops selling the same tat. By day crowded with shoppers and people sitting by the many flower lined canals and bridges. At night banging with insane music and karaoke bars – hundreds of revellers slapping the tables to the constant thud-thud-thud of the techno music. It was an experience we were not expecting from what we thought were the traditionally conservative Chinese. We took refuge in a very quiet pub called Stone the Crows, run by a nice Irish bloke who was very interested in our trip and allowed us to write our website address on his wooden beams! Here we also met Becca & Anneka, two Brits from Brum travelling Asia for a year, so spent a few hours swapping stories and sipping beer and cocktails. It was the first proper pub we’d visited on our trip and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Having our guide Spring with us for the month was a great security blanket - not having to worry about directions, language barrier, finding accommodation, dealing with officials and arranging the repairs that all 3 vehicles needed. We stayed at some excellent hotels and guesthouses and all very cheap by Western standards. We ate out most nights as a group and Spring would just order a selection of dishes, trying to choose local specialities where possible, which were mostly delicious and again cheap.
PooChian (one of our group) used to be a hairdresser so one evening Caroline got her haircut, which made her very happy, although we failed to find any suitable hair-dye to sort her roots – unsurprisingly the shops only stock blacks and browns here! Bry refused to have a trim, despite considerable pressure from the others.
Lowlights
The itinerary we were given by our agent China Overland was ridiculous – we just had to do far too many miles a day and it meant we didn’t have the time, energy or inclination to visit Everest Base Camp. We appreciate we had to do a diversion as Northern Tibet was closed to foreigners, but we now understand it has been closed since April, yet China Overland didn’t tell us until a week before we arrived. Had we have known previously, we would have seriously considered taking another route, taking longer or missing out China altogether. We feel they were not truthful with us until it was too late to cancel and get any money back from them.
Some of the road conditions in Tibet were unbelievable, resulting in Mario breaking a rear suspension leaf. We had 3 days of particularly bad, rough roads which were so exhausting to drive. One section of mountain track coming out of Lhasa was 15kms of pure hell – muddy, slippery climbs and descents, water filled craters, single track sections with oncoming trucks, no barriers between the sheer drops, wooden rickety bridges and at one point a river flowing down the middle of the road. Not ideal conditions for a 5 ton motorhome being overtaken on all sides by lunatic locals in 4-wheel-drive minibuses. While discussing the experience that night, Bry admitted in hindsight it was quite exciting. However, Caroline confessed she had never been so scared in all her life and had a bit of an emotional breakdown, mainly from the relief that we and Mario had made it in one piece!
The majority of Chinese road-users are stupid! They don’t look before pulling out and don’t look further than the end of their bonnet. The pedestrians are just as bad, just walking out or standing in the road chatting. They’re all idiots, especially the two girls on the tuk-tuk in Dunhuang who just drove at full speed out of a car park across our path while we were doing 40 down a dual carriageway. Despite braking hard and swerving, we hit them on the rear right side and tipped them onto 2 wheels. Luckily they didn’t flip over, but they just gave us a dirty look and drove off. The only damage to Mario was a few marks on the bumper and small dent to the wing – more battle scars! When we work out how to delete the audio, we may post the video from our dashcam – let’s just say the language is a bit fruity!
Chinese whispers. It may be considered a derogatory term, but we think it appropriate in this context as the communication within the group was at times somewhat lacking. This could have been due to having four different nationalities, misinformation, people not listening, people ignoring what was said, reliance on temperamental walkie-talkies between vehicles, constantly changing plans or a mixture of all of these – but it was very frustrating at times.
The constant surveillance was also frustrating as we wasted so much time stopped at police checkpoints having our paperwork dealt with, only to drive for 10 minutes and go through the process again and again. Xinjiang Province was heavily policed and we saw hundreds of army trucks on the streets. Tibet was worse with constant police checkpoints, not just for us, but for everyone. We don’t know how the locals can live in such a controlled manner. Then when we got into Yunnan Province, it all just stopped – it was like entering a different country, which some would say we had.
Mixed Emotions
Travelling as a group was a strange experience for us. We got on well with the others and Spring, and we enjoyed the social side in the evenings, but effectively living alongside 5 strangers for a month was not ideal – especially after being so independent and carefree for the 3 months previously. The itinerary was so intense, we rarely had time to just relax as a couple, so did occasionally take ourselves off on our own when we could.
Driving through Xinjiang and Tibet brought us into contact with people who clearly do not get to see many foreigners. Walking through villages where people literally stop, point and stare or follow you around a supermarket taking photos on their phones was bizarre. It was nice to feel we were off the typical Lonely Planet backpacker circuit, but sometimes the staring made us feel quite uncomfortable. We normally just smiled and waved at them, and they’d easily respond in kind, but after a long day, feeling like a freak show could become a little tiresome.
We found that a lot of the Chinese are very inquisitive and have no concept of personal space. They would have no qualms about coming right up to Mario and looking through the windows, some even opened the doors and tried to get into the cab. Bry had to remove one bloke at a fuel station who thought the right-hand drive set-up was fascinating, he just got in next to Caroline and thought it hilarious to pretend to drive! When we wild-camped we always attracted a crowd who appeared from nowhere. We had the benefit of being able to cook and dress behind closed doors, but the other two vehicles, with their roof tents and outside kitchens, were a lot more exposed. We had to remind ourselves that us making camp was just as fascinating to the locals as their ways of life are to us. It was just the way they would happily stand and stare for literally hours that was alien to us.
Leaving China also brought mixed emotions. We were sad to say goodbye to Spring and soon that familiar knot in our stomachs returned which always seems to accompany entering a new country, heading into the unknown and going it alone again. But it was also great to be independent and in charge of our plans again.
At the moment we’re not really sure how we feel about our Chinese adventure, there were so many ups-and-downs along the way. We drove through a lot of the country, but we don’t feel we got to see or experience much of it. Perhaps in time and on reflection we’ll have a clearer picture of what the last month has meant to us and whether the emotional and financial cost was worth it.
New Pics from Kyrgyzstan
Published some new pictures from Caroline and Bry from the end of their trip in Kyrgyzstan. China pictures are now also published in the Gallery and below the stories in Travel Updates.
--Andrew
