UK Van Lifers Discover what THAILAND’S North is Really Like

UK Van Lifers Discover what THAILAND’S North is Really Like

Oh I bet it’s hot out there! We are from Malaysia! This one is definitely unique. Right let’s go to the Golden Triangle! After driving our UK van to Bangkok  and hearing that we didn’t get our Chinese visa,

We heard that our friend Paddy was starting a cycling Challenge and needed a lift to Thailand’s most Northerly point, so we volunteered our services! It’s Patty Doyle! We spent the next few days driving the 600 miles  north and experiencing rural Thailand. Marianne has been given a goat!

After dropping him off and watching him ride into the distance, we wanted to explore Northern Thailand, before we continue our very own challenge of driving our 19-year-old campervan around the world. If you think Adventure is dangerous, try routine it’s lethal. – Paulo Coelho So after dropping Paddy off,

We’re spending the day in the town today because there’s actually a cave,y it is just outside of this town about 15 minutes drive away, that we really want to go and see, and we want to take you with us you ready to go find  a cave? Are you’re sneaking Pringles! let’s go !

Okay so this is where you park and then, I think you get a little truck up to the top, we will just go with it! It’s only a kilometer away. Hi, here? Oh there? you pay there baby, the guy there. Go and come back 20 bhatt – Okay.

Go 20 bhatt – come back free !! ha ha oh sounds better. Okay we’re going in the back of the truck, 20 bhatt each return, which is very reasonable it’s like 50p. Oh they’re very happy people – yay oh I love this, I think it’s only  like a couple of kilometers up there. 

Doesn’t this just remind you of  when we came here so many years ago?   hanging on the back of trucks,  just or in Central America? Oh yeah Ometepe! So I think we give the ticket to  another person, and then there’s another group of truck drivers that drive you further up,

Or is that your entry ticket? I’m not sure! The Thamluang Khunnam Nangnon National Park. Tram station ? I think you wait here for a little mini bus. So the cave is up here, and you have  to wait for this little bus is going to take us up there. Okay all aboard!

Always the naughty people in the back! I agree the naughty kids always go in the back! Okay we’re off, we went flying around the corner! So that’s it we dropped off.

So this is the entrance to the cave, if you’re wondering which cave we are at, it’s the famous one that they made the movie of about, where the school children were trapped in the cave. On the 23rd of June 2018, 13 boys from the local wild boars football team headed to the cave.

Parking their bikes at the Cave’s entrance they headed in, the locals know that the cave floods during monsoon season, but despite a few days of heavy rain it wasn’t monsoon season, so they headed into the cave unaware that more torrential weather was forecast.

The boys regularly explored the cave, and so thought  nothing of going in that day. Shortly after they entered the cave it started flooding, with their exit blocked they were forced deeper into the cave, they found themselves trapped 4 km from the entrance.

An International Rescue operation was launched, with experts from the UK, Australia, USA and other countries arriving to help. On the 2nd of July, 10 days after they went missing, UK divers found them. How many of you? 13 yeah brilliant! yeah

But the problem was how to get them out, as the flooded exit route was treacherous even for professional divers. The only way was to do something never attempted before, to anaesthetise them, strap them to a stretcher, and then pull  them through the 4 km of underwater tunnels!! Miraculously it worked!!

And 2 weeks after they’d gone missing and thanks to The Bravery of the Rescuers all of the boys were rescued safely. There was however one fatality.

On the 6th of July whilst on a routine run to deliver air tanks to the boys former Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan lost his life after running out of air himself. There is a statue in memory of him near the entrance of the cave.

Oh wow, they have still got the bikes  parked up where some of the kids left their bikes,   Look football shirts, some of the  rescue gear from the divers, the things they put the kids in when they anaesthetised them, oh yeah the stretchers.

Seeing the boys bikes, football shirts, the diving equipment and stretcher used to pull them through the cave, brought it all to life…. staring into the darkness I can’t imagine how scary that would have been? It is hard to imagine that all of this area would have  quickly filled with water when it’s so dry today,

And it’s just gives you perspective look you  can see how small the people are, it’s a huge cave entrance! it’s thin here, just walking through here, let alone swimming… and if there was water that’s crazy!

This area in chamber 2 was used to prepare the anesthetics ready for the divers to take them deep in the cave to the boys. It is pitch black in here, you can’t imagine what it would have been like. I can’t actually see where I’m stepping anymore,

We have basically just walked to that point  there, and the kids were all the way down to here – crazy!! As we left looking at the  sunlight shining through the cave entrance, I could imagine the relief  the boys felt when they saw this sight.

Wow what an experience I would definitely  recommend coming here, after watching the movie and coming here for real, it’s really quite a crazy experience, and a miracle that they got those kids out! Yeah and seeing all their bicycles their helmets and everything just makes it real just from the local Village, yeah.

There’s a real melancholy feeling within the cave, everybody’s just staring and are in awe, and bewilderment that they survived, it’s  an incredible feat of Bravery, courage and power. The Next day Good morning, well all I know  is that the next week is going to be slightly mad!  

So we’re already to leave the Myamar Border  up here in the north of Thailand, We’re going to go down and get the map and show you the rough  plan that we know so far.

Okay so we’re right at the top here in Mae Sai, and this morning we’re going to head to this side here, which is the Golden Triangle and then we’re going to head  down to Chang Rai, to see a beautiful Temple, and then the plan is to this afternoon we should get to Prae here,

Not to pray but that’s the name of the town I think that’s how you pronounce it? and the farm stay that we stayed in the last episode is down here, and we’re going to use that  time to come up with a plan. so we probably could ship from Bangkok,

But we have a shipping agent lined up in Malaysia, and we don’t have so long on our Thai Visa, but really I think what we’ll do is we’ll go to the farm Stay, spend a couple of days planning the future trip properly,

And then we will do a route update a little bit later in this video, but basically we’ve got to drive from the top of Thailand all the way down to a Kuala Lumpur, which is a long way in the next few weeks. It’s going to be very busy!

But we’ve got this! We’ve got this … mama didn’t raise no quitters oh no no! Right let’s go to the Golden Triangle! I bet you never thought you’d hear me say that did you ? I never thought you’d ever say that !!

The sun is trying to peek out through the clouds this morning, so we might be in for a nice day it’s been a little bit cloudy, but it was perfect for Paddys start to his cycle ride yesterday.

Bright and early in the morning it’s only 8:00 but you got all the food stands coming out, there is a smell of cooking in the air, barbecue smells it’s a lovely time to leave,  because the traffic hasn’t picked up yet. Lovely looking building there with all the statues on the wall.

It looks a very Grand building I’m  not sure what that is? Oh these bikes, it’s literally like the Red  Arrows isn’t it? the way they drive? it is.

Oh my goodness, oh they’re going to let you  go oh maybe there are traffic lights? I can’t see any lights? No they’re not working, oh! yeah this building looks really Grand, with statues on. That is lovely, you got all the Paddy fields and the rice growing by the side here, really green and lush

It’s lovely to get out into the countryside. that’s quite impressive, they have got a trailer? oh it’s tied on! Driving through Thailand’s amazing, you see everywhere these beautiful  temples towering above the buildings, they’re a little bit more elaborate  than our little local Village churches back home.

I just had to stop for a quick picture  of this look the Golden Triangle 8 km!! Right out here right in the north of Thailand  look how beautiful this is. I’m loving it! Amazing! We passed a few military checkpoints, but so far they’ve all been closed,

I think it’s a bit too early in the morning. Oh wow look at that there’s a big Buddha there! It’s here basically baby I  think, do we just park here then? You can park anywhere.

We are from Malaysia!! We saw your van – it is the viral van! This is the viral one? wow they were excited to see us! If you’re new here you may be wondering why? Well, whilst we were in Malaysia we got stopped by the police,

Now that’s not unusual for us driving a UK Van, but we didn’t realise that we had filmed getting bribed. Okay perfect can. Or pay here? And the video ended up going viral and was on every news channel in Malaysia.

Police are looking for a British couple to assist in their probe into the case of a traffic cop who allegedly offered them a speeding summons discount. I think we may have an interesting welcome when we cross back into Malaysia! Wow look at that – fantastic! Thailand, Myanmar, Laos! Mekong River!

You can see where the river is meeting here the colour of the water is changing look. Beautiful – good job! And that is a group of bikers from Malaysia!! what a fantastic spot! The Malaysian bikers have given us a sticker, they’re going to stick a little sticker on the van, that’s so cool!

Let’s get the Freedom Riders of Malaysia, I love it! Good job – thank you very much my friend. Okay all the bikers are going! It’s actually getting quite busy now, there’s a few more people  turned up to have a look. so we did well to come so early in the morning!

I think if you come later in the day it would be packed, but you can actually get little boat rides out, to take you to each country. it’s very beautiful! Wow they’ve got all these  Temple bits here look. Hold on – We need to put in a warning right now! what?!

There is the biggest spider I have ever seen! If you are terrified of spiders just look away now! Where? oh my goodness that’s like the spider we saw in Borneo, it’s the same – that is probably almost the size of my hand! All the stands are just opening, oh this is beautiful.

They got this huge Buddha here, lets have a little look, Wow that’s beautiful. okay we jumped back into Trudy we got about an hour and a half now to the white temple and Chang Rai. Okay we have arrived at the white  temple here in Chang Rai, wow it’s looking amazing already.

We’ve managed to find a massive car park with plenty of space behind the temple, because at the front it looked rammed when we arrived. Let’s go and have a look, that’s the first! there’s a skull ashtray… not sure of the significance of that is ? wow absolutely stunning!

The White Temple locally known as Wat Rong Khun is the most recognisable and visited site in Northern Thailand. It was created by Master Chalermchai Kositpipat, and opened in 1997, when viewed from afar it appears to be crafted from sparkling porcelain,

But closer inspection you’ll notice that the dazzling effect is achieved through a blend of whitewash and transparent mirrored chips, by the year 2000 it had become Rundown and  with no official funds to repair it, Chalermchai decided to rebuild it and fund it himself,

But in 2014 the temple was damaged by an earthquake, Chalermchai said he would have to demolish the structure for safety reasons, and would not be able to rebuild it, but after inspection he discovered that the structure was unharmed, and promised to devote his life to the works.

Today the works are ongoing and they are not expected to be fully complete until 2070, that’s beautiful! They’ve got all these colourful hanging baskets all the way down, isn’t that wonderful? it’s really special here, even though it’s busy it just feels perfect! Then we got some monks  dressed in the traditional orange, wow lovely.

It’s absolutely Immaculate, all of the hedges are trimmed to perfection. Look at this, and the detail, of just the pillars they’ve all got these little mirrors on them to make it shine, oh it’s an absolutely magical place! We’ve managed to find a small area away from the  crowds for some reason there’s nobody down here,

But look at the details all the  little glistening mirrors around the door. What a place and a local and the local cat! You’ll know on our travels, we’ve seen a lot  of temples as we’ve travelled through Korea,  

Japan, Malaysia, and now here in Thailand but  I have to say this one is definitely unique   it’s got a completely different feel to it. Just looking at all the different layers of the roof on the on the main building there is unbelievable.

We just spotted that the ceiling to this walkway it’s made up of lots of small little metal bits, look at that, that’s incredible. They have even made a hanging basket out of  the vines that are growing naturally on this tree that’s incredible, and the flowers …..

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere like this before? No this is the most unique Temple we’ve seen, it it’s mind blowing, incredible …. Look at that ornate bridge, you can see  the crowds of people at the entrance there  

Apparently this is the main attraction up here in the North…. I can see why! Okay we’re going to try and go into the  chapel, I think you got to buy a ticket, there’s the queue, okay the tickets were 100 bhatt each, they got two lines, one for locals one for foreigners,

It is a big queue! It goes all the way around  here but it seems to be moving pretty fast. In front of the bridge are hundreds of outreaching hands that symbolise unrestrained desire. The bridge proclaims that the way to happiness is by foregoing Temptation, greed and desire.

We’re just going in just crossing the bridge now, into the main Chapel, the details unbelievable! All these little mirrors … everybody trying to get their photos. We headed towards the main building but unfortunately there’s no filming allowed inside. So camera’s off! Super super busy inside!

I would say that if you are going to  come here come very early in the morning, it’s a little chaotic love isn’t it? I actually  had a little bit of a mini panic attack in there with the claustrophobia, there was so many people right there, all, everywhere!!

As we say the prettiest places are  often the most touristy and the most packed!! But for us, we like the quieter places, but I would definitely come here, it’s absolutely stunning and beautiful, but there’s coach load after coach load of people arriving,

So we’re going to try and grab some food because the restaurants at this side look quiet and we’ve still got I think another 5 hr hour drive, I think if you get here, at 8:00 or half past 7 in the morning, it would be perfect!

The the sun is out, and it’s very hot but what I love about these craghopper trousers, is you can just take the bottoms off, and get your shorts back! Good plan I don’t think I would ever travel without these trousers anymore!

After that quick walk around the White Temple, we’ve jumped back into Trudy we got about 3 and 1 half hours Drive South, to the farm stay so sit back and relax! Oh I bet it’s hot out there?! oh they’re all giving us a wave! yeah it’s very hot! it is hot! yeah they’re very hot.

They are sat in the back of the truck in the  sun, it’s a beginning of hot season, and it must be super super hot for those guys, but they’re giving us lovely big Smiles, Look there is Grandma! I love Grandma’s!! Oh time to go!

All the way down the road, they are selling strawberries, that’s because the climate’s cooler up here. It seems rude not to stop and get a few strawberries, wow beautiful! That looks nice doesn’t it? yeah look at that, oh lovely beautiful strawberry,

Oh my goodness, that smells good, so good! smell that ….. that’s absolutely insane! Mmmmm good! She had a lovely big smile! That smell is like strawberry jam, like concentrated strawberry jam!   There you go we’ll be nibbling those on the way. It seems like Autumn here in Thailand,

I don’t think they have seasons like the UK, but the trees the leaves look like Autumn  back home, they’re all starting to shed their leaves. Strawberry time, mmmm they’re good, are  they good? mmm they got a slightly sour   taste, but they’re really sweet  as well, it’s really strange?

It’s like they’re sweet at the top,  and sour at the bottom….. I like those! We’re just pulling over to a local petrol station all petrol stations have like separate  toilet blocks, so if you need a quick pit stop it’s very convenient they’re  like service stations aren’t they?

Looking at the trees down here, they  look dead! I’m pretty sure it’s from wildfires, it seems like there’s  quite a lot of wild fires in this area. We’re back to our little happy place,  we’ve pulled off the main road and we’re coming   back to the home stay that we stayed at before,

And there’s cows wandering down the road how lovely! Such a beautiful spot, it’s going to be our base for a couple of days just while we come up with a plan,

And finalise the dates of where we need to be, and when, and organise the carnet and a few the bits and pieces we have to do  on this mad drive around the world! We’re back again! Oh this is lovely, yeah nice! Desk too all of the rooms they’re all slightly different aren’t they,

They’re absolutely beautiful! This is just stunning! The next day We’ve had a very busy and productive morning, trying to plan what we’re going to do, trying to plan the trip ahead, with the realisation that it hasn’t quite gone according to plan! But we do know two things, we know we’re  not going to go through China,

And we know that from here in Northern Thailand we can’t go through Myanmar either, and that means really there’s only one option and that is we need to ship somewhere. So we’ve been looking at the map and it makes sense that the next place that we ship to is India!

But the question is where do we ship from? So we looked at Bangkok, we looked at Kuala Lumpar which are the two main ports, and we’ve decided to head back to Kuala Lumpar and the reason for that is because our Thai Visa is running out, we have only 12 days to get out,

And there’s a lot to organise and by going  back to KL it means that our visas in KL reset but there was one problem, quite a big problem, only one? We didn’t need a Carnet to drive across China back to the UK.

If you don’t know a Carnet is, it is like a special passport you need in some countries, but we do need it for India, so we spoke to the carnet company yesterday and they basically said that we do need it to go back into Malaysia,

The problem is online it says that it can take 10 days to process, and of course then they’ve got a Fedex it or DHL it to us here in Thailand, and with 12 days on your Visa that  is a little bit stressful,

But we spoke to them yesterday we’ve paid for it so we’re hoping that they can issue it in the next day or so, and get it to us here before our 12-day Visa runs out! Hey Geese, How you doing?

This place is so beautiful look at this, this is one of the nicest places I think we’ve  stayed! Marianne is sat next to a little fire pit, isn’t that amazing?!

There are so many areas within this  property, I think even if there was like 100 people here, you would still feel as though you’ve got your own space, it’s absolutely idyllic and baby goslings! yeah you can’t beat it, and there’s like  little swings dotted around beautiful trees, the food is great as well,

And of course you got these guys! but anyway back to business! so the question is now where do we get the carnet sent to? We can’t send it here because to drive back to the border with Malaysia is days and days of driving,

So we’ve decided to send it to my friend Wayne, who we met up with when we were in Phuket, he works there, which is about 4 to 5 days drive from here, so tomorrow we’re going to start the journey  down to see Wayne and hope that fingers crossed it arrives.

I love this traditional looking house, this was the original House on this land before they built the new modern looking one, they have got some fruit trees here, of something that you’ve probably bought back home maybe once in a while,

There you go that is papaya if you ever wonder where your papaya comes from, they grow on trees like that, that’s so cool, Aunt Julia’s favourite breakfast fruit papaya! And if you’re wondering what this place is called it’s called Suan Glang Na Homestay, absolutely fantastic spot!

Beautiful – what a spot! Good find Paddy Doyle, thanks for finding this ! That Evening In the evening it was time to relax, have a nice dinner before the mad rush to get  back to KL starts. Happy birthday to you woohoo

Driving our UK Van in Thailand gives us the opportunity to find out what the Northern region is really like.

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