Our Around the World Drive Plans Change in Thailand

Our Around the World Drive Plans Change in Thailand

Watch Out !!! There’s two hammocks with guys sleeping in them! The first hotel is full! your plans can change  at the drop of a hat! I think we’re losing it now! Driving our UK van around  the world can sometimes be pretty stressful, after being denied our Chinese visa,

We thought that we had plenty of time left on our Thai visa to drive the 1,143 miles back to the bottom of Thailand, to cross back into Malaysia, but after being informed that we can’t enter Malaysia without a new carnet which has to be sent from the UK,

We don’t have nearly as much time as we thought, in fact our Thai Visa may well run out before the carnet arrives! I have a feeling it’s going to be a very busy week! With age comes wisdom,  with travel comes understanding – Sandra Lake. Days until Thai Visa expires: 10

Good morning, oh today is the start of  our mad drive back to Malaysia. I’m going to miss this view! but we got to get the van loaded up, get the map on the side of the van, tell you guys the plan, because it’s going to be a very busy week ahead!

Okay let me show you the plan! So we are currently up in the north of Thailand here in Phrae, the plan is we have to drive all the  way down past Bangkok all this journey here down to Phuket, where hopefully the carnet will arrive,

And then we have to drive down past Koh Lanta all the way back to Dannok, the town where we got stuck at the border for 9 days, and then we’ve got to drive all the way back to Kuala Lumpur and then shipping out of port Klang, It is a 27-hour drive !

Which in reality 35 to 40 hours of driving of real time. You ready to hit the road? Okay so we’re just leaving and they’re giving us a very nice little gift there, look! it’s a little  rabbit! From bunny the rabbit!

If you are in Thailand I don’t care if you’re  5 hours away you should come to Phrae and stay here it is like RNR at its finest! it’s been just such a lovely break, and you get dog love! See you again Freya!

Okay thanks very much guys it’s  been an absolute pleasure and we will definitely be back! yeah we’re just not sure when! Well we will be following the rest of your travels….. There you go if Malaysia don’t let  us back in we might be back sooner than you think! right let’s hit the road!

Let’s go back to Kuala Lumpur! We got to go to Phuket first! and hopefully we can get our carnet!! This has been one of the most idyllic stays we’ve ever been to, and if you’re thinking ‘are they sponsored’ because they’re saying such nice things… no we paid full rate and we would pay  it again!

It was absolutely wonderful! So the thing about overlanding is your plans  can change at the drop of a hat, and you have to know how to adapt, so we’re adapting! We never thought we’d have to go back to Kuala Lumpur,

But we are, and we just embrace it so we’re  going to take you on that mad Journey, yeah just sit back relax enjoy the Thai Countryside, and we’ll share the adventure along the way! It’s a beautiful sunny day today, we’re up bright and early,

We were up at 7 it’s now just after 8:00 o’clock, we’re leaving so the traffic’s going  to be nice and quiet, so we can get a good start today. The route we’re taking, we going to avoid Bangkok and all the toll roads around Bangkok, because although Google says it’s actually the fastest,

After getting stuck in traffic leaving, I’m not convinced! So we’re going to take the more Scenic country ‘routs’ …. roads – I did just say Routs! did you say routs ? I did!! it’s too early in the morning, I’m on my first coffee! But we’re going to take the scenic roads,

Because they’re always nice even though we are in a hurry, the missions to get down to Phuket in 4 days, yeah this is  Village Life here in the north of Thailand, people just waking up setting up their stalls and stands.

What was really interesting as well, the guys from the home stay were explaining to us that the noise that we could hear, somebody on a megaphone, that they were saying they don’t have a Facebook page for the community, they’ll speak out and say oh a baby was born today to this family,

And this person died today from this family, and Mrs Smith from so and so is selling her potatoes  for this price today, and I was like wow that’s so amazing! and it’s not like a a horrible shouty kind of system, there just a lovely lady’s voice….

There you go, that is lovely, just twinkling away in the background, with the temple behind, look at that, you can’t get bored of looking at those beautiful sights in the morning can you? No, it’s funny, I can imagine that Phrae one day, will be similar to like Chang Rai, but it hasn’t been found yet.

So it’s just the perfect getaway place. You know it will be a miracle if our carnet arrives in Phuket before our Thai Visa runs  out, but if we can get South we’ll be ready to collect it and if needed make a Mad Dash for the Border.

Really you can still see the haze, there’s still a lot of smoke in the air from all the wildfires that are burning, and in fact last night when we looked up towards the mountains you could see big areas of land being burnt,

Which apparently they burn it because it releases mushrooms that they’re able to find under the leaves and in the overgrowth, so they burn it and then they go mushroom picking I didn’t expect to see that first thing this morning driving through town There’s a massive sleeping Buddha in front of us,

I think we’re in Phrae Town Centre, oh we get to stop at the  lights right in front of the buddha. I wish we had a bit more time  to look around, well that just means we have to come back! Definitely and I know where I’m staying! Me too!!

So after the event at the Golden Triangle a few days ago where we met the bikers, and they all rushed over to say you’re famous in Malaysia from that police incident, and people have started doing memes about you! It’s just crazy I don’t really know what happened from one short video clip?!

No admit it you had to Google what a meme was!! I did, because we didn’t know! Yeah I didn’t know, if you don’t know, Google it! So yeah, there is a little bit of nerves  about going back into Malaysia,

So because of that police incident there was so many newspaper  articles that the police were looking for us, because they wanted our statement of what had happened which we did at the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok, but I haven’t seen any news releases saying that we’ve cooperated,

So we could cross the border into Malaysia and suddenly find that every policeman is pulling us over, saying that the police headquarters want to talk to you ! So yeah there is a little bit of nerves and trepidation for that. That’s a site you don’t see every day!

There’s a cow, a whole cow stood in the  back of the truck in front of us! We’re just going over some hills here, the view would be spectacular this morning if it wasn’t for the haze, it really is smoky up here today! In case you’re wondering why there’s crocodile statues?

This region of Thailand has lots of Crocs ! No swimming – we said that together! Yeah I’m not swimming! selling the flowers for the temples again. They do have a lot of police stops, there’s another one, on the other side of the road, we didn’t get stopped on the way up?!

They seemed to all be on this side of the road, and now today they all seem to be on that side of the road or most of them. Lets see what they got?! Rice! it’s warm very warm! How Posh is this for a service station ? They have got music playing!

What’s really funny is all the urinals are always outside at the back if you’re looking for them, but they never smell because they’re outside! and I don’t know if you can see, but at the top they got these really flat little like Swift nests,

And then just outside the restaurant they put plastic bottles all the way along in the groove so the birds can’t make Nests! okay we’re going to go and get some lunch! Noodles, chicken rice and there’s pork and rice pork, is that the sauces?

That looks like chilli and soy oh my  God that looks so good! For me I’m going to have this one, and one this one, and rice yeah! this looks nice as well look they got pork and vegetables, the eggs that are cooked in the juice they’re hard boiled and then cooked juice,

100 and? no – oh just one hundred – thank you and this one goes with the pork. Thank you, the gentleman’s just explaining there’s a different sauce for each type of dish. So yeah I’ve got one like this to go with the pork and rice, Marianne’s got another one, Oh that soup is delicious!

I’m not sure whether it’s spicy? that one is not spicy, Mmmm that’s like a almost like molasses soy, and a very little bit of chilli, and then the one for Marianne is like oh hot super hot!

It tastes a bit like the one you get for the chicken rice normally but yeah it’s very spicy! Right Bon appetit! That looks amazing doesn’t it? It does! After that delicious lunch, time to hit the road again, to do a few more hours,

I just love that they let the birds like  live here, not by the restaurant, but everywhere else! Okay that is a first, there’s two hammocks  with guys sleeping in them! I have never in all my life ever seen anybody hanging in a hammock on the back of a truck whilst you’re driving!! that’s amazing!!

All the way down the road this afternoon there’s this lovely pink blossom, it looks a bit  like Cherry but I don’t know what it is? Lovely! Next to this traffic light, there is a massive Dragon which looks inflatable, I assume that’s for Chinese New Year,

Although we’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations that are still up, so I don’t know how long this is going to be up for? yeah do seem to keep the Christmas decks all  year round here, I think it saves them putting them up next time!

Just driving past a lorry loaded with sugar cane, look at that! that’s quite impressive! So the sun is starting to make its little descent, it’s now 5:00, we’re still going, good job Marianne! You’re welcome,

But yeah we’re going to try and push forward another hour and a half, because it takes the pressure off a little bit further down the line, and we’re energised, we’re feeling good! We’re feeling great and you have screwdrivers and good drivers, and I’m a good driver – oh that’s good!

Just arriving in Ratchaburi and the Sun is going down so we’re going to see if we can find somewhere to park up sleep for the night, all along here the road is actually sparkling I’ve never seen sparkled  roads before …. Sparkles! I think we’re losing it now! we’ve lost it!! we’re stuck in traffic!

We only got maybe 5 – 10 minutes into the Town Center, okay the first hotel is full, but we’ve  managed to find another one 4 minutes driveway… let’s try this one! oh wow that’s great, oh that’s so good,

There you go guys nice double bed, air con,  TV, fridge, lovely shower, and all for £17 a night! So that’s it we’re going to  crash we’ll see you in the morning! So with all these route changes it’s caused us to  have so much more work things like arranging the carnet,

We’ve got to book the shipping, the flights,  the hotels, get visas, it’s a lot! Doing the carnet, I was very pleased that I didn’t put off getting Surfshark VPN, because to get our carnet we had to do a bank transfer… it was the mother of all mothers of Bank transfers!! £15,500

That is most of our life savings! but by doing Bank transfers on the road, on public Wi-Fi, we risk losing a lot more than that, which is why we always use surfshark, because believe it or not there’s hackers out there just waiting to hack you but by using surfshark,

It creates an encrypted tunnel which keeps you and your data safe when you’re surfing online. It’s a bit like having your own personal bodyguard. I mean can you imagine how stressful  it would be if we got hacked whilst trying to transfer our life savings.

And the good news is that the monthly cost is only about the cost of two cups of coffee a month, and that’s a lot less than a personal bodyguard! And surf shark’s one of the only VPN companies that allows use  on an unlimited number of devices,

Which means you not only keep yourself safe but also all  your family, and right now is a great time to sign up because we’ve managed to get you an exclusive deal, by signing up using this code, you get an extra 3 months  completely free! the Link’s in the description below. Good morning folks,

It is just before 8:00 the next morning I still got the same clothes on! looks like we have fallen out bed!! we didn’t bring any clean clothes with us, we have showered, we literally fell out of the  van knackered last night, came in crashed got up early again today,

And we got another 6-hour drive today, we’re going to head down to Chumphon but we did get some good news this morning, the carnet has left the UK, it is with DHL it is now in Germany, so it’s on the way! So fingers crossed it still arrives on time !

That is the problem but anyway the sun  is shining I can see it outside, let’s hit the road! That’s great the lady in in the  apartments where we were just, she said there’s free coffee over there, we can go and get one! We always take our pillows I’m really fussy with my pillows,

You know sometimes you just get those pillows that aren’t like soft and cushion your head enough, that’s me, weird but true!! The advantage of travelling in your van you get to bring your own pillows that you can’t do when you’re backpacking!! It’s a lovely morning this morning,

The sun is just peeking up behind the trees there, it’s nice to hit the road this time in the morning because it’s a lot cooler, That will do, we got one for the road. Such a nice time in the morning  as the sun’s just coming out,

It always makes everything look so  much nicer with the gold coloured sunlight. Off to work on a side car! there’s so many of these side cars, but they seem so practical! There’s another one coming the other way, That one has got a motorbike on it!

It’s carrying somebody and a dog did you see a dog!! Honestly these morning sights are the best part of the drive! All right quick pit stop for a refuel, because we used three quarters of a tank just over 3/4s of a tank yesterday, not quite sure why but we always seem to come to PTT?!

There is Chris grinning, love him! I think we come to PTT because you just get used to a petrol station when you travel in a country, there’s just something that you trust about a particular one and we always take recommendation,

And a few people have told us that PTT is like the most famous one and guaranteed fuel because we have to look after our girl Trudy, to make sure the best goes in her little heart. 36 lbs later and we’re all filled up!

So after bypassing Bangkok through the  countryside we’ve just joined a Highway 4   which has taken us all the way down the east  coast of Thailand a straight road main road   all the way down and the traffic’s picked  up a little bit,

A lot of you ask how do we cope with all these sudden changes of routes, route plans and denied visas, and trouble that we get on the road? And it’s easy to get stressed and really worried about it, but the reality is that you can’t actually do anything about it,

And you just have to go with it and it’s always trying to make sure you’ve got a plan b, so you know if it goes wrong you automatically switch to plan B which is what we’re doing now, and hopefully it all works if not there will be another plan C,

Because we’re determined to get around the world and life throws these curve balls at you, and it’s how you deal with them that makes the difference. The truck in front of us the back is literally full of chicken meat!

We have just passed a few crazy overloaded trucks  and I’ve saw this I have no idea what is that?   what is that? it’s like is some kind of sugar  cane or something? it’s like a root? some kind of root? that’s slightly pink I’m not sure if anybody knows what that is let me know

We just had a car from Malaysia waving  frantically at as and filming us as we drove past,  so yeah I have no doubts that it might be  a little bit mad our journey back through Malaysia, I’m not sure they’re expecting us, but  they’re going to get us!

Okay we’ve arrived in the town of Chumphon which we stopped in on the way up, we going to go and see if we can get a room at the place we stayed on the way up, because it had good parking for Trudy,

And then we can rest up for the day and then go again tomorrow. Looking at the color of the sky actually looks like it might rain this evening or this afternoon, and we haven’t had rain I don’t think since we were last here, because last time we were here it absolutely hammered it down! Chalicha Resort,

There we go it’s empty parking for you Marianne, okay we’re back we’re going to end today there and uh we’ll see  you in the morning for the next adventure as we continue South, and hopefully we  have a little bit more news about carnet wooho! It’s a bit grey this morning, how you feeling? Grrrrr!

We’re knacked basically, okay today isn’t so bad, today we’re going to do 5 hours, we’re going to try and stay at the farm stay, where we stayed with all the Ducks and the chickens and the Buffalo because it’s just lovely,

We got to hit the road, the good news is according to DHL I looked online this morning our carnet is now in Bangkok, so it shouldn’t take more than a few days to get to get down to Phuket so our fast driving is for good cause, we should meet it at the same time,

Although there isn’t any  fast driving just safe driving!! there you go! I can’t believe we’re hitting the road  again it feels so weird to backtrack, but yeah we had a nice dip in the pool last night, which is great for the brain in fact we nearly forgot the swimmers in the bathroom!

It’s just after 7:00 in the morning it’s been a lovely little spot again,  it has been very convenient,   what’s mad is last time we came this  this field here was all planted with trees, and it’s all being cleared  just in the space of a couple of weeks!

Oh now I’m in the wrong lane again, it’s okay you can go straight, follow that silver car, yeah sometimes these Lanes they they get a bit confusing, because there’s a U-turn Lane and a a turn right lane, so it’s easy to move over a bit too early and block it, you have to wait, we’re stuck!

Actually I’m not stuck, good job Marianne, a little bit chaotic everyone’s going to school I think, it’s that time of the day, it’s a fascinating place to drive around just to see everything is done so differently from back home, every Drive is an adventure in itself! See the little petrol pump?!

Great, they’re like coin operated aren’t they? yeah, got little stands opening up this morning, selling breakfast and snacks for people, It smells good! why did the chicken run across  the road? because Trudy was going at it !! I don’t think I caught that on camera, but yeah two chicken just quickly ran across the road!

Beware of trains! We’re all good, no automatic Crossings here! I have just spotted a massive Golden Buddha standing above the trees just there look, let’s see it’s coming into view in a second there it is, look at that! That’s the biggest one we’ve seen!

It didn’t take long for the sun to burn through the clouds and that’s why we left so early, because it’s so much nicer driving in the early morning before the sun comes up, and come midday when you’re driving full into the sun, it does get quite intense through the windscreen, with the aircon on or not.

They give us a big wave – I love that! Thailand’s been a super super friendly country hasn’t it? Yes so amazing Okay we’ve come off the main road that goes down the east coast of Thailand, we’re cutting across the middle towards Ranong,

Towards the east coast and we’re coming up through the mountains  and the drive through the mountains is stunning, great views over there little valley there, there’s a river down at the bottom, lovely trees …. oh look at that! it’s just a  really magical drive this morning….

We’re now joining the main road  that runs down the East, oh watch out !! We really didn’t make it any  further, but yeah we’ made it to the road that runs down the  east side of Thailand down towards Phuket okay 300m, we are turning right, here we go! Parami farm stay,

So yeah if you recognise this road, from a previous video that’s because we were here probably oh I don’t know 3 weeks ago! and yeah we’ve come back that’s a great recommendation isn’t it if you keep coming back or if you want to come  back and stay a couple of days,

Then this is a great spot! Yeah definitely, it was quiet, lovely, really friendly, nice food, which is great because it’s half past 12 now and I’m flipping starving we timed that well!! there it is! How are you? We like it so much we came back!!

Okay we had a delicious lunch, and we’ve got one of the little Chalet rooms booked, like last time, this is going to be our base for the next probably two days until we get notification from DHL that the package has arrived in Phuket. There you go, this is where we’re going  to be staying,

Trudy’s all parked up there safe ah there you go, Marianne you’re on your own, we’ve been naughty and separated !! that evening we relaxed and enjoyed some great  food in a beautiful setting, will our carnet arrive on time? Will we be able to get back into Malaysia?

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Driving our UK van around the world our plans often change when least expected and with our visa running out the pressure is on.

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