Blog 1 - Malaysia and Thailand

MALAYSIA

We can’t leave without a drama! We find that the Singapore to KL sector of our flight has been cancelled. (Apparently our agent cancelled it for ONE, as Gaylene was unable to fly, but the airline cancelled all of us). We pay up, and secure seats. Then, John is thoroughly frisked as he is wearing a back brace; Bill is hauled aside for the explosives check; and Kym has an Torx Key in his kit! Concerned that he might unscrew the entire plane with it, he has to return and check it thru as “luggage”!!

Mile upon mile of palm trees – the first impression of Kuala Lumpur! They just go forever, and palm oil is now Malaysia’s biggest export. Most of the virgin forest has gone, and rubber exporting is now 2nd. The palm trees grow for 25 years, cropping every 2 weeks!

KL – a typical busy dirty city, but we stay in a beautiful old world style hotel, and our room has views of the Petronas Towers at night. They, of course, are “Closed Mondays”, so we head to the KL tower which actually gives a better 360deg view, but we have only been there a few minutes when a storm hits, and we see no more!

Kuala Lumpur, and an extremely helpful taxi driver takes us to Port Klang. We tip him extravagantly, as he was worth his weight in gold! And, incredibly, our trucks are Custom cleared, unloaded from the container safely, mirrors re-attached, and we were on our way within 2 ½ hrs! (Kym and Bill took 3 WEEKS achieving the same result in Russia, which is why the decision was made to drive from KL TO Russia!)

We head to Kuala Selangor, to view the Fireflies at night. We take a boat and are silently paddled thru the mangroves where the male fireflies flash their lights in unison, and the females just glow (as we do!!) We had them alight on us – they measure from 3-10mm. Fascinating. We are allowed to park in the carpark grounds for the night, and the locals and the monkeys are fascinated.

We spend quite some time talking with a mute guy, who entertains us with his hand descriptions of cobras, Komodo dragons, mosquitos etc! The Call to Prayer awakens us at 5.30am – the mosque is in the carpark!

Day 2

We drive up through miles of beautiful rainforest to Fraser’s Hill. A very English little spot, at 1350m, and Michaal especially (the token Kiwi) is glad to escape the 100% humity of the lower lands. Fraser had a tin mine here (Selangor pewter), but also ran an opium & gambling den. He disappeared many years ago. Quite a long but lovely drive across the country to the Taman Negara – the oldest jungle in the world, as never affected by the Ice Age or any volcanic activity. 325kns, but takes us 10 hours! We camp (4WD access) on the riverside, beside floating restaurants and floating shops.

Our routine is developing, each couple responsible for planning within a country and leading the group, and CB radios keep us in contact. It is quite challenging being the leaders while we drive these two countries – Malaysia & Thailand - navigating in an unknown country, signs in foreign language, with the responsibility of 4 big trucks having to U-turn, if I stuff it up! Everyone is good natured though, and goes with whatever Lady Luck throws our way. (we learn later, that navigating in these two countries is probably the hardest! Many roads, many people, and nothing in English!) Our GPS is very disappointing, and we are often heading just by east, west, north & south!

We have been buying lunch and dinner, as it is sooooo cheap. Last night, 6 dishes, 6 fresh orange juices – total $10 Australian. Evenings are spent chatting, usually with locals. We are all similar – keen to gather any info that will make our trip more incredible.

Thursday, 2nd June
We head up the river in a very basic handmade timber boat where the lifebelts are only used as back supports! Up rapids, deeper into the jungle, we visit an Orang Asli village. These are the original inhabitants, who the Viet Cong coerced to assist them with jungle tracks during the Communist era, then the Brits offered them medial assistance, and won them over to the other side! Now, no one wants them, and they have no rights or support.

An amazing Canopy Walk over the tree tops, then we decided, wrongly, to hike to see the “amazing view”from Mt Teresak. It wasn’t worth it! and several hours of really hard hiking for nothing. On a steep climb down, I catch my foot in a tree root, and execute a perfect somersault with a half twist! Badly bruised, but otherwise unhurt, we proceed more cautiously! Once down, we walk fully dressed straight into the muddy waters to cool off and wash our sweat laden clothes!

Friday, 4th June

The mist rises really slowly from the jungle this morning, as we breakfast on exotic fresh fruits and yoghurt. It is so picturesque and peaceful. We drive east to the Coast, and find an awesome camping spot right on the beach, on the Sth China Seas! Swimming in clear warm water. Our diet is mainly just rice and noodles, and the amount of chicken eaten so far would fit on a dessert spoon, and likewise the amount of vegies.

Where we travel there are very few shops and just local food, so we eat like the locals.

We awake to a beautiful sunrise over the water.

Sat. 5th June

Up the coast to Mangan, and arrange a snorkel trip to Pulau (island) Kapas, where crystal clear waters coconut palms, deep green foliage to the waters edge. Lots of coloured fish, quite good coral, with some magnificent pink “plates” measuring almost 2 m across! We again camp in another beautiful spot on the beachside. As usual, we are woken each morning at 5-5.30 with the chanting from the mosques. They are everywhere, and it is not unusual for us to hear 4 or 5 different ones all singing discordantly! The roads are lined with roadside stalls, and for miles it might be just one thing - maybe corn, or coconut, or hundreds of watermelon, pineapples, rambutans, dragonfruit, mangosteen! What an education – eating foods we haven’t seen before. We take a wrong road and once again find a beautiful spot and pause to boil the billy.

This is just such an amazing trip. We are so far from the tourist route, and trundle our trucks through the tiniest, poorest of villages, and the locals look up in wonder, but always smile and wave. At one village, we wandered locally to find some food, as there are many little roadside cafes. They were closed, but one invited us in, called their friends and family, and next minute they drive back with a gas bottle, containers of food and sauces, and begin cooking for us! Unbelievable. This same village has rubbish piled almost to the roof level and different homes have piles of different scavenged product, such as, tons of kids bicycle parts; a pile of plastic – just like a recycler! Goats and chickens wander everywhere. Families (up to 5) all pile on the one bike! Traffic rules don’t exist, and it is heart in mouth stuff sometimes, as traffic comes towards us on either side! They do not seem in the least concerned about the relative size of our trucks, and will just pull in front of us, on a motorbike – sometimes with 5 people on it!

The driving is chaotic ridiculous...ooops, another truck over!

Unfortunately, in due course, we arrive early on the scene of a terrible accident which will stick in our memory for some time (not this photo!)

This country is largely Muslim, and we try to respect their customs, and swim in a t-shirt – they swim fully clothed!

THAILAND

Border Crossing: Rantau Panjan – the drive in from a minor road is pretty, then it all degenerates into stress! We firstly have to all complete Immigration and Departure forms; then park the trucks, return to have our Carnets (our guarantee that we will take the vehicles out of Malaysia) completed, and of course they are in English which challenges the Malaysians! Then they decide to inspect the insides of our trucks (but we really think they just wanted a look, as it was quite cursory!), then we walk to another spot to complete 3rd party insurance. The huge cost of $10 each! This is all done in the scorching heat of 43deg!! Sweat just runs off us, with the heat, and the hassle of trying to understand directions in another language!! But an hour or so and we are on our way. A new country! Another new adventure!

Leaving the border, we drive thru more than 20 military posts, with armed guards inside sandbagged protection. There is a reknown dangerous criminal element here, with drug running, etc. but we only rate a glance and a smile!

7.6.10
Bill’s air con has failed, and he stops atseveral Isuzu garages to fix. We wait for almost 2 hrs in the boiling heat, and all to no avail. At the end of each day, Bill is weary from the heat, and as he suffered a detached retina just a couple of weeks back, his eyes suffer.

The sun is setting and we are driving towards Trang, and realise we must find a camp before dark, We turn off, and drive into a rubber plantation – far from noisy Mosques, noisy roads, and people. BUT at around 1.00am motorbikes roardown this secluded track past us, and seem to turn and come back. They drive past us very slowly and it is quite unnerving. To be honest, is frightening! and they carry huge knives!. This goes on all night, so we all get no sleep. We girls are terrified! In the light of day, we realise that they must tend the rubber trees all night and day – hence the big knives, and the constant coming and going!

Camping in Rubber Plantation

9.6.10

We love the seaside village of Krabi where stunning limestone karsts rise straight out of the land and the sea. We had a great camp, right the seaside area, tucked in a block of empty land. Took a longtail boat (a wooden, locally made open boat, with a fascinating motor which I must get John to describe - It is a 4 cylinder car motor, with a prop shaft that drives straight off the flywheel. Probably 2.5 metres long. They swing the whole motor, on a swivel, to turn the boat!)

We go to the islands of Tup, Poda & Chicken (further out, and outside our budget, is Phi Phi Island). A super day. Snorkelling was poor, but the swimming and scenery was incredible. Quite salty water, and I could float like a popsicle stick (upright, without sinking!) $10 each for 4 hours!

Deisel in Thailand is around $1.00 per litre in Malaysia is was 60cts, and our truck is currently using about 13-14 ltrs/100kms. Camping, of course, is free, and it is possible to just find a spot and park. Occasionally, we ask, by sign language! if we can stay.

We head inland towards the east coast again to Chiaw Lan Lake. A manmade dam, and it is very pretty, surrounded by sawtooth mountains. We are moved on by Security, so cant camp! We end up tucked in a gravel pit for the night!! On the way here, we stop at the roadside markets – I taste Krispy Crabs, which are small crabs, dripped in a curry paste, and deep fried! Yummy!

Krispy Crab!

Also, Prawn nests – similar, with egg and spinach mix. The fish, vegies, chickens, fruit choices are amazing, and we have tried many exotic foods now!

Our first tyre change! John getting his back into it! Fortunately, his back is better!!

Now at Bangkok, and reading about this City with so much history, I wish I had a month, not just 2 days!

Monday 13th, and we head to Cambodia. I wonder when we will next have internet. Until then.....