My first adventure road trip - Part 1

Days: 31st August to 3rd September
Locations: KL – Ipoh – Hat Yai – Alor Setar – KL

I had been planning for a road trip for some time. A road trip that I can do cross countries. Since there is this long weekend from 31^st August, I opened Booking.com (not a sponsored post, just my preferred app for accommodation bookings) got an instant confirmation for our hotel. Google-d around on the required document to bring along for this drive. Scheduled the car for maintenance. Packed our bags, and off we go!

That literally sums up quite several nights/days doing the reading and watching You Tube (life hacks driving long distance route and “How to change your punctured tyre for dummy”. 

But it was a fruitful and adventurous trip for me. I will try to plan for further routes in “years” to come.

Beside sharing photos of this trip, purpose of this blog is to pen down all important tips/notes that anyone should consider when you want to drive cross country. Especially your cross country road trip is between Malaysia-Thailand. It is a very different experience with the authority of Thailand compare to more developed neighbor in south – Singapore.

And from nights/days spent reading and getting information from the world wide web, some of it are quite misleading and leave me more confuse on the not-to-do list. So, I hope whoever is reading this, do benefit from my tips/adventures I experienced, and to consider road trip in future. Oh yeah, adding on to the adventure list, those I brought along this trip was my mom, her sister, her mother and my daughter. So, we have a minor and 3 veterans on board. HOW ADVENTUROUS OF ME?!

Things that need to get ready before the road trip: 

The ride

• You need to get your ride well maintained. Especially the tyres and engine oil and whatever not. Please be safe on the road. 

• Many people never tick this on the check list, but since I will be the only one who knows how to maneuver the car, I had to ensure everything including this is check! Your spare tyre in the boot. Get that check if it is usable! And the first aid kit / emergency kit / functional torch light

• Car insurance. Most website actually suggest you to purchase the car insurance only at the border pit stop. But from my reading, such insurance is not secure. If in case of accidents, I do not think you are able to claim the insurance back. So, I opted to purchase from my own existing car insurer, which I can just purchase via credit card through online. The cover note of the insurance will be available 24 hours after purchase. Just print it and attached with the above immigration forms. It cost less than RM30 for 48 hours full coverage for my vehicle. You can always give your insurer a call on the customer service to ask for a quote!

The paperwork for the ride

• Driving cross countries (depending on which country, obviously) requires paperwork. There are many blogs out there explaining to you in details/in summary on what paperwork you required, but my personal preference is to go to the country immigration website. That will be the safest among all. So, please log into https://www.immigration.go.th/download/ and choose English.

• You may have problem viewing the reference of the forms because it is still in Thai. I advised you to use Google Chrome and translate again the Thai versions to English (point your mouse cursor and right click)

• You need to fill up 2 forms for Arrival and Departure separately. I reckon you fill up a set for Arrival and another set for Departure, then make a photocopy of each set (just in case). Bring another set of blank forms as well and keep it in a plastic folder/file

• The forms are: TM2 https://www.immigration.go.th/download/1486546828049.pdf  Title of the form: INFORMATION OF CONVEYANCE

• TM3 https://www.immigration.go.th/download/1486547121721.pdf  Title of the form: PASSENGER LIST

If you refer to the immigration website, above forms are listed as item 7 & item 9

Note: In the form TM2, you need to fill up the border you use for entrance & exit. By default, of the Thailand government, you are to enter and exit Thailand using the same border. If you choose different border to exit, you need to notify the immigration officer. I am not so sure about this, so you may need to find out more yourself. I entered and exited Thailand through Sadao – which is the Bukit Kayu Hitam toll from Malaysia. 

• Car registration card of your ride where you need to bring Original Copy of the registration card to show the officer.

• Number of passenger list cannot be more than what your car can fit. So, if you are five seater car including driver, you are not allowed to bring in 6th passenger. 

• Valid driving license.

Note: To be on the safe side, renew your driving license with the latest dual language license. Where your validations of your license are written in both English & Bahasa at the back of your license. 

The paperwork for you

• Valid passport with at least minimum 6 months to travel
• White card for immigration entrance admission (this can only be obtained from immigration counter for free or purchase from the pit stop along Bukit Kayu Hitam)

So, let’s start with our adventurous itinerary!

Picture courtesy from Google Image

30th August Night

I favored to start the journey at night thinking to reach the checkpoint in the morning to avoid long queue. (Smart ass moves, though!). We load our bags into the car, buckle up the #rascaltoddler, pick up the elderly and off we go up north. It was Wednesday night and raining. With some sleep, I got (took a day off) before starting the drive, I took the first 2 hours road to Ipoh for supper - slowly. Drive started since 9pm and about 11.30pm we reached the famous Ipoh Tong Shui Street. The last I visited was not so late and it was a weekend night. So, there was crowd and food was nice. But this round, it was empty and food was horrible. #rascaltoddler was asleep so we can only do take-away. 

Char Keow Teow with Duck Eggs and More Clams. Sound terrific but taste so-so only

But the best was still their famous Kopi! Such a great way to recharge to continue the rest of the journey. 

I am entering Thailand through Bukit Kayu Hitam which usually takes 3.5 hours from Ipoh. 

31st August

Traffic started piling up at North South Expressway most probably everyone heading back hometown due to the long weekend, it took me 4.5 hours to reach Bukit Kayu Hitam. The border only opens at 6.30am and with 2 hours to spare, I made a turn into the pit stop area. The pit stop area usually restaurant/bus resting areas that equipped with washroom / money changer / insurance agent / agent that helps you to fill up the immigration forms. As I am still missing to complete the white cards, I went up to the counter thinking the cards are free. To my amaze, it was charge at RM2.00 per card. This charge covers the writing service where the people behind the counter will fill up for you. I need 5 cards so I paid RM10.00 but what I was not happy about was because the card was actually given free from the government of Thailand! Due to the long queue (after long drive), I skip the service and paid for the free cards and sit at a corner filling up the cards myself. Pfffttt!!! You can get the white card from the immigration counter in Thailand airport for free and for as many as you want. 

Photo courtesy from Google Image

Wasted an hour for queuing and we quickly head back on the road to avoid the long queue at border. As published on website, the border opens at 6.30am but due to the public holiday, the border only opens at 7.30am. Basically I had been driving for 10+ hours with no sleep and rest. But still feel very energized about the whole thing until one idiot decided to look at his phone than his wheel, and railed straight into my ride. It was a bump and scratch but my ride was only 1 month old. Idiot fucker!

My poor baby

Took the number and photo of the idiot who banged my car and since he pleaded not enough cash with him to pay for the repair cost, and the queue line has started moving, I went back to the car and took off, trying my very best to calm down and not letting this unhappy situation drag me down.

At that hour, with no sleep and accident, I was so flustered already. And the queue at the border was long due to the changes in working hours. Malaysia immigration was easy! You can remain seated in the car pass all the passports and upon verification, off you go. Some unlucky ones will be stopped for vehicle check, but not me. Then, we came upon Sadok immigration area. That was when the nightmare started.

7.56am story!

We managed to find a parking spot while the elderly were with the #rascaltoddler in the car, I quickly ran for a pee break and trying to ask around how the queue works. It turn out to be, the queue to stamp your passport and surrender your vehicle document will take approximately 2 hours. The immigration officers work like SLOTH to get you through the process!

Photo courtesy from Google Image

The elderly went to stand in the queue on behalf while #rascaltoddler watching YouTube and me half way snoozing half way entertaining the #rascaltoddler. I quickly joined the queue, and we managed to get the passport stamped. Form TM2 and TM3 for arrival will be taken by the immigration and they will stamped on your departure copy. This means, hand over your passport, arrival and departure copy of TM2 and TM3. 

Sent the pack back to the car and my mistake thinking that the procedures are all done. So, my tips are leave your car at the parking. Walk out from where your passport got stamped ( it is the white office building) and walk over to the small counter looks like those we have at toll. Hand over your car registration card and passport to the officer inside the cubicle. He/She will ask you to sign the temporary import & export form. IMPORTANT NOTES: Keep this form with you and you are required to return back this form when you exit the border. If not, you had committed an offence and penalty of 10,000 Baht per day! The warning sign are placed at the border on this.

The whole ordeal took us another 3-4 hours, so by the time we drove from Sadok border to Hatyai, it was already lunch time. I was hungry and tired and sticky and hot from the heat queuing under the sun!

Everyone was starving!

We headed to 清姐猪肠咸菜 for lunch. 12.30pm still consider too late to get more food from here. They are famous with pork intestine soup serve with white rice. We ordered as much as we can and as much as it was left to fill up out growling stomach. Just type the chinese name or Che Seng Tuehuan Kiamchai in your Google Maps or Waze, GPS will direct you there. There is no parking around that area, so please be ready to park at road side at your own risk!

The taste of the food was alright, and worth a try, I love the fact that we were so hot and sticky from the sweat, yet the soup has it effect to cool you down. That's the power of "salted vegetable pork intestine soup" do to you. But you have to be there very early as this is tourist and local favorite eating spot. We couldn't even get another serving of roast pork/braised egg. 

Headed back to hotel for rest. I need the rest after being awake for almost 20 hours. The parking space is guarded and this is the only plus point of the hotel. Though with the price I paid, THB 3000 for 2 nights per room inclusive of breakfast, was such a bargain but the room security was not up to the modern world. I've been to many hotels but most city hotels had upgraded to access card system yet, this one still using the traditional "key" way. This made me feel the locked door, is not secure at all. Beggars can't be choosers though.

Picture courtesy from Google Image
Friendlytel Hotel Hatyai

A bizarre thing that I encounter from this hotel is upon check in, the hotel will ask for every checked in guests' passports and keep it with them. Maybe because there is no safe deposit box available in the room, so the hotel kept it. I found this is something very very old school huh? As long as I can get my passport back unharmed, I am fine with it. Just don't feel comfortable surrender my passports to people rather than immigration officer!

After a quick nap, we took the tuk-tuk to nearest Kim market which was a wrong move. Wasted the tuk-tuk fees because the market is already at their closing hours. Best to visit in the morning. As most elderly couldn't really walk very far, we hail the tuk-tuk to the Greenway Night Market. It was not night time yet, but there is a very nice air conditioned food court in this market. So, we decided to stop here for early dinner and wait for the market to be ready for shopping!

Her first tuk-tuk experience

Second ride and she become cooked prawn!

Greenway Night Market details can be found here http://www.greenwaynightmarket.com/ where the opening hours are from 4-10pm. It is a decent market to grab some shopping loot but don't compare this to the big cities night markets (i.e Pratunam / Chatuchak). This is the biggest in Hatyai but very small scale if compare to those. The quality of the shopping loot also cannot compare because from fashion to trinkets, they are very different. So, get your expectation ready you may end up just window shopping. Since there is a food court there, don't expect street food vendors ah. Fill up your tummy with the local Thai food (you can play safe with Chicken Rice or Japanese bento). I am quite impress with the cleanliness and facilities available in the market for patrons. The toilet is reside in another building beside the food court and cleanliness condition, I rate them 10/10

See the details on the wall and clean tiles!

Besides, there is nursing rooms available for babies. It is lock and you need to get the key from the cleaner station nearby. This means, they don't allow people to misuse the nursing rooms. I was quite impressed by their personal touch on all these facilities.

I managed to loot some plus size dresses (one hell of a shopaholic I am - anywhere also I can get new collections). Selections are very limited but not bad. Price range is alright too!

The weather was super duper crazy hot, we were so tired of all the agenda happened within 24 hours at the beginning of this trip. So, we ended Day 1 in Hat Yai looking like:

 Stay tune for Part 2