Monday, October 1, 2012

Day 1: S'pore - Ipoh (Road Trip to Tibet)

Day 1: 560km on a tankful of diesel




WF infront of Impiana Hotel, Ipoh
 Roslyn & I woke up early this morning and headed for Tampoi, JB where we park our Malaysian registered Land Cruiser. Crispin my second son stayed the night before and fetched us to JB. Understandably, we were both happy and excited about the next 36 days. I had spent a good 5 months preparing the Cruiser for Tibet and finally the day arrived.


Kelvin Yeo's Toyota Prado
 In all there were 16 cars. 14 participants and 2 official cars from AA Singapore. The Team Leader, Kelvin Yeo has led many such expeditions. This trip was especially a thrilling one, as he was driving his pride & joy, a new Toyota Prado which he bought 4 months back to replace his old Toyota Rav4. Certainly a Prado is a lot more comfortable, of higher performance & reliability and definitely Bigger is always better for long haul trips such as this one.



Some of the other cars in the convoy
 In all, there were two Prados, four Rav4s, an Audi Q5, a Honda CRV, a Volvo XC90, two Kia Sportage, A Lexus RX300 and a BMW X3, a VW Tiguan, a Nissan Murano  and my 20 year old Land Cruiser. What a vast range of different models.
The journey from JB to Ipoh was quite uneventful, except for a speeding ticket issued to the oldest gentleman in our convoy, Mr Seet who is 75 yrs young. As usual, he will be driving all the way to Tibet and back whilst his lovely wife, who's also in her 70s accompanies him on probably his 20th Auto-Venture to date.
Well it's off to dinner now. Tomorrow we'll head straight to the Thai border and stay the night at Hat Yai.

Enroute to Thailand from West Malaysia

JB Hotel Hat Yai

Pit Stop for a quick rest 

Waiting for the Ferry to cross the river from Chiang Rai to Myanmar

Escaping the sun on the barge ferry crossing to Myanmar

The White Buddist Temple in Thailand - This Golden building is the toilet

Arrival at Meiji Mountains - Tibet

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