Drive from KL to Phuket

"Did you say drive???", that was the question that most people asked me when I told them about my plan. It was actually quite an impromptu decision. I was at my aunt's house and they were all talking about going places via land transport to many many places and it just suddenly struck me that I too wanted to drive somewhere as a family outing. I have wanted for quite some time to make a passport for my son and now with this decision, I will just follow through and in future, travel plans may include other countries :)

Since it was a snap decision and with just around 1 week of research and close to no planning, it was like any unplanned things, not so well executed but yet its not that bad either :) Its just the sort of things that I want to do, I seriously do not like to wait too long for a trip to happen and it really shows for my few recent trips.

OK, so for n00bs like your's truly, its of course a little internet research and a little experimentation here and there. So to help you out IF you have the same crazy idea to drive to Thailand, you will need :

1) A car/MPV or whatever that you drive DUH! Make sure its in a good condition ... not to forget about your spare tyre
2) Car registration card or most people call it geran, I would recommend for you to bring the real thing instead of photocopy since the wordings might be blur on the photocopy version.
3)Touch N' Go or Smart Tag, the latter being the better option, this is to avoid the long queues
4) Water, at least for the journey of 100km into Thailand.
5) GPS or smartphone with GPS + Thailand map
6) More than 1 driver in the car, just in case the driver gets too tired (optional)

The drive up north is pretty simple, just get on the PLUS highway and zoom towards Bukit Kayu Hitam. If you have item 5, its best to have Waze to help you avoid speeding summons. There are a number of road signs that says Speed Camera Operation area. If you are an observant driver, you will notice that only the signs with yellow background will have the cameras :p but its best to follow the speed limit in those area for at the very least 2km. Like any system, there is actually a tolerance for speeding. I have been zooming at 115kmph for many years and only late last year got a ticket for speeding on a trunk road =_=, going 110kmph in an 80kmph zone. Nature breaks along the way is a good chance to straighten your back and legs, perhaps for you to have something to eat too.

If you are a law abiding driver, you should pass the last toll about 5 hours from when you start the journey, breaks included of course. I was a little relieved that I do not have to pay a toll in Ipoh like the old days where it may be a little jam just before you go uphill. Again, if you are observant enough you will notice some strange place names =D

After paying the last toll, you will pass by a place called Changlun, please stop speeding here and this is the time for you to look for a gas station and fill up to the extreme max. Also, you will have to stop at the many shops which sells Thailand car insurance. The last shop is a place called CTC, since you are not speeding, you should see the red sign and its like a bus terminal with food court. I bought my insurance for RM15 which lasts 9 days. Please do check the details before paying. For those of you who have not changed your money to baht, this place also offers good rates.

Passing the Malaysian immigration is easy as 123. Just show them your passport and you are in. They might just want to have a look if everybody is in the car but other than that its nothing.

Not long after this CTC place, you will find ...

 Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration Complex

Just before you get into the shade of this complex, take a left into the parking area next to the complex. Bring your car registration card along with your passport and a pen. If you don't have the immigration card yet, you may get some at the office next to the toilet. For those of you who don't have a pen, you might just have to enlist the assistance of people who will help you fill in the immigration card for a fee. There are a couple of counters so just line up with the immigration card filled up on both the entry and exit portion. Drivers, you use a special lane where cars can pass by. First get your customs clearance and with your car registration card, you will be issued an import permit for your car to be driven into Thailand. Since its your first time, you will be charged with RM5. Go get your car and pass it to the counter next to custom's counter, the officer will need to see your car before signing off the form. Once that is done, you are in!

Upon driving by the gas stations, you will notice that there are a couple of prices for petrol, in Thailand they have RON91 and RON95. To be on the safe side, I pumped the second most expensive RON95 gasohol. What I can say is that my car ran upwards of 1,000km on them and I still drove it back to KL so it should be good enough for your car. Oh btw, the prices you see displayed are in accordance to real world prices so if you see a good rate, I suggest you fill up :) At the time of writing this post, the price is double of what we are paying so enjoice the real world :p

Now about Thai drivers, they can be a bitch. Doesn't matter what kind of vehicle they use, there is no fast lane ... You will see some assholes hogging the fast lane with miles of open road in front of them and they don't have a rear view mirror. What I had to do was to overtake on the left (the supposed slow lane). Thankfully most roads have 2 lanes so you life is not so miserable. On roads with just 1 lane, you better know what your car is capable of unless you can stand to not overtake. Overtaking trucks/vans can be a nightmare, straight roads would be places where most drivers will be comfortable in overtaking BUT a straight road is also where most people tend to speed up. So imagine going at around 100kmph but you want to overtake a truck/van, when you reach a place which you are comfortable to overtake, you will find that the truck/van will speed up and you better have enough pickup in your car to go faster than them else you will be stuck behind them again. That being said, the road is wide enough to handle the width of 3 cars so if they are kind enough, they will give you a little more space and so will the oncoming car.

You need a lot of focus on the road because their highway is unlike our's whereby its like a trunk road but 2 lanes so there will be other vehicles which will want to make turns or U-turns, so just keep an eye out and always be on alert. Often times the major routes are straight as far as the eye can see.Not really that great for speeding because its not too flat so I always maintained 110kmph or so which is above the speed limit of 80kmph.

Parking in the major cities might be a problem because there isn't much parking space. So just do what the locals do and hopefully you won't be so lucky to pick up a summons :p Anyways, I overtook the police at quite a high speed and was not stopped so perhaps they will be a lenient with visitors =D

Most guides end here but I think I will also elaborate a little on leaving. So once you have had your fun in Thailand and its time to go home, you will pass by the same immigration complex. To save time, I would recommend that you drive your car straight up to the counter and go through customs there. Remember to pay RM1 to the officer, not really sure what is it for though but they will definitely ask for it. Once the human process is done, the next counter will be for your car. So hand over the import form to the counter next to the human counter and show the officer your car and you are done.

For people who wants to buy duty free goods, don't miss the duty free shop on your right. Its in the middle of the 2 immigration complexes. Parking is free if you buy RM200 worth of stuff, perfumes and some other things are excluded from that free parking T&C so go buy an expensive bottle of liquor or get loads of chocolates.

As for the Malaysian immigration complex, same as entry, just let them check your passport and the next counter is intriguing, its a toll booth =_=" The fee is RM3.60, you may pay via Touch N' Go or cash. Next counter will be the customs. If you have spent more than 3 nights in Thailand, you will pass by with not much problem especially if you are traveling with a family. I should have snuck a big bottle of liquor (2 litres and up) because the officer just asked me to pop the bonnet and have a quick look without even touching anything.

So that's my brief summary of driving to Thailand. Enjoy your trip :)

Edit for extra notes :
Depending on where you go, some places like the big buddha temple in Phuket might be a challenge for not so powerful cars. The gradient is marked as 10% but its actually steeper than the upper reaches of Genting. In one of the sections, I had to drop back to gear 1 ...

Hong Kong 2012

Recently I had the chance to go Hong Kong for a product training. To take advantage of this, I naturally extended my stay and went around the famous attractions. Based on my research, you should be able to achieve this in a 5 days 4 nights trip. So that was how I planned out itineraries but of course, mother nature don't usually agrees with anyone's plans and you will have to adjust around her.

I planned to go to :
Disneyland
Ocean Park
Ngong Ping 360
The Peak
Avenue of Stars for the light show
Shenzhen (I just want to abuse my going-to-expire visa)

Seems like nothing much at all right? What you really require are good legs for all the walking, hopefully some good research on how to go those places and a thick face to ask those busy HK citizens. Of course the major attractions you will not have any problems at all because they have many signs and announcements.

In my mind, that's that BUT what is more important for me would be how do you tackle those places especially those that you need to queue up for eg what is a MUST do in Disneyland and Ocean Park? Strangely enough, I did not find much info on this probably because everyone's interest is different which is true in most cases or I just did not have enough time to do it properly. Basically, I would advise for visitors to attend all their shows. I particularly enjoyed Mickey's Philharmagic, Stitch Encounter, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Jungle River Cruise and Festival of Lion King. My advice is to really watch the timing especially those with limited shows. In Disneyland, if you are an avid adventurer, I recommend a task for you to complete =D Visit ALL the different themed restrooms, most people would just want to do their business and get on with enjoying the park. I reckon if I was with my friends, we would most likely take pictures in them, something which seemed to be a tradition when we were still in school XD

Watch the weather for Ngong Ping's cable car, mother nature disrupted my plan by greeting me with a typhoon level 3 but thankfully I had other destinations and was able to spend the day accomplishing another task. If you are able to plan things REALLY well, you can squeeze some destinations into 1 day. I think that requires precision planning and in their mind they know exactly what they want to do at those places even without being or seeing the place yet. I like to discover stuff which are not advertised.

What's next? Food! There are so many recommended food places. What you really need to do is to mark down all the detailed places and plan your route. Oh yeah, another important point when looking for food, LOOK UP! Many of the food places are NOT on the ground floor, some are even underground ... I think in the end, I just managed to go to 1 of my researched shops. Local food places have wisen up and have limited or some not so correct but understandable menus in english. Places which don't have, you have to use your thick face to ask, what makes it worse would be that you look like a chinese BUT can't read any, yes, your's truly is not able to read chinese but to compensate, I can speak both Cantonese and Mandarin.

I think I managed to accomplish my tasks of visiting the places which I wanted to go except for the food places. Learned something interesting during the training which we should explore and of course get to experience some Hong Kong culture :)

 Gai Dan Zhai - literally translated as little chicken eggs but most shops use the term eggette

 Fried Char Siew Pau - this taste GREAT!

 Malai Ko - this cake tastes great too

 Fried char siew thingy - nothing special about this

 Ocean Park - good places to learn about conservation and great place if you love sea creatures

 Disneyland - yes, its raining just as I reached =_="

 Set A breakfast - surprisingly set A is basically the same thing in all char chan thengs

 Other sets which are non-beef

 Tried this egg tart just because of its shape :p

 Pineapple bun - unlike other pineapple buns, this bakery really put pineapples in the bun!

 Noodles for dinner

 Giant Buddha as part of Ngong Ping 360's attraction

 This meal is part of an expensive ticket to see what is inside the Buddha, the visit was NOT worth it at all BUT the vegetarian meal was awesome!

 Or Jien HK style - not bad

 Che Zhai Mien - the portion was big BUT the mixture of the ingredients was not to my liking ...

对面海 - literally means Opposite Ocean, winner of the Dragonboat festival at Sai Kung

Normal pineapple bun - these are like Mexican buns but the top are pineapple stuff

 The peak via taxi going up and via bus going down - the queue was so mad that I reckon I won't make it up the hill before nightfall

OK view - just outside a restroom area =_="

 Shenzhen side of the border - gives me bad memories of China

 I did not go out and explore what this place is famous for, its just a place for me to change train.

I took the train so much that I got this.

What are my advices for travelers? Install apps which can help guide you around, preferably those that do not need Internet connection. What I used (on Android) HKMTR by Gary Wang (not the official one from MTR), Discover Hong Kong by the Tourism Board, Mobile BusInfo by Studio Kuma, TripAdvisor's Hong Kong app and of course who can live without Google Maps offline?

Must get Octopus card BUT watch your spending, I think I spent HKD300 just to go around to all the places. Most of the fares are around HKD10 and around half that for short distances.

Wear shoes that won't kill your heels and breathable. Walking around can and will take a toll on your main transportation. If you choose to, you can get competitively priced shoes at Mongkok.

For places to stay, IF you have the money, its really worth the difference :) Else you are in for a culture shock and I do pray that you are not claustrophobic. 

Follow the queue, if you don't and you look like a Chinese, you are gonna get some sounding because Chinese (from China)  really love to cut queues ... For all their hectic lifestyle, surprisingly HK people queue up for buses and trains. In Disneyland/Ocean Park on a normal day, a queue can be anywhere between 15 - 60 minutes depending on the show/ride. This will affect even the most meticulously planned iteneraries.

Cash and credit card :p For me the food was quite expensive as each meal would cost me at least RM10+. Make sure you have the currency conversion memorized in your head because you will need it especially for shopaholics who do watch out for their money. It is really a haven for shoppers, so many interestingly priced stuff.

Chengdu : Land of Giant Pandas and MaLat Spiciness

I was recently asked to perform a site certification for the company in Chengdu, China. The reason behind the choice was fairly straightforward, there weren't too many candidates who is able to converse in Chinese in my team. Initially, I thought it was just a 1 person thingy but later on I found out that my boss would be joining me =_=

Anyhows, its not a trip, its for work and its supposed to be huge. I have handled big projects before so this is not really that difficult although it is my first time doing a site certification. In my mind, it is an easy job and it should not take more than 1 day. Boy was I wrong and in the end it actually took around 2.5 days to complete =_=|||

This coupled with the initial confusion on flight dates, it was chaotic. After the dust have settled down, I went 2 days before the actual work started so that I have at least some time to do some exploration of the city. Since my boss would be there, we could go and visit the Panda Research Center together and that would of course cut down on the travelling cost but it would seem that transportation would be provided by our host and that worked out perfectly because that way we would not get cheated by the taxis.

The driver brought us to have local dishes and other places of interest like Kwan Zhai Xiang Zi, Jinli Street, Shu Ma Guang Chang (its Chengdu's Lowyat). These places are the most accessible and not too far out of the city. If you ask for my opinion, I would suggest for you to visit Jinli Street in the city and Panda Research Center. I did not get the opportunity to visit Leshan Buddha or Er Mei Mountain but I think this places would be of interest as well especially for those who like to take pictures. The further place would of course be JiuZhaiGou and HuangLong if you have a couple of days to spare not to mention be willing t0 pay for the flight tickets.

All in all, the foods are filled with spices and almost unavoidable and the sceneries at the tourist attractions are wonderful. The roads will be an eye opener, 3-5 lanes highways and 2-3 side roads just beside the highways to turn off. Visibility varies from 200m to over 1km. Most of the time the city looks to be covered in a haze. I suppose pollution is quite bad there but I did not get breathing difficulties so it should still be acceptable.

One thing which I cannot get used to would be driving. Their cars are like Americans, left hand drive and drive on the right side of the road. When I sit in the front passenger seat, its like the car is missing the all the driver's things where its supposed to be. Almost all the people there drive like the road belongs to them, move and stop at their fancy. Using the horn as if they are the police speeding to chase after fugitives. The traffic lights do not need to be put up because cars can stop in the middle of a major 4 land road and try to make the turn while avoiding oncoming traffic. I was scared stiff and nobody would volunteer to sit in the front.

I declare I is alien
Shuangliu Airport
Panda Research Center
A real live panda upclose
Cute little cubs!!!
Jackie Chan donation plaque
Panda supply truck
Panda bus, additional RMB10
Wooden-like bus
Kuan (Wide) Alley of KuanZhai Alleys
Zhai (Narrow) Alley
I don't think she is model because she ain't that pretty but look at the amount of photographers she attracted
Blown up candy
So many brands of ciggarates
Chengdu's 三大炮 (3 big cannons)
Police, the car reminds me of Japanese police cars
McD, its real
MaLat Hot Pot
Chengdu's Lowyat aka ShuMaGuangChang
Street food : Fried stuff, the pork satay is DELICIOUS!!!
Street food : Fried potato
Jinli Street
3 kingdoms
Traditional building designs at Jinli Street, I love them
Zhang Fei beef
A souvenir from my host

My Bangkok experience : Do and Don'ts

Although it was not my first time in Thailand but I don't remember it being so difficult to communicate or wanting to go somewhere not to mention expensive. Well the expensive part would most likely be partly due to the fact that I was travelling alone in metered taxis but its really true that you won't want to trust a tuk-tuk =_=

Do :

- Try to at least have basic conversation notes in Thai, my notes was mostly based on numbers for shopping purposes but it was not really enough
- Insist on taking metered taxis because tuk-tuk although seems to be a cheaper alternative might charge you more expensive ...
- Always have a map and there are plenty of free maps starting from the ones you can get from the airport :)
- Tolled roads are usually the better option but if possible have your GPS with you
- Try to bargain on the price of the item(s) which you want to buy, check out Platinum mall and Pratunam mall
- Try to get your budget hotel to be nearer to a BTS station OR live in the area which you want to go around eg Pratunam for all the shopping malls
- Bring a fan to cool you down when you do your exploring, especially Chatuchak
- Try out the foods which are native to Thailand eg tomyamgung, pad thai, pork satays and etc :p
- Eat out at your convenient roadside stalls to get the real tastes of Thailand
- Have a good knowledge of the prices of the items which you think might be cheaper in Thailand as compared to your home country because some places, the prices are more expensive eg authentic Nike jerseys

Don't :

- Believe 100% what your taxi driver tells you
- Forget your sunblock!
- Be ashamed to ask your hotel attendants to help you explain to the taxi driver where you want to go
- Need to go Khao San Road
- Go up to the second floors of ANY show places in Patpong, you are guaranteed to be a lamb ie slaughtered
- Forget to grab your free water from the hotel before going out
- Expect that all high class hotel staff will understand full English

Well basically that is a summary of my experience in my very short stint in Bangkok. I would really love to go back again BUT this time, hopefully much better prepared.

Bangkok : Fast, furious and spicy

Warning : VERY long post ahead.

2 weeks just before Raya, I was informed that I will be given the opportunity to go to Bangkok to attend a conference by a vendor. The conference will gather customers, distributers and collaborative vendors from Asia to showcase their products and offerings. That's the good news. The bad news is that the travel date falls on Raya week and I will be going with 2 Malay colleagues and eating logistics was ... sigh have to find halal where possible. Oh well, a free trip is a free so I won't give too much crap.

Thinking ahead, I planned to extend my stay because the conference was on Thursday and Friday so I might as well stay until Sunday. I made my hotel bookings searching for the one of the cheapest hotel and on Google Map looks quite close to the shopping malls. I have heard a lot from my friends that Bangkok is a shopping haven and I do like a little shopping.

I flew in on the 31st and as expected the rest of the participants were non-Muslims. The vendor who was accompanying us have a presence in Bangkok and therefore their counterpart arranged the transport to the hotel. The first thing you will notice in Bangkok is the way MOST people drive. It gives a whole new meaning to fast and furious, the van that was bringing me to the hotel was going 130kmph almost all the way to the hotel slowed down only by the tolls and traffic lights. Other Toyotas were zipping us by like were not over 100kmph =_=|||

The first evening was like a registration cum cocktail reception and most people were in a relaxed state and your's truly went to the registration counter wearing bermudas and slippers :p All's well because they did not specify the attire anyways and we grabbed some finger food and ate quite lightly because we were told that we will be going out to try the local food and of course to check out the highlights of the city.

Initially we were told that we would be going to have dinner on a boat but we were all gathered, our host informed us that the restaurant have already closed and it was only 9pm local time (Thai time is 1 hour behind Malaysia time). It was quite disappointing and since my colleague have been harping to go visit Patpong since the day he was told that he would be going and that was where we went >_< After another super fast taxi ride, we made a pass into Patpong all the way to the end and to me it felt like Petaling Street but the shops are all about pole dancing bars and pubs. We had our so called dinner nearby before heading back to check out the notorious second floor and its shows.

However from my research before going there, Patpong is not a place where you want to go and see those kind of shows because they are littered with scams. My host fell for it and although the shows were an eye opener to all, the bill was a complete shocker to my host. Vendors being vendors especially those who are good at negotiating managed to bring the bill down to a more manageable figure but still it did set them back quite a bit and to make it worst, the owner of that place refused to give them a receipt meaning to say they cannot claim!

On the second day after the conference ie the last night for many guests, we did get our dinner on a river cruise. The food was so so but the view is actually quite good although it did drizzle a little but avid photographers, myself included did not let the rain bother us from taking the pictures of lighted structures on the riverbank. After dinner, we were suggested to visit a disco which was supposed to be famous but to me it was quite a sorry place to spend the night. The supposed shows features girls and guys who would strip down to their underwear but the girls were wearing skin colored under underwears =_=

On the third day, my colleagues went off earlier to do their shopping of which this would be their last chance. I stayed on at the conference hoping to win lucky draws again :p Unfortunately, the Ipad2s were won by other participants but the last draw was totally unfair because I was still in one of the sessions and they did not wait for us ... 2 vendors and another participant extended our stay and we went on our own adventure after bidding farewell to the others.

We went to Khao San road after reading much about it telling us that there were a lot of things sold there and the expectation was quite high BUT it was a major letdown. Nothing worth buying nor spend too much time on. We had our dinner and an extremely nice coconut water each before heading to another recommended club. This place I like, the idea of the place is superb and if I have the opportunity, I would extrapolate on this concept in KL. This place was MUCH better and there were many many Thai girls to "wash eye" :p

On the fourth day, I was alone because I booked my hotel myself and it was quite a distance away from the rest. It did not matter because the place I wanted to go they were not so interested in. I woke up quite early had my breakfast and immediately set out to Muang Boran aka Ancient City located in the outskirts of Bangkok about 35km away.

The signs leading to the place was not fanciful and most people would pass it by without much thought BUT I can vouch that they really made a bad decision not to visit this place. I have read the warnings before deciding to go there when I was researching and I was somewhat prepared but it was still not enough by the end of my visit there. I had with me just 2 bottles of water ie 1 liter and a shirt for change when I leave the place. Good idea on the shirt but bad idea on the water, my advice is to carry as much water as you can carry because you will need it! I spent 5 hours there and drank 2 liters but I was totally dehydrated just visiting over 60% of all the exhibits. I carried on as much as I could until my camera's went flat and that broke me but I still went on but with much lesser enthusiasm because taking pictures with my phone was downright poor quality. Make sure your camera battery is at 100% or have a spare batteries, bring as much water as you can, bring a shirt for change and the most important is to apply loads of sunblock!

I was glowing red by the time I reached the exit and only buying some food to bring back. The taxi ride back was a killer, it cost the same as the entrace fee of 400B ... whereas my trip there only took set me back 300B. I went to the shopping district to meet up with my hosts and also to collect my colleague's custom made suit. The shopping malls did not differ much from the malls in KL and the prices are higher so I totally lost interest at wanting to shop there. I went to a mall which supposedly does wholesale and the prices there were more acceptable but some of the items are still quite highly priced.

After meeting up with my hosts, we had dinner by the roadside after a sudden thunderstorm and a light flashflood. The 2 of them ordered quite a number of dishes and in the end we all ate until we were full. Tomyam, shabu shabu (Thai style), siham and a big grilled fish. I was too exhausted to follow them for another round of massage because I have been too tired from all the cycling in the morning and walking around in the shopping malls. We decided on some plans tomorrow to meet up and go to the airport together despite having different flight times to save on travel cost.

The final day, I went to drop off my bag at their hotel before we go on our final excursion. I made a bad decision to walk from their hotel to the shopping malls (about 2 BTS stations away) only to find that the shopping malls have not open for business. Realizing that I quickly changed my plans and went to Chatuchak. I was quite ready for what I was about to enter but I was totally taken aback by my daunting task of finding my way around the place. I have exhausted my water supply within the hour of my exploring. In the end I just bought some shirts for my son and a jersey for myself :D

Before I left there to join up with my hosts, I bought an iced chrysanthemum tea to help cool me down. I used the bottle to help cool my face which was still red hot from my previous day adventures. Overall I would say that Im satisfied with what I bought and seen BUT given another chance, I would definitely want to finish checking out Muang Boran and the other shopping malls.

Hotel during the conference

3 lanes also jam ...

BN/PAS coalition

Bacon for breakfast

River facing sign

Buffet dinner on river cruise

Some bridge seen during the river cruise

Some say it looks like the Eiffel Tower

Our river cruise ride

My only massage session :(

Kruk, kruk, kruk

Pasar malam pad thai @ Khao San Road

Sweet coconut

Giant sized apple flavoured alcohol @ RCA

Dance floor @ RCA

The concert-feel side of RCA

Even outside is jam packed!

Muang Boran

Special packaging for Muang Boran waters

Ingenius way to carry your iced coffee

I want to win a MU bike!

BTS ticket with map

Hello? Hello???

Samurai Pork Burger

Jackie Chan loafing in Bangkok

My loot to bring back home