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Expedition Diary The Last Overland Leg As predicted, Bangkok was a lot of fun. Having presented ourselves at the British Embassy looking for a Land Rover dealership, we were promptly invited to their ’70s party that night which was hilarious. The next night saw a slightly more somber crew celebrating at their New Year party where we were asked to performed our party piece, Sam's favourite, 'Sunshine Mountain'! The celebrations continued on the rooftop of the American Embassy apartments where there was not only a fantastic view, but a pool.... uh-oh! Sunday was spent recovering and then picnicking in Lumphini Park where an Orchestra played classical music as the sun went down. The evening was topped off with a few drinks on Khao San road and for some a visit to Bangkok's infamous red light district Pat Pong, just out of curiosity, of course! The next day, we went our separate ways to explore Thailand. Becca and Guy headed for the island of Ko Chang, not far from Bangkok, desperate to soak up some sun. Will and Jax went North to visit friends in Chiang Mai and also managed to squeeze in a Thai Cookery course! The rest stayed in Bangkok enjoying endless Embassy hospitality and also entertaining the press and appearing on National TV! We regrouped on Thursday the 14th for Anna's Birthday. Again the Embassy girls looked after us and led us to the right places for another celebratory night out, our last night before heading South. Before leaving Bangkok, we collected Sandra and Ian of Mantec Expedition Equipment. They helped us to prepare the Land Rovers before we left England, adding extra strong suspension, shock absorbers, under body armour for protection from the rough terrain and a whole load more goodies. After a few weeks in Nairobi they came to visit us to see how we were doing and more importantly how the cars were bearing up! We stayed a night at Cha Am beach, which was pretty and quiet. Ploughing on, we stayed the next night at Surat Thani, then, crossing the Thai/Malaysian border in approximately 20 minutes, we crossed the bridge to Georgetown onto the island of Penang. Georgetown is a lovely city with much old Chinese and British Colonial influences. It seems to be stuck around 50 years behind the rest of the country, and is not nearly as developed. Sandra and Ian stayed with us for a few days, roughing it as far as Penang and, as they only had a short time left, they decided to go on ahead and explore the rain forest in the National Park of Taman Negara searching for wild animals. We had planned to cross over to the beautiful beaches of the East Coast but unfortunately the monsoon was late this year and consequently it was a washout. We decided to stay on the wet side and visit the island of Langkawi with its beautiful beaches and duty free status! Sunbathing and shopping ensued and the team now has more electronic gadgets, sunglasses and watches than they know what to do with or in Noel's case, know how to work! Back on the mainland, the roads are immaculate highways with service stations and shell tiger marts - the going is positively blissful! We reached Kuala Lumpur in around 6 hours and found a little hotel in Chinatown next to yet another night market crammed with fake Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren shirts, Luis Vuitton luggage and Rolex watches. Marvelous Chinese restaurants spilling out onto the street serve fantastically tasty food. We spent a day sightseeing, admiring the view from the top of the telecommunications tower, the 4th highest in the world, visiting Merdeka Square with its pristine cricket ground, mock Tudor Royal Selangor club house and the tallest flag pole in the world. Opposite, the stunning cream and brown colonial court house and library. The Petronas Twin Towers unfortunately has no viewing platform though it was supposedly the highest building in the world for a short space of time. On to Melaka but not until, quite by chance, we pick up a film crew who proceed to film and interview us all day for their Chinese news program. They take us out for lunch and promise to send us a copy of the final article, the only slight problem being that it will be dubbed in Chinese! Having not had much time to explore the 'Malaysia's Most Historical Town' with its red buildings and considerable population of Chinese antique and art shops we collapse into bed to prepare ourselves for the week ahead. Tomorrow, having covered 16,649 miles, we arrive in Singapore our overland conquest completed, to be greeted by press and TV cameras, press conferences, school visits and amazingly a chat show - 'An Evening with Gurmit'! After our week of fame, we will spend a few weeks relaxing and recovering in Indonesia before meeting our precious Pinky and Mutley in Darwin and embarking on the final leg to Sydney. |