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Post by hamzerohafeiro on Jul 6, 2010 12:37:08 GMT 8
YEY! My Hafei and I made it there! ;D Ok actually, I was typing away like crazy just now and then it all dissappeared.
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Post by lostheaven on Jul 6, 2010 12:40:40 GMT 8
lol.. congrats .. glad to know our MinZ can go the distance
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Post by hamzerohafeiro on Jul 6, 2010 13:02:12 GMT 8
5 June, 10pm, JB, then, fill up petrol @shell Tebrau and around 10:30pm, drove towards Kota Tinggi and then to East Coast Highway, stop at Rompin for a late night supper and continue driving the East Coast Highway. Along the way, notice the road esp in Kuantan BRAND NEW, better and WIDER but still no street lights. One thing good is the concrete road divider, so u don't have to worry about oncoming "overtaking" vehicles in ur path/lane.
Stop by a Shell petrol kiosk around 4:30am to take a snooze and woke up around 6:30am. Continue drivng and realise we are in Terengganu. Stop by Merang in Terengganu for breakfast around 8am. Merang is a beautiful small town by the sea. We could see the sea while having breakfast of roti canai sardine and eggs.
Continue driving and then take inland road towards Tanah Merah and Pasir Mas instead of the coastal road and into Pasir Puteh. Reached Rantau Panjang around 11am and the main market place is jam packed with weekend shoppers! Decided not to stop by there but instead to go in to Thailand straight away. Went to Sungai Golok , crossing the bridge where the Thai immigration is. U just park ur car at the side and cross to the road to the other side. Yep the immigration is at one side of the bridge for both Entering and Exiting, just que on the right lane "IN" or "OUT". It was chaotic! The Immigration is still the same small shed since we were last here in 2001! Below the bridge, we can see people in small sampan/boats crossing back & forth illegally!!! Heck u can swim across if u wanna to, cuz it's so narrow.
Anyway, we finally ENTER Sg Golok, Thailand around noon, so that makes our drive there is 14 hrs, incl the 2 hrs nap, 1 hr breakfast and 1 hr supper. So the actual drive is 10 hrs. It's abt 750+km. We stayed in Sg Golok for 4 days, not that it is so great but we were trying to travel further into Thailand but along the road, there's road blocks with soldiers with rifles. Even in Sg Golok, on every other corners, u can see soldiers on guard with rifles. There's also soldiers in land rovers driving around the small town.
Anyway, on our very last day, Hafei had an accident. Hafei knock down a motorcylist on it's right side and before u knew it, we were surrounded by a mob of angry screaming Thais. We parked Hafei to the side of the road then realise the right "eye" light fell off and stuck under the car and was being dragged when we move it to the side of the road to settle things with the motorcyclest. He was not hurt at all and his bike barely look damaged except for a crooked pedal and I think the brakes. Hafei lose one of its "eyes" and suffered a bad dent on it right side above where the right lights should be. Anyway, the mob of angry Thais demanded we paid the motorists a huge compensation, everyone wwas speaking in Thai! Luckily, there was a Mlayasian man who has been living in Sg Golok for 18 years and could speak Thai and became our Translator. Thru him, we manage to bargai at half at what his asking for but we can't fix Hafei cuz it's hard to find a car workshop in Sg Golok, only motorbike workshops r plenty. Anyway, the Malaysia man advised us to take our car into Malaysia to get it fixed and not in Thailand. We went to a nearby hardware store, bought a roll of balck tape and tape the light back to Hafei. Luckily, the lights still working and then checked out of the hotel and went into Kelantan.
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Post by hamzerohafeiro on Jul 6, 2010 13:08:59 GMT 8
FYI, most people here, they stop every few hours of driving when going on a long trip but we never do that ... only stop to eat or to rest ourselves. We even drove our Hafei Minz for more than 10 hrs without stopping! Infact that's what happens on our way back.
Actually we went into Thailand twice for that trip. After Sg Golok, we went around Kelantan, staying and visiting many palces; Kota Bahru, PCB, Sabak Beach/Fishermen Village, Kuala Kerai, Pantai Seri Tujuh, Tumpat and Pengkalan Kubur. The last place, Pengkalan Kubur is hwere we Enter Thailand the second time but this time we have to cross a river by boat or ferry. With Hafei, u can only cross by Ferry and it cost RM5 per car. it cost RM0.60 per pax and FOC for my two kids. Our trip was from 5 June -19 June. It was really great and I wished we had more time! and more Money too!
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Post by lostheaven on Jul 6, 2010 19:00:43 GMT 8
Wow.. glad you had a great time! Anyway, i your hafei totally stock? or did u do any modifications ?
and sorry to hear about the motoring accident but glad you made it back
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Post by fit on Jul 6, 2010 21:12:26 GMT 8
Thanks for the detailed write up hamzero! Enjoyed reading it and very informative.
Its amazing that our hafei can travel that far non-stop! My longest non-stop drive is from Sin to KL around 3.5hrs. Whats more amazing is your trip!
I envy your family's adventurousness.. Perhaps some time you can organize a good road trip like that for the members here. I would love to go!
Sorry to hear about your accident. But glad you are safe especially with thailand being socially unstable and violent as of late.
I have to try the east coast highway on my next trip!
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Post by sadiqsiraj on Jul 6, 2010 22:36:39 GMT 8
salutes to your hafei for making it to thailand, sorry to hear about the accident but thank god nothing serious happened
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Post by fit on Jul 7, 2010 6:46:06 GMT 8
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Post by lostheaven on Jul 7, 2010 9:03:39 GMT 8
Yea... till now we are still planning on our road trip.. haha
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Post by hamzerohafeiro on Aug 2, 2010 12:38:03 GMT 8
hi there boys!
fit, thanks for that link on the couple's trip. actually my dream has always been to travel around the world, hopefully in a 4WD or campervan or even better a 4WD campervan amphibian, yeah it'll cost me bomb! to travel around the world in Hafei can be tough cuz not easy to get spare parts in case something goes wrong. So if anyone want to sponsor, I'll travel around the world 2-4 years! I'm willing to give up my career just to do that. Of course, I have to take my kids along. For me, the problem is finance, so if there's any sponsors out there, travelling or motoring sponsors etc ... a family with two small kids here, willing to 'sacrifice' 1-4 years to travel overland around the world! I am willing to blog abt it or write about it, do fundraising, raise awareness or whatever message they want me to send around the world.
I AM HERE .... is this cheap publicity or what .... he he he he he he
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Post by hamzerohafeiro on Aug 2, 2010 12:39:47 GMT 8
lostheaven, what do u have in mind? go where? how long?
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Post by lostheaven on Aug 2, 2010 16:25:23 GMT 8
We were planning on doing a short trip to malacca in our little MinZ and have a convoy up.. ^^ but responses have been poor
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