Description
Episode three of several unreleased episodes from our adventures from South Western Australia to Northern Scotland by road between 2017 and 2021. Released at the time to our very supportive Patreon community; now for all to view as shot and edited in the back of the Troopy was back then, hopefully filling in a few gaps in the journey. The rest of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and China to come! Cheers
2018:
Leaving the southern part of Thailand behind us, we start driving north to Bangkok. Normally we like to steer clear of cities as the Troopy is definitely more of an open road kind of car and camping in a city can be a little challenging.
So our plan was to get in and out of Bangkok in one afternoon as well as make a successful purchase of hiking boots. A few months ago we decided that we'd like to spend about a month hiking in Nepal and as such needed to get a good pair of boots beforehand that we could wear in. We searched high and low in KL though all of the boots which we found were either not suitable or too small. Mark managed to find a chain of shops in Bangkok and after driving around to a few of them we both had luck!
Surprisingly, driving in Bangkok was a lot easier than what we'd anticipated. The roads are stacked 4 highways high and everywhere you looked there were new roads being built. We ended up leaving Bangkok at about 8pm to miss the peak hour traffic and within no time we were flying out of the city on a flyover which seemed to go forever!
Mark found a lake about 1.5 hours southeast of Bangkok which was good for a 1 night stopover on the way to a small island called Koh Chang.
The ferry to Koh Chang leaves every 45 mins and takes about half an hour. Once on the island we found a great place to park up with the beach right at our doorstep; looking the other way was the Jurassic Park-like mountainous interior.
Unfortunately the weather really wasn't on our side for our time on Koh Chang. With a serious case of cabin fever coming on and no sign of the weather easing we went for a drive to the eastern side of the island hoping to find somewhere more promising. It was not to be though. Maybe next time!
Koh Chang was our last stop in Thailand before we cross over to Cambodia. The nearest border from Koh Chang is about 2 hours drive. When we arrived the Thai side tried to charge us 4000 baht (AUD $180) for not having a form to give to the guy at the gate. They couldn't show us on official paperwork where it stated the fine amount so we decided just to leave and go to the next border!
Thanks for watching! Catch the next episode to find out how the border crossing went before we explore Cambodia!