Saturday, January 11, 2014
After a birthday skype with Stephen’s mum we left Mae Sot towards Mae Sariang.
About 48kms north of Mae Sot we passed a very extensive Burmese refugee camp. On either side there were army checkpoints. Access to the refugees is kept very much under control.
The road to Mae Sariang was good, at least most of the way. There were however some very potholed sections that slowed us down considerably. At one point half the road was missing! Earlier today we were twice presented with some lovely coffee art. Amazing the nice coffee shops you come across in unexpected locations, like small towns in the middle of nowhere.
As we head north the temperatures are dropping. At last we get to wear long pants and our Sweaters (US) or Jumpers (NZ).
We checked into a lovely spot on the river, relaxed with a few beers and went in search of and found some very yummy Thai food. Being Saturday, the night markets were in full force and the locals were very much out on the streets.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
The big news is that we have decided to join Coen, Marijke, Kuipwagen, Vaughan, Kim and Ivor on a 29 day crossing of China. We will meet in Luang Nam Tha in Northern Laos and cross into Mohanzhen, China. Twentynine days later we will reach Erenhot, China and cross into Southern Mongolia. We are pretty excited about this unexpected development, as China was never really on our radar. We had ruled China out as a possible route very early in our planning, as the cost was rumoured to be in excess of $10,000 USD just for the permits, guides and other government fees. Instead we planned to ship Sterlin around China to Vladivostok via sea container. But as part of a three car convoy, the costs are shared and the convoy provides a higher level of security and safety for the journey. You can find out more about our travel companions from their public websites:
The China trip starts on April 17th, which leaves us just over 3 months in South East Asia. Becuase we need to end in Northern Laos, we re-looked at our route. But first we needed to complete the necessary paperwork to start the ball rolling for China. Apparently it takes about 3 months to arrange the permits for China, so we are leaving this to the last minute (a bit).
Sterlin got a hand wash and then had a photo-shoot. Passport information, photos of us, drivers licenses, car registration, photos of car and other documentation got scanned and sent off to the guide company in China. Stephen got a much needed hair-cut. We updated our route page with the new plan, and before you know it, it was 5 o’clock and time for a beer. We are pretty happy with this decision and celebrated with a few drinks.
Did I ever mention that there are a lot of Europeans travelling in Thailand? Well there are. And many of them are from Belgium and The Netherlands. We got chatting to Bie, a very nice lady from Gent Belgium.
