ONE WEEK TO D-DAY

1. This time next week Sunny and I would spend our first night on the road, possibly at Ipoh or Taiping in Perak, the start of our two months ASEAN on Wheels journey to the Indochina countries, i.e. we are 7 days to D day, 27 Apr 09. This week will be an intense week as we finish the preparation for the trip.

2. After 2 months of exploring and seeking various approvals, we had decided to scale back on our plan. We decided to drop the Southern China leg of Guangxi and Yunnan, as the cost of approvals and complying with current regulations is very high. Given that our theme is ASEAN on Wheels, we reckoned that the omission is no big loss. We also decided to drop Myanmar as approval (to self drive in Myanmar) is taking a long time. We felt that it may be better to leave it to another trip later.

3. The revised plan now calls for travel to Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, then back to Laos, Thailand etc. All in all, we would have an average of 2 weeks per country, for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam; enough time to explore the country and not having to rush. Given its size, we plan to spend about 3 weeks in Vietnam. When done, we would have travelled about 10, 000 km.

4. As this is a free and easy journey to explore and experience the Indochina countries, we decided that as a rule we do not book in advance hotels and tours. We will look for hotel room when we arrive at city or town that we are planning to stay the night. The hunt is part of the fun. Our budget is S$100 per night, twin-sharing.

5. For reason of safety and to allow us to see as much of the country as possible, we decided that we will only drive in the day; no more than 5-6 hours each day split between two of us. A comfortable pace.

6. Will focus the next postings on seeking the necessary approvals, getting the vehicle ready, and procuring the necessary supplies for the trip. Look out for them.

7. Sunny has also set up a blog to share his thoughts and experiences during the trip - www.2free-n-easy.blogspot.com. Do visit it.

ASEAN On Wheels, Part 1

For my first adventure, I have decided to cover ASEAN by road. For Part 1 of the journey, I will cover the Indochina countries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar, in addition to Malaysia. (See map on left)

I have set aside two months for this journey, May and June. My co-driver of this trip is Sunny Loo, a close friend of mine for 20 years. I am sure we will have lots of fun together. During this trip, I hope to better understand the car (which is really the travel companion), and what it takes to keep it going for thousands of kilometers, week after week.

I hope to complete the ASEAN on Wheels journey by early next year. The challenges will be different, as regular sea transportations will be a key feature for Indonesia and the Philippines. The ASEAN experience will prepare me for longer trips which I hope to make in the future.

I am looking forward to discovering the different places and peoples of ASEAN. When I was at the STB, we worked very closely with all our ASEAN neighbours and we planned tourism campaigns together as well as crafted policies on how we could promote tourism to the ASEAN region.

It wil be nice to explore ASEAN as a traveler this time. I am sure it will give me a
better appreciation of the immense tourism potential of the ASEAN nations and the challenges faced in realising this potential. Hopefully, I can make a small contribution to the promotion of tourism in ASEAN.

I think what’s needed on a road journey are common sense, some knowledge about cars and adequate preparation. It shouldn’t be too hard. More critical, I think, is having the right mindset.

We should expect to encounter problems along the trip. Overcoming the problems is an integral part of the road journey. They allow us to get to know the places and people better, and in process I am sure will enable us to make a few more friends. With the right mindset, problems, while they can be frustrating at times, can also be fun.