I guess there is always something to update when it comes to The World by Road… finding the time and some internet is the key I guess. We have been in Thailand for about a week now and are currently in Phuket. We head north tomorrow and hope to make our way to Bangkok in the next 3 or 4 days depending on whether or not we stop and visit a few recommended places and shoot some stories along the way. We are really looking forward to Bangkok because we may also have the opportunity to meet one of the major inspirations for our trip: Harold Stephens – author of Who Needs a Road?
We are smack in the middle of the rainy season in Thailand and as as I type, it is, well, pouring down rain. We were going to try and dive out on Phi Phi Island, but the weather forecast calls for an 80% chance for thunderstorms for the next several days which does not make for very good visibility underwater. The rain is pretty intense at times and the thunder extremely loud… loud enough to set off the alarms on the trucks at inopportune times such as 4 am. I guess the silver lining in the dark thunder cloud is that the alarms still work.
We have also been traveling with a few other people for a while. We met Steve and Callie in Malaysia and they have been with us for about a week. Steve and Callie are from the UK and are spending time in SE Asia before making their way down to Australia to work for a year. Also joining in on the expedition is Chad, who we met in Railay Beach a few days ago. Chad joins us from Ft. Collins, Colorado and has been in SE Asia for about 3 months. Chad is going to ride with us for the next few weeks before he flies to London to work on his Sommelier certificate.
In other news, we think we have finally cracked through the barrier of getting into China. We found a reputable individual who claims he can get us in for about $155,000 less than we were first quoted! The process is still going to take as much as 2 months, but hopefully we can also manage to expedite the approval process. Experiences like this are definitely few and far between. I never would have imagined myself calling $5,900 for 3 weeks a bargain and then trying to deposit it into a Chinese bank account! However, in true around the world expedition form, Shoppman and I were up late last night looking at maps of Central Asia and Eastern Europe trying to see where we might be able to make up time since it seems we have some to kill here in SE Asia before we get into China.
All is well here and we hope the same can be said wherever you may be reading this from.
