CAITA Day 3&4 Hadyai - Bangkok

Day 3 16th Oct. Hatyai - Bangkok

Today our destination is Bangkok City 900+km away

We started the journey at 705am. Getting out of Hatyai was a breeze during the early hours. Very soon, we settled at the highway speed of 110km/h
Let me describe the comms system we have in our 2 SIN cars. Firstly, we have the MINI VHF sets, by courtesy of Dr Nick for the loan of his VHF (VHH), from Stan Lee, we have his remote mike, and from Audrey we have her remote mike and external antenna. The second system is by courtesy of Capt McCully for the loan of his Vertex UHF (UHH). The convoy leader loan us their UHF (CHH) to communicate between the convoy leader and ourselves. What we didn’t realised was the main system for the convoy was VHF system, which was informed to me when I inquired this morning. I managed to tune our VHF and the air was abuzz with exciting quiz, riddles, singing, etc. With this frequency opened to us, we were immediately introduced to everyone on the air. What fun! Leslie’s father who initially was shy to speak, very quickly warmed up to the occasion by telling his life story. We had a bit of history about how he became an orphan after his parents were taken away by the Japanese army and executed.
With the buzzing on the air, we soon passed Phatterlung on Highway 4 and stopped for refuel 258km after leaving Hatyai. Here we took in 24.46litres. The convoy”s range was limited by the accompanying mini bus which can reach 300km. This gave everyone an opportunity to rest every 2 to 3hrs of driving. – Good safety feature
Next stop was at 296km later. We loaded 42.03 liters. At this filling station, we took our package lunch. Not sounding unappreciative, we had to discard our fried rice as it started to smell bad. We had our fruits for lunch. A small commotion happened here- A large centipede felled from the hot tin roof onto the table next to us. Everyone scrambled. I will show the pictures when I return
Next refueling point was near Hua Hin after 254km. Here we used 26.71 litres.
We reached our BKK Royal Waterfront Hotel at 7pm making it a total travel time of 12hours. Mr Roger Chang met us at the hotel and treated us to a very nice seafood dinner.

Day 4 17th Oct. Free Day - SSW Factory Tour

Today, the program is free and easy. Most of the guys chose city tour, but we had different plans: Mr. Roger Chang, CEO of Stamford Sports Wheels (SSW), also one of our sponsors for this trip, brought us for a factory visit. Here we learnt about how alloy wheels are made, how quality assurance is built into the process of manufacturing. SSW makes wheels from 15 to 20 inches diameter for export. We saw different destructive tests carried out and was informed SSW is being exported to 36 countries

After lunch, we visited MBK for a bit of shopping and massage. After our facial done, I told Harold his face looked cleaner and fairer as a result. :-)

We were treated to a sumptuous dinner hosted by Leslie’s father in law, who is also in our team.

Tomorrow, our destination is Cambodia, Siem Reap, and 300km from BKK, which we planned to start at 6am.

Cheers
William & Harold