On Jun 24, 2017 (Saturday), we (my family and I) leaved for Thailand at 3.30a.m. early morning. It's actually a road trip planned by my dad's brother (my uncle). The journey heading to Malaysia-Thailand border was so dark outside. At around 5.30a.m., we stopped to get our immigration forms prepared (by locals). While waiting, that's the time we got to know there's 2 other family (my uncle's friend) who joined us on this trip. We then continued our journey to Malaysia-Thailand border (Padang Besar).
At custom immigration checkpoint, the queue took us 1 hour as there's ONLY 2 officer on duty. We got to know each other more. When everyone (12 of us) is ready, we continued our way. 3 Ford Ranger all in line and all 3 drivers communicate using walkie- talkie (you gotta be so cool!). Just about an hour of drive, we stopped for 大同雞飯, chicken rice as breakfast. And I managed to buy a Thai SIM card (300 baht) for me to connect to the world. I would say it's really worth buying as it provides 4G unlimited data for 7 days!
Then the road journey continue. We had lunch break at MK Restaurant, Tesco Lotus. After lunch, we were all ready for the long journey again. On the road, we saw a convoy of Penang 4x4 Club. They were in huge group (more than 50 cars).
On the way to our destination, we had few bio break. We love the Thai gas station, to be specific the one with a tear-drop like logo. The tear-drop like logo is blue in colour with a red core. At almost every of the gas station (tear-drop) along the highway, there's 7-Eleven, Amazon Cafe and stalls selling fruits and local foods. 7-Eleven is the place we got to hunt for foods and drinks. Amazon Iced Coffee is a MUST try and 7-Eleven's chicken burger is unexpectedly good.
After about 14 hours on road, we finally reached Sweet Palm Resort, Chumphon. Once done checked-in, we spend some time in the pool. The environment of the resort is good and clean. Nonetheless, they provides FREE Wi-Fi and a parking lot for each unit.
7.30p.m., we went for dinner at a seafood restaurant nearby (it's actually about 10km away). Tho we faced some challenges in communicating in Thai, we managed to order the dish we want, Thai black pepper squid, horseshoe crab, fried rice, tom yam kung and others. The Thai black pepper squid is good and we even ordered again. Tom yam is good too just that few found it too spicy. This is my very first time tasting the horseshoe crab's eggs and it's simply not my cup of tea. After dinner, we headed back to resort. It's 11.20p.m., good night!
