Day 3, 02 June 2012 Hua Hin to Phitsanulok Thailand

Total distance 573.6km

Sleepy doggy, serious driver

Lunch

Off road practice session

Kunming!

At last, Phitsanulok before sunset

Refuelling at the end of day

Day 2, 01 June 2012 Surat Thani to Hua Hin, Thailand

Total distance travelled 456.3km

The day started early, well not too early at 0910hrs. Drove straight uneventfully for the most part of the journey. Stopped for a pee break and guess what? FREE WIFI at the petrol station! Our 10mins break turned into 45mins as our internet addiction kicked in.

Hua Hin is closely associated with the Thai royalty. Thailand’s royal family and especially former kings were the first to set this location on the map as the original seashore destination in Thailand. The 5 km long beach itself is pretty and the sea is relatively clean. Besides just sunbathing snorkeling and swimming, it is the place supporting attractions and activities such as golf, spas, caves, peaks, waterfalls, shops, seafood and nearby national parks.

Decided to indulge a bit before the real adventure starts, so we went to local Mediterranean tapas bar run by a British expat, most probably like any other expat in Thailand who got settled down with a local lady.

After dinner, we finally retired to hotel at about 2300hrs.

Beautiful morning drive

My dear friend, you deserve a little splash after a long day...

Coffee break? Lunch break? Nope, this is Wifi break!

Lunch... kao moo kin mai?

Stopping for banana shopping

Smileeee lovely Cher!

On foot for dinner lookout in Hua Hin

Spanish tapas in Hua Hin...

Two gentlemen... One school, the Penang Free School

Day 1, 31 May 2012 Penang Town Hall

Total distance travelled 566.4km

The day started early for us as we made our way to our flag off at the Penang Town Hall, Esplanade. Thanks for the support from Penang Global Tourism, we finally able to hold our own ‘mini press conference’ to raise awareness for our trip and Borneo Child Aid. Do read more on press release articles on the above ‘Press Release’ tab.

Flagged off at 1000hrs, we immediately made our way to the Thai- Malaysian border of Bukit Kayu Hitam. Murphy, Steven’s sailing buddy joined us on his Honda superbike from Singapore.

We had our lunch immediately after we cleared Thai immigration checkpoint in Danok.

After lunch we made for Surat Thani, Thailand and the very hot day turned into showers and then heavy downpours.

We all reached Surat Thani after a couple hours drive and in time before sunset. The local suggested dinner at a seafood restaurant and then lights off for the day. 

What a great end to a long day, and a great start to a great journey.

Press conference at Penang Town Hall attended by all major Malaysian media.

Steven Foong attending to Chinese media

The Old Frees Association Penang

The team

The team with both vehicles and Singapore motorcycle

London... watch out for the Penang plate cars!

31 May 2012 Press Conference and Flag Off

PENANG – LONDON WORLD TOUR FOR CHILDREN

31 May 2012 at Penang Town Hall

We are pleased to inform you that a small group of Penangites, whom are mostly members of the Old Frees Association, will be undertaking a magnanimous feat by driving all the way from Penang to London non-stop in 2months. And along the way, throughout their journey they have committed to help promote Penang. Penang Global Tourism is supporting their endeavor by printing banners, car stickers with Penang words and pictures as well as providing them some souvenirs, posters and brochures for distribution.

The idea of the World Tour For Children expedition was developed by Capt. Steven Foong and his wife Ms Suchin Koay after visiting Shan Children’s Home, in Penang. They then had a desire to find out more about other underprivileged children around the world and concluded that the best way to really discover this is to travel by road.

To make this expedition truly meaningful, the group’s main objective is to help raise awareness and funds for the Borneo Child Aid Society to help give them basic education and a proper chance in life.

In line with this, a press conference followed by a flag-off will be undertaken as follows:

Date:                   31 May 2012, Thursday
Time:                  8.15am
Venue:                Penang Town Hall

Courtesy from Penang Global Tourism

LONDON... Here we come!

Hi family and fellow supporters

Without realizing it, time passes fast and it has been almost 1.5 years since we started our blog and we have been steadily building our followers around the world.

When we first brainchild the idea, many people would not believe that a small group of Penangites will able to perform such feat to drive all the way from Penang to London non-stop in 2months!

Nonetheless, today we have able to group in total 08 Penangites with the assistant from Old Free's Association Penang and Singapore for this amazing trip.

As we progress along the preparation, we received both skeptical and supportive groups of people... nonetheless, through our determination and strong will, we managed to convince several top supporters and sponsors for our trip. They are;

1) Kendall Motor Oil USA
2) Old Frees Association Penang and Singapore
3) Papago GPS Navigator
4) Prima Pearl Toyota Sdn Bhd
5) Penang Global Tourism

Our team managed to organized a dry- run today 18 May 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, in one of our team members house.

The dry- run session was very successful and we able to complete many items from our checklist.

All of us are looking forward for the trip and our sponsors has been very generous in their support.

Thank you everyone for making this trip closer to reality.

Brgds
Steven Foong
Lead

Welcome on board Kendall Motor Oil USA!

Dear team and family

We are proud to announce that our diligent effort to raise awareness on our mission has not come into despair. Since we launch our sponsorship drive, we have received numerous enquiries from various parties e.g. GPS navigator provider, motor oil, telecommunication, motor service centre company, NGO and among others.

As we are gearing up towards our D- Day on 1 June 2012, everyone in our team are feeling very excited especially with the addition of our latest sponsors, Kendall Motor Oil USA.

Part of the ConocoPhillips family of lubricants, Kendall Motor Oil enjoys a dramatic heritage. The Kendall Refining Company was founded in 1881 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, with the goal of refining local Pennsylvania Grade Crude Oil into kerosene, lubricants and greases. With more than 125 years of experience to draw upon, Kendall Motor Oil has led the industry with a number of significant firsts.

We are very proud to have Kendall Motor Oil as part of our team!

Collaboration with Borneo Child Aid Society

Dear family and friends

We are very happy to announce that we finally found the ideal organization that share our passion and effort towards the under privileged children.

World Tour For Children overland trip will work closely with Borneo Child Aid Society Sabah, Malaysia  http://www.borneochildaid.org/ to raise targeted RM100,000 from both corporate and kind Malaysian public during the whole duration of our quest from Penang to London.

I have included the link on this blog that will brings you directly to their donors website.

Again, this amount seems big and I have been receiving push back from certain quarters asking 'What if you do not achieve this target?'

My question to them would be 'What will happen if we do not reach this target?'. Are we going to be prosecuted for not raising enough money?

Many people fails to see that sometimes it is not the results that matters but the FIRST step and effort to make it REAL is the most important.

By taking action from our idea, we have already won half the battle... we did not let OUR dreams faded away and burial inside us. You often hear words like 'I will do it when the times is right' or 'I know it can be done but this is not the right time', but deep inside our heart we know that the only thing that stop us from taking action is SETBACK and afraid of failure.

Questions like 'What if I don't make it? Will my peers laugh at me? Will I be labelled as a failure?'

The answer is NO. There is a vast different between 'I failed' and 'I am a failure'.

This journey from Penang to London is not only an endurance physical test for our members but it is more to strengthen our mentality to cope with failure and push back. With a positive mindset, we will conquer the world!

Finally, we urged and seek the support from all quarters to help us reach our targeted RM100,000 donation by the end of our journey to London.

Your contribution in helping us to create awareness among your network will prove you still have the heart for less fortunate fellow Malaysian... you can break a stick but you never break a bunch of sticks!