We’ve Got to Leave MALAYSIA but our UK Van’s DENIED Entry

We’ve Got to Leave MALAYSIA but our UK Van’s DENIED Entry

They said they only allow vehicles  from Malaysia and Singapore, any other vehicles need to be registered  with the Department of Transport   we can’t go back into Malaysia  and we can’t go forward, we’re Stuck!! During our four year around the world Drive, we’ve driven across lots of borders in our UK Camp van Trudy,

And the reality is that they don’t always go smoothly …. So we’re not leaving Georgia!! But the process of getting Trudy into Thailand has proven to be the most challenging and stressful so far. There will be obstacles, there will be doubters, there will be mistakes, but with hard work there are no limits – Michael Phelps

Good morning welcome back to our  hotel room here in Penang, it’s looking a little bit grey today, but this morning we’re jumping into a Grab, we’re heading across to Georgetown, because we’re going to  go and see a Thai Visa company,

To try and get an extension for Thailand, normally you  can get 30 days without a Visa, but we got to time it so that we can get into China  in April, so yeah we need at least 60 days! Banana Thai Visa service.

Okay the good news is that it’s doable, 60 days – so we’ve got a checklist of stuff we’ve got to do, booking flights there, booking accommodation, and then we’re going to come back tomorrow to fill out the paperwork, and then the next day he’ll take us to the Thai Embassy to hopefully get the visa,

So it’s looking hopeful, 60 days is looking hopeful, which is which is a big relief! Good morning, we’re up bright and early this morning we’re heading to the Thai Embassy to have the interview to apply for our extended Thai visa, it’s not even light yet it’s quarter past 7 in  the morning,

So yeah yesterday we had to drop off our passports and everything to the Visa agent, and we had to also book return flights to Thailand just for proof  that we were leaving, oh there is our grab, there you go that’s good timing !

And we also had to um book a hotel for the duration 60 days, it hasn’t been the best couple of days Marianne had been feeling very ill, but insisted going to the appointment as we only had a week left on our Malayan visa, and she was Keen to just ‘get it done’,

So she forced herself out of bed! Bright and early and there is still a queue! It is a popular place! Morning, morning. You do not have long pants? No, maybe we can get one for you. I put on a smart coloured shirt, but kept the shorts on as it was so hot,

This is when the day took a turn for the worse ….. Marianne said she didn’t feel well, and before I knew it she actually fainted! luckily I managed to grab her and stop her from hurting herself as she landed on the pavement, in just a couple of seconds everything changed,

My mind raced – what was wrong? was it the Heat or something worse? Should I call an ambulance? Are you okay? the Visa agent that we used  was an absolute Legend! He got an air con mini bus, and we put Marianne inside to cool down and relax.

She insisted she was okay and that I should carry on with the VISA, one of his colleagues brought me  a long pair of trousers and he arranged for me to go into the visa center first, they even allowed  me to do the application for both of us without Marianne being there.

A short while later we were all done and Marianne was soon back in the hotel relaxing. Okay so it all goes according to plan we  should be getting our passports back today. The guys from the Banana agency put them on a grab  motorbike and sent them to the hotel.

So I’m just waiting and then fingers crossed the Visa is in  there and it’s been approved! Okay that looks like it …. thank you very much, thank you! We got the passports back! Have we? I haven’t looked in them yet! You’re feeling a bit better today? I’m feeling a lot better today!

You look a million and one times better than you did lying on the pavement yesterday! Yes – yeah note yourself don’t push yourself in the Heat and let your blood pressure drop! Yeah but you’re feeling good…. I am !

Okay, let me check, are you going to check? I’m checking….. so it’s like Christmas! it is like this is Christmas time! Christmas for us is did we get the Thai Visa! OOOOwwww visas! visas, yes! yes – did they give us 60 days?

March 2024 that’s valid from that’s we can  go in until March 2024, amazing so hopefully now, they give us Trudys permission for 60 days. Good job! They might! We’re ready for Thailand – yay! Well good morning, today is an exciting day because today we are leaving this wonderful Hotel the Olive Tree here in Penang,

And we’re heading to Thailand! How you feeling Marianne? My stomach is making the  same noises as this bottle! They’ve got little individual water bottles in the room  to save you’re using plastic bottles, which we love! but yeah we’re heading to Thailand! So we need to go and check out!

Right let’s hit the road! Turn right at the lights. It is a nice day today, it’s  not too hot, the sun isn’t blasting! and we saved it till after rush hour so the road should be okay this morning, the drive up to the border is just over 2 hours,

We’re going to stop at the town just before the border to try and get the Thai insurance for Trudy, and fill up with fuel because it’s cheaper in Malaysia, I always feel a bit nervous when we have to cross a border  you never really know how it will go,

One thing I do know is it doesn’t usually go as smoothly as  we’d like! that’s a seriously impressive looking bridge, and that is the bridge that’s taking us out of Penang and back out onto the mainland for those of you in Penang,

Waiting for Penang videos – we’re sorry we ended up getting sick and yeah these things happen on the road and sometimes you  have to change your schedule, and we couldn’t stay on because our permits for Trudy are running out here in Malaysia,

So we have to leave and we were planning to do a meet up in Penang, so to all of those of you we apologise! It is it is just one of those things…. You know what that means?! We have to come back! Yes we have to come back!

We have got a great morning view of George Town over there at the end of Penang. Thailand’s up this way! It’s always a little bit nerve-wracking doing a border crossing, because you’re never quite sure  what to expect.

You do your research, get your paperwork ready, have a plan of action and sometimes when you get to the Border, it doesn’t quite go according to plan! So fingers crossed all goes according to plan today and we can get into Thailand, because it’s critical for our drive home.

I can’t believe our time in Malaysia has gone by so quickly, it’s been absolutely amazing, and it’s a country we truly love Malaysia. So yeah we will definitely be back in the future, maybe we’ll even do a little Tread the Globe trip here, what you reckon?

Anybody want to come on a trip with us to Malaysia?  Maybe we’ll head over to Borneo? I think that could be a very cool trip, let us know in the comments if that sounds good! I don’t know what it is this morning but all  the fields and the grass,

It looks like over over green it looks like it’s  being photoshopped!! It does! I’m not sure whether that’s because it’s rainy season, but it’s definitely very very lush We’d heard that there was a a few places in  the town just before the border to get the insurance for Thailand,

And just driving along  we’ve passed quite a few Insurance for Thailand, so they’re definitely not short of places. We’ll stop when we fill up with fuel at the next town, we’ll wander around and find one of those. It’s interesting it says compulsory and voluntary tm2 tm3 white  card and SIM card….?

What is that? I don’t know, we’ll find out! Okay this is the last Town before the border, and fuel station’s going to be the first stop. Okay we’re all refuelled, topped up, ready for Thailand, and now let’s find an insurance company hopefully it shouldn’t be long, I can see a sign already there,

Insurance Thailand. So it seems to be a little bit more  complicated than we thought, because they having trouble getting the British number plate into the insurance system, they said Singapore and Main numbers no problem but the British number is proving a little bit difficult… Okay I expected some confusion at the border,

But not trying to get insurance?! That should be the easy part, but as we say… it is, what it is! There’s nothing we can do other than wait. and we did… for over half an hour, one of the ladies was on the phone to the main  company in Bangkok,

Hold on I think she’s got an answer !! Okay, so to cut a long story short, they said that they can’t do it, because the number plate won’t go into the system….

So they’ve given us also some other forms a T1 and a T2 form, which we had to pay for 14 ringgit, which is more paperwork even though we got the Thai Visa,

We need that as well, so they’ve done that for us they said we might be able to get insurance on the Thai border as we go through. I think that’s the plan, I think that’s what we have to do, so we probably need to get some Thai money,

In case we have to pay …. it is there! We headed into a nearby currency exchange office, oh, it looks like they also do insurance! Okay so we’re trying again, we’ve come to another insurance desk (attempt no 2) just to verify, make sure to see if they have the  same problem.

Yeah there’s a very relaxed attitude it’s like yeah you should be able to get it  over the Border, but we’re not very good at we’re not very good at – should, could have, maybe! So we’re going to go for it and we’ll probably just keep asking a few more, but these ladies seem very positive!

Got to try….. keep trying! It’s looking very hopeful! okay hopeful They’re not panicking yet! We nervously waited for news… there you go – yay! We got the insurance – they get a sticker! Amazing, success !

That shows you you should always try twice, and I think we should probably have stop here and have a little bit of lunch before we leave. Borders Gateway Services, what a release, I could cry I feel  so relieved now.

I have to be honest, when they said we can’t do it, we just looked at each other and just thought well what the hell are we going to do now ?

And we came here because there’s a money changer, and we thought we would just try going over the Border because you could  probably buy it there somewhere! But then this office managed to do it, so we’re having a pork rice, and a chicken rice before we attempt the border crossing,

Just to refuel ourselves, because they can take a while sometimes, I mean I think it took us about an hour and a half to get the insurance, some things are just meant to be, yeah, reflecting on this situation we’ve realised  that the insurance that we were trying to buy,

Or we were told to buy at the first office, was for a car, not a van and it’s only here when they said oh no it’s actually a little bit more because you you’re driving a van aren’t you? not a car? and we said yes, so yeah it was very lucky,

Because we would have driven out of Malaysia into Thailand and realised that yeah we needed to go and get more insurance! Oh thank you very much! thank you! chicken rice,  pork rice, amazing and chilli sauce! Okay, I think we’re ready,

I don’t think we can get any more organised, so fingers crossed, we’re all good so the Thai border is just a few miles away, so let’s hope that all of that planning is actually going to work out okay. I’m sure there’ll be something else  that happens!

I think we’re in good shape, but keep your fingers crossed! so yeah this is also going to be the first border crossing we’ve done in Southeast Asia without an agent assisting us,

To do the carnet part – so we have to make sure that we stamp the caret out of Malaysia, before we get into Thailand, otherwise we will have a big problem, because we won’t get our carnet money back!

And just in case you don’t know what a carnet de passage is, it’s a bit of paperwork that acts as your sort of temporary  import when you go into certain countries, it’s not required in every country, but shipping into Malaysia it was required,

It shouldn’t be needed to go into Thailand but you got to make sure if you’re stamped in that you get Stamped Out! Okay it’s time, fingers crossed this goes smoothly, we are very nearly at the border see you again bon voyage it says on the bridge!

So here we go 500 M  and we’re there, so now we need to find the customs office… so it should be by the border. Vans and cars on the right it said. Okay, that was good! 10 minutes later we are Stamped Out of Malaysia! Well Trudy is Stamped Out of Malaysia!

We’re just going to go through the passport control,  so camera’s off and we’ll see you on the other side! Okay we’re out of Malaysia that was pretty  smooth so now the first thing is we need to go through immigration to get into Thailand, then we need to find where we do the car….

That is the Thai Border there. I think this might be a disaster  the corner to get round to the immigration is very very tight! I don’t know why they told us to come this way, because I’m not sure we’re going to get through that corner? well we’re not! Marianne it’s a bit tight!

We were right we couldn’t get around the corner, luckily a very nice officer moved the bollards for us, stopped the traffic, and let us go all the way to the end Booth, so we  could turn!

Two Hours Earlier – So we probably need to get some Thai money in case we have to pay. But we didn’t and  as I looked ahead we could see the car in front paying a fee! We got to the window and another  officer was so kind he said he’d waive the fee,

And welcome to Thailand! Okay we’re stamped in for 60 days into Thailand, and now we need to go and try and get Trudy stamped in. Just park up here then we go into the building. Half an hour later… Okay the drama continues, so we queued up  at the Customs,

Handed them the paperwork and they said they only allow vehicles from Malaysia and Singapore, and that any other vehicles need to be registered with the Department of Transport! So they’ve given us a phone number, so now we’ll give them a call, and really I have no idea what happening but we’re just going with it!

Marianne tried to call numerous times but there  was no answer … so it’s Friday and we think maybe the office is closed already because they’re not answering, so we’ve got a hotel booked about 1 km down the road, but I’m not sure what  we’re going to do,

Because we can’t go back into Malaysia and we can’t go forward …. we’re stuck! We kept on trying but there was still no answer okay – update, it’s actually a holiday on Monday as well, and it’s Friday today, so we can’t even call the Ministry of Transport until Tuesday,

And then he said it takes a minimum of a week to get approval, so they’ve given us permission and taken our number plate and said we can drive to the hotel which is literally just down the  road, we can leave the van at the hotel,

But we won’t be able to go out and trudy, we just have to leave her parked there, so it looks like we’re staying in this border Town for at least 10 days! Let’s hope it’s a nice hotel?! I’m going to try one more time! I did book a really nice hotel … good job!

Last attempt ! I wonder if you can help me I’ve just arrived in Thailand, and I have a British van, and it seems I don’t have the right paperwork to enter, I don’t have the permissions … so the lovely Customs agency guy has just given me your phone number to call, I’m at Dannok border.

Yes of course, perfect, thank you very much! okay. Oh my goodness, okay, I’m doing it now, I’m doing it now! ha ha He said add me on Whatsapp now, he said he will send you the details of your options, he says but we’re about to go into a 5-day holiday…

Okay so Marianne’s just sending him pictures of  the van, and then we’ll see what options we have and hopefully we can get that started today, so at least maybe in a week’s time, we should be able to hit the road, it really isn’t easy, you live and learn – so yeah rookie mistake !

Okay…… $500 US Dollars? the agent here actually said if we go to the  hotel with the van he’s happy for the van to stay at the hotel,

If we take it to the hotel and just don’t move it because it’s 750 m away, so can we just do the $500 thing and we’ll just wait at the at the hotel? can we do that? because $800 is a lot of money!

What? and I can’t go back to Malaysia today because I have just come out with the carnet and it’s illegal to do that. I would have to wait here and then go back tomorrow, okay so the options we have,

Let me just tell my husband because he is here, the options we have are, if we wait 10 days it’s $500, if we want to do it today then it’s $800 …… but we have to go to another border ?

No I don’t want to go to another border, we’ll wait 10 days and we’ll do it here, Okay now we have the challenge of trying to get out of the car park as we’re boxed in! Ah luckily the car in front pulled out but that’s still looking very tight for Trudy,

Oh that car, I can’t move because of that car! this isn’t great! We’ve Ended up blocking the main flow of traffic coming over the border. That car there, you won’t get round love! I know, he hasn’t even parked by the pavement

It’s not even by the pavement! you won’t get around there, will you? no, how much space you got on your side? i’ve got no space on my side…. Do we know who that car is? is that yours? I have just horned, so people are starting to stop and look now!

Oh he’s telling you to go….. you are not going to get out… it’s all right that that car’s moving! oh they are in it! oh he’s coming no they’re going … ah okay okay you got space now thank you it just feels so different already,

Oh my goodness, oh it’s there! it’s that tall Hotel there! Which one there’s lots? oh yeah that one the tall one at the back? Yeah.  Welcome to Thailand, it’s a nice looking Hotel … oh there’s a motor home! Oh my goodness, that’s massive! isn’t it got bathtub ! my goodness we’re in Thailand!

We actually made it, Trudy’s only just made it! If you’re going to  have to stay here for up to 10 days, at least we’ve got a nice big room to do it in, Crazy! That evening we found a local bar,

Despite Marianne finding a Mojito, I have a feeling that the  next two weeks will will be a little bit frustrating. We got it! But the question is are the Border  guards going to actually accept it now, and sign us in? Okay let’s have a look,

Yes it’s looking good, now let’s just hope that the custom office accepts it and stamps Trudy in! Today is the day, after waiting here  for so long we’re heading back to the border to see if we can finally get Trudy stamped in, and legal to explore Thailand.

Even though it’s quite  early in the morning it’s still warm, so this is the town that  we’ve been been staying in, called Dannok, I think it’s about 700 M to the crossing and we’ve decided to walk this morning because to get back into Customs,

We have to sort of go in the out, if that makes sense, so we just thought we’d leave Trudy and  we walk as they don’t need to see the van,

We just need to try and get our temporary import stamped, this is where I’ve been doing our washing, because obviously whilst we’ve been here, I’ve used the time to go to the laundry! All the trucks going to the Border, all these  eateries all the way down the side of the road.  

It’s an interesting place to come into Thailand, border towns always have kind of a unique feel about them, We’re nearly there, all those questions  of what if, start flooding into to my head, I have to keep saying to myself there’s no point in  worrying or thinking like that, until we’ve heard custom’s decision.

That’s wasted energy, although sometimes that’s easier said than done! that’s a cool motorbike. Okay we’re at the entrance so camera’s off, and hopefully next time you see  us we should have Trudy stamped in! Great news, after all that wait, Trudy is signed in! it’s done, we’re now ready to go explore Thailand

We have no choice but to leave Malaysia but entering Thailand didn’t go smoothly and our UK Van is denied entry.

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Travel vlog 628 | Filmed Dec 2023 | Malaysia | Country 37/197

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