Gopeng - Taiping - Gerik #CAMPERVAN MALAYSIA #Vanlife

Hi friends, welcome back to our channel. Today we're sharing part one of our recent campervan travel around Malaysia. We made a loop around Malaysia with Richie and his VW Kombi camper. So the plan was to drive from Gopeng to Taiping. From Taiping we head off to rest stop Titiwangsa, Banjaran Titiwangsa, using the Greek road and then from there we continue on to Kelantan, come down the east coast slightly and then finally back to KL via the Centre Spine road. That would give us about 1250 kilometers of exploring to do. Oh and we had to do this in five days. Sounds fairly simple right? Well it is but as usual things never really go as planned as you will find out in today's video, where we find ourselves in some very very bad weather with no place to camp at the last minute. Day one is usually staying somewhere nearby and familiar, a place where we have been before in order to get ready for the rest of the journey, which is the unknown. This trip as we were heading north we stopped in Gopeng for day one. Upon arriving we locate our camp and as usual we start a campfire and sleep relatively early to get a good night's rest. Morning guys, we are in Gopeng again and usually if we're going north we will always spend one night in Gopeng to break the journey halfway and rest up before we continue on the next day. We're headed to Penang but before Penang we're going to check out Taiping. So Taiping is a place where my parents when they were young they spent their honeymoon in Maxwell Hill. We heard that you can't really drive up Maxwell Hill but there are other areas in Taiping that we can explore so let's check it out. Are you ready to go Bo? Oh nodded, I saw you nod. Hopefully one day when we finally get to drive from Malaysia to UK, we're not going to have access to campsites or access to easy driving highways all the time. This is why when we drive our camper vans locally around Malaysia, we're always making it a point to find no-till roads that pass through small quaint towns and we also do our best to find wild camping spots instead of campsites. When we reached Taiping, the rains were really heavy and we were originally going to find a place to wild camp but then we had to change our plans. So we're heading to Bamboo Resort to check out whether we can stay there. Actually Bamboo Campsite Resort. We're going to ask if we can explore Taiping today but we want to explore tomorrow. Waiting outside the Burmese pool area in Taiping, it's raining like crazy. So far Taiping is really nice. We found Bamboo Resort and campsite in the hills of Taiping. This place is next to the Burmese hot springs. Cross a tiny bridge and keep driving up into the hills until you come to the gates of Bamboo Resort. The owner's name is Andrew and the other person in charge here is Vanessa. Roxy and Beau remained in Mama Bear as we went to tour the premise. This place is spread over 10 acres of land and there are chalets you can rent if tent camping isn't for you. There is a river that runs through it, communal toilets and showers for campers and also kitchen dining facilities to use inclusive of your rent. Durant season offers all you can eat together with what you pay for your chalet. That's a bargain. Book early because they fill up fast. We didn't end up staying here even though we were most welcomed by the owners. We were afraid their dogs might not like Roxy and Beau very much so off we went. Over the MCO period because of COVID-19, many campsites in the area were closed. Be sure that these places were not allowed. So we're trying to find a campsite in Taiping. Can't stay in that bamboo place because there's 11 dogs. Might attack our dogs. And it's already four o'clock so it's panic again. Panic again and guess who's behind us. Look Richie, panic again. We could just stay here. Where? Here, how about here guys? Look there. That car park just now, that was next to the toilets. This left us a little panic as usual. We were losing light by this time and having lost the intended place to camp for the night, we were left hunting at the last minute. So guys, I forgot to film this part. Rene and I were both so busy. It started raining again, really heavy and we were losing light. It was already four o'clock, five o'clock and six o'clock. We went to four or five campsites and they were all shut and it was really difficult to get inside these campsites. They were very narrow streets that we could only go one direction in and to find a way to reverse out. It was hectic and it was stressful. Finally, we ended up in McDonald's and Rene managed to call this guy called Encik Halim. He came to our rescue. He dropped everything he was doing at the time and he came and rescued us. What we mean by rescue is he came and he took us to his private campsite which was also closed and it's a kampung that you'd have to have a guide to take you inside. You can't just find your way in. So yeah, we went up to this kampung. We stayed a night and it was a beautiful place. When we woke up in the morning, this is what we saw. Day three. This experience with Halim really touched our hearts. He treated us so well that night. He took time off to help complete strangers and made sure we were able to park in a safe place and rest for the night. Thank you, Halim. There have been many experiences like this in our years of campervan travel. People are very kind and helpful no matter where we go. Roxy? Please note that properties that are privately owned, gated or fenced up or closed must always be respected. Trespassing is against the law. Try and find out who owns the land before entering. For breakfast, we stopped at nearby stalls selling nasi lemak. Nasi lemak is a traditional Malaysian breakfast. Try it if you're new to Malaysia. The west of Malaysia was forecasted for more rain. We decided to head east for better weather. Taiping is a beautiful little town but we had to leave. We'll be back again. That's the way to Taiping. If you come this way, you head up to the TT Wangsa rest stop. That's a four-wheel drive. That's why people get four-wheel drive. And that Hilux can plug and play in there. So we can convert the Hilux. So we're gonna put the Hilux in there. What say you guys? So we're at the rest stop TT Wangsa and we're having lunch. So that's my ham cheese in pickle sandwich. This kind of pickle, mustard, ham and cheese, the Snickers and pulut and soya bean. We're at the TT Wangsa rest stop. One of the few places on this mountainous trail. Are you enjoying yourself? It's been fun. So far so good. Is this your first time up here? This is the first time up here and it's even better than the expectations I had. Look at that. He's enjoying this guys. Look at that. So here we're at the TT Wangsa. This is the famous rest stop. It doesn't look like anything in the daytime but if you come at night and you stay a night here, you'll enjoy really cool weather and when you wake up in the morning, you'll watch a sunrise. So this is the spot we're always parked at. Just over here and over here, there's lots of trucks. They rest up here and they use the toilet or the masjid or the food. There's a restaurant over there and here's where you sit to enjoy that view. Let's see Roxy and Beau enjoying the TT Wangsa view. This is your second time here, isn't it? Yeah, second time. So when traveling with pets, one of the things that you have to have is a lot ventilation and for my dogs, what I do is I open up the windows, two front windows, and then I turn on an opala fan over there and I open up the back door one side. As for fans on the roof, I have three. I have one here, one here and one there and they're all on at the moment and we're all powered by Go Zero here. Three fans are at a nine watt output. They're pulling nine watts. Oh and that nine watts includes the fridge. This is an alpicool fridge and it has a regulator type of compressor where it kicks in. When it kicks in, it pulls about 30 watts and when it's not kicked in, it's zero. So that nine watts is only the fans. We prefer not to overpack food in our camper van because in Malaysia, there are so many little road stalls selling all sorts of local food that you are bound to stop and try. It's part of the road trip to try local food and in-season fruits. Prices are extremely reasonable and sometimes it's just cheaper to buy food rather than to stock up on groceries. So this is how they change positions. This is the favorite seat in the So now it's Bo's turn and Roxy is over there. We are in Marang, right Rene? This morning, what did the chicken say? This morning, the chicken and the whole family walking around the combi. They're going cook, cook, cook, cook. She is still sleepy and then suddenly the chicken went, Muck, muck, muck, muck, sleep!