Sunday, October 24, 2010

Overnight at Frasers Hill

Over a long weekend I took my family in my campervan to Frasers Hill for an overnight stay. It has been our family's favourite highland retreat, it is only about 2 hours drive from our home, yet it's cool air and greenery is a world away from the sweltering pressure cooker of Klang valley. Frasers Hill has somewhat suffered from over development lately, what used to be a quite highland town has turned into a busy tourist destination.

Fortunately for us, our campervan gave us the freedom from accommodation booking and also the freedom to choose where we want to stay there. Our address for the night is a parking lot that no one uses, except for an unexpected fellow campers in their overlander! 


There's an observation tower at the car park and the kids loved it!

The view from the tower. I can sit there and look at this all day.

My first real life encounter with an overlander camper. It looks like an escapee from the Paris-Dakar race!

The license plate tells me that it is from Europe, possibly France.
The yellow overlander looks like it has lost its way in a Paris-Darak rally. Frasers Hill is long way from the Sahara, how did it find its way here? The occupants of the overlander seems to prefer to keep to themselves, so I have to respect their rights for privacy, however I would have loved to poke my head into their camper to see the interior. I would have lots of question to ask them, how did they made their way here? How did they built their camper? How much do they spent on it? Why do they do it?

12 comments:

Darren said...

That's a great looking overland vehicle.
It looks French from the number plate, but I can't make it out completely.
I'm always interested in seeing European vehicles in SE Asia. As I understand the journey to India is doable, with just care needed across the Stans. But crossing Burma is not possible, so maybe the took a ferry to Thailand or Singapore and continued from there?

I have read of more and more vehicles crossing Russia, then down through China an into Vietnam.

It's certainly not as easy to cross Euro-Asia as it used to be.

TJ Chang said...

Hi Darren,
Malaysia seems to be a popular destination for overlanders who come to Asia. There has been a two families from Switzerland who came here in their overlanders a few months ago. There are no shortage of Malaysians taking the overland journey across Asia, but they all do it with 4wd vehicles on a mad dash instead of taking it slowly in campervans. As for myself, I will start with Malaysia first :)

Unknown said...

Tj chang,interested with campervan. During my childhood I have seen this vehicle at discovery channel. If let say I want to buy this type of vehicle(campervan) in m'sia,what I have to prepare (budget, license, type of vehicle, where can find it n reliability

TJ Chang said...

There's one on sale at Bangi (see my article http://malaysia-campervan.blogspot.com/2010/10/campervan-spotting.html ). The seller asked for 70K, but I think you can reduce it significantly with some serious negotiation. The road tax is as per the capacity, the type of vehicle is a VW T4 diesel, so repair can be expensive. You don't need a special driving license for campervan as long as it is for private use. As for reliability, it depends on the base vehicle itself, since campervan is not a daily transport, it is not subjected to daily wear and tear, so once it is repaired it should serves you for a long time. You can also hunt for it on http://mudah.my , I found mine there.

Unknown said...

my budget is not big,i came across 4-5 mercedes sprinter 309d and 407d and price about 5k for working one in my area. can change from company registration to individual registration? how about car insurance

TJ Chang said...

I think JPJ does not allow private ownership of commercial vehicle. JPJ usually does not allow private ownership of commercial vehicle, but I think it is possible to convert. In mudah.my, there's this guy who sells decomissioned ambulance to private owners, he seems to know how to do it, you may ask him to do it for you (mohan: Phone 0132281155). Do let me know if you find how to do it. Good luck.

Unknown said...

after asking jpj putrajaya regarding my plan, i get fed-up as they keep transfer my phone to their superior but the problem still no resolved. they still can't give final or definite confirmation that it can be done or not. said i can tried and send for inspection but can't guaranty it can be approved.for time being i think i will hunt caravan/campervan that registered to jpj before. also if you seen or know any good offer for caravan mind to inform me.tq. dream for campervan holiday with my family soon.

TJ Chang said...

I went through the same thing, JPJ never gives you a straight answer, but I very certain that conversion is not an issue if the plan is drawn submitted by a licensed builder, the bus conversion I wrote about was properly done and approved, I saw the approved plan as well. It is the conversion to private use that is tricky. It may be easier to use a private registered high roof window van to convert instead, just change the interior fitting without touching the body, that way you don't have to deal with ownership issue. I know an NGO that bought a HIACE van and convert into a mobile clinic in Penang. Getting a registered camper is the least hassle, but you have to patient to hunt for one. Set yourself a price that you are prepared to pay then negotiate. You also have prepare to walk away if the asking price is not right, no matter how attracive the item is. By the way, where do you stay?

Unknown said...

I from teluk intan, I think for the time, I only can spend 30k for my dream campervan. If any good news just informed me as i'm very new in tis area

Unknown said...

can u give more detail regarding t4 campervan u spotted in bangi (where the location) n also where the guy who converted a bus into a mobile studio as i will g o back to kl this week and can do some research

TJ Chang said...

The VW T4 camper is at jalan ayer hitam, bangi opposite the maybank training center. The car yard is next to a medan selera at the traffic light. Its road taxt just expired in 2009, so it will need to be sent for inspection for renewing the road tax. As for the bus, I have lost the contact of the seller, but I will try to see if I can find it again. It will be good if you can send email to me motorcamper@gmail so that we can keep in touch.

emt said...

yes wira hijau...same interest with me also...looking the camper van or truck campers.!! it good if we can set TT sesion..so we can share any good