Hi Dave, Thanks very much for the response, there is a fantastic amount of detail here and I will take it all on board.
My build is in the process, we had a first tentative weekend away in it a couple of weeks ago at the overland show, it all seemed to work. Still got to do some bits on the cab and hopefully be away on short trips next year.

The grand plan is to get away for a couple of years four years from now. That is what I am building towards and hope to go, roughly, the route you have taken and just keep going.

I have now found your website so will have a proper look at that in the near future. Maybe in touch in the future fi that's ok ?

many thanks again,

Andy & Mandy

Hi Andy & Mandy,

Just to tell you when I finished building Plodd we went to Lancaster for a weekend then the next weekend we set off on our trip so we never slept in Plodd or went anywhere in she until that date.

Dave

hi Dave and Les
thanks for putting this info up.
we are intending to drive from Turkey to Thailand next year.
at the moment we have two vehicles with similar plan and timescale.
i would like to know your specific costs for your time in China please ?
costs for entry ?
daily guide / agency cost?
fuel total cost for how many kms ?
accomodation costs and did you sleep in vehicle much ?
food costs ?

please can you send me your guides contact details too ?

many thanks
phil.

Hi Phil,

You are asking for a lot of information, so I will get together with Les and try to sort out an approximate costing for all you are asking but it will take me a bit of time.

I must say that looking back on our wonderful trip that with our new found knowledge the temptation of trying to reduce the proportion of the cost of the guide in China by adding more vehicles can be false economy, we were a convoy of 4 vehicles and although we did get on the majority of the time (and are still emailing one another from time to time) it does restrict you to what the majority want to do and you are likely to only do this trip once in a life time so think carefully about the amount of vehicles you are prepared to have in your convoy, you all will be with complete strangers for 30 days and 30 nights so all parties before joining must think very carefully about what they want from the trip,what they want to see on the trip, ie driving on narrow mountain passes or motorways, and more importantly voice there ideas long before joining the convoy then everyone knows where they stand, Like I said in my last blog our guide allowed some of us to split from time to time from the main convoy and that was very good for all,however, after talking to others that have or are doing similar trips there guides would not allow this to happen and in that situation no one gets a break.

The only stipulation the guide made to allowing any split was everyone had to have a Chinese telephone sim in there phone not just an internet sim,so everyone was contactable at anytime, she also provided walkie talkies for all vehicles for when we were in convoy.
Just one more point we would not do a trip through China with any other Guide that is for sure no matter how much they charged, the guide's knowledge makes the trip good or bad:

PS
Phil if you PM me with you email address I will forward it to Spring the Guide for her to contact you.

Hi Phil,

I have not heard from you, so my question is Have You set off and if so where are you now.
After Lesley and I got to our home in Thailand we decided to buy a piece of land next to our house to build what we think is the first overlander stop build by overlanders in Thailand it is 100k south east of Bangkok and 10 minutes from Pattaya, the construction is well on its way and consists of toilets,showers, laundry and two on suite rooms that we will be letting out that would be good for motorbikes etc, but the main thing is the safe parking with electricity hook up, we are also planning to have a inspection pit to allow overlanders to inspect/work on there vehicles.
Anyway I thought I would just contact you to see if you booked Spring for your trip

Kind regards

Dave & Les