The Journey of to Help Thai by Elite DRM with 4x4 convoy of 38 units
26th November 2011 (Saturday)
0600am – Depart from Puchong to Bukit Tinggi, Klang. Met up with EDRM team members
0700am – Once all team members has arrived we depart from Klang to meeting point at Pandan Perdana, Cheras.
0730hrs – Arrival at Pandan Perdana , Cheras. Notice few 4WD units on meeting point waiting. Dato Daud Daros (EDRM President) and Mr. Steven Chai (4x4 organizer) were there arranging registration and breakfast for EDRM and 4x4 team members.
0830hrs – Negeri Sembilan EDRM team members arrived together with Dato Dr. William Lee ( EDRM Vice President) .
0835hrs – Johor EDRM Team lead by Tn Ng Kok Wei arrived with the relief goods in their 4WD. Also arriving at the same time was Dato Hii (EDRM Chairman). All the relief supplies from the transport trucks from Johor, Klang and KK Mart Pandan Perdana were shifted to a temporary storage area before they were being distributed into the convoy of 4WD units.
0930hrs - Adun Teratai YB Puan Lee Ying Ha arrived to give short speech. With the support from the state government, within 2 weeks times the planning, meeting, arrangement and scheduling was completed. We had successfully gather a convoy consist of 38 units of 4WD , a lots of relief supplies such as instant noodles, drinking water, can food, biscuits , etc for the those Thailand people who are in need during this dire situation. We have also received 100 pieces of life jacket from an enthusiastic people who wish to be part of this charity work. The T-shirt which been autographed by YB Puan Lee Ying Ha was put onto a bid and was purchase with RM 180.00 to be included into this charity activity.
1030hrs – After all the relief supplies were distributed to all the 4WDs, the journey was flaged off by YB Puan Lee Ying Ha . The destination was next meeting point at Changlun, Kedah before 1700hrs. Most of the 4WDs was equipped with walkie talkie for communication purpose.
1730hrs - Arrived at ChangLun Naluri Aman point after twice stops at R&R station during the journey from Pandan Perdana, Cheras. Stopped here to obtain custom form, car insurance purchase and some currency exchange. Penang 4x4 team joined us at this meeting point before departing to Hadyai in complete convoy.
1930hrs - The last 4WD car arrived after tyre change in Ipoh . The transport truck from Pandan Perdana arrived 30 minutes later and without any haste , all team members helped to shift the relief supplies from the truck to the Penang team 4WD units.
2100hrs – Passing the custom border and heading to destination. It was raining during the whole journey.
2230hrs – Reached Hadyai Hansa JB Hotel. Checked in, went for dinner and call it a day.
27th November 2011 (Sunday)
1030hrs – Starting the day with gathering of all team members. We were greeted by news reporter from Thailand PBS at hotel lobby.
1100hrs – After briefing with PBS, we are heading to PBS media office. Once reached there, we saw there were many people waiting for us. Beside PBS personnel, there are also Thailand 4WD team. We had a warm welcome from Thai people and they are thankful for our aid. We allocated some of the relief supplies to PBS office, had some photo session with the Thai people and accepted an interview from news reporter.
1230 - Our second destination is a school, where we unloaded all the relief supplies from truck and 4WD into the school hall. Everyone joint this humanitarian effort where we saw the strong unity and bond between Thai people and Malaysian to help the flood affected victims. At a point it does convince us that EDRM goal is right. Wherever somebody need help, EDRM will be there. This is not just about 1 Malaysia, we are 1 world.
At that instance, EDRM decided to give additional donation with the currency that we’ve had in hand. A total of 10,000 Thai baht to the headmaster of the school whom acted as the representative that received the donation for flood victims.
Before we left back to Malaysia, the headmaster and Thailand rescue team had a photo shot with us. Others 4WD heading to the next location to transfer the relief supplies at Songkhla. Our journey will be continued on coming Saturday at Bangkok where the relief supplies will be transported by lorry, 4WD team from hatyai. From there, we will be taking over and delivery the supplies to the disaster area.
Although this first trip was very tired to most of us but the experience is priceless. We considered that this whole journey was a success. We are happy that we able to contribute back to the society and we would like to thank you for those people who had been lending their helping hand ; be it in preparation for the delivery of the supplies.
REPORT BY BRITMAN SEW