Attempting to Road Trip to Asia // S02E01

Good job I'm wearing appropriate footwear, isn't it? Driving over my toes. Go on, jump in. And you've locked me. I'm in, jump in. Yay, I'm part of this team. Welcome back to Combi Life. If you're new here, I'm Ben and this is Tamara. And we are about to attempt to drive to Asia. Yep, that is the plan. And despite the fails of our first trial run through Spain and Portugal, which included 36 days being broken down in a freezing Spanish desert, and much to Ben's surprise, this new relationship gets stronger with each passing day. We've just spent the past few months fixing and upgrading a bazillion things on our 1973 Combi called Boomerang. And now we are super excited to be back on the road. We're inviting you to join us for the journey to share the experience of life done differently. So buckle up, subscribe. And if you're new here, join us as we attempt to drive to Asia. This time round, things are a little bit different for this trip. Coming up to it, Ben and I have actually had the luxury of living together, which of course is only natural because we had a trip together, of course. And coming back from it, it seemed super weird to part ways and live in two different houses. So when it comes to moving in now into the Combi, we are moving in together. There's no picking me up from a different house and trying to pack in an hour. We are trying to pack two days before our boat. So it's a good start. We're actually going. Oh my God. You can tell that the first adventure was a huge success because even though we had many failures, we are here on a second adventure. Yay! Where to this time? Only time will tell, but I can tell you this. We have a lot of driving for the next few. It is time to get on a boat and go road tripping. So once again, we are eastbound. And once again, we are crossing France, a wonderful country which I have explored a lot. Due to the location of Jersey Island, France is both a blessing and a curse for our road trips. A blessing because, well, it's France and it's awesome. But of course, a curse because it's huge and it's in between us and pretty much everything else. This time, we're attempting to get through France as fast and as cheaply as possible. I know this is a 1973 van, but they do have modern technology now where you can just pull up a map on your phone. I know, but nothing beats pen and paper in hand when you're trying to figure things out and you need it all on a larger scale. And so I'm a pen and paper gal and this is how we do it. This is how we route plan. I'm pretty sure this is mostly so she can avoid paying tolls. There's a little bit of truth in that. Let me know what you guys think. Any recommendations for a better way? But why pay tolls? The roads here are great. You've cracked the code on how to cross France without paying for tolls. Yeah, we've basically made it, what, three quarters of the way further. Look at how close we are to the border of Italy and we've not paid with a toll. Meanwhile, I'm burning rice. Not everyone is a map reading enthusiast like Tamara. Some of us like to arrive to a new country and have our travel itinerary right there on our phone. But of course, that isn't always possible if you don't have data on arrival. And that is why for the past year, we've had Airlo installed on our phones. Airlo is the world's first eSIM store, helping you solve the problem of high roaming data bills and helps you stay connected whilst you travel in over 200 countries. And Airlo are kindly sponsoring today's video. You see, an eSIM is a pre-installed SIM card, but it works 100% digitally. It's way more convenient than having to call your carrier to arrange roaming or find and purchase multiple local SIM cards as you travel, which, believe me, is inconvenient, expensive and frustrating. The last thing you want to be doing when you arrive is queuing at an airport to buy a SIM card. eSIMs are smarter and more convenient. For my next trip, I've already downloaded the plan. It's installed on my device. All I've got to do is activate it when I arrive. Having data already sorted helps me stay connected with the people that I love, find restaurants and accommodation whilst I travel and navigate on foreign roads. The Airlo SIMless experience is very user-friendly and you can get connected to multiple countries with one eSIM with their global and regional eSIMs. And it's all managed in a single app. You can even receive calls and text on your original home number. Pretty sweet. Airlo really is a must-have app for international travellers. To be honest with you guys, it's worth downloading Airlo and having it installed on your phone so you have a data solution ready wherever your adventures might take you. I will leave a link to it below. You can use the code COMBI3 for $3 off your first eSIM. Thanks so much to Airlo and thanks to you guys. Now, we've got some road tripping to do, so let's hit the road. Look, there's the Alps! Finally making it! Going somewhere. Oh, baby! The Alps! It's been a long few days of driving but didn't want to bore you guys with that. So have a look at what's coming up. Oh yes, it feels so good to be in the Alps. Oh my gosh. We didn't actually intend to stop in the Alps but we have stopped in this little town because it's just so beautiful. The weather is so beautiful. There is nobody here. This is the road that we were driving through. This one, this one here. That is a climbing place right on the side of the road. There's these beautiful mountains all around and this beautiful town here. Just so picturesque and lovely. Right here. Look at this. Right here. Drinking water. Beautiful, beautiful ice cold mountain water. Free. And there's a toilet down there too. So yeah, we got everything we need at this free campsite. Love it. As you can see, we had a shower here last night under the stars. I don't know what's better here. The stars and the Alps mountains or the fact that this is endless hot water. Endless hot water shower. I'm so happy right now. Not so bad being back on the road, eh? No. Oh my god, I've missed this. I forgot how easy it was to actually just switch routines from house life to van life. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful that we were both so... What's the word I'm looking for? Naked. This is like a little play area, rest area. We've got this whole place to ourselves. It's actually really cool. Got like a treehouse up there. Can you push me? Please push me. Okay. Push. There's another one here. Don't you want to be looking out of the view? Come on, spin it. This is the best view. Spin the butt around. Oh, okay then. I'm trying to see the view, not go over it. Maybe it's the altitude. Maybe that's why the wine hit me so hard last night. We were like quite drunk after one glass of wine, weren't we? Yeah, we were. Fun drunk. Gotta love the altitude. Oh look, a treehouse. What's wrong, Ben? It's locked. Treehouse is locked. That's the downside of the shoulder season. A lot of stuff is closed. I mean, the plus side is we have this whole place to ourselves. The downside is there's nobody here in the cafe serving us drinks. But it's okay because we have our own coffee making facility. I can't believe that we were actually going to just drive through the Alps and not stop. I mean, we're paying for all that petrol to get up the mountains and over them. We might as well enjoy. So good to be here. So good to be on the road. So film me. I think we should go climbing, don't you? Should we go climbing? Yeah. Come on. Be rude not to. A couple of days of just nothing but driving. It sure does feel good to move your body. I think we need this. Right, keep going up there. I see you. I know we have shown you some beautiful dash cam footage whilst driving. But there is nothing comparable to the view like one from the top of the climb. Check this out. How beautiful is that? Wow. You have to tie yourself to the rock. Why are you doing that? Because I'm only little. And I want to keep you as safe as possible. Come on. I love how she said that she's only little and not... You a fat bastard, boy. That is not true. But you made it to the bottom safe and sound. End of the day. End of our climbing session. It's so good here. I think we might stay another night. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. After a few days dashing across France dodging tolls and a couple of days relaxing, working and climbing in the Alps, our next challenge was to cross into Italy. How do you feel about driving in the Alps coming up? A wee bit scary considering the brakes aren't exactly working the best. But luckily I've got the teacher to help me out with this. But I'd rather just let them scream and be in the correct gear and have engine braking. That's mainly because there's no actual brakes. Well, there's 50% braking. The front brakes work. Back brakes are questionable. But the view is absolutely unbeatable. I didn't look at it. Is that an old border? It's the border. Is this the border? This person's as confused as we are. It's Italy. Don't go. What are they doing? I've never seen a French person so reluctant to go to Italy. You're going. You're stuck. You've got no choice. Maybe we'll give them a bit of manoeuvrability space just in case they change their mind. Tell me that's not how much it is. Well, it's either that or a four-hour detour. Seriously, is this where we have to start relaxing then? You can see why they were reluctant to go through there. It's 64 euros, is it? No. I mean, we're not going to be the economy one, are we? Why are we going on this road? Well, darling, can I have your car, please? Yes, ma'am. How much is it? Seventy-six. Sixty-eight. Okay, which one? It's had. Camper. Ah, that's the... Do you get it? No, I don't get it. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Goodbye. I can't believe it was 68 euros and 10 cents. Where are we even going? That's like a whole tank of petrol. Maybe this is the Mont Blanc tunnel. You've got to think if a toll road is like nearly 70 euros, it's going to be worth it. It's going to be a long tunnel. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is what 68 euros a tunnel feels like. I mean, I'm moved. How are you? That's memorable, that was. Hey, baby, we're in Italy. Hey. Italia. Buona sera. Buonas... Is that good morning? Is that good afternoon? Oh. Ah, buongiorno. Ah, I said that again, I was so beautiful. I'm coming. Oh, that's good. Good? Happy face, happy face, not a hungry face. Snacking. Ventilation again. And being able to open this window, it's not something we fixed, but the surfboard's not there so we can open this window again. You know, little things in life. I was just chopping away the olives. Ben decided to check on the tortillas that we're having with our fajitas. What happened? Tell everyone. One major disaster with the tortillas, and that's the green stuff growing on it. Look at this. Oh, massive fail. Even by my standards, that's a bit too mouldy. We've got some nice canning bread here, though. This stuff. Is this what you bought today? Yeah. Whilst... This is what I bought whilst Tamara was chatting up an Italian man in the car park. True story? That is not true. I came out of the supermarket and Tamara's chatting up an Italian man. What part of that's not true? No, it's just the fact that I was trying to be really friendly. I'm a new addition to Homey Life, and of course, I want everyone to know about it. Okay, all right, yeah, yeah. Brains. I think this is ready. That is music to my ears. Dinner didn't exactly work out. But still, it was quick, which is good, because we've been driving all day, and we are hungry. How do you say it in Italian? Buon appetito. E buona... Buona notte. Buona connocci. Healthy. This is spicy. I'm adding more stuff to that.