- 4 minutes ago
A life-changing announcement, a trip to see wild elephants, and an anxious wait for a call from the doctor—this Thailand travel vlog brings a memorable day into focus. Lloyd and Mandy share that they’re expecting a baby in Thailand, then head to Kui Buri National Park to visit the elephants while they wait for news.
Follow along for a personal pregnancy announcement, Thailand travel, and a wildlife outing at Kui Buri National Park. If you enjoy travel vlogs, elephant encounters, and honest glimpses into life on the road, this journey brings all three together.
Follow along for a personal pregnancy announcement, Thailand travel, and a wildlife outing at Kui Buri National Park. If you enjoy travel vlogs, elephant encounters, and honest glimpses into life on the road, this journey brings all three together.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Coming up on Lloyd and Mandy.
00:03Thanks, Bear!
00:05Lloyd and I are having a...
00:07I don't know what that was, but we just heard a really loud growl.
00:11Twice.
00:12You sound like Bigfoot, to be honest.
00:15Okay, something's happening.
00:17Everyone just started running after that scary sound.
00:21Now she's running.
00:22Now we're running.
00:24We're running?
00:26Okay.
00:37G'day guys, welcome back to yet another video.
00:40Today we are going to be heading to Kui Buri National Park.
00:45I hope I'm saying that right.
00:46It's a national park about an hour's drive away from Hua Hin.
00:51And there's actually wild elephants roaming around in this park,
00:54which you can see from the car.
00:57So we've booked a tour.
00:59We're hoping we can go and see some elephants today,
01:01because that's really cool.
01:02This isn't like an elephant tour or an elephant sanctuary.
01:06This is just a national park that happens to have wild elephants in it.
01:09And apparently there's like a 50-50 chance on whether or not you can see these elephants.
01:14So we're going to go and check it out.
01:16But before we do head off,
01:17some of you guys might have noticed Mandy's been a little bit absent in a few videos.
01:24I think I've done three videos on my own.
01:28And I was pretty vague about why Mandy was missing.
01:33And there's a reason for that.
01:35But today we're going to share with you why she's been absent.
01:38And actually I'll let Mandy share it maybe.
01:42What are you doing?
01:43Are you cooking some bagels?
01:46My first time making bagels.
01:49Wow.
01:50I'm so proud of them.
01:52How did they turn out?
01:53I think they're pretty good.
01:56They're only five ingredients.
01:58It's just like flour, baking powder, egg white, Greek yogurt, salt.
02:06Since we've been in this villa, Mandy's turned into like the ultimate housewife.
02:09She's been finding all these cool recipes and baking and making like roast dinners.
02:14It's been amazing.
02:15I'm not complaining at all.
02:17But what about the news, honey?
02:19Do you want to share with everybody?
02:22Yeah.
02:24I don't really know how to do this.
02:26I don't know either.
02:27I feel awkward.
02:29We're not really good at this sort of stuff, announcing news.
02:32And by the way, I'm kind of expressionless.
02:36So like, don't judge my reaction by my face or anything like that.
02:42Um, yeah.
02:44Um, we have a new member joining the channel soon.
02:49Um, towards the end of the year, Lloyd and I are having a baby.
02:53Oh, thanks for the interruption.
02:54Thanks, Bear.
02:56Lloyd and I are having a...
02:58Sorry guys.
02:59We were just in the middle of the, probably the beast announcement of our lives.
03:04And the Lazada delivery guy just came and honked his horn and interrupted us.
03:08But as Mandy was saying, uh, we're expecting a baby towards the end of the year.
03:13Mandy is pregnant.
03:14That's why she's been a little bit absent.
03:17She's been dealing with being pregnant, I guess.
03:23Yeah.
03:24Traveling's been a bit of a challenge.
03:27Um, I've been having really extreme like food inversions has been the hard thing and just like lower energy.
03:34So I need to be able to cook for myself.
03:37And, um, yeah, I just don't have the same energy at the moment that I normally do to be like
03:41running around and doing the same sort of things that we have.
03:44So we've had to sort of adapt.
03:45Um, there will be a few sort of slight changes to our channel just to sort of accommodate this time
03:51that we can't be moving around as much as we normally do.
03:54Uh, so we hope you guys will come along for the journey.
03:57Uh, but for today is a regular day and I'm feeling good.
04:00I'm up and I'm about and I have energy again.
04:03So hopefully it stays this way.
04:05Yeah.
04:06So obviously we had a trip booked to Bangkok and, um, Mandy was really not doing too good at all.
04:11So I just told her to stay at home and that's why I was very vague about why she was
04:15at home.
04:16I didn't really give an explanation at all, but I'm obviously extremely excited about this because being a father is
04:23something I always knew I wanted to do.
04:25But I feel like it's one of those things where you never know when the time's right or when you're
04:32ready.
04:32And I feel like a lot of the time you wait for like a sign or something to tell you
04:37that you're ready,
04:38but I just don't think that's ever going to happen.
04:41Like the only way to know if you're ready to be a parent is to become a parent.
04:45It's might be a bad analogy, but a lot of people DM us and email us can ask us,
04:49how do we start a YouTube channel? And 99% of the time my answer is start a YouTube channel.
04:56That's the only way to learn how to start a YouTube channel or any business.
05:01Like if you want to start anything, whether it be yoga or jujitsu or a business or a YouTube channel,
05:08like literally the only way to get started is to get started.
05:13We feel like we've done everything to prepare ourselves to be parents.
05:18We're finally in a place where we can stay for a long time.
05:22Our health is really good. Our income is good.
05:25We have good health travel insurance, so we're completely covered there.
05:29So why not? Like, let's do it.
05:31And some, as Mandy said, some things will change on this channel a little bit.
05:36We're obviously not doing like really fast paced travel.
05:41And we might even start creating content that isn't about travel.
05:44But the whole point of starting this channel and this lifestyle wasn't just to travel the world and see as
05:51much as we could.
05:52It was to make our life, our dream life, exactly how we pictured it.
05:57And we always pictured having children.
06:00So that's what we're going to continue to do.
06:03And we're going to continue putting out content that is helpful.
06:07I'm sure Mandy will be putting out a lot of content to help maybe young mums or people who maybe
06:15are thinking about having kids overseas,
06:17because this obviously isn't a stock standard thing to do.
06:20Yeah, I definitely had some fears coming into it, especially I already had a bit of a hospital doctor phobia
06:27going into this.
06:29But so far experience here in Thailand with the doctors and the hospitals here has been absolutely incredible.
06:35I feel really relaxed.
06:37Yeah, actually just excited and grateful for the amount of help that we're actually able to afford that we can
06:45get here as well.
06:46And we'll go into deeper detail about all those sorts of things in another video.
06:50But I feel like we should get going.
06:52Yeah.
06:54We're going to be late.
06:55So as I said, today we're heading to Kiwibiri National Park.
07:00I hope I'm not butchering that now.
07:01I probably am.
07:01We always do.
07:02But we're trying to keep ourselves busy because we're actually expecting a phone call today,
07:06which is going to tell us the sex of the baby.
07:08So we just did like our first major ultrasound last week.
07:14Everything's looking really good, which is why we're announcing this now, because we're past the first trimester.
07:19Is that right?
07:20Yeah.
07:21I don't know anything about pregnancy.
07:22Yeah.
07:23But we are expecting a phone call.
07:25So we're going to go and head to this national park and try and keep ourselves busy.
07:29And we might get a phone call during the middle of this tour telling us what sex our baby is.
07:35And that's pretty exciting.
07:36Yeah.
07:37So we'll get going.
07:38Are you going to pack these bagels to go?
07:40Yeah.
07:40Okay.
07:41I can't believe I just made bagels.
07:43How cool am I?
07:46She's definitely already fitting into the mum role pretty good.
07:58Okay.
07:59I'm not complaining that pregnant Mandy loves food.
08:03Look how many snacks we got for a probably three or four hour tour.
08:09We got bagels.
08:14Fresh fruit and merge.
08:16Banana bread.
08:18Cookies.
08:19Dried mango.
08:21Iced tea.
08:22Cashews.
08:26Definitely not getting hungry.
08:28I think our car's here, so we're going to head off now.
08:32Okay.
08:33Our car's here.
08:34So we just booked this privately through Hua Hin Transport.
08:38We actually use them.
08:40Saddi Ka.
08:41Saddi Ka.
08:43We actually use them every time we go to the airport.
08:47Or really, anyway, they're really good.
08:48So this is a five hour trip.
08:50And I think it's about an hour drive to the national park.
08:57And then I think the fee to get into the park is about 100 or 200 baht.
09:03And I think we can stay in the car and just drive around the national park and take a look
09:09around for elephants.
09:10But I'm not really sure.
09:14So anyway, hopefully we see some elephants.
09:16And if not, you get to see a nice national park I suppose, eh?
09:24Just have a nice day out.
09:25I haven't done this in a little while since I've been in bed.
09:30I've got my coffee here and a bagel which I'll probably have on the way.
09:35Plenty of snacks.
09:36Let's hit the road.
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11:01I don't want to like brag too much.
11:05They turned out really, really good.
11:07Really?
11:08I'm really proud of them.
11:09Yeah.
11:10So simple.
11:12Oh, we're going to always have fresh bagels at home now.
11:15I'm getting fat.
11:16I'm trying to bloody lose weight.
11:18Diet.
11:19And he keeps baking everything.
11:27Whoa.
11:29Look at them all.
11:31Baby ones, eh?
11:32Ew.
11:34I only want one.
11:36Jesus.
11:42So I don't know if we're in Kuwibiri National Park yet but we're very close and it feels like we're
11:49in a national park.
11:50I've just seen a bunch of goats being heard on the side of the road and the landscape's changed a
11:55lot.
11:56It's actually feels a lot like when we're in, what was the name of the national park in Sri Lanka?
12:02Yala.
12:03Yala National Park Sri Lanka and we saw the Wild Hill things.
12:07Oh, we're just coming to the national entrance now I think.
12:12Yeah.
12:14I still don't know if we're just getting driven around in a car or if we have to get out
12:18and get into something else.
12:20I really don't know what's happening.
12:24So it's about quarter to three at the moment and we've just come into this like valley that has pineapple
12:30trees and or bushes I guess they would be considered.
12:34Would you call that a tree or a bush?
12:36Not really a tree.
12:37Not really.
12:38And apparently right at three o'clock the elephants wander through this area I'm assuming just to get the fruit
12:46and that sort of thing at this time sort of leading into dusk.
12:49So we're just heading to the watching area now and see if we can see some elephants.
12:54I can't believe this is like just over an hour from our house.
12:57Like this is insane.
13:04We're going here.
13:05Ticket?
13:05Yeah.
13:07I have one.
13:08While we get our tickets in there.
13:11Or she's going.
13:13I don't know what's happening.
13:15We're just winging her.
13:31Okay so basically what we paid for was the transport out here which is about 1500 baht and it's a
13:40driver that brings us out here and she's going to wait for us while we do the safari tour which
13:45is separate.
13:46So to rent the car that's going to drive us through the national park and see the elephants is 850
13:54baht and then on top of that it's 200 baht per person.
13:58So it came to about 1250 baht for the safari tour.
14:05So hopefully we get to see some elephants and make it worthwhile but I guess we'll just wait and see.
14:28Let's sit back in one of these.
14:31Oh I'm definitely getting carsick.
14:34I'm good.
14:41Alright here we go.
14:44Safari starting now.
14:47Apparently the elephants are more likely to come out when there's rain and it's really really grey skies and humid.
14:54It feels like it's about to rain.
14:56I don't particularly want to get rain on but maybe it'll help the elephants come out.
15:17This feels like a much more like authentic way to view the countryside here rather than doing like a more
15:25organized tour I guess.
15:26I guess this is still technically a tour.
15:28This feels just like going out in the country like I used to as a kid in Canada.
15:33I'm just going into the woods.
15:35It's really really nice.
15:36It's so quiet and peaceful.
15:38All you can hear is the birds and like all the rainforest sort of sounds.
15:41It's amazing.
15:47It's really nice to be out in the fresh air and it's not too hot actually is it?
15:51It's so nice.
15:52Right now it's perfect.
15:53How are you feeling?
15:55I was really carsick in the car.
15:59I was a bit worried about this but it's not too bumpy yet so hopefully we don't go on too
16:03rough terrain.
16:20Oh elephants so far.
16:23Come on elephants.
16:24Lots of food though.
16:27Can you clarify?
16:30Elephant food.
16:31Lots of elephant food.
16:32Not just random shit everywhere.
16:50Driven past some big bodies of water but still no elephants.
16:54Yeah I feel like we've seen a lot more places that I'd like expect to see an elephant than we
16:58did when we were in Gatlin National Park.
17:00There's so much more water here.
17:02We haven't seen one.
17:04Again just a lot of food.
17:06It's been about maybe 30-40 minutes so far.
17:11There's no guarantee we're going to see one.
17:12We might just be really disappointed.
17:17Who knows?
17:18I don't think I'll be that disappointed.
17:20This is really nice.
17:29I don't know if you can see it on the camera but there's a deal.
17:32Yeah.
17:33Over there.
17:34So that's something.
17:37Still not an elephant right there.
17:54Okay so we just stopped at this observation point where apparently you can see elephants pretty regularly.
18:03But I don't think there's any air up here.
18:06We're not having much luck today.
18:08No.
18:12This feels snakey.
18:14Yeah and that lady just like actually she got bit by something and I'm freaking out.
18:20This definitely feels like the type of place there would be snakes hanging around.
18:25This National Park's massive.
18:27I can't believe this is just outside Waihen.
18:32Definitely going to come back in wet season when there's more elephants around.
18:37I wouldn't mind seeing one of those monitor lizards as well.
18:49I don't know what that was but we just heard a really loud growl twice.
18:54That didn't sound like an elephant.
18:58A gorilla or something.
19:01Is there orangutans here or something?
19:03I don't think there is.
19:05It was really loud.
19:07Yeah.
19:08It sounded like Bigfoot to be honest.
19:17Okay something's happening.
19:20Everyone just started running after that scary sound.
19:24No.
19:26Someone radioed that there's an elephant so everyone's getting in the car.
19:30Did you think it was the sound?
19:33I felt like we were in Jurassic Park just then or something.
19:37Scary scream and then the whole crowd started running away.
19:41But our guide told us to go to the car because there's an elephant.
19:45No she's running.
19:46Now we're running.
19:48Should we run?
19:50Okay.
19:53So all the guides and the cars have radios so they radio each other when they see an elephant.
19:59I guess they've seen one.
20:01And now probably 20 jeeps are going to rock up at the same time.
20:07But everyone's running like crazy.
20:12It's Bigfoot.
20:24It's Bigfoot.
20:29It's Bigfoot.
20:31What is it?
20:35It's Bigfoot.
20:36It's Bigfoot.
20:39There's Buffalo over there.
20:44Yeah.
20:45We go.
20:45Yeah.
20:47Alright we're going to chase an elephant.
20:5120 jeeps there.
20:54Let's hope we don't miss it.
21:00I was on the fence about even getting out of the truck because I'm just feeling a bit
21:04tired and weak and I'm like I'll go for a walk and then all of a sudden it turns into
21:07a full-on sprint away from Bigfoot.
21:17He's picked up the pace. We're flying through the road now.
21:23Gotta get to this elephant before it goes back to the hiding spot I think.
21:38Looks like there's some elephants off into the distance there.
21:41We'll go see if we can have a look hey.
21:46Whoa.
21:49There's that noise again. That's not an elephant.
21:51That is elephant.
21:59I don't say anything.
22:01Is there elephants there?
22:03I could see why you wouldn't be able to see it because it's like very beige everything.
22:09What are we looking at?
22:18Yeah, like can you see a little bit of movement over there?
22:27There she goes.
22:29I really think.
22:32Well glad we got to see some sort of.
22:36I mean I saw something you know.
22:38I saw something moving.
22:41Short-sightedness.
22:49Okay well a whole herd of them ended up coming out which is pretty cool.
22:52We got to see yeah there's about 10 of them crossing together.
22:57Pretty cool.
22:58If you come here probably pay the extra money to get binoculars because you're pretty far away.
23:05But we're going to head back.
23:07Mandy doesn't have too much energy and we're going to head home.
23:12It's about an hour or so drive home.
23:13So we're going to head back and I just realized that we've been out of service all day
23:20since we left Hoa Hinn so I might have a message from the doctor.
23:28But I guess we'll find out when we get home.