Filed under: Cambodia, Food, HK, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Random, Sights, Thailand, Vietnam
Still dealing with jet-lag; however I’ll admit I’m not trying very hard to beat it. Naps at 2pm? Sure. Going to bed at 10pm and getting up at noon? Yup. Spending most days in a daze? Indeed. I’m also definitely still suffering from a travel hangover and adjusting to a more quiet and stationary life.
I’ve finally decided to keep to my pledge of doing a best of South East Asia list.
1) Best of South East Asia – People will tell you the beaches, the culture, or specific places in South East Asia are the best part, but these people are misguided. The best part of South East Asia is the food. Try everything at least once and check out the street food. Fruit in general is exotic and good, as long as it’s in season or else you’ll be given some pretty sour fruit with a bag of sugar (Oh how pragmatic they are!) . Have some grilled fish and nasi goreng in Indonesia, Coconut curries and fish cakes in Thailand, Laap and sticky rice in Laos, Amok in Cambodia, Bun Cha and Banh Mi in Vietnam, and Everything in Malaysia (a huge portion of your stomach should be reserved for Hainanese Chicken Rice. Yes I am still obsessed with it. Pictured left.).
2) Best Country in South East Asia – In terms of countries the only place I would go back to is Malaysia. Beside that fact that the food is incredible, there’s so much to see and do in Malaysia. You can do some serious trekking in a number of places, see some of the nicest beaches in South East Asia, hang out with some monkeys, and do the modern city things. The other great part of Malaysia is the fact that economy isn’t built on the tourism industry, so the people that work in tourism actually want to be there. Did I also mention that the infrastructure is on par with Western standards? If you are taking any buses the KKK buses seem to be the best. I will also admit to being pleasantly surprised by Vietnam and charmed by Laos and Cambodia.
3) Best Beaches/Islands – Ahh so many beaches so little time. People will swear up and down that Thailand has the best beaches. I can’t confirm or deny as the best ones are on the West Coast, but I didn’t go on that side because I was out of season. I can reccommend Koh Tao (especially the Japanese beach) for Thailand. Gili Trawangan, Indonesia was also amazing (pictured above and to the right. It should be noted that in the top pic the mountain in the distance is actually the Agung Volcano on Bali Island.), a great small island where you can have an entire beach to yourself and step off an do some pretty decent snorkelling. For large public beaches I was really impressed by the ones in Vietnam. Nha Trang is great, and Hoi An’s beach is a real gem. The worst beach I went to? Serendipity Beach in Cambodia. Raw sewage in the water and animals using the beach as a bathroom? A definite pass; especially since Vietnam is so close and the beaches are so much better in comparsion.
4) Things Not to Miss – Hard to recc things as everyone’s experiences at the sights are different and some of the best things have to do with the people you are with rather than the actual places. But there are some things that shouldn’t be missed such Angkor Wat (pictured to the left, one of the faces in the Bayon temple). Yes yes, it’ll never live up the hype; but is it still worth seeing? Absolutely; although every temple will seem silly after Angkor. It seems redundent, but the beaches. A chunk of time should be spent checking out the different beaches and working on the deep dark tan you should come home with. Cheap tailoring is also worthwhile checking out. Why not get a bunch of things you probably don’t need made? Trekking is also generally good, but I’m not a huge fan of the village tribe hikes, I thought one of the best treks I did was a sunrise hike of Mt. Bromo in Indonesia. If you have any interest in underwater life (or just like recreating Jacques Cousteau movies) you should either get your diving certificate before going or shortly after arriving. Diving (and getting certified!) is incredibly cheap and there are some amazing dive sites (including my current obession Sabah in Malaysia, which is a world class dive site). Snorkelling and diving are great in South East Asia, especially since a wetsuit isn’t normally required.
5) Hong Kong – Hong Kong should be a stopover for anyone heading to South East Asia (Cathay Pacific offers thems). Some of the best (if not the best) shopping, eating, and partying in the world. HK has some of the nicest cityscapes in the world, and if you need to escape it all there are some surprisingly quality beaches on the backside of HK island. Easy travelling as well as almost everyone speaks some sort of English. HK is a definite must.
So I guess that’s the end of my South East Asia adventure. It was great. The only downside? The tan I worked so hard on is fading fast.
Turns out the trip from Hanoi to Hue was only 12 hours instead of the anticipated 16. The bus ride was okay, except for the fact that for once the Air-Con actually worked; which was also the one time I decided to forgo bringing a jacket on to the bus. Froze through most of the ride, but I slept a bit thanks to lots of Gravol. Pictured is me fooling around with a statue in Hue (Minh Mang tombs to be exact).
Hue was still ruin-tastic on the second day. Lots of tombs that became the “same same” after a while. I’ll admit to skipping a tomb to catch a quick nap on the boat. I took a cruise to see all the tombs, and truth be told it was a bit boring. There really wasn’t that much to see, and it was scam central. Instead of landing at the proper piers that were near the tombs (read the companies would have had to pay a fee for being able to land at these piers) we landed at these fake piers and then had to pay motos to take us to the tombs. It was all elaborately set up so that the maximum amount of money was scammed (such as saying the tomb was 4km away from the pier (instead of the 0.5 km, which was the real distance) and only giving us 40 mins to check things out; forcing you to take a moto in order to be back in time). I give a pass on the boat ride. I should also mention that the crew was the scariest group of Vietnamese women I’ve ever met and that we almost left some Japanese tourist at a tomb because they were 5 mins late. A definite pass, take a moto tour and just check out Tu Duc Tomb; it’s all pretty much the same.
In Hanoi now (aka my final and semi final stop), I’ve hooked up with this Singaporean backpacker, who is incredibly food-oriented and adventurous (my kind of person). Had lots of street food (pictured right, some street Bun Ca action). Other than that I also managed to see Ho Chi Minh’s body (does he not look like an Asian Colonel Sanders to anyone else?) taking me one step closer to my goal of seeing all the Great embalmed Communist leaders (2 out of 3!). Also updated my flickr with tons of photos and lots of food porn. Click here.
You’ll have to take my word for it, but those two black blobs are the legendary Irrawaddy Dolphins that live in the Mekong River. According to local lore, there are only 100 left, and each year they seem to be dying off rather than reproducing. Pictures were taken this morning in Kratie, Cambodia.
As the categories above indicate I am now in Cambodia (more on this in a second)
I spent the last couple days in Si Phan Don (the 4000 Islands) in an island called Don Det. The island was nice because it is still pretty much a working island (read rice paddies and people doing normal things). I must admit though that Don Det was a one night destination, as while it was nice, it was a bit too rustic for a long-term stay. There was only power for 3 or 4 hours a night, and the bungalows we were staying in was a bit far from the backpacker build-up making hard to even find a meal sometimes.
In addition the fact that it was rainy season made it a bit of a mess to get anywhere and there wasn’t much going on. But, for a couple days it was great to lie in a hammock and read books by candle light; and where else can you get a room for a buck USD a night with 2 hammocks?
I seem to be falling apart at the 2/3 points in my travel. In the span of 24 hours I managed to break my flip flops (I’m done with Gravis flip flops, as they always seem to fall apart on me), sprain my ankle, and slice open my right index finger. While nothing was serious, the dampness (it rained a solid 4 to 5 hours a day) wasn’t doing my open flesh wound any good. Thankfully Cambodia is a lot drier than Laos.
Random Thoughts
1) In Si Phan Don I was travelling with a French NGO worker, and she was probably the least empathetic person I’ve ever met. I wonder if it had to do with her being French or an NGO worker; or perhaps both. It was a bit jarring given her occupation.
2) Thanks to some minor arguing with Cambodian border officials (they wanted 2 USD for border stamps, I wasn’t willing to support the corruption) I have only one page left in my passport. After I said no to paying they decided that they suddenly needed a whole blank page for their dinky stamp, even though they had assured me they could fit it on some other pages at the start of the whole process.
Best of Laos
1) The North of Laos. Incredibly beautiful landscapes and full of people who don’t see you as a dollar sign or a quick buck. The Mixture of a great city (Luang Prabang) with nice landscapes, all of which makes for a great time.
2) The Flying Fox. Probably incredibly dangerous, but really doesn’t it make it a whole lot better?
3) Beer Laos. It’s true; it’s the best beer in South East Asia
4) Si Phan Don (the island of Don Det), a great little place that will probably become a backpacker hole (a la Dali in China) in 5 to 10 years as development moves in. But right now it’s still great.
Off to Siem Reap tomorrow. Should be a fun ride, and I’m still undecided if I should get a one day or 3 day pass to Angkor Wat.
Still in Chiang Mai, but thankfully getting out of here tomorrow to go to Laos. I’m off to Luang Prabang (a city in northern Laos). The journey from Thailand to Luang Prabang is a bit of a rite of passage for most travellers, mostly due to the fact that all methods of getting there are crap. The fast boat involves sitting in a high powered canoe for 8 hours holding on to your pack and dear life. The slow boat (and my poison of choice) involves slowly chugging down the Mekong River while getting drunk, complaining, and sitting shoulder to shoulder. The only benefit? You usually get a great tan on these boats/ferries.
Pictured above is a Chedhi (like a stupa but not) with elephants on it. How much more Chiang Rai could it get? (err, Chiang Rai is known for their elephants). The temple itself was really nice, not many tourist and really pushy signs that kept demanding things be done. There were bells that said “Hit me!” and ropes that said “Pull me gently to the first level”. Sadly, I did not comply.
Went to the huge street market last night, which was good only because I spent the entire time eating. Whereas everyone else buys fisherman pants, hanging lights, and random doodads at night markets I spend my time hopping from food stall to food stall eating. I had lots of random sausange, fishcakes (called “hotman” phoentically), pakso (which is like bakso, which is also some fishcake derivative), papaya salad, and Mango with Sticky Rice.
I realized a couple posts ago I had categorically sworn off Mango with Sticky rice, but it’s everywhere in Chiang Mai and apparantly a speciality. So after seeing it a number of times I decided to give it another chance. It ended up being pretty good, but definitely not something life altering. Try it. Just try not to buy it off some old lady in Soi Rambuttri in Bangkok.
Best in Chiang Mai?
1) Wat Pra Singh. The buildings are nice, but the interesting/slightly creepy part is that in the side temples there are monks praying in glass cabinets and resemble statutes until you get up close (pictured)
2) Street food in Chiang Mai. So much different stuff, and due to the huge tourist presence a lot of it is labelled in English. If only I remembered all the things I ate.
3) The “Monk Chats” they have at almost every temple here. Very freeform and for the most part the monks are happy to answer every question. According to Craig (and my memory) many families send their oldest son to be a monk for two years as it’s considered a real honour
4) Elephant themed stuff everywhere. And none of the scared live baby elephants used to make money by people that are everywhere in Bangkok; really sad stuff.
In Bangkok and have already completed about 2/3 of the things I had wanted to do while here. Above, hanging out with the reclining Golden Buddha. Perhaps I need to slow down my paste. Incredibly hot and sticky. No time or patience to write/complain/comment. However, I have uploaded some new photos here. Check it out.
It’s official. I’m certified to dive up to to 18m in open water by myself according to PADI. Pictured is me all geared up and ready to go. I’ll admit I was a bit underwhelmed by my first two dive. I felt a bit like I was going for my open water for the sake of “doing it” (the first question everyone asks on this island is if you dive and where have you dived). Maybe it’s because the sites were okay rather than stellar, or just the general sense of uneasiness, but I’m converted after the 2 dives. The two sites we went to today (Chumpon Pinnacle and Japanese Garden for those heading this way) were incredible. A real Calvin and Hobbes/Jacques Costeau feeling to them. The best was being able to stand and stare at an interesting reef wall or see a school or fish or squid swim by. The visibility was also a lot better today than it had been the day before. The only little hiccup was that the water was incredibly choppy today making for a rough ride; this combined with a tomato and onion omelette provided for some generally queasy fun.
Some photos of the dive sights and Koh Tao in general. The top pic is Shark bay (which we didn’t go to, but you can snorkel out and see some Reef sharks) and below is Japanese Garden, named so because dive site resembles a Japanese rock garden. Lots of really interesting coral formations. If I had another day I would go hang out at the sand bar. Really nice sand and great swimming.
My diving “mates”, I’m using mates as they are all British. Thailand seems to have been taken over by the Brits, they are everywhere in Thailand and on the Koh islands. When the vactioners start coming out it usually means it’s the beginning of the end of a spot. As they would say, it becomes “chav-ey” and no longer worth going to.
There was actually 2 more people in my group, but they mysteriously disappeared after the first day. Not really sure what happened (“female problems” is what our instructor said), but they seemed to have disappeared off the island as well. At first I was a bit unsure about our instructor, but by the end I really liked him. He’s also gone on 7000 dives in 17 years, insanity. Really nice Thai guy called Matee. There is also some sort of relationship between divers and tattoos, they all have them and huge ornates ones. ALl the dive instructors and dive masters had at least two tattoos.
A parting shot of the squid the captain of the boat catched after we spotted a school of them. It caused a huge ink cloud. Off to Bangkok tomorrow, so no more beaches. Damn.
Persistent Nomad 