As I did with my travels around NZ, I kept a travel journal throughout my time in SE Asia. My original intention was to recount that virtually word for word – as I did with NZ – but I’ve come to the conclusion that may be a little long-winded. I’ve therefore decided to summarize our travels around SE Asia.Singapore
Our travels started on October 12th when we flew from Sydney to Singapore. Immediately struck by how charming the people are - the immigration desk even offered us a boiled sweet! Arriving around 10pm we were still shocked by just how humid it was – felt like walking through a warm shower as we left the airport! We spent a couple of excellent days staying in Little India – as it was Diwhali the whole place was lit up by bright lights - really enjoyed the food (especially the vegetarian options). Had our first experience of a cold shower – but it was much needed refreshment if I’m honest! Not sure what to make of the ‘Merlion’ that is Singapore’s emblem – think the tourist board must have taken a LOT of drugs when thinking that one up!
Malaysia
A nine-hour train journey had us in Kuala Lumpur – of particular note was the Madonna tracks playing in the immigration area! – and another place we were pleasantly surprised by. Stayed in the non-descript area of Chow Kit, but the Hotel Cosmopolitan proved to be a great base – the rooms decent & the owner friendly and helpful. The mighty Petronas Towers dominate the city & we spent a lot of time staring up at them! Spend a lot of time walking around the city – enjoying the Bird Park, the War Memorial, Merdeka Square, etc & the spectacular views from atop the KL Tower – help us to put our walks into perspective. Amused by the Malaysian version of Steve Irwin who gives us a tour of the grounds (and makes a little girl cry).
With Lucy practically in tears due to the lack of toilet we board a bus for the 10-hour overnight journey to Kota Bharu – a sleepy town that is the sailing point for our trip to the Perintian Islands. Get to Kecil to find that the beach is closed! Walk through the jungle to find another beach is only just open – but the views are spectacular and the water is crystal clear. It’s also nice to find somewhere that is not developed – electricity only on for 4-5 hours on a night! Disappointed to find that our mosquito net has several holes in it, but relieved to find we only get a few bites. More amusing is the frogs bathing in the toilet water! End up running low on funds on an island without an ATM so have to decide against the snorkelling (which we hear is fantastic) and somehow make it back to the mainland on a vastly overcrowded boat. Little did we know it’s the last we’ll see of the sun for quite some time.
Thailand
Experience my physical border crossing – although almost miss having my passport been stamped until I notice a friendly Malaysian lady knocking on a window! Stroll across into Thailand and purchase a train ticket for our journey north. The ticket guy asks if we want a “seat ticket” which I take to mean the options are “bed” or “seat”. As we board the train it transpires that the choice is actually to sit or STAND for the 9-18 hr journey. We get to experience our first 3rd class train journey and whilst the seats are stiff (no padding), the conditions are cramped and there is no air-con (apart from the window) we enjoy the journey – the people are so friendly and the food is superb!
Eventually make it to Surat Thani around midnight & say goodbye to our travelling companions who have another 9 hours to go before they hit Bangkok. Check into the only hotel in town – the Queen Hotel – it’s extremely cheap and the room comes complete with several friends (a cockroach under the pillow, an ant crawling through my hair) and a fan that sounded like it was about to fly off and behead us. Woken by the smell (it was BAD) and so no hanging around for us as we continued our journey to Ko Samui. Arrived on the island to find the rain had started and it is fair to say that the roads were not fully prepared for the downpour. Checked into the excellent Matlang Resort and started to pray for sunshine! Turns out Ko Samui is a bit like Magaluf in Thailand – not something that I particularly enjoy – but we did have a great time, meeting several great people (including Mike, Roxy & Simon) – found some great places to eat & a couple of interesting bars. Watched England lose the RWC Final on a night that made me sick to be an Englishman – the crowd in the bar were just sickening. Had an alcohol fuelled night out on our final day – went well until we hit the tequila and went downhill rapidly after that.
A choppy 2hr boat ride (Lucy not feeling great!) had us in Ko Phangan where we stayed in the excellent Phangan Rainbow – complete with a range of lovely dogs! Loved the Amsterdam Bar (complete with ‘shroom cocktails), almost died in quicksand (scary!) and had our first experience of a “Friends” bar – literally played episode after episode of Friends. Best of all was the Full Moon Party – the reason we had hung around for so long – a cross between ‘spring break’ & the rave season from Matrix 2! Had a couple of buckets of Sangsom (Thai rum) & M150 (similar to red bull) that literally blew my mind – reckon the M150 must contain amphetamine…. Managed to fall asleep on the beach and miss the sunrise, but worst of all was the feeling ill for the next 3 days! Note to self: stay away from buckets of booze, especially those containing M150!
As luck would have it, the day we left the islands the sun came out – just our luck! – and everyone on the boat got sunburnt! Another overnight bus journey had us in the manic city that is Bangkok. A hustling, bustling city with perhaps the worst traffic of any city that I have visited. Decided on a night of luxury & checked into the Banyan Tree – our first hot shower of the trip! – and made good use of the rooftop pool & bar before enjoying a dinner at the bizarre ‘Bed Supper Club’. Loved the way that every conceivable place along the Ko San Road was turned into a bar – garage forecourts, pavements, VW campervans, even the back of a pushbike!
Leaving Bangkok was much more trouble than it was worth and a train-strike coupled with awful traffic & terrible directions meant that a 90min journey to Ayathuya took a total of 7 hours! Even when we made it to Thailand’s former capital we were dropped off at the wrong place, which wasn’t too helpful in a town of very few English speakers! Eventually found a place to stay – hosted by a lovely family but home to a dog that barked throughout the night & meant little / no sleep for the two of us. The city itself had lots of temples to explore, but with Angkor in mind we deliberately restricted ourselves to visiting only a few and then enjoying the sun a little.
A super luxury VIP bus – complete with toilet! – took us to the walled city of Chiang Mai. Again rain prevented us from doing a few things we wanted to do but we managed to find a cool bar – THC – with superb views of the city. Unfortunately, following our excellent day of cooking with the Happy Garden School, I was taken ill and was confined to bed for 3 days. It’s fair to say that I saw a lot more of our bathroom & a lot less of the city than I had hoped to. At one point I was hallucinating so vividly that I thought a sniper was trying to shoot me from across the street – and spent the night squirming in the bed to avoid the laser sight! Fortunately, I did get to see some of the impressive night market and sample plenty of the local cuisine. Would love to go back to the region to partake in the treks.
Laos
The friendly & efficient airport in Chiang Mai was our departure point as we boarded a small propeller plane for our flight to Luang Prabang. So many people had told us good things about Laos that we worried whether it could possibly live up to expectations. Let me tell you, the northern part of the country provides possibly the most dramatic scenery I have witnessed – certainly up there with New Zealand. Enjoyed watching the sun setting over the city before taking a trip around the night markets. Spent a lot of time just chilling and taking in the pleasant atmosphere – a relief after manic Bangkok & 3 days in a bed! Interesting that no beggars around – well apart from one guy who seemed to change his outfit 3 times a day, including one dodgy Hawaiian shirt! – due to the welfare state in what is still a communist country. Amusing to see the people carrying around baguettes (it’s a former French colony) and we became big fans of the local delicacy (small baguette with laughing cow cheese & salad!). Good to see that there is also now more than one ATM in the country!One of the twistier road journeys I have experienced (rivals Skipper’s Canyon in NZ) took us through the mountains to Vang Vieng. Thought we had got off the bus in the wrong place as we were met by a deserted runway. Luckily, this was not the case & after a night of ‘Friends’ watching in a local bar we were up bright and early for a day of ‘tubing’. To the uninitiated, this involves travelling down the river in a rubber tube – basically the inner tube of a tractor tyre (I’m not sure who had the idea!?). We were told that without stopping the journey should take 90min – so it was with some surprise that we could still see the start 2hrs into the journey! The problem was that every 50 yards there was a bar pumping out music, offering bottles of Beer Lao (really good!) and a go on a rope-swing! How could we resist? Ended up completing the journey several beers to the worse and in complete darkness! An excellent experience and a must for anyone travelling through the region.
Not wanting to have another day of boozing it up on the river (we met a few people who went tubing every day for a fortnight!) we continued our journey south to Vientiane – the capital of Laos. A bit of a non-descript place if I’m honest but we enjoyed a stroll around the city and a couple of chilled out nights – sipping beers & watching pirated DVDs. Possibly the most interesting fact about the place was that the main monument – a Laos version of the Arc D’Triumphe – was built using cement the US had given for the building of a runway!
Cambodia
Following a very confusing spell at the airport in Vientiane – the international flight we were on left from the domestic terminal – a bumpy landing (the steward pretended to be worried) had us in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Found the ‘Tat Guesthouse’ a very friendly place to stay & the family were helpful and accommodating. Had an emotional and thought-provoking time at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek – replete with a tower of human bones & some bones still sticking out of the ground – followed by a view of Tuol Sleng prison (14,000 entered and only 12 lived). Just amazes me that human’s can do such things to each other. A really emotional day – and we just had to turn down the opportunity to blow-up a cow with a bazooka.
Phnom Penh houses several excellent examples of colonial architecture – some of which have been left to rot in the past few years – but the streets & river are in real need of a clean-up as they are litter strewn & people think nothing of urinating in the street (a bit like London on a Friday night!)….a real shame.
Decided against taking the boat to Battambang & instead headed straight for Siem Reap – home to the Temples of Angkor. Lots of bars & restaurants, all charging premium tourist prices. Our favourite was the ‘Dead Fish Tower’ – a multi-layered bar / restaurant serving great set-meals (Amok – a light curry was particularly good) and home to a crocodile farm!! No visit to Siem Reap would be complete without a viewing of the extensive temples & with help from our tuk-tuk driver – Sien – we had a fantastic 3 days of touring (although at times I felt ‘templed out’). Particular favourites were Ta Prohm (tree growing through the temple walls), Bayon (with it’s multi-faced towers), the gates of Angkor Thom (envisaged what it could have been like all those years ago with elephants walking through the crowds) and of course the wonderful Angkor Wat.Thailand
Almost had a heart attack when asked to ride on the back of a moped with my backpack – the tuk-tuk drivers made the joke that it was a good way to get to Bangkok (500km away!). Fortunately, I made it on to the bus early so that I could secure a seat with some leg-room – I say ‘some’ because the rest of the seats were literally 30cm apart – ‘Ouch’! One of the bumpiest journeys I have ever experienced had us back in Bangkok around nightfall.
A couple of days of exploration of this thriving metropolis were more than enough – the sheer throng of humanity was too much at times. Didn’t get to see the pool on top of our accommodation – Rambuttri Village Inn – but we had a great room & spent plenty of time roaming the relaxed Rambuttri Soi with the occasional venture into the busy Ko Sahn Road.
Sad to say goodbye to SE Asia, but it’s good to be back in Australia.
I think it’s fair to say that Lucy & I had a superb time in SE Asia. Saw some wonderful sights, had some ‘interesting’ travel experiences and sampled some awesome food & beer. Most importantly, we met some fantastic people and it is that which made our journey complete. In particular, the native people we met were friendly and often willing to give all they had – even if they had nothing.
Favourite food: Kow Pat Krabang / Papaya Salad / Fish Amok
Favourite beer: Beer Lao (enjoyed the odd Chiang Haze)
Best Activity: Tubing
Most thought provoking place: Tuol Sleng Prison
Best thing about trip: The people / Spending time with Lucy!
