Southeast Asia: A Second(ish) at a Time

I took a short video everyday and then put them all together into a short glimpse of travelling in Southeast Asia. I personally think this video is rather amazing.

Food of Southeast Asia

I love food and that is no joke. I have been blessed with a ridiculous metabolism, otherwise I would weigh 300 pounds. I have posted very few pictures of food from Southeast Asia in preparation for this video. Here is most of what I have eaten over the past 3 months:

Time to get a Job

After two days of trekking, we boarded the small boat for two hours to cross the lake. We then boarded a tuk tuk for 30 minutes and then a 12 hour bus back to Yangoon. We spent the day in Yangon and then flew to Bangkok where we chilled for 2 days before flying to New Zealand to pick up our stuff and head to Australia to find work.

After spending time in Turkey, South Korea, New Zealand, America and Southeast Asia it's time to get a job.

Stay tuned for some best travelling 2012.

Myanmar Trekking

We spent the last two days trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake. We used a company called "Sam's Family Trekking" and they were phenomenal. When we showed up yesterday morning Mr. Sam literally gave me cash back because one more person had joined our trek which meant that everything was cheaper and I was getting a partial refund. I cannot express how amazing everything was handled by Mr. Sam and his family.

Evening Bus

Last night the bus was headed to Inle Lake but we wanted to get off slightly before that to go to a town named Kalaw so that we could trek the rest of the way through the hills to Inle Lake. We paid more than locals do for the bus and were put near the front instead of in the back with the rest of the tourists. We assumed that we were in the front because the bus people knew that we wanted to get off early.

We were supposed to arrive in Kalaw between midnight and 1am so around 11:30 I unplugged my headphones and listened intently while looking out the window to make sure that we were ready when we got to Kalaw. When it got to be about 12:30 and we still weren't there I was going to ask the driver's assistant when we would be in Kalaw but then I saw a sign that said "Welcome to Kalaw", We put the rest of our stuff in our bags and waited for the bus to drive into town and then pull over. The stop was a place for everyone to get off and go to the toilet and have some food. We were silly to have worried so much about missing our stop.

When I got off the bus, I asked the driver "Kalaw?" to which I got a laugh and many locals pointing back the way we had come from.

Templed Out

Everyone we talked to said "If you go to Myanmar you MUST go to Bagan!!!" The main draw of Bagan is the 2200 temples and pagodas in the surrounding plains. Despite not wanting to ever look at a temple again yesterday morning we boarded a bus for Bagan.

Our time is really short in Myanmar so we only had today to explore the temples and we leave tonight on an overnight bus to Kalaw to the East. To expedite the temple exploration we hired a horse cart to drive us around.

The Worlds Biggest

Mandalay

We arrived this morning in Mandalay much later than we were supposed to arrive but at a more reasonable 6am. The four of us shared a pickup truck to our guesthouse and got rooms. We decided to meetup later for dinner and headed out for the day separately. Janelle and I started walking South towards some pagodas but even at 8am the sun was brutally hot. After walking for 20 minutes and being covered in sweat we realized that we had hardly gone anywhere on the map and would need a new strategy to get to the pagodas.

Wetness

It rained all night last night and only just stopped as we were preparing to go out for the day. We have booked a night bus tonight for 7:30pm for the 9 hour journey North to Mandalay. Meaning we will arrive in Mandalay around 4:30am a time that makes no sense at all. It seems that all of the bus times either leave in the morning which means you waste the day on the bus or take an awkwardly timed night bus as we are doing tonight.

Myanmar

At our fancy hotel in Bangkok I was arranging a transfer to the airport for our 7am flight and met an Aussie guy who is travelling with a French girl and they are also going to Myanmar. What a small world I thought.

When we got to the airport this morning our flight was full of people that we saw yesterday while getting our visa's at the embassy, apparently everyone waits until the last minute. When we arrived in Yangon we were met by someone from our guesthouse at the airport and found out that the Aussie guy and French girl had also booked into the same guesthouse as us.

The guidebook said that the exchange rate at the airport is terrible, we later found out that this was outdated and inaccurate information. We asked at our guesthouse who told us that he could only give us 820 Kyat for each USD but we should be able to get 840+ from people in the market. On the way to the market we passed a bank and I looked in at the rate and it was 863 Kyat for 1 USD.

Back in Bangkok

We had to come back to Bangkok because we are going to Myanmar(Burma) next and need to get visa's before we arrive in Myanmar and Bangkok is the easiest and fastest place to get them in Southeast Asia. Bangkok is also the international gateway for flights to Myanmar with the most frequent service and the cheapest flights. As always we arrive places on the wrong days and arrived in Bangkok on Saturday and the Embassy doesn't open until Monday morning.

The bus from Cambodia dropped us off in the Khaosan Road area so we stayed at a guesthouse there the night before last. Yesterday we moved to the Central Business District of Bangkok because it is very close to the Myanmar embassy. For the first time in Southeast Asia our hotel upgraded us to some kind of amazing suite, with a lounge, dining area and kitchen, all for $20 a night!

Little Women

Yesterday, we finally left Siem Reap after 3 days and 4 nights there. We had an amazing time, spending the days at the temples and the nights in the town where there are lots of restaurants and bars. I'm not a big fan of buying things when travelling because I think it's a waste of money and also means there is more stuff to carry around. I also really dislike children selling things and think that it's better to not buy from them so that they are not an income source for their parents/pimps and seek other avenues, preferably an education, to succeed.

Angkor What?

I was so excited!

We spent the last three days at the Angkor Archaeological Park, looking at lots of temples. I'll spare you my description of each and instead just show you some pictures from each place.

Fishes

We decided to take the scenic route from Battenbang to Siem Reap on a boat. Yesterday, when we had the motorbike we went to the boat pier to buy a ticket but the only tickets that were being sold were for speed boats with companies that we hadn't heard of so we didn't buy a ticket from them. Instead we talked to our hotel who called the main boat company and got us tickets on the slower and more comfortable tourist boat.

When we arrived at the pier this morning the only boat that was going was a speed boat, we had been sold something different from what we wanted. We made a bit of a scene but the only option was to either get on the boat or wait another day and hope for a better boat to go the following day and get on that one.

Wet Underpants, Temples and Crocodiles

Bamboo Railroad

We took a bus this morning from Phnom Penh to Battambang, Cambodia's fourth tourist destination. As soon as we arrived at the bus station, actually just a corner in the North of town, we were bombarded by tuk tuk drivers. There was one guy who was literally running next to the bus with a sign for some hotel as the bus was still moving. The drivers were so in your face that we grabbed all of our stuff and ran off as quickly as possible to get them to leave us alone and give ourselves some room to breathe.

We hadn't prebooked anything so we started walking around the small town to look for the two accommodation we had identified as possibilities.

Khmer Rouge

We had breakfast at the same place again today and it was once again incredible.

The Russian Market

My first impression of Cambodia is that there are more people begging here than any other country we have been to in Southeast Asia and there are also more fancy SUV's and western restaurants than anywhere we have been. Last night for dinner we had margaritas and burritos and for breakfast we went to this amazing cafe and I got a full breakfast with poached eggs. Normally I wouldn't indulge in so much western food but it's everywhere here and it has been a couple of months since we have had the chance.

The tuk tuk drivers here are also more persistent than anywhere we have visited on this trip. We had one guy who literally followed us around all day everywhere we went and waited outside of places while we were inside of them in hopes of building rapport and getting us to ride with him.

Goodnight Vietnam

We were heading to Cambodia today which is only 6 km away from Phu Quoc island but we had to take a ferry 45 km to the Vietnam mainland and then get on a bus to the border, there is not a sea crossing passport process.

We woke up this morning with crazy strong winds, massive amounts of water pouring down from the sky and with gigantic waves. We were worried that the ferry wouldn't go and if it did it would be even more rough than on the way to Phu Quoc Island when I nearly vomited (read about that here). We called to make sure the ferry was still running and it was. Twenty minutes after we were supposed to be picked up and there still wasn't anyone to come and get us, I was worried we would miss the ferry.

I've got an idea!

Yesterday on the motorbikes was so much fun that we decided to stay for another night and explore the North of the island. To get to the North you need to pass through town over a floating bridge that is on the back of a boat. When we were trying to cross the bridge it was turned sideways as it does six times a day to let other boats passed. We joined the line of other people waiting for the bridge to open back up.

Clever Plan

Sometimes I impress myself with how clever I am. The problem that needed solving wasn't Maria, it was that we hadn't seen much of the island yet and our hotel were liars who wouldn't get a penny more than I prepaid from me. So we needed to switch hotels to somewhere else but everything within walking distance was out of our price range. We decided that we would rent two motorbikes and use them to transport our stuff from our current hotel to our new hotel, which was 3 kilometers away.

How were we going to do that without needing a taxi or walking 3 km to return the bikes at least once? Here is where my cleverness came in to effect

RRRRHHRHR

Despite promises from the receptionist that construction work doesn't start very early, I was woken up by an elderly Vietnamese man sitting outside my window sharpening his saw. RRRRHHRHR, RRRRHHRHR, RRRRHHRHR, RRRRHHRHR, so obnoxious! I went over to reception and made a bit of a scene telling a different receptionist that I wasn't happy being lied to about all the rooms being full nor by being woken up by RRRRHHRHR.

Same Same

I made our way to Phu Quoc Island today. I loved the bus ride the other day on Phoung Trang ( I promise I'm not getting any kickbacks for good reviews) that we went to the bus station to book another bus with them. For the same price that locals pay Phoung Trang picked us up at our hotel, drive us to the bus station, take us on the bus and then at the destination drove us to the ferry terminal.

We waited around at the ferry terminal for an hour for the ferry to leave and then loaded on board. The boat was bigger than I expected with two levels and two sections in the bottom of the boat where our seats were.

Rye Hushed Asses

We have had to get up early everyday for a week now and I am getting sick of it, if I wanted to wake up early all the time, I would get a job! We were woken up at 5am by boats roaring up and down the river and then the tour started at 6am, we needed to get going before it was too warm outside. We met Hung just outside of our room where the boats were docked and climbed in to the narrow boat, with just enough room to have two people sit side by side. Our boat was made up of three Spanish people, Hung, the boat driver and us. There was also another boat with a Dutch family of five who were driven by a lone female driver.

The boat headed down the river while Hung passed out breakfast of bread with soft cheese and coffee or tea. First we went to the floating market where people from 11 different districts come to buy and sell their goods.

Best Bus Ride

We are headed to a "homestay" near Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta, about 5 hours South of HCMC. I asked the owner of the hostel if he could book us a bus as he does everything for cheap. He told me that the best way was to take the local bus from the bus station down the street, the one with the liars and thieves, to the west bus station and to get a bus from a company called Phuong Trang. This is NOT something that would happen at a normal hotel, they would try to sell me some extremely expensive bus ticket and I was really thankful for his help and honesty.

We got the bus to the west bus station for 4000 VND ($0.20) and found the booth to buy the tickets. The price was written permanently on the glass and the women at the counter were really helpful.

Cu Chi Tunnels

We booked a trip to the Chu Chi tunnels through our hostel as they were the cheapest and all of the tours seemed to be essentially the same. Strangely none of the tours actually include the price of admission, only a tour guide and the bus ride. What I knew before going was that the Cu Chi tunnels were used during the Vietnam War by the Viet Cong(VC) to secretly get around and attack the American and South Vietnam forces.

I imagined that the tunnels would be a memorial to all of the lives that were lost and there would be some recreated tunnels that were made for tourists to crawl through to see what it was like being in the tunnels.

Instead we were first shown a video that was made in the 1970's and shows the "American Devil" invading Vietnam and killing both women and children.

HCMC

At least he is wearing a hard hat.

The guesthouses and hotels that we could find online for HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City formally Saigon) were quite expensive, by our meager standards, so we decided to stay in a hostel for the first time since Singapore as it was only $6 each per night and had good reviews.

I got an email from the hostel manager about how to get to the hostel and here is an excerpt:

From bus station have many people try to cheat you, be careful! someone try to steal your bags, taxi drivers try to cheat you

Cau Lau

We rented bicycles for $1 and rode them all over Hoi An. Janelle went back to look at the first draft of her dress and it was nearly perfect. We were told to come back at 2pm when all of the alterations were complete. We stopped to take some pictures of the river next to a bridge and a motorbike with a local on it lost control and skidded along the road and came to a stop where the bridge met the road.

High Expectations

After everything positive everyone had said about Hoi An and the terrible bus ride to get here, I had very high expectations. I knew my expectations were unachievable but I rolled with it and today was actually a lot of fun.

The Night Bus Nightmare

We pretty much spent the last two days laying out by the ocean in lounge chairs, you can get two of them for the whole day for $3. The lounge chairs are also really padded like small beds, which makes them really comfortable. All of the locals wait until the sun goes down before they come out as they don't want to get sun on their skin. As the sun moves lower in the sky throwing shadows off of buildings and trees the locals move closer and closer to the water, while staying safely in the shadow.

Bizarre $7 Boat Cruise

Today we went on a boat cruise called Mama Linh's Boat Cruise. It was supposedly started back in the day when there were few if any rules in Vietnam. Mama Linh had a boat and drove it around getting people drunk and high while cruising the ocean around Nha Trang.

It took off in popularity as people broke the first rule of Mama Linh's Boat Cruise's and talked about Mama Linh's Boat Cruise's to other people. Other companies soon copied the formula and everything became commercial and planned out. Fortunately though the price has stayed low and as such I didn't expect much.

Mud Bath

Yesterday we hit the road at 7am to get to the airport for our 9:30 flight, only to discover that at the last minute the plane had been delayed until 12:30. To compensate us for wasting our time the airline they gave us food vouchers to be used at a shop near the gate. Our choices for lunch were; a hot dog, cake or noodle soup. There were literally cockroaches crawling on top of the hot dogs.

1000 Vietnamese Dong

We arrived in Hanoi in the early morning as everyone was heading off to work.

We are staying in another hotel in Hanoi, outside of the really touristy area, which allowed us to see some more of real Vietnam. We walked down a street where people were preparing various kinds of meat for the day.

Su's Village (Lao Chai)

We met our guide Su again and this time were joined by two Israeli girls and a father and his little boy from Vietnam in addition to the Thai guy. As a result of the extra people this group was much slower than yesterday when we were virtually on our own. As such Su tailored the route to the easiest possible way, which meant we spent a lot of time walking along the road.

Janelle and I kept trying to get Su to lead the group into the fields and she finally relented and we started walking among the rice terraces

In Sapa with Su

Stunning views of rice terraced hills among minority villages while being lead by an amazing local guide makes for a great couple of days.

We got dropped back in Hanoi around 6pm and were supposed to get picked up at 7pm, we ran around frantically stocking up on supplies for the train ride and shoveled food down our throats as fast as we could. Then we sat waiting until 8:30pm for the transfer to pick us up. Apparently I am the only person in Southeast Asia who values my time.

We got to the train station at 9pm and waited until 11pm to board our 11:30pm sleeper train.

Halong Bay

Yesterday when we arrived at our hotel we needed to get our laundry done and the hotel manager said he could get it done for us by last night, so we unloaded everything on him. I literally only had the clothes I was wearing. When we got back to our hotel last night not only was our laundry not done yet but it wasn't even in the hotel to recover our dirty clothes. The problem being that we were supposed to be going to Halong Bay at 8am. The manager told me to come down in the morning and we would get the laundry together.

I went down to reception at 7am to go with the owner to get our laundry, "They will bring it very soon, I will call your room" he assured me. When it was 7:50am and we still didn't have our laundry we went to the lobby to have breakfast and to wait. I was wearing yesterdays clothes still, which probably weren't even clean when I put them on.

When in Vietnam

Yesterday, after a well deserved nights rest we packed up our stuff to get out of Vinh. I learned my lesson that I need to have things written down in both English and Vietnamese when I'm not in a touristy area so that people know what I am looking for. We caught a cab to the bus station and went inside. I was not going to talk to anyone who wasn't firmly planted behind a desk selling tickets. While walking through the parking lot of the bus station, I spotted a large new bus that was marked "Hanoi" on the front.

Vinh

The conclusion to the entry "Bus Full of Beer"

We arrived in Vinh just as it was starting to get dark, without any Vietnamese dong(VND), without anything booked or planned and knowing nothing about the town. We didn't know where to tell the bus to drop us off so he dropped us off at the bus station.

Bus Full of Beer

We asked the four teenage girls that ran our guesthouse what time the songthaew back to Ban Khoun Kham was and were told we should be ready by 7am. We have gotten really good at getting ready in the morning, it is amazing how fast you can pack and dress when you don't care what you look like and you simply cram all of your stuff in your bag. We were ready by 6:40 and started walking in the street towards Kong Lor Cave, where the songthaew would be coming from. Before long we could hear the horn of the truck and then it rounded the corner in front of us and we hopped on with the the locals.

Kong Lor Cave

My pictures won't convince you and neither will my description but Kong Lor Cave is one of the most incredible places I have ever been in my life!

Off the Beaten Path

We are heading off of the tourist path some to go to a small town and to visit some caves tomorrow. We packed everything up in Vientiane and headed to the songthaew stand to get a ride to the bus station. There was a boss man who had very good English and did the negotiating and we had to storm off to finally get him to give us a price that was reasonable. The boss man then called one of his drivers over who directed us to his songthaew. I threw my bag into the back but was startled by something moving around and I screamed like a little girl!

Vietnam Visa

We hadn't heard anything really positive about Vientiane other than it was just a city that happened to be the capital of Laos. We needed to go there anyway though becasue it was on our way to our next destination and we needed visa's for Vietnam.

We arrived in Vientiane around 2pm on a Friday and quickly found a hotel and dropped our bags in the room and then started walking towards the Vietnamese embassy.

Outdoor Rock Climbing

I've never been outdoor rock climbing, I used to go semi regularly indoor rock climbing while I was living in London but I have always thought outdoor rock climbing seemed really exciting and I finally got the opportunity to give it a try today.

Tubing

As I said yesterday a big reason that people come to Vang Vieng is because of the tubing. A typical day of tubing goes something like this:

Wake up late, no reason to get up early.

Go to a "Friends" restaurant and have a baguette for breakfast/lunch with bacon, eggs, or pretty much anything else that you want.

Caving

Yesterday we got a transfer from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Sometimes we have been prebooking accommodation online when there is a good deal or a place has really good reviews. We did this in Vang Vieng and when we checked into our accommodation it was nothing like what we had expected. The back door was a sliding glass door that over looked the river but the only way to close it was to pull it towards you on one side while simultaneously pushing it left and pushing the lock down. The bed was resting on a piece of cardboard that was covered in 1/4 of an inch of dirt.

Elephant Encounter

To most people Southeast Asia means beaches, cheap everything, sunny weather, temples and elephants. Today we got to command elephants, ride them, feed them and wash them in the river.

World Heritage Sunset

Spent the day walking around Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city has a lot of French influence in the architecture, which line the river with villas.

We went to Wat Xieng Thong one of the most important Lao monasteries.

Goodbye Thailand (3 Days)

To get from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Laung Prabang, Laos you take a bus to the border where you stay for the night and then cross the border and take a boat all day, stay in a small town and then take a boat all day for the next day, finally arriving in Luang Prabang after 3 days and 2 nights of travel.

Despite feeling awful we headed out to as scheduled. (Mostly because I couldn't change our reservation without paying a substansial amount.)

I Wrote You a Song

(cue the guitar)
I was a
Puking and a pooing
Puking and a pooing
Things coming up from where I put them in
Puking and a pooing
Puking and a pooing
Going number one from my number two
Puking and a pooing
Puking and a pooing
(fade out)

I was up all night doing just as my song suggests but strangely Janelle was feeling fine. Maybe my finishing of Janelle's beers gave me a terrible Chang-over (Hangover from drinking too much Chang Beer) yet left her unscathed. Regardless, we had a big preparation day planned so I pulled my stuff together and headed out.

Muay Thai Boxing

Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand and I thought it would be would be fun to take a lesson myself. In my search I found this website:

"Before joining our school it is necessary to pass a basic interview so we can be sure of the personality and motivation of our students. When you are in Chiang Mai and you are ready to start training please give us a call so we can meet with you for the brief interview. If you pass the interview we will reveal the location of the Muay Sangha School. When you start training you will need to bring to the school three white lotus flowers, three jasmine garlands and an envelope containing one month's payment of 10,000 Baht ($316)."

Let me guess, the revealed location is a dark alley and the flowers are so they can put them over your lifeless body after they beat you up and take your envelope of cash. No thank you!

Beautiful Sunday

We were unsure where to head to next, our plan was to go to Laos next as our Thailand visa's run out in 5 days. We checked transfers from Pai to the border, but they didn't leave until 6pm the next day and claimed to arrive at the border at midnight (I did some reading online and found out that you actually arrive around 3am) and then have to be up at 7am to cross the border into Laos. That did not sound like a good time to me, so instead we got a bus back to Chiang Mai.

White Water Rafting

Yesterday we got a transfer from Chiang Mai to Pai. They told us it would be 3 hours but ended up taking nearly 5 by the time the driver picked up everyone else in town at their hotels/guest houses and then got on the road. Pai is a hippy town up in the mountains of Northwest Thailand.

The purpose of coming to Pai was for the white water rafting.

I fell in love with a ..... motorbike

My pimped out, pink motorbike

We rented a motorbike and drove it to a the top of a mountain to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep with Amazing views of Chiang Mai and then finally found some waterfalls in Thailand!

Night Market Shopping

Chiang Mai Night Market

I finally bought some stuff!!! Tonight we went to the Night Market with a plan to spend. Janelle was on the prawl for some fisherman's pants and I was looking for a speaker to listen to my Apple iPod Classic and some new headphones as mine are in the process of failing. First we needed to eat though.