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