16 Month Epic Adventures All Must Come to an End

Well, we have checked out of our hotel, eaten our final Pad Thai, and are just waiting to be picked up for the airport. It's going to be a 26 hour adventure going home, from when we leave Bangkok today (on Thursday) to when we arrive in Toronto (on Friday - we go back in time), but since we have taken bus rides that long, this should be a piece of cake!


And now, in no particular order...


The Best of South East Asia

Best Beaches: Malaysia
Best Value Accommodation: Cambodia
Best Food: Thailand
Friendliest People: Cambodia
Best Beer: Black Panther - Cambodia
Best Cities: Hoi An (Vietnam), Dalat (Vietnam), Nong Kiaw (Laos), Kota Bharu (Malaysia), Penang (Malaysia), Kampot (Cambodia)
Best Diving/Snorkelling: Malaysia
Best Dessert: ABC - Malaysia (Craig), Streetside Rotis - Thailand (Andrea)
Cheapest Beer: Vietnam
Craziest Streets to Cross: Hanoi (Vietnam)
Best Market: Chatuchuk Weekend Market (Bangkok, Thailand)



Average Daily Spending

Calculated by adding up how much we spent in a country (food, accommodation, transport, etc.), and dividing it by the number of days we spent there.

India: $36
Malaysia: $42
Thailand: $44 (diving), $38 (no diving)
Laos: $43
Vietnam: $43
Cambodia: $33




Travelling By the Numbers

How much time we spent, in 16 months, in each type of transport. Imagine!

Camel: 18 hours = 0.75 days
Airplane: 73 hours = 3 days
Train: 142 hours = 6 days
Boat: 56 hours = 2.5 days
Bus: 422.5 hours = 17.5 days

That totals 30 days of travel time out of a 16 month trip, not including time spent driving around New Zealand in our campervan!




Types of Transportation We've Taken

- plane
- train
- camel
- bus
- campervan
- boat
- scooter
- human-pulled rickshaw
- cycle rickshaw
- tuk-tuk/motorized rickshaw
- bicycle
- car
- subway
- boat
- elephant
- shared pick-up truck




Odd Food We've Seen (and sometimes tried)

- cricket
- spider
- frog
- dog
- horse
- eel
- scorpion
- beetle
- worm
- maggot
- rat
- bat
- goat
- ant




Memorable Experiences, Country by Country

New Zealand
Standing eye-to-udder with 200+ cows while they pee and poo on us, while trying to milk them. Then wrangling 60 naughty calves in order to ensure each one feeds... twice a day. Climbing various peaks above snow-capped mountains and glacier-fed lakes (Roy's Peak, especially). Sitting on a beach reading when a wild seal popped out of the ocean and challenged us to a game of tag.

India
Riding a camel for three days through the desert near the Pakistan border and sleeping on a blanket in the dunes under the stars. Getting a private cooking lesson from an Indian matriarch, in her kitchen, and then sharing the meal with her and her family. Being (paid) to be extras in a Bollywood movie (No Problem, starring Anil Kapoor and Sushmita Sen).

Malaysia
Snorkelling in the Perehentian Islands with a giant turtle, stingrays, sharks, and a school of giant groupers. Eating the cheapest street food in South East Asia. Arriving in clean, organized Kuala Lumpur after spending three months in India and feeling like we were finally back in a modern country.

Thailand
Visiting the monkey temple in Lopburi where Craig was attacked by three baby monkeys (luckily with no teeth). Riding on an elephant through the jungle in Koh Chang and being allowed to ride on the neck and "steer". Sharing the best curries in Thailand on Koh Phan-gan with new friends, and Full Moon Partying two different times.

Laos
Experiencing a 12-hour, but only 380 km, hilly, windy bus rides and being puked on by kids. Feeling the most off the beaten track, visiting northern towns where no one speaks English. Tubing in Vang Vieng, complete with riverside bars, slides of death, and muddy tug-of-war.

Vietnam
Drinking the cheapest beer in South East Asia (20 cents/glass) with travellers and locals alike at sidewalk bia hois all over the country. Surviving multiple scams (ask Andrea for full details). Finding our favourite cities in South East Asia, with amazing food and friendly people (Hoi An, Dalat).

Cambodia
Crossing the border on the Mekong River from Vietnam in a longtail boat, being greeted by smiling, waving children along the banks. Visiting the Temples of Angkor in Siem Reap and standing in awe of their size and beauty. Feeling like locals in Kampot, where we stayed long enough to know restauranteurs, locals, the dumpling lady, the baker, etc.



And Now...

... we go home. Thanks to everyone who followed this blog; even though the comments weren't always numerous, according to our counter our 87 posts got over 10,000 hits! Our hard drive and camera were on the fritz near the end, so we weren't able to share as many pictures as we'd hoped. Invite us out and we'll bring some pictures (once everything is sorted) and talk your ear off about the last 16 months... if you want!

If you or anyone you know would like any advice about an of the countries we've visited, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're always happy to help!

See you in Canada!

Body Paint & Culture Shock

Last week we made our way back into Thailand via Bangkok, and headed south for two weeks of fun in the sun.

First we went to Had Rin beach, on Koh Phan-gan, for our second Full Moon Party. We met up with our Dutch friends Floris, Marlous, Dolce, and Gabbana, and had four (late) nights of hard-core partying. It's all a blur of fluorescent body paint, beers, foam parties, drinking cocktails out of buckets, fire games, and beach dance parties. Once again the average age of party-goers was around 22. Craig is rocking a three-month-old handlebar moustache (Yosemite Sam-style, now) and Floris had a relatively young one-month-old 'stache. All the young 20-year-old backpackers fell in love with the guys' facial hair - petting them, having pictures taken with them, grooming them, and just all round complimenting them. Needless to say, a fun time was had by all.

Now the two of us are on Koh Samui, enjoying a week of down time. Our bungalow is 100 m from the sea, there is amazing food, we haven't had a day of rain, and Craig still gets at least one compliment a day on his moustache.

Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok (on our last overnight bus!) one last time, where we'll again meet up with Marlous. We have six days to shop 'til we drop, and celebrate Craig's September 7th birthday in a way you only can in Bangkok.


REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK

After living and travelling in Asia for the past nine months or so, we know we're bound to have some major culture shock upon returning to Canada. There are a million and a half differences between the relative order of Canada and the apparent chaos of Asia, never mind the differences between life on the road (or out of a backpack) and a "settled-down" life that includes jobs. Here are some of the things we think will be the biggest shocks:

Food & Drink - We haven't drank water from a tap since leaving New Zealand in January. Having spent time in Asian cities (mostly in India) where you're guaranteed to get sick if you do, it will be weird to be able to do it back home. Also, for nine months we've eaten out, three meals a day, every single day. We immersed ourselves in Asian culture by rarely eating "Western" meals - we've eaten pizza twice, and haven't had peanut butter at all. Cooking our own meals (including real cheese!) according to our daily cravings will be wonderful.

Bathrooms - Let us paint a picture for you of the typical Asian bathroom. About 90% of the time, the toilet is Western-syle (on the travelling scene); 10% of the time, it's a squat toilet. Whether it is in your hotel or at a restaurant, toilet paper usually isn't provided, so hopefully you brought your own (locals use that bucket of water over there and their left hand; or, the spray gun attached to the wall). The Asian plumbing often can't handle toilet paper (a Western invention), so when you're finished, throw it in the garbage can (that may or may not have a lid). If you're lucky, the toilet has a working flusher. If not, take that bucket of water and pour it in the bowl - that's bucket flush! The tap by the bucket is in case it's a two- or three-bucket job. Oh, you want to take a shower? In India, often you just got a bucket with a smaller bucket, for throwing water on yourself. Here is Southeast Asia, there are shower heads. But notice the lack of a tub or shower cubicle, and the drain in the floow. The whole bathroom is your shower! And the floor and toilet seat will stay wet for hours! After nine months of this, bathrooms back home will be so... luxurious.

Show Me the Money - Each country required bargaining in varying degrees, from Vietnam (for bloody everything) to Thailand (only for souveniers and transportation). But back home, it happens face-to-face usually for used cars and at garage sales. Fixed prices will be a refreshing change. We've been paying for internet by the hour since we left Canada, and we're sick of it! The cost has ranged from 25 cents to $5 per hour... and speeds have varied from slower than dial-up to lightening fast. North America is about the only place in the world where we must pay for incoming calls on our cell phones - pretty much everywhere else this is unheard of - even in Asia! And of course, although we are not looking forward to working again, it will be nice to be earning money again, and watching our bank balance grow instead of shrink!

(Inter)National Communities - We have become so used to 95% of the people around us not speaking English, it will be weird to be surrounded by English speakers - with similar accents, no less! Being part of an international travelling community means meeting new, interesting people from all over the world every day. Is it common to randomly talk to people at restaurants, on buses, anywhere really - everyone is friendly, everyone is in the same boat, and everyone has a story to tell. The next time you are out for dinner, imagine a stranger (probably from another country) suddenly pulls up a chair to your table and asks you where you are from, where you are heading, and then gives you their email address. Randomly talking to strangers and trading contact information just isn't as accepted once you're off the travelling scene.

Add to all that living with a closet/dresser instead of out of a backpack, a wardrobe 20 times as big as the one we've been living with, cold weather, high prices (HOW MUCH for a beer???), dogs on leashes, and weird animals like skunks and squirrels... if you see us walking around back home in a daze, please ensure we get home safely! Or, please, just buy us a beer!

Angkor, I Barely Know Her!

We arrived in Siem Reap last Friday with one objective: to go see the Temples of Angkor. Scattered around the outskirts of the city are hundreds of stone temples built between the 9th and 13th centuries. The temples fell off the proverbial map until around 1908, when French archaeologists began to clear away the encroaching jungle and rebuild the damaged temples. The most famous temple, Angkor Wat, claims to be the largest religious building in the world. It's a big symbol of national pride for Cambodians, appearing on the money, flag, cigarettes, and even beer. We made it into the park for sunrise and spent the whole morning touring seven of the temples, including Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, a temple complex being taken over by giant trees whose roots are slowly strangling the stone buildings. It was even used as a set for the movie Tomb Raider.

While in Siem Reap Andrea found a cricket in her dinner. Although Cambodians eat them deep-fried by the bagful, she did not consume it. She also did not complain about it; her dish was veggie, and it was a "bonus"- like complaining about an extra piece of chicken in your dinner. After that we got lured into a bar that was hosting pig racing for charity. That's right, 12 pigs competed to see which one could run a course around the bar the fastest (while being chased), and half of all bets placed went to local charities. It was very squealy.

Cambodia has a dark history that is pretty recent but widely unknown in the world. From 1975 through the 1990s, a group called the Khmer Rouge led a bloody revolution that killed millions of Cambodians. Educated people, monks, doctors, those who could speak foreign languages or who wore glasses, were among the people labeled "parasites" and then forced into labour camps, or imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Only now are leaders of the Khmer Rouge being brought to trial, and unfortunately the main leader, Pol Pot, has already died before being tried for his crimes against humanity.

Now we're back in Phnom Pehn, the capital. We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former Khmer Rouge-run prison that, at its gruesome peak, killed 100 people per day. From 1975 to 1979, 20,000 men, women, and children were held and tortured here, before being executed at the Killing Fields 14 km outside of town. Pretty much any Cambodian has a story of personal tragedy due to the Khmer Rouge regime. The museum was shocking, but it felt like a history that should be acknowledged, even if it is a little late.

We are waiting for our Thai visas to be ready in a few days before we head back into Thailand. We have seen everything we wanted to see, so we decided to travel to the southern beaches again. We will be meeting up with Floris and Marlous, our Dutch friends, on Koh Phan-gan for our second full moon party. Killing a few weeks on the beaches before we head home certainly won't be very difficult!

Harry and the Hendersons... I mean, the Swinsons

We've been in Cambodia for the past two weeks, enjoying friendly people, yummy food, and a wide variety of beers. You know your perspective is shot when Cambodia's $0.75 beers are "really expensive" compared to Vietnam's $0.20 beers.

From the capitol Phnom Phen we headed south to Sihanoukville, Cambodia's big beach destination. The beach turned out to be small and dirty, with many many people selling or begging. Unfortunately, many of the sellers are very young children, and tourists still buy things from them, keeping them useful to their "pimps" and out of school, where they belong. The town also had its fair share of old Western men with young Cambodian "girlfriends" - apparently 1/3 of prostitutes here are between the ages of 12 and 17. All this, combined with three full days of rain, pushed us on to the next town.

Sleepy Kampot has been our favourite spot in Cambodia so far, and we spent a week relaxing there. Every single child in town waved, smiled, and shouted "Hi! How are you?" as we walked by (or they biked by). We felt like celebrities.

We rented bikes and visited a local swimming spot on the river, where the 12 year old boys tried to secretly photograph Andrea. Craig laughed. Along the way we visited the zoo, where we were able to feed elephants and shake their trunks. We also met Harry, one of the orangutangs, and the lax safety meant we could scratch his tummy and shake his hand. Don't worry, he didn't bite! He did fall in love with Andrea, though.

In Kampot we found a great little restaurant, Chim's, with incredible food: homemade pumpkin soup with garlic baugette, chicken amok (a sweet Cambodian red curry with coconut milk), and lok lak (beef in a black pepper gravy). We met some friendly travellers here one night, including two fellow Canadians, Josh and Jen, from Ottawa.

We went to Kep for a day, as did Josh and Jen, and we all enjoyed a fresh crab dinner with black cracked pepper at the market. Yes, Craig and I ate crab, and it was delicious! A gian plate full of four meaty crabs cost all of $5. Here we saw a lady boy wearing a wicked Napolean Dynamite "Shocks, Pegs, Lucky!" shirt. Craig complemented him (her?) on it, and won himself a non-English speaking girlfriend for life.

Yesterday we arrived in Battambang, another riverside town. In the past two weeks it has rained 10 days - apparently, this is the rainy season. We have a few more towns to visit in Cambodia before we head back into Thailand to end off our trip.

Ding Dong, Farewell Vietnam

In Nha Trang, a seaside town and Vietnam's unofficial scuba diving capital, we decided not to do any diving. We heard it isn't that spectacular due to underwater garbage and the effects of dynamite fishing. Instead we spent a day at Vinpearl Land - a scaled-down version of Canada's Wonderland (or Disneyland, to our non-Canadian readers). For $16 we got unlimited access to outdoor rides (including a roller coaster), animal shows (complete with monkeys wearing silk and riding tiny bikes), indoor arcade games, a "4D" movie theatre, and a waterpark with a lazy river, slides, and a wave pool. Also, our three-km-long cable car rides (the world's longest over water) to and from the island were included. Since the place was chock full of Vietnamese families, we considered it "immersing ourselves in local culture."

Next up was the refreshing climate of another hill town (elevation 1500 m), Dalat. During our three days there it was between 15 and 20 degrees Celcius - ahhh. Unfortunately, it also rained on and off. But the $2 (!) bottles of red wine (locally produced) and the $2 baguette and cheese deals at the bakery made up for the rain.

Sidenote: the only cheese that stores carry in Vietnam is triangles of "Laughing Cow" cheese. While it is an alright cheese, we really miss a nice sharp cheddar, a savoury brie, or some old blue cheese (well, actually only Craig misses the smelly blue cheese).

Our final town was Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon (and actually still called Saigon by everyone in the south - hmmm, a small rebellion against communism?). We visited the War Remnants Museum with its American planes and tanks. The photo exhibits, primarily from the "American War" (aka the Vietnam War), were heart-wrenching. The jars of miscarried Agent Orange babies were a little much. And although the museum was pretty anti-American and presented a very one-sided, propagandist view of the war (you'd think the Viet Cong were saints), it was a touching tribute to the millions casualties on both sides, including civilians and international journalists.

We meandered down the Mekong on a two-day tour, staying the night at a floating hotel, and entered Cambodia via a riverside border crossing. We're currently in the capital, Phnom Phen ("nom pen"), where we're getting our bearings before heading south to the beaches. For the last two weeks or so, we've been travelling with Marlous, Floris, and Vanessa, two Dutchies and a Brit. It's been great to play cards and share drinks with a group of like-minded people.

In our blog we try to be positive about where we go and our experiences. There are always giong to be high and lows of travelling. However, so far Vietnam has been the least favourite country we're visited. There are more scams and tricks to separate you from your dong (money) than anywhere else. The bargaining is excessive, many hotels tried to cheat us, and we just got sick and tired of it. If you get a few glasses of wine or beer into us when we return home in six weeks we'll have some good stories to tell that we can laugh at with the benefit of hindsight. While Vietnam has a lot to offer - beautiful cities, cheap beer, alright food (though it has nothing on Thailand) - Southeast Asia has much more friendly and welcoming countries than Vietnam.

Craig Tried To Pay For Dinner With Wiener, But They Would Only Accept Dong

An overnight train delivered us from Sapa's cool mountain climate back into Hanoi's heat. When our train arrived at 4 am it was already 30 degrees in Hanoi. Two hours later we boarded another train and headed south to Nihn Binh ("Ning Bing"), where we found a tiny restaurant that served excellent goat (sorry Brad) and beef.

Here we did a boat trip through the Trang An caves. We were rowed down a 3 km river winding through 15 limestone caves. We can across a Vietnamese movie being shot at a temple along the river's edge, complete with warriors, ninjas, and lots of swords. Unfortunately white extras did not fit into the script, but they were doing some production stills that Craig snuck into. We also went to Mua Cave, which has a look-out at the top of 500 stone steps over rice paddies, rivers, and limestone karsts. It was absolutely beautiful, but the 500 steps at noon in 40 degree heat was craziness.

Next up was another 12-hour overnight sleeper bus ride to Hue ("Hway"). This was the night of the World Cup final between Holland and Spain, so our bus stopped at 2 am to watch most of the game on a tiny TV at a roadside stall. Craig was the only backpacker who got off the bus to watch the game with a bunch of locals. When they asked him where he was from and he replied "Canada", they weren't very impressed, since "your country didn't even make it to the World Cup."

Hue was a very modern city - it used to be the capital of Vietnam. We walked the wide, shaded streets, enjoying views of the Citadel and drinking freshly squeezed sugar can juice over ice. Mmm.

Five days ago we arrived here, in Hoi An, our favourite city so far in Vietnam. It's a World Heritage City, so many of the buildings downtown are preserved like a fine strawberry jam. The city sits on a river, and at night the lights of the colourful paper lanterns twinkle on the water. The food is delicious (the best yet), the people are friendly, the beer is cold and cheap (20 cents a glass again), and the beach is only a 5 km bike ride away. We've reconnected with people we met in Laos and Hanoi, so it's been nice to have some social nights out. It's been very easy to chill here for a few days. There are almost 200 tailors and cobblers in town and many travellers choose to have custom-made clothes and shoes. We took a pass, since the workmanship can be hit or miss, and our packs are choc-a-bloc with New Zealand and India clothes we never wear!

Tonight we take our last sleeper bus in Vietnam, since the rest of the towns will be (relatively) close together. We'll be arriving tomorrow morning in Nha Trang, the scuba diving capital of Vietnam.

We have been having difficulty finding computers that will let us upload pictures to our blog. Many computer labs here block Facebook, and most are not fast enough to upload more than one or two photos per hour. Gross.

Fist Full of Dong

Remember the air conditioned bus (complete with beds! how posh!) to Hanoi we wrote about in our last post? Well, it turned out to be a complete gong show. The set-up of the bus was three rows of bunk beds (people sleeping head-to-toe) that were crazy-narrow, and we couldn't fully recline because our feet went under the head of the person in front of us. There were 36 beds, but over 50 passengers - luckily we got actual beds, but we couldn't get to the bathroom because the aisles were full of sleeping people. Other backpackers left, furious, after they were told they had to sleep on the floor even though they paid $40 like the rest of us. The good news is that the bus was air-conditioned (except for four hours in the middle of the night while we were pulled over at a rest station while our driver slept), we were probably more comfy than we would have been on a regular bus, there was (bad) 1980s karaoke, and we made it through the border and arrived in Hanoi safe and sound (although it the trip took 26 hours in total instead of the promised 16 hours - we even stopped at one point to have the bus washed!).

We had been warned that Vietnam is the most in-your-face country in southeast Asia, and so far it is definitely true. We have to barter for things here we've never had to before, from bottles of water to meals to the price of our guesthouse. This gets tiring. If we're sitting near a street (even eating or drinking) people constantly come up and try and sell us anything and everything: hats, sandals, donuts, purses, etc. Hanoi is also full of scams, from taxis changing the agreed-upon fare at the end of a journey or having "fast" tourist meters, to shoe repair guys who hold your shoes for hostage to dodgy guesthouses demanding extra payment upon check-out. There are countless ways to try and separate tourists from their dong (aka, the Vietnamese currency).

All that aside, Hanoi is a very clean and modern town, at least around the Old Quarter where we stayed and explored. It is full of trees, lakes, better shopping than Bangkok, and our favourite, cheap delicious local beer. With the 40-degree-plus temperatures in Hanoi, meeting up with fellow travelers (and locals) for an afternoon session of street-side 20 cent (!) glasses of microbrewery draught beer is the only way to survive. One night a group of us even found a pub with free (unlimited) bottles of beer from 6pm to 9pm, and then more free beer if we stood on one foot for two minutes.

After exploring Hanoi for a few days, we booked an overnight sleeper train north to Sapa, for some detoxing in the hill station at 1600m. Coming from Hanoi's sweltering heat to Sapa's 20-degree loveliness was heaven. This town is fairly touristy, but rightfully so it is a big holiday destination for Vietnamese people trying to escape the heat. It is built on a hill so the views over the surrounding green valleys are beautiful. We have explored trails around town and are glad we've been working out as we have to ascent eight flights of stairs to reach our hotel room!

We've also been indulging in Vietnamese cuisine, though since it's a touristy town we have to seek out restaurants that offer more than pizzas, pasta, and burgers. Last night we sampled some local plum wine: $2 for a "bottle" which turned out to be a refilled 500 ml Aquafina water bottle. It was extremely potent, but that turned out to be a great conversation starter with a local Vietnamese guy Craig started doing shots (of "wine") with. As adventurous as we are, we decided to take a pass on the BBQ dog paws and puppy hindquarters for sale at the market (there is a suspicious lack of street dogs in this country). We are still undecided on the restaurant down the street, where horse is the only meat on the menu and is accompanied by boiled blood stew!