South East Asia Part I
“After converting our money into Laotian Kip, we realized we had become millionaires! At least locally!”
By Shri & Firuza
Our Travels So Far
So some of you wanted to be kept in the loop as to how our travels are going and what we have been up to. So, we decided to compile and create a little blog. Writing this while being bumped up and down on a sleeper bus in Vietnam is not ideal, the regular honking does not help us recall the memories of the trip that easily and the sound of the driver and co-workers shouting at each other and passing cars only adds to the chaos. But after all, this is what we came here for and more importantly with an action packed itinerary created by Firuza there is literally no other time to write!
So, finally we begin writing this blog as we descend south down Vietnam from the ancient city of Hue to the beach city of Da Nang. But in order to give you the best insight into how the trip went and recreate the best parts (and worst which can be more interesting), we’ll piece this together for you in chronological order. The hope being that you will be able to get the smallest glimpse of what is on offer in each of these fascinating places and what you yourselves could get up to, should you ever venture to this part of the planet they call South East Asia. Let’s now break it down into sections by both country and city and take you through the journey with us.
Thailand
Bangkok
After taking a layover flight that stopped in Bahrain (special things to note that we remember from Bahrain was that the temperature was 52 degrees Celsius when we landed, Aljazeera website was unavailable to access and the airport security walked around holding hands with each other – Shri also left his jacket at the airport and held up the flight while he went back to the gate to grab it but that’s normal) we finally landed in Bangkok after 15 hours of travel!
What happened in Bangkok:
· The Grand Palace – after getting lost twice on the way we made it to the Grand Palace. Highly detailed design work has clearly gone into this place which was spectacular along with all of the statues within (including the sacred Emerald Buddha of which no photos were allowed). But this place does also get packed with sweaty tourists so we were glad we went earlier in the morning
· The Reclining Buddha – basically a huge Buddha ‘chilling’ in a relaxed position. Not kidding when we say this Buddha statue was absolutely huge!
· Trip down the Mekong – where it runs through Bangkok the Mekong is a brownish muddy colour and definitely not a majestic sight. But we took comfort in noticing that nowhere in Firuza’s itinerary was there anything about swimming in the Mekong!
· Wat Arun – This temple was a bit of a climb to get to the top – not as spectacular as the grand palace but a nice sight nevertheless (although a Swiss woman stalked us from the restaurant we ate lunch at, onto the boat that went over the Mekong and then bumped into at Wat Arun and acted surprised! We managed to shake her though through the back streets of Bangkok)
· Golden Mountain – a bit of a trek to get to the top but great views and very peaceful once up there (if you discount the British and American tourists who apparently go up there as a rendezvous point to plan where they should get their next meal quite loudly)
· Lumpini Park – nothing too special about this park – although we did see what looked like a Komodo Dragon running through it to get to the water. Firuza was under the impression it was a crocodile and so quickly made haste!
· BTS Sky Train – this was a cool piece of transport, not that dissimilar to London’s DLR system that operates in south east London. Cheaper than a taxi to get us back to Bangkok airport and most importantly – had AC! 🙂
Chiang Mai
· The motorbike – we decided to rent a motorbike in Chiang Mai which basically cost less than $10 for the entire day. Took awhile getting used to riding in Thailand as rules of the road – well there don’t seem to be any. In any case, we ended up getting stopped and fined by the police for not having an international licence (obviously the motorbike company did not mention this was needed) which if you ever want to drive in Asia is definitely worth looking into
· Wat Phra That Doi Suthep – This was an interesting temple tucked away in the mountains. Our take home point from this place was nothing to do with the temple though. The most memorable aspect was how cheap we managed to get lunch up there – a meal for the two of us plus drinks for basically $1.50 (unforgettable!)
· Wat Phra Singh – This temple was basically hidden away and took us about 15 minutes to find it when we were already in the right place – beautiful place though when we did find it and a magnificent Pagoda too.
· Wat Chedi – this temple was local to where we stayed and full of tourists. One of the rooms forbade females from entering – and the reason given: ‘because they menstruate’ – no joke here!
· Cooking Class – Took a Thai cooking class during an evening and learnt how to make a few traditional Thai dishes. Well, mainly we wrote the info down in the books they gave us and spent the rest of the time eating the delicious food we’d made. Hopefully we can reproduce it!
· Elephant Nature Park – Definitely one of the trip highlights. On this trip we, fed, bathed and walked through the forest with elephants. These elephants had been rescued from years of abuse in other industries and are now in a protected sanctuary. Very enjoyable day and very touching.
Laos
Luang Prabang
· Becoming Millionaires – After converting our money into Laotian Kip, we realized we had become millionaires! At Least locally! We celebrated by then spending hundreds of thousands in the night market and on a fancy dinner (which realistically only cost about $5-6)
· Mount Phousi – This little hill was not far from where we stayed so we hiked to the top bravely in the sweltering humidity without a second thought. Great views at the top but watch out – we did see a menacing looking scorpion on the way up and continued with extreme caution thereafter
· Royal Palace – a nice place and relatively modest for a former royal family. We managed to creep slowly behind an American couple who had actually booked a tour guide so got to listen in on all of the interesting information (which definitely saves Firuza asking questions to Shri who then basically makes up facts that seem like they are believable)
· Alms Giving – woke up before sunrise to watch the famous alms giving process where the locals show their respect to the monks by giving them gifts. This was definitely interesting to watch but after a while we had a sneaky feeling that some of the monks were coming back for seconds!
· Kuang Si Falls – this is without doubt the most beautiful waterfall we have ever seen outside of google images. It wasn’t too busy either and we managed to swim in the falls and take all sorts of epic pictures with the falls in the backdrop. We also saw a 3 legged bear in the ‘bear portion’ of the park where the waterfall was located
· Bamboo Bridge – a rickety bamboo bridge that stretches across the Mekong river (still just as brown as Bangkok). Probably one of the most baking days of the trip to date and with no shade, we went across the bridge and back pretty quickly (it was a very nice bridge though with lush surroundings along the river bank and plenty of exotic vegetation).
Vientiane
· Great Sacred Stupa/Wat Si Saket – another nice temple but can’t say it had anything on the others we had also visited in Thailand. We had also taken a 50 minute walk to get there so drinks and food were the main things on our mind by the time we arrived
· Laos Bus Ride – we took a local bus to one of the attractions outside the city (Buddha Park) and Shri essentially sat in a row of 6 people despite there only being 4 seats per row which he loved of course). He was given a little child’s stool to sit on, though which likely made him happier
· Buddha Park – this was interesting, strange and fun. Essentially loads of Buddha Statues all placed together in one park. Many of the statues were also possible to climb – so we did. A more fitting name for the place would perhaps be ‘Buddha Climbing Park’!
· Patuaxi – this is essentially the less famous Laotian version of the Arc de Triomphe in France. It was pretty and had some nice city views at the top that looked nothing like Paris 😉
Vietnam
Hanoi
· Hanoi Madness – landed in Hanoi and on the ride to our hostel we realized that the roads here were absolute chaos! The driving didn’t compare to anywhere else we’d visited so far and was the busiest of the lot. Every street had more motorcycles than you could imagine and there were even more parked on the pavements (so you have to walk in the road amongst bikes, cars, vans and other people). It took us a day to realize what the correct side of the road to drive on was because 10-15 percent of people actually drive on the wrong side
· Lake of the Restored Sword – a beautiful lake in the centre of Hanoi bursting with life all around it and very vibrant area
· Hao Lo Prison – very interesting learning about prisoners of the Vietnam war from a local perspective and about the former Vietnamese prisoners during the French rule.
· Temple of Literature – this turned out to be a temple and did not actually have any books inside (we were a little disappointed after expecting a building that would be filled to the ceiling with great literature). But we did pinch two mangos from the courtyard which were delicious
· Presidential Palace – the former residence of President Ho Chi Minh himself. The Vietnamese respect him more than many of their former monarchs and this is evident as you walk around ‘Uncle Ho’s’ place
Halong Bay
· Boat Cruise – we figured we’d take a break from hostels for a few days and instead take a 3 day cruise around Halong Bay. Halong Bay is without doubt the most stunning place we’ve visited and not just on this trip! They apparently shot some of King Kong here as well as Avatar
· Activities – the first day of the cruise was packed with activities that included hiking, kayaking, swimming and Vietnamese Karaoke. We had a great time with all of this but after 3 songs between the two of us nobody else wanted to challenge us anymore with the karaoke 🙂
· Sung Sot Cave – here we saw some real bats (not that we saw fake bats at any point before) and lots of rocks within that were shaped like animals (including one they called the turtle – a sacred animal in this part of the world which supposedly brings good luck)
· Ti Top Island – so when we did our hiking trip this is the island/rock we hiked up. When we got to the very top we not only had breathtaking views of Halong Bay but were also surrounded by some of the sweatiest Europeans we’ve ever been near! Amazing!
· Cat Ba Island – the next day we stayed on an island resort within Halong Bay (probably only 20 people in the resort). We had the entire day to swim around and kayak as we pleased. During our kayaking trip we had to save two guys who had capsized and one of them couldn’t swim so we ended up kayaking back to shore with their kayak attached at the back and a screaming man clinging on to the side for his life! What fun!
· The Night Bus – After leaving Halong Bay (reluctantly) we took a sleeper bus (12 hour journey) from Hanoi to Hue. This was an interesting experience as the driver honked throughout the night as often as he liked, people did not understand the concept of headphones at all and the design of the seats/beds were custom made for people who are 5 ft 6 or smaller! But it was still a great experience and we would do it again for sure!
· The Night Bus – After leaving Halong Bay (reluctantly) we took a sleeper bus (12 hour journey) from Hanoi to Hue. This was an interesting experience as the driver honked throughout the night as often as he liked, people did not understand the concept of headphones at all and the design of the seats/beds were custom made for people who are 5 ft 6 or smaller! But it was still a great experience and we would do it again for sure!
Hue
· Imperial Citadel
· Royal Palace
· Royal Tombs
· Perfume River by boat
All of the above sites were included on a tour that we booked having arrived at our hostel off the night bus 10 minutes or so before the tour started. Regardless we hopped on this tour and learnt a lot about the former capital (Hue) and the former monarchy. In case you ever need to know, the Vietnamese regard the second king of the last Dynasty as the best one and the twelfth king as the worst despite the fact he has the best tomb.
