Asian Adventures – An Amalgamation of the ‘Best (and worst) Bits’

This will probably be the trickiest blog I’ll ever write but I’d like to try and summarise the best and worst bits of my travels in Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore). I’m going to be as objective as I can. These are still my own personal thoughts and opinions so don’t be offended if I think something was a worst and you think it’s a best. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and you’re allowed to have differing ones so no bees in bonnets please.

There’s some categories where I have winners and runners up because it was too close for me to call a single best or worst.

Here goes:

Best Hostel

WINNER:
Siholme Backpackers, Vientiane, Laos
Although I only stayed a single night I was still very impressed. The dorms were great, the bathrooms were clean and modern, the atmosphere was friendly, there was a movie room, a pool table, a bar, friendly staff and amusing murals/slogans painted around the place. Just a great all round hostel with, honestly, no bad points.

RUNNER UP:
Mojzo Inn, Nha Trang, Vietnam
This place was amazing. The breakfast included in your room price was cooked fresh for you and there was a choice of four things. The dorms were air conditioned all day and there were decent sized lockers in the rooms. The refillable water tap was great. The WiFi was fast and available all over the hostel. The place is a two minute stroll from the beach and the staff are so lovely it’s ridiculous. The only reason Mojzo Inn isn’t the overall winner is because the dorm was a little small for six people and the bathroom did smell a little bit musty.

Best Food

WINNER:
Taiwan
The food in Taiwan is plentiful, cheap, fresh, full of flavour and a great balance of traditional and modern novelty . I was not disappointed with anything from the food markets or restaurants in Taiwan. It was consistently superb. Taiwan has some amazing night markets where you can get some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. Do not miss the Taiwanese milk tea. It’s absolutely delicious and you can get it with tapioca pearls or jelly to make it more of a dessert than a drink. Don’t be surprised or concerned if your food/drink is served to you in a bag, that’s normal. Basically, go to Taiwan and eat all the food.

RUNNER UP:
Thailand
Thai food is full of flavour and reasonably cheap. It’s also on the milder side of spicy. Traditional dishes such as pad thai, thai red and green curries and massaman curries are widely available and generally very tasty. Restaurants and food stalls seem to turn out a similar quality of food. My ‘don’t miss’ food in Thailand is sticky rice. It doesn’t matter if you have mango and sticky rice as a dessert or get a savoury sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf from a stall, just make sure you try it!

Best Locals

WINNER:
Cambodia
When it comes to resilience, determination and a forgiving spirit, I don’t think you will find a nation of people who can best the Cambodians. They are simply some of the friendliest, kindest, most welcoming and genuinely happy people I have ever met.

When you look at Cambodian history, it really does paint a grim picture, it’s all war, death and strife. The most recent horrors happened when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge tried to reshape Cambodia as a self sufficient, farming Country. It ended with an incomprehensible genocide leaving around 1 in 5 Cambodians dead or missing. This was all very recent, we’re talking within my parents life time, so there are Cambodians alive today who remember the regime, their dead relatives and everything that went along with it pretty vividly.

Despite their recent and harrowing past, Cambodians are upbeat and optimistic. There’s no wallowing or ‘woe is us’ attitudes, only respectful remembrance and an upbeat attitude towards the future. For me, this is a singularly amazing thing. An entire nation was subjected to immense tragedy and hardship but have emerged the other side determined to right the wrongs and heal their communities.

This, coupled with their enthusiasm, genuine nature and overall loveliness, makes the Cambodians my favourite people in Asia.

RUNNER UP:
Taiwan
Taiwanese are incredibly hospitable and happy go lucky. I don’t have a bad word to say about them. If I needed help and someone didn’t speak English, other locals would pitch in to help and make sure I was ok. They really are fabulous and never got annoyed at any level of incompetence on my part. Simply lovely.

Best Shopping

WINNER:
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Amazing mix of markets and super modern malls. The shopping here really has something for everyone. Want some good fakes? Head to Petaling Street. Want something crafty for a souvenir? Get to the central market. Want to feel more at home with western brands? Any air conditioned mall will sort you out with a good range of budget to luxury brands. I really mean it when I say I think you could buy anything in Kuala Lumpur.

Best Historic Sights

WINNER:
Angkor Historic Park
I did three entries on the Angkor temples so I’m not going to repeat myself. I’ll just say, do not miss.

Best Natural Sights

WINNER:
Sapa, Vietnam
Again, I wrote a while entry dedicated to Sapa so I won’t re-cover old ground. Amazing views across an amazing Country. Make time to go to Sapa.

RUNNER UP:
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Truly lovely landscape in the Cameron Highlands. Lots of winding roads and walks to do. It’s the runner up here as the area does feel very much like it’s all for tourists but you can escape that if you walk the right paths. The touristy aspect does spoil the natural beauty of the area a bit for me though.

Best Modern Sights

WINNER:
Singapore
Singapore is a clean, shiny, modern metropolis with stunning high rise buildings. It’s well planned and executed better. Stunning modern city with a stunning modern price tag.

Best Border

WINNER:
Malaysia to Singapore
Overall it was the least worrying and easiest to navigate because the English spoken on both sides was of a good level.

Best Bus

WINNER:
Hanh Cafe Sleeper bus from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang, Vietnam
The route has decent roads, the bus was swanky and single seated (so no snoring stranger in your ear hole) and the ticket was a reasonable price.

Best Overall Value Attraction

WINNER:
Huê City, Vietnam
Lots of the heritage sites in Huê don’t have an entry fee so it’s incredibly cheap to see lots of important historic and cultural areas.

Best Overall Value Country

WINNER:
Laos
Accommodation and food in Laos is cheap and generally of good quality. Entry fees to attractions seem to be good value and shared taxis/tuk tuks make travelling short distances reasonable. Longer distances can be covered by boat or bus at, again, a pretty good price. Overall, Laos works out as the best value for me.

Best Overall Town/City

WINNER:
Tokyo
Tokyo might be expensive but it’s worth it. The city is huge, sprawling and complicated but it’s fabulous. There’s still plenty of hidden gems in alleyways nestled between modern high rises to discover. There’s also tonnes of heritage stuff to see and explore. The Japanese definitely put a lot of emphasis on preserving their history and culture. As modern as Tokyo is, if you look around, you will find temples nestled in the centre of busy metropolitan areas.

It’s a unique city that I enjoyed immensely. If you want more details, you can see my blog entry on Tokyo.

Personal favourite thing

WINNER:
SCUBA diving, Koh Tao, Thailand
Learning to dive was the single best experience I had on my trip in Asia. My dive school (Big Blue) was well organised, the instructors (and trainee instructors) were friendly and professional, the island is beautiful and the diving itself was fabulous.

SCUBA diving is the overall winner because it’s something I can do for the rest of my life and will be doing again on the rest of my trip.

RUNNER UP:
Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Walking around with, washing and feeding elephants is something I probably won’t ever get the opportunity to do again and it was incredible. If you want more details on the park, please see my blog post on it.

Worst Hostel

WINNER:
Rainbow guesthouse, Khao San Road, Thailand
Hideous! Awful mattresses, dirty dorms, terrible security (the door to the room didn’t lock and the provided lockers in the restaurant are less than ok), disgusting bathrooms, air conditioning was inadequate and got turned off at 8am, sheets were stained and the whole place was just worn down and broken.

Worst Food

WINNER:
Hong Kong
The food in Hong Kong is questionable unless you are paying top dollar for it. I was never really sure what went into any of the food I ate and a lot of it was flavourless mush. There’s a few hidden gems but, on the whole, food in Hong Kong is dodgy.

Worst Locals

WINNER:
Vietnam
I found the people of Vietnam to be consistently rude and biased against foreigners or to be the nicest people in the world. There seemed not to be a middle ground. I found the prejudice really hard to deal with and the attitude of locals intent on not accepting tourists onto buses or into food places really tainted Vietnam for me. It’s a real shame because the lovely locals really were very helpful and sweet but they didn’t quite off set the venom I felt from everyone else.

Worst Shopping

WINNER:
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh didn’t seem to have much in the way of shopping. Even in the markets it was mostly food, household items or technology. Even though there would be many different stalls, they seemed to all sell the same items. Just not very varied or accessible for most people.

Worst Historic Sights

WINNER:
Singapore
Singapore is very shiny and new so it doesn’t really have much in the way of historic buildings or culture to experience. If you want new and modern, Singapore is for you. If you’re into history, maybe think carefully as it how much time you need in Singapore.

Worst Natural Sights

WINNER:
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok really doesn’t have parks or walks you can enjoy. It’s all incredibly built up and concreted over.

Worst Modern Sights

WINNER:
Cambodia
Cambodia had a distinct lack of modern buildings and very few high rise buildings. Most Sights in Cambodia are old and for history buffs. There’s no shining buildings beautifully lit at night to stroll around in Cambodia, it all has a rustic feel.

Worst Border

WINNER:
Thailand to Cambodia
This border was the worst because it was the only one I could not get an international bus for. Having to work out onward transport from the border further into Cambodia was pretty slap dash. It’s a stressful feeling when you’re doing it alone, for the first time so I guess that’s why it was the worst.

Worst Bus

WINNER:
Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand
This was an overnight bus along scary, winding mountain roads. The turns were so sharp that my head hit the widow on several occasions. It was a sitting bus so sleeping was an unlikely prospect anyway but the turns made it completely impossible. Just a long, scary journey.

Worst Overall Value attraction

WINNER:
Royal Palace, Bangkok, Thailand
600 baht is too expensive. Full stop.

Worst Overall Value Country

WINNER:
Singapore
Singapore is just heinously expensive for everything. Considering labour is still relatively cheap in Singapore, there’s no real justification for it.

Worst Overall Town/City

Bangkok, Thailand
I just didn’t like Bangkok. It wasn’t for me. I felt like everyone was out to fleece me for all the money they could and that the locals were insincere. It smells funny too.

Personal least favourite thing

WINNER:
The Climate
Asia is too hot and humid for me.

Thailand Times – Trip 5

My friends are well aware that I enjoy cooking very much. I’m normally pretty happy to feed anyone who comes to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to learn how to cook Indian food courtesy of a friend so I thought, on my travels, why not expand my cooking skills some more?

I undertook a full day course with Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre in Chiang Mai for 850 baht.

You start your cooking day by being collected from your accommodation. You then make a brief stop at the cookery school to choose which dishes you will make. Once you have chosen, you go off to the local market for ingredients!

One of our teachers, Asmee, explained differences between coconut cream and coconut milk, types of basil, tofu spices, herbs and all kinds of others to things. We were shown around some of the market but were given free time to wander around alone too. The array of things for sale that I did not recognise made me feel a little ashamed. Anyway, the shopping was all done and we piled back into the van with our baskets.

Back at the school, we cracked straight on with cooking our first dish. You cook independently at one of the wok stations you can see below:

You’re never without a teacher. They’re on hand to advise on preparing ingredients, wok temperatures and how much of what to use for spicing or salting up your dishes. You can see Aûm here explaining how to prepare sticky rice:

This is Asmee supervising the pounding of ingredients into a green curry paste:

Anyway, back to what we cooked. My first dish was Tom Yum soup. The soup is coconut milk based with decent amounts of lemongrass, garlic and ginger added. There’s also shrimp in there and special Tom Yum paste. It’s actually a really simple dish to make once you have sources the ingredients. Here’s the finished thing.

On the whole day course you cook five savoury dishes and one dessert. I chose to cook green curry paste, green curry, chicken and basil leaves and Pad Thai as my savoury dishes. The method to make green curry was very similar to Tom Yum soup except that you leave it to simmer for much longer and the ingredients are different. Thai green curry is not supposed to be a spicy affair as you would expect a normal curry to be. It’s very mild and quite fragrant. After having a taste of some of the others though, I distinctly prefer massaman curry to green curry.

My absolute favourite dish of the day was the chicken with basil leaves. It was so simple but amazingly tasty! If you see it on the menu at a Thai restaurant, it’s worth ordering! Here’s my green curry and chicken ready for testing/devouring.

No picture of my Pad Thai exists as I ate it at great speed. Again, it was surprisingly fast and easy to cook. Pad Thai is another dish which is not spicy, you add your own spice to it when it is served in the form of chili oil and flakes so it suits a wide variety of palates.

Lastly there was dessert. I had chosen mango and sticky rice. I adore sticky rice. It is one of the most glorious things you can eat. You have to put in a bit of extra time to prepare it but it’s time well invested. Once the rice has been washed, soaked and cooked (steamed in a cotton bag), you add it to a mix of coconut cream, sugar and a little salt that you’ve had on the boil. You give it a good mash around until it’s properly mixed in and then you serve. Easy peasy!

It was an incredibly yummy day and to top it off, you get a recipe book containing all food cooked during the day and a certificate to say you did the course. The teachers were friendly and efficient but more importantly they were knowledgeable, they didn’t get stumped by any of our questions.

I really enjoyed the day and, as someone who loves to cook, think it was worth the money. If you’re not a keen cook, there are cheaper  courses you can do in just a half day or few hours in an evening that would probably be a better choice.

Thailand Times – Trip 4

Whilst in Chiang Mai, I saw a market, shops, a few temples and got a massage.

Chiang Mai is not all that big. I walked around the inner ‘old city’ part quite happily without feeling flustered. Things of note are the second hand bookshops and the Boots. Yes, that’s right, an actual Boots with real Boots products. The second hand book shops can be found at the eastern end of Ratchmankha Road. There’s a few next door to one another (Gecko Books and the Lost Book Shop). Not only do they have lots volumes for sale but they will buy yours off you which is brilliant. I loved these book shops,

My massage was from the Chiang Mai Women’s Prison work training centre. For 180 baht, I was thoroughly massaged. The only odd bit of the experience was the reception desk being staffed by prison wardens otherwise, you would not have known that the women were inmates on a work training programme. You can find the centre on Ratwithi Road just north east of Wat Phra Singh. It works on a first come first served basis so you might have to wait an hour or so before your time slot if they’re busy.

That brings me nicely to the temples I saw. First and foremost, these little statues made me feel very happy.

There are three temples within about one kilometre of each other that I saw. I went to Wat Thung Yu, Wat Si Koet and Wat Phra Singh. First of all was Wat Si Koet, a fairly small temple but quite pretty none the less. It was definitely the least grand of the three.

Wat Si Koet and Wat Thung Yu are on opposite sides of Ratchadamnoan Road to one another so they are not hard to find. They’re found at the more western end of the road. Wat Thung Yu has a main temple, a chedi and a second smaller shrine building so definitely more grand then it’s over the road neighbour. Work was being done to the main building when I went so you can see the scaffolding in my picture below.

The largest of the three is Wat Phra Singh. There is an entrance fee to go inside but I didn’t go in because, honesty, I’m not interested in temples anymore. I’ve seen so many and they’re all looking distinctly the same now. Walking around the outside of the temple is free though and that’s how I took this picture.

Also on Ratchadamnoan Road on a Sunday night is a rather brilliant market. There’s tonnes of souvenir shopping you can do and street food to eat. It is huge, actually huge. It starts practically at Wat Phra Singh and continues sprawling down Ratchadamnoan Road and the side streets for a couple of kilometres, maybe more. Set aside plenty of time to walk around it if you want to go.

Chiang Mai is a relaxing city to be in. I enjoyed my few days walking around aimlessly.

Thailand Times – Trip 3

Once I’d arrived in Chiang Mai, I took a big red shared taxi to my hostel for 30 baht. I spent the rest of the day trying to change my kip to baht. It seems the only exchange kiosks which will take kip are the Bangkok bank ones (I found one opposite Boots on the north east corner of the canal) and even then, they only take notes of 10000 kip and larger. First day in Chiang Mai was admin. The second day was more fun.

I’d booked myself onto a full day tour at the Elephant Nature Park outside of Chiang Mai. After researching into the various different elephant parks around Chiang Mai, I decided on the Elephant Nature Park as there were no gimmicks. There’s no shows where elephants paint or play music and there’s no riding the elephants. It’s just elephants getting to be elephants which is how it should be.

The Elephant Nature Park focusses on rescuing elephants who would otherwise be left to die. They may be injured and unable to work, orphaned or just plain mistreated. The Elephant Nature Park takes them in and cares for them. I paid 2500 baht for a full day which included collection and return to my hostel, elephant feeding, elephant washing and lunch. I’m not sure the guide we had was a particularly good one but it was worth the money but only because I got to be so close to the elephants.

The park is about an hour’s drive from Chiang Mai but we watched a documentary featuring the parks founder (Lek) in the minivan on the way so it didn’t feel tedious at all.

Once you get there, the first thing you do is feed the elephants. The mahouts bring their elephants to the raised walkway area and you begin feeding. We had an elephant called Lucky. Here she is.

Lucky was badly treated and as a result is now blind. This makes feeding her slightly tricky. She can smell the food and is eager to eat but she can’t see so she waves her trunk around in front of her to try and locate her meal. This results in the feeders having to dodge powerful trunk swipes whilst attempting to place food in it. We all took more than one hit to the shins but Lucky was successfully fed eventually.

After morning feed, we took a walk to meet the newest elephant at the park. This little calf is only 7 weeks old and was a complete surprise. No one knew that Mum was pregnant. One morning, her mahout came to fetch her and there was the baby!

A baby elephant is still very large. The calf wanted to play with the mahout whilst we were watching and I can assure you that, as cute as the calf is, he is waist high on a man and more than a handful.

Another elephant we met along our walk was Bua Loi. She’s a very chilled out elephant and was probably my favourite for the day. Bua Loi was rescued from a forced breeding programme that left her with a broken hip.

Bua Loi is actually a Thai dessert of taro balls (taro is probably my favourite thing in Asia) in young coconut milk (young coconuts are probably my second favourite thing in Asia) so the elephant is actually named after a pudding (dessert to the Americans/Canadians). Pudding is my favourite thing ever. Therefore, Bua Loi and I were destined to get along.

Another elephant who had been rescued from abuse is Jokia. When Jokia refused to work after her baby died, her mahout shot at her eyes with catapults until she went blind. She was rescued by the Elephant Nature Park. We met her as we were walking down to the river so I strolled alongside her for a while.

At the river you get to wade in and wash the elephants using buckets of water. It’s quite hard work actually and the mahouts certainly enjoy making fun of you if you can’t quite get your water onto the elephants back. It’s much easier if your elephant decides to sit down like this one.

Lunch is provided at the park and is a huge buffet. Very tasty too.

After bath time, there is more videos to watch featuring Lek. The videos cover the ongoing problems surrounding elephant mistreatment in Thailand. Some of it is quite graphic especially with regard to the more traditional methods of elephant training. Before being trained to work, the elephants are put into a contraption called a crush where they are basically tortured for days until they submit to the will of the mahout. There doesn’t seem to be any real need for it but it’s tradition so it continues.

After seeing the videos, it was all the more lovely to return and feed the elephants again because I had a new appreciation of just how these elephants really had been rescued.

I had brilliant time at the elephant Nature Park and would recommend it for a day trip. The main thing I learned about elephants that day is that, the do not divert around you. You clear a path. Also, elephants are actually pretty quiet when they’re walking so keep your eyes peeled!