Thursday, 14 April 2005
15/04/2005
If you open the travel page of a newspaper its full of Top 10 things to do before you die and The Rough Guide series has a handy Top 35, 40, 51 etc. etc. things to do in that country. This is our version, based on our personal feelings only (disclaimer, disclaimer) no hard feelings right.
Top 5 near death experiences
- Road to Chengdu
- Tsunami
- Zoe’s altitude sickness in Nepal
- Bus almost tipping over in India
- Andrew’s persistent runs in Tibet
Some of you may be surprised to see that the tsunami is not number one on the list. But those of you who were on the Intrepid trip with us through China and Tibet will understand why. We were 4,000 metres high, with bald tyres, tearing around a mountain into oncoming traffic in mud and torrential rain. It felt like any moment we would run off the edge!
Whereas with the Tsunami we were not sure what was happening when everyone ran up the hill but we just followed them. We saw the wave coming in, but it culminated in a king tide, not a crashing wave. We didn’t even get wet and we had all our luggage with us. It was distressing to see injured and scared people around us. We were told that there was another wave expected this time at 30 metres high, and we were 30 metres high on the hill. Volunteer organisers told us what to do when the wave came in - basically just avoid large objects, stick together and hope for the best. We felt a sense of hopelessness, that there was nothing we could do, and we couldn’t escape, so we just had to await our fate. And with this, a wave of calm came over us in a way that if death comes, so be it.
Zoe comments that with her experience in Nepal that she just felt like death, never mind waiting for it to come, thankfully we were just 100 metres from the pass when the pins and needles got stuck in and that’s the first sign of bad things.
The bus rides all over Asia were pretty hairy, but in this incident we were nearly finished on our tour of Rajasthan when the sandy road gave way and the bus tipped to one side, threatened to overturn and we all had to get off. We’d had a few near misses through China but this one was a bit unnerving while the overloaded bus was unloaded one by one. We were angry more than anything that the bus conductor was so greedy that he filled the bus to the rafters.
Andrew’s persistent runs - once again the Intrepid people know all about this one. On this trip everyone knew everyone’s toilet habits. Once Andrew announced he was solid there was a big cheer from us all!
Favourite Beaches
- Had Yao - Phi Phi
- Ao Phranang - Krabi
- Chaweng - Koh Samui
- Had Yao - Koh Phan Ngan
All Thailand beaches, no surprises there. Southern Thailand is definitely beach heaven, we spent more time here than in any other region. Both sides of the peninsula have something to offer but we think that the Andaman coast wins due to good snorkelling and outstanding karst mountain scenery.
Top 5 biggest wastes of time
- Perfume Pagoda - Vietnam
- Dalat - Vietnam
- Bikaner - India
- Delhi - India
- Phuket - Thailand
Once again, these are just our personal feelings, no offence intended. These are places that we wished we’d never bothered with. The Perfume Pagoda and Dalat were overrun, not very scenic as a result and dirty.
Bikaner had nothing but the rat temple, and it’s a long way to go just for that, Delhi is uninspiring as a capital city - so many better places in India and Phuket was an eyesore. Beach umbrellas everywhere and too many sunburnt, overweight, half naked Europeans. A real Costa del Sol of Thailand.
Top 5 Worst toilets
- Rhongphu Monastery, Tibet
- Lhasa - on the street
- Varanasi
- Indian railway lines
- Tiger Lodge, Chitwan, Nepal
We think this list is self explanatory but the Tibet one deserves special mention. We didn’t use the Everest Base Camp one, but from all accounts it was slightly worse. These were squat toilets, just a hole in the floor, but the hole was full to overflowing, so the only place to put your feet was in piles of poo. And the stench - well Kim from our Intrepid trip can go into detail on that one.
Top 5 Friendliest nations
- Laos
- Thailand
- Nepal
- Tibet
- Singapore
Very difficult to define friendly, but the people from these nations made us feel most welcome, and when we needed help they would go out of their way for us.
Best food
- Vanilla Slice - Hanoi
- Phad Thai - Kho Sanh Rd
- Dal Makhani - Jaipur, India
- Masala dosas - India
- Tibetan bread - Nepal
- Chicken and cashew nuts - Koh Samui, Thailand
- Sweet potato and honey things - Xian, China
- Momos - Tibet
- Pizza in Kanchanaburi, Thailand
No particular order here, as they all tasted amazing. The trip was a wonderful culinary experience, we ate so well. The first month in China was probably the worst food wise as we ate too many pot noodles and egg and tomato dishes. From Nepal onwards, we ate like Kings. The cheapest place was India followed by Vietnam. But this was eating locally only, once you got inside the tourist cafés the prices rocketed. One thing that we ate far too much of was egg. Most breakfasts included egg; we think our cholesterol levels may have suffered as a consequence.
Worst Food
- Remote parts of Tibet - not much choice
- Prices of food in Cambodia were so expensive it made the food not taste so good
- Don’t eat meat curry dishes in local places in Nepal and India - lots of neck and foot!
- Many fish dishes we had in Thailand and Laos had loads of bones, but we’re just fussy
To be truthful there was no such thing as bad food, apart from congee.
Pushiest places
- Delhi, India
- Jaipur, India
- Whole of Cambodia
There were just two nations where Andrew really lost his rag, and unfortunately the amount of pestering does start to affect your enjoyment of a place after a while. We expected the hassle in India but were caught off guard in Cambodia and we didn’t have the patience at the end of the trip.
Worst beaches
- Nha Trang
- Sihanoukville
We only went to two beaches outside Thailand and they really disappointing. Nha Trang was a city with a beach and no character and Sihanoukville had a nice beach but it was overcrowded with beach umbrellas, cafes, beggars, kids selling scarfs and women trying to give you a pedicure. You didn’t go to the beach to relax in Cambodia.
People we met
No particular order here as that would be really unfair. We’ve met some amazing people. We wish we could hang out with them all in our new home in London. In the end it was the people we met and the experiences we had with them, rather than what we saw that made our trip for us.
Special mention to our Intrepid Beijing to Kathmandu group. A most amazing group of special people. All individuals yet we got on like a house on fire. We wish we could travel all around the world with them. We have many great memories of all the funny incidents (Robyn and her pants, Mick and his bowels, Kim and her sense of smell, Laura and her monks. Darryl and his teeth, Cecelia and her total lack of sense of smell, Greg for his excellent company and putting up with us).
Our group in India was a very lively, friendly lot. Plenty of personality and lots of funny occasions (Kandi and the zinc).
In Thailand we had a great time hanging out with Lloyd and Jennifer from Scotland on the islands of Koh Phan Ngan and Koh Samui. In Laos and briefly in Cambodia we had many nights of fun with Ronan and Harriet from Brighton (UK). And of course Zoe's old work mate Jennie in Vietnam and then Cambodia, wonderful, intelligent company.
We met lots of other fantastic individuals, often just for one night before we moved on.
Cheapest/best value places
- Kanchanaburi, Thailand
- Varanasi, India
- Mae Hong Son, Thailand
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Luang Prabang, Laos
Most expensive places
- Siem Reap, Cambodia
- Delhi, India
- Rest of Cambodia
- Singapore
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Places we want to return to when we’re older
- Stay in the palaces of Rajasthan, India
- Luang Prabang, Laos
- Hoi An, Vietnam
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Stay in a 5-star resort on Koh Samui, Thailand
Essentially these were outstanding places, they went well beyond our expectations, so rich and extravagent, yet so poor in places. We did the poor bit this time, so next time we go for the best!
This is how we spent our time
As you can see from the chart above, we spent quite a large percentage of our time in Thailand.
This is how we spent our money
These amounts are in US$, and include the organised trips through China & Tibet, and India. They do not include international airfares.
The chart above shows the average expense per day for the two of us, including all food, domestic travel, shopping and accommodation, plus the cost of the two organsied trips, which made China/Tibet and India relatively expensive.
This is our actual route as opposed to the planned route
The map below shows our original planned route through South East Asia. The plan was to fly back to Australia from Hanoi.
Our actual route took us on a more standard circuit through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and after seeing the biggest tourist attraction in SE Asia (Angkor), we finished in Bangkok for a much needed spot of shopping and drinking.
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