Asia Recap

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Our 3 favorite things in Asia

• Great Wall of China
  
• Hue, Vietnam
  
• Bangkok, Thailand

In Asia, we learned that...

• the James Blunt revolution has reached at least two continents. More reports to follow...
  
• music stores alphabetize musicians by their first names rather than last
  
• Beer is very expensive in Malaysia
  
• Beer Lao is good, but not as great as people claim it is. Vietnamese beer (Saigon, Huda) was good too. Thai beer (Chang) was terrible.
  
• Vietnamese wine (Sulat) will not be the next hot thing at Sam's anytime soon.
  
• Asian red bull is a concentrated version of what we have at home
  
• Thai "whiskey" is actually rum
  
• Fried rice is not just an Americanized Asian food. We ate in almost every country. If the menu says "American-style fried rice" then the rice has an entire fried egg sitting on top - something we've never ever seen in America
  
• Singapore is not as repressed as you would expect
  
• If you get stuck for a few days somewhere, try to avoid having it happen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  
• the motorbike industry is alive and well in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. They way outnumber cars.
  
• everyone in Bangkok will tell you who their favorite tailor is, whether you're looking for one or not
  
• Thai people love their king. His picture is everywhere (and apparently any picture will do - not all are flattering. It's considered rude to lick stamps with his picture in public. And when we went to the movies, between the previews and the film, we had to rise and pay homage to a video clip of his life
  
• a ping pong show in Bangkok is not table tennis
  
• in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, people drive on the left hand side of the road. Once you cross the Mekong River, in Laos and Vietname, people drive on the right.
  
• Pak Beng, Laos, is the worst place on earth. Vinh, Vietnam is in the top five
  
• Vietnamese is not a pretty language to wake up to on the train
  
• Vietnam is very, very noisy during the day and dead silent at night
  
• anyone who tells you that everyone in Hong Kong speaks English never left the hotel
  
• there's a Starbucks inside Beijing's Forbidden City
  
• people in Beijing are very proud that you can now see the sky through the pollution an average 100 days per year rather than the previous 50. Good luck marathoners in 2008
  
• the Chinese bragged about their countryman Ang Lee (who is Taiwanese) winning the academy award, but they cannot see the "Brokeback Mountain" because it is banned for homosexual content.
  
• speaking of which, one Chinese man on the Trans-Siberian train said that Taiwan is "like a finger missing from a fist." This tells you something of how he views Taiwan (the finger) and how he views China (the fist).
  
• we know China is big, we know there are many people, and we know that it has a growing economy. But China will overtake western economic powers sometime between not in our lifetime and never. Just try to get anything done there and you will understand why we say this.
  
• 12 girls can fit on one bicycle
  
• there is a Mongolian upper class, and we met him on the train
  
• despite Justin's best efforts, it is not possible to travel through Asia without using an eastern style toilet
  
• non-native English speakers have no idea what an American accent sounds like compared to British, Australia, Irish, etc.
  
• other scandals my be regional but the splitting of the states of Bradifer and the unification of Bradalina and Vincifer are international stories

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