Post trip thoughts

Asia » Hong Kong
May 3rd 2007

Published: May 3rd 2007

On April 16, we will fly back to Canada. So, our Asia trip is coming to an end. Here are some of our post trip thoughts:

A few days ago, one of our elderly relatives asked me, "Have you two done with your craziness in being drifters ?". My answer was, "We are not crazy, and we are not done with travelling.".

In fact, we have already started thinking our next 6-month Asia trip to start around Nov 2007.

From October 2006 to April 2007, we have visited Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Burma and Singapore, covering :

(Oct 28 to Nov 30) -- One month stay in Hong Kong, with two sidetrips to China (ZhangJiaJe in Hunan on group tour, and Xiamen in Fujian)
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(Nov 30 to Dec 12) -- Two weeks in Thailand and visited Bangkok and Kanchanaburi (River Kwai).
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(Dec 12 to Jan 9) -- One month in Burma and covered Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Kalaw and Inle Lake.
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(Jan 9 to Feb 2) -- Over three weeks in Thailand, and visited Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Pai, Cha-am and Phang Nga.
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(Feb 2 to Feb 13) -- About 10 days in Malaysia and visited Langkawi, Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
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(Feb 13 to March 9) -- Over three weeks in Indonesia and visited Kuta and Ubud of Bali, and Gili Air island of Lombok.
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(March 10 to March 23) Another two weeks in Malaysia and visited Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Teregganu, Cherating and Malacca.
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(March 23 to March 30) One week in Singapore.
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March 30 to April 16 -- Hong Kong

If you asked us where we enjoyed our trip the most, we would tell you it is Gili Air island, off Lombok Island (next to Bali island) of Indonesia. There, we stayed on a small island with no motorized vehicles and enjoyed swimming and snorkelling, and very little to do. We learned that the Indonesian street vendors usually asked for 5 times the tourist price and are happy to settle at half of what they ask for. For example, one kilo of Rambutan costs about 30 cents (US) for locals, and 60 cents for tourist. They usually ask for $3 and we will haggle for about 60 cents. Despite the vendors and the "transportation sharks", we will definitely revisit Bali & Lombok, and possibly venture into Sumatra. We are still not comfortable in going to Java (Jakarta and Jogykarta yet).

In Thailand, we enjoyed Chiang Mai, the Thai massages and the markets. We found Pai very touristy and the 400 Baht foreigner price to visit the Hot springs too much to warrant the next visit. We enjoyed the seafood in Cha-am. There are still a lot of places that we have not visited in Thailand, and we will definitely go there again.

In Malaysia, we found that it is not as boring as most people would tend to think. It seems to be a wonderful retirement place, with very good medical facilities and you can always find someone who speak English or Mandarin or Cantonese. The accommodation is a little bit more expensive than Thailand, but food is about par. Transportation (long distance buses) are comfortable, safe and cheap (when compared to Thailand, China, Burma, Indonesia), Although Vietnam is even cheaper. Would we go back to Malaysia ? Likely, as KL is the hub of cheap airlines and cheap airfares within southeast Asia.

In Singapore, we enjoyed their food tremendously. There are food courts and hawker food center everywhere. I believe I can find a food court more easily than a DBS bank ATM. (There are also many bank ATM's but I was just looking for DBS). We were treated by our friends and relatives to Chili Crab, Stingray fish, Satay, Mussels. We also enjoyed Hainan chicken rice, fish ball noodle soup (the balls are so tasty and can “bounce”). We like the Laska noodle soup (Singapore style). Aside from the great food, Singapore is clean and orderly. The bus and subway systems are great. We visited Little India and found their gold jewelry very attractive, with wonderful designs.

In Burma, we met some wonderful people who travelled with us for part of the trip. We found Burma difficult with their transportation system. Food in Burma is not hygenic and many people got sick. Quite a number of tourist we met also caught some kind of cold virus. However, we also met some wonderful Burmese who made our trip all worthwhile. We visited Bagan, a place with many, many stupas and pagodas. It is not Angkor Wat, but it has its own charm. If we were to visit Burma, it would not be a sight-seeing trip, it will be some kind of volunteer trip, where we will go to stay there for a month or two.

Many friends and relatives asked us about our travels, here are our general answers:

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Where - We use the guidebooks (Lonely Planet, etc) to decide on where to go, how to get there, what to see, where to stay, how much it would cost (guesthouse, transportation, admission)
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How -- The guidebooks also has information about buses/boats, length, costs and frequency, although not 100% correct.
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As far as guesthouses are concerned, we would generally not book ahead, but check them out after we arrived. (The guidebooks usually provide the telephone number of the guesthouses). For bigger towns/cities, the guidebooks would have a map of the town and where the guesthouses are located. However, we do book ahead for the guesthouse in the bigger cities (Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, Mandalay, etc.)
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Everywhere we go, we can usually find someone who can speak English. Although in a town in Burma (Monywa), we have relied on our half-correct Mandarin Chinese to get the best prices.
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Our travels, not including airfares, would cost us an average of US$800 per month. That includes land transportation, accommodation and food, for the two of us, and staying in cheap guesthouses (about US$10 per night), usually with attached bathroom and no air conditioning, but with a fan. Airfares from Canada to Hong Kong are not included in the above costs. Airfares within southeast asia are also extra and costs about US$60 to US$75 per flight per person, including taxes on the low cost airlines.

Our post trip thoughts:

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We will travel as much as our health, our finances and our circumstances permit. Getting away from Canada in the winter months is great. However, as we get older, we will decrease our “travelling”, meaning we will go to fewer places, but stay in one place longer.
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We have met/encountered more mature travellers (40's, 50's and 60's) this year than last year. We are not sure whether it is the destinations (Malaysia, Indonesia) that tend not to attract the younger crowds or whether in fact there are more mature travellers.
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Because of the costs of the petroleum, the transportation costs in southeast asia has increased by about 25% (compared to last year). In Indonesia, the costs are several times higher that what's indicated in the guidebooks.
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We are grateful to have met some wonderful people on our travels. Many of whom share similar interests, although many do not share similar backgrounds. We got along well and have taken sidetrips together. We travelled part of the way with two Singaporeans in Burma, and we later visited them and stayed with them in Singapore.
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We are grateful to have wonderful friends and family in Canada and Hong Kong who support us so that we can have worry free travel. They let us stay at their homes, take care of our possessions (car, etc.), and pick up mail for us. Without their support, we would probably cannot have a long trip like this.
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We are happy that Internet exists. Without it, we will not be able to communicate with all of you so easily and so frequently.

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