80 days around Asia

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Our journey in South East Asia began in Bangkok on the 19th November 2009 and seventy-eight days later we found ourselves heading back to Bangkok (from Koh Tao this time) to finish our eighty day stint in this wonderful, intoxicating, frustrating, other-world that is South East Asia. But whilst our first journey to Bangkok was a mixture of apprehension, excitement and a step into the unknown, our journey back there for the final time was (for me at least) excitement tinged with sadness - I was really looking forward to getting back to the cheap beers, curries and clothes, and looking forward to arriving in a city that we were familiar with (I really can’t explain how nice this is after 78 days of arriving in new places where you have absolutely no idea where things are and how things work), but at the same time I was so sad as the stop in Bangkok would be the final leg of our stay in Asia and I really felt that I could stay here much longer.

A twelve hour journey by ferry and coach was all that stood between us and our destination; a prospect that would’ve seemed significantly more daunting seventy-eight days previous, but given the many miles we’ve now travelled on a staggering array of transport it was now as routine as the morning commute to Corby for an 8 hour shift of talking to Andy and Alison about football and belly-dancing, and occasionally surveying some quantities.

As with all journeys, it passed largely without any interesting occurrences (we’ve been lucky to have spent our whole time in Asia without suffering from any of the problems that you hear about where people have their luggage sifted through while it’s in the hold of the bus, or where the bus dumps you in the middle of nowhere leaving you stranded - lets hope South America passes as smoothly!). The one little note that I made to tell you all about is Cate’s laughing (nigh, crying) fit on the bus whilst watching one of the dvds that they played to ease the passage of time. What truly great piece of comic-genius could’ve reduced a woman which such a sophisticated sense of humour as my wife to tears of laughter? Maybe some Monty Python? Some Morecambe and Wise?

Nope, Mr Bean.

On several occasions in the past Cate’s remarked upon how scary I look when I slip into occasional uncontrollable giggling fits when watching something that actually causes me to be unable to stop smiling/laughing/crying, and I’ve never really been able to experience it from the flip-side until that bus journey. She was literally in uncontrollable floods of giggles and tears watching Mr Bean struggle with a diving board, which was made to seem even more strange by everyone else’s non-plussed reaction to the antics they were watching on the screen, as each laugh became more breathless and high-pitched than the last, Cate found herself to be more the focus of people’s attention than Rowan Atkinson’s tomfoolery in the swimming pool. At least I know what to buy her for Christmas next year now. I was clearly delirious after the long journey we had taken and the amount of heat we had been exposed to over the previous weeks. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I used to HATE Mr Bean too. Very strange.

Bangkok was almost exactly as we’d remembered it - except busier than in November, despite being pretty manic back then. We managed to bag ourselves a room at our favourite guesthouse from our first two stays (favourite due to being cheap and not too skanky) and set about getting fed (street-food; Padthai for 45 baht and spring rolls for 25 baht ... just as tasty as anything we’d eaten in the last 11 weeks, and a fraction of the price, god I love Bangkok.

There isn’t much to tell about our final visit to Bangkok I’m afraid as we spent most of our time battling with sorting out Australian things on the internet, struggling to Skype my parents, and investing in some much needed new clothes for Australia ... so instead we’ve got a few general Asian thoughts to finish the continent with; things that have been whizzing around our heads for a while now, so rather than just let them fade from our tired, beer soaked memories we thought we’d pester you with them instead. I’ll hand you over to Cate for the opening gambit.

First, just a word about Bangkok. Throughout Asia, they advertise “French fried” on their menus. This may make you think, like me, that they are going to serve you French fries like McDonald’s chips. Well, unfortunately, they just call chips “French fried” and they serve you generic chips or even worse, the dreaded crinkle chips. Now, when we came back to Bangkok, while we were deciding on somewhere to eat our final meal at, we walked past the bar/restaurant we had eaten our first meal in Asia at and we thought we would go there for our final lunch. I saw on a table near us that someone had actual French fries so I ordered some with some sun dried beef - the waiters in Asia always pass you the menu and expect you to tell them immediately what you want to order, not good for us as we take so long to decide. Matt’s meal came out, (they never bring meals out together) and then my French fries were served (as a starter - a strange starter but they do seem to think that chips are starters.) The beef tasted really good but I thought there was something missing from fries so I asked the waiter if they had any vinegar on the offchance that they might have some. It was a good sign that he could understand what I was saying - I did pronounce it vin-e-gar - as clearly as I possibly could. “Yes” he replied and out he came with a small bowl of vin-e-gar. I smelt it to check it was really vinegar as that is another thing that Asian restaurants can’t provide you with but sure enough it smelt exactly like vinegar should so I poured a load of it over my fries. You can imagine my shock when I tasted one of the fries and it tasted like a cake - sweet vinegar is just not the same as good old malt vinegar. Basically I ruined the first “French fried” French fries I had in Asia. How clever of me.

Okay, so to keep it short, Matt has suggested to me that it might make me happy to make a list. Of course, that makes total sense! So:
• It seems that if we see monkeys in streets we don’t even look twice now. It has become the norm.
• We can live out of a 15kg backpack each...having only about 6 or 7 outfits to wear, over and over.
• We have become accustomed to walking in roads all of the time and find it difficult to walk on paths now, even where there are some clear to use.
• We have done so many things in so little time...usually at home we would be sitting around asking each other what we should do and never actually doing anything. We have so many highlights in our trip and have done some many things that we never thought we would do.
• Asia is incredibly backpacker friendly. There are loads of places to stay, eat and travel agents to book things for you to do.
• It is really scary how quickly time has passed by. It seems like only weeks since we started our journey in Bangkok, yet somehow it has turned into months.
• With hind sight, I probably wouldn’t have spent as much time in some places and might have missed others out completely in order to stay longer in other places. For example, I would have probably spent less time in Bangkok, cut out Ayutthaya in Thailand, spent longer in Chiang Mai and Pai, visited Vang Vieng in Laos, spent longer in Siem Reap in Cambodia, spent longer in Mui Ne, cut out Hue, spent less time in Hanoi, gone on a different Halong Bay tour, spent longer in Singapore and on the Thai islands but spent even less time than we did in Phuket. That would for me, make it nearer to a perfect trip. Some people say that they wouldn’t change a thing, but I would although I recognise the fact that it’s the places that you don’t enjoy so much that allow you to appreciate the places you enjoy the most.
• We have found that meeting people has been quite difficult. It‘s probably because we aren’t the most sociable of people but also because couples are less easy to approach it seems and we have been staying in double rooms rather than dorms. I expect it will be easier to meet people in Australia.
• I really should have brought my hair straighteners with me, big mistake!

Travelling (generally) seems to make people re-evaluate their lives back home and become pretty introspective, all vowing to return home and make changes to their way of life and (very often) their career choices - get out of the rat-race and do something really fulfilling (voluntary work or working with animals). I mention this from a position of having gone through the same thoughts recently in Hanoi, and even contemplating whether joining the ever increasing rabble of teachers would be a good idea, before Cate pointed out that taking on a career purely for the 13 weeks off a year would almost certainly end in tears, which (as a complete aside) reminded me of this sketch that makes me chuckle

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I’d love to know how much of the “life re-evaluation” talk actually turns into something meaningful once people have returned home, or whether rent/mortgage/food bills means people just have to slip back into old habits. I suspect that disappointingly few people actually follow through with the thoughts - although Cate’s diving instructor (Dave) was a prime example, travelled the world, learnt to dive, moved to Thailand and now does his hobby as a full-time job. Lucky bugger. If only my hobby was something I could be gainfully employed for, but I’m yet to see any job adverts requiring key skills of “ability to eat a lot whilst watching inordinate amounts of television/movies”. Maybe one day.

Something that has crept up upon us is that slipping into a routine of travelling has made time really start flying by. The first two weeks, when everything was fresh and we weren’t used to waking up in a foreign country everyday and moving to another place every couple of days it felt like the trip would last forever. But since it’s become routine the time has sped by; the first two weeks seemed to last for an age, but the last nine weeks have gone in the blink of an eye. Before we know it we’ll be heading home!

Home ... that brings me on to another thing that I’ve noticed recently ... lets call it “double envy”. Most occasions that we’ve heard from you folks in the United Kingdom you’ve all been jealous of us going off on our trip (and not having to deal with freezing cold weather for the past 2 months), and whilst this started as a one-way straight it has started working back the other way too, now that what we’re doing has become more of a standard way of life (don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking it, it’s an awesome way of life) whereby we’re envious of all that you guys have been up to at home; whether it be NYE on the Thames & Medway’s place, family Christmas dinners, or sledging around the bowling club car park with Noah and Finley. The grass is always greener eh?

Also I just wanted to take time to mention how well our feet our coping. At the point I’m typing this now we’ve worn flip-flops for 84 straight-days. We’ve walked down the beach in them, kayaked in them, wandered around a national parks in them, and spent countless hours walking around cities in them. My trusty Havaianas (possibly the only non-fake pair in Asia) are without a doubt the best investment that I made pre-trip, £13.50 for 84 days (and counting) of blister-less foot joy. Awesome. Do you think I could get away with wearing them to work when we’re back? I think it would certainly be making a fashion statement to turn up to work in trousers, shirt and flipflops. I have found that whenever I am forced to put on my shoes, (like for a trek), I really struggle to walk in them. I feel totally unbalanced and my feet feel all squashed up. I didn’t realised how bad shoes are for feet!

As for notes on Asia in particular ... the beer is cheap, the Asian food is (largely) amazing, the people are lovely, the weather is fantastic, the sea is warm, the culture is everywhere, the toilets aren’t as bad as we’d feared, and I absolutely love the place. South East Asia is a place that I’d been looking forward to visiting for so long and it didn’t disappoint; the madness of Bangkok, the stunning beaches, the majesty of Angkor Wat and EVERYTHING in between, the eighty days has been amazing. I felt really emotional about the prospect of leaving Asia, comparable to the feeling I had when I left Sheffield after living there for six brilliant years (although to a much lesser degree).

Which brings me nicely to the final thing that I want to say before we bring Asia to a close.

Do it.

Go there, see it, and spend as much time there as family, work and money commitments will allow you. It’s the perfect place to travel, it’s so different from home and yet so easy to get around at the same time. If you want to find off-the-beaten track seclusion then it’s not too hard, but if you want to be in the heart of the action there are cities and resorts galore. Just thinking back now over our trip evokes so many sights, smells and feelings ... it can be equally as frustrating as it is fascinating, but in the end all of the frustration pays off (and the more you learn to think SE Asian, the less frustrated you’ll get). I articulate how much I’d recommend anyone coming here (whether for a week, a month or a year; whether by yourself, with your partner, or a group of mates) so instead I’ll stick with my original statement ... do it.

Seriously, do it.

Maybe we’ll see you there.

Matt and Cate x

Tallies (End of Thailand part 2)
Arguments: 0

Number of bites: We lost count with this but…
Cate - At least 43
Matt - At least 34

Injuries:
Cate - Grazed leg on coral a couple of times, stubbed toe, ear infection, indigestion, head cold, generally unwell.
Matt - stubbed toe.

Guesthouses: 8 different guesthouses.
Overnight ferry to Koh Samui.


Ice-creams:
Cate - 5
Matt - 9

Things lost/stolen/broken:
Cate - combats lost/left with laundry lady, glasses chipped.
Matt - none

Massages:
Cate - 0
Matt - 0

Transport used:
Minibus: 3
Car: 2
Taxi: 2
Pick-up truck (large): 7
Pick-up truck (small): 6
Ferry: 8
Long tail boat: 5
Tuk-tuk: 6
Seater coach: 2
Catamaran: 1

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Photos

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Home in Bangkok

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A strawberry and cheese toastie, that doesn't sound good ...

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... but i'll try it anyway!

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Tastes better than it sounds (which isn't difficult) ... it was really rather nice!

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Don't you think Matt looks like the dippy welsh guy out of Notting Hill?!?

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Why use bread as a burger bun when rice is cheaper?

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Again, it's better than it sounds.

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The fateful sweet-chips incident ... our parting meal from Asia (well, apart from a Burger King three hours later!)