Final Blog: Asia

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Big fat slacker. Yes I’m aware that this is what I became when I got to Asia, but then who can blame me for wanting to be outside all of the time instead of finding a clammy, sweaty and sticky internet cafe on the other side of the world to write a blog?! Well most of you know that I’m back in the land of cold weather and thought it would be a good opportunity to do my last blog now instead of other jobs I should be doing...ironically job hunting being one of the these.

The trip to Asia began in Malaysia where we had around a week to explore Kuala Lumpur before meeting Ben’s sister in Krabi (Thailand), therefore we didn’t hang around and made the most of walking around this extremely varied city. It soon became clear that it was going to be difficult not to do any shopping there, since there was just so much of it...and yes dirt cheap too – particularly in China Town. We tried out the fish spa experience, although the fish were much bigger than I’ve ever seen in English beauty salons and it actually felt as though they were sucking my toes off! Don’t think I’ll be doing that again (although I did in Cambodia actually and hated it again). There was plenty of different meals we could try – the best ones being the street stalls – grubby looking, but incredibly fresh food. We also visited many of the usual tourist hot spots before getting a surprisingly luxurious night bus to Thailand.

For me, Thailand was an extremely varied experience of either too many tourists, or not enough. We began in Krabi and did the usual ‘musts’: drank Angkor Beer, climbed the Tiger Temple mountain (which on a hangover nearly killed Ben) and had cheap massages (which bloody hurt!) But we also made the most of other activities that were on offer, for example we went for a boat ride with a local, who took us to deserted caves and a great little fishing village, where we met our first blowfish...it reminded me of a furby, but with a gas problem, causing it to inflate. We also stayed in quite a few random places – one being a little tree house with all kinds of wildlife rustling around – monkeys being my least favourite. One piece of advice I’d give to anyone who’s thinking of going to Asia; only eat hot food. I made the mistake of ordering a tuna sandwich and got pretty bad food poisoning from it. Haven’t been able to eat tuna again yet in fact. And I like tuna. I did manage to pull myself together when we got to see the big scary tigers though. It was a very odd experience and you feel slightly anxious, but trust me, you move quickly when they flinch. Ben and I particularly liked the elephant trekking too; we were given the big boy with huge tusks and a bit of an attitude, but we were pretty calm considering we had already been given the pleasure of having an ‘elephant massage’ beforehand.

For both Ben and I though, our favourite country in Asia (that we’ve seen so far) was Cambodia. The people there are just so friendly, welcoming and grateful for your visit that you are pretty much guaranteed a great visit. We had the opportunity to learn how to fish – Cambodian style – and rice pick the fields, we visited the largest religious building in the world: Angkor Wat Temple complex, had many rides on the crazy tuc tucs and rode a bamboo train which will sadly soon be gone and replaced with a big boring machine. One of our favourite experiences was going to see a Christmas show at a local orphanage. The children were unbelievable – so friendly, welcoming, intelligent and happy, it was a real eye-opener. Needless to say we went back on Boxing Day full of sweeties for them all.

Unfortunately we spoilt Christmas Day for ourselves...by getting trashed on Christmas Eve. Think I’ll be giving that a miss this Christmas – it’s not so fun when you get back to your hotel and have to fight over the toilet to try and be sick in it first.

Apart from that slight blip (oh and the airline cancelling our seats on the flight home...that’s always a fun moment), we have had the most amazing four months and I can only urge you all to do it for yourselves if you get the chance. Still, it’s always nice to come home and have a cup of English tea; there’s just nothing quite like it!

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