South East Asia Summary
TRANSPORT DETAILS
Hours spent on long-haul trips: 212
Longest bus trip: 11 hours (with two twenty second stops and one 15 minute one)
Longest boat trip: 2 days down the Mekong
Longest train trip: 43 hours (Saigon to Hanoi)
Favourite transport: elephant
Types of transport:
- Aeroplane x2
- Bicycle (2 tandems, 8 solos, 3 tandems with extra seat)
- Boats
~bumboat x3
~ferry x4
~glorified canoe x1
~hydrofoil x1
~junk x1
~paddle boat x4
~slow boat x3 - Bus x26 (both local and express)
- Cyclo (high-seated Phnom Penh variety) x4
- Elephant x4
- LRT x3
- Motorbike x4
- Private car x5
- Taxis x24 (need three at a time in “civilised” places!), Taxivan x1, Taxitruck x3
- Tow truck x2!!!!
- Train: daytime x1, overnight x3, Skytrain x1, Underground train – but multiple trips x2(Singapore, Bangkok)
- Trishaw (low-seated Penang sort) x3
- Tuktuk x25
- Vans x15
ACCOMMODATION
Number of places slept in: 31
Worst guesthouse: Phonsavanh (too many rats for us to sleep a wink)
Favourite: couchsurfing in Hanoi (thanks S&T!!!)
FAVOURITE PLACES
- R&R: Luang Prabang
- Jboy13 & Mboy6: Malaysia (it’s a food thing!) – oh yes, Rob too!!
- Jgirl 14, Kboy11, Kgirl10 & Lboy8: Malaysia and Thailand for the food,
Luang Prabang for delightful character (not food!) - Tgirl4 & ERgirl2: whatever the last person said
HIGHLIGHTS
- * Thailand trek – and here
- * Temples of Angkor, Cambodia
- * Plain of Jars, Laos
- * Couchsurfing, Vietnam 😉
- * Visiting family
(“It was REAL fun coz they just took us out to eat ALL day” ~ Mboy6) - * Mekong River slowboat
- * Sunsets
MOST UNUSUAL FOODS EATEN
- * Mekong
sludgeriver weed - * crickets (crunchy)
- * live huhu grub (yes, singular – well done Kboy11)
- * black chicken (sounds OK, but it’s the only thing we only took one bite of – each)
- * buffalo stew (not that unusual, though the hairs take a bit of getting used to)
- * deep fried baby crabs (just like potato chips)
VEHICLE VERSUS PEDESTRIAN ETIQUETTE ENCOUNTERED
- Singapore: if you stand anywhere near the curb, traffic will stop to let you cross
- Malaysia: no-one walks anywhere – everyone drives
- Thailand: in Bangkok it’s best to wait for a break in the traffic – they don’t stop
- Laos: pedestrians outnumber motorists and all are polite – hardly any cars, just bikes and tuktuks
- Cambodia: step out into the stream of traffic and it will swerve behind you – scary, but true – but look all ways as traffic goes in every direction and traffic lights amount to nothing more than pleasant suggestions
- Vietnam: pedestrians do NOT have right of way – EVER. Not even on the footpaths. Be especially careful in Saigon; traffic anticipates lights will change and takes off even if pedestrians are crossing the road – it is unbelievable – they also regularly drive the wrong way up the road!
MONEY MONEY MONEY
- Singapore dollar
- Malaysian ringgit
- Thai baht
- Lao kip
- Cambodia riel (not real!)
- Vietnamese dong
- Biggest rip-off: US$120 on Cambodian visas that were actually free
MEDICAL MATTERS
- Jboy13: motorbike exhaust burn
- Kgirl10: dehydrated and non-specific Cambodian virus
- diarrhoea (from Mama’s one instance to Papa’s multiple recurrences)
- Tgirl4: big black unknown flying something sting
- Mboy6: walking stick in gut
- allergic reaction rash and headaches for the girls, which all disappeared once we learnt how to say “No MSG please”
- unexplainable fevers of 40 degrees for a few days at a time for various ones
- mosquito bites
- warts, nits: these things just don’t go away!
RANDOM NUMBERS
Temperature range: from only just above freezing overnight in the mountains of Thailand to something that broke Jboy13’s thermometer in Malaysia
Oldest lady met: 105 years
Number of New Years celebrated: 4 (Lao, Hmong, international, Vietnamese)
Number of birthdays celebrated: 4
Tags: food, history, housing, money, postcard: Cambodia, postcard: Laos, postcard: Malaysia, postcard: Singapore, postcard: Thailand, postcard: Vietnam, tradition, transport
rayres
wow!i can’t wait to see the equivalent at the end of your journey! 🙂 i can’t help but wonder, given the magnitude of this adventure, have your medical mishaps been any more frequent than when you’re at home? diarrhoea excepted that is 😉
Nova, definitely more spectacular – none of the kids have ever collapsed in the street at home! Some years we are all well…other years a spewy bug might go round and round the family, or we might be laid low with chicken pox for three months! Never been dehydrated in NZ though!!