World Travelers

Not sure if this is the right thread to post it, but here goes.

Here's a little report from my trip to Southeast Asia, if anyone's interested. I'm expecting Bregt to give HIS story when he returns, since I'm sure we've done some similar things.

After a 14-hour flight, we arrived in Bangkok, where we spent a couple of nights first (mostly at midrange inns). Like so many other tourists, we stayed in the Khosan Road area, a place teeming with smells, sounds, neon lights and a sizzling atmosphere, especially in the evenings. Fantastic sensory stimuli! We saw some basic sights; getting a view from Thailand's tallest building, a river cruise, the gigantic Siam shopping mall and one of the lavish temples (wats). Then we drank....LOTS of beer. I've always liked the Singha (pronounced "Singh"), but the Chang was pretty good too. And lots of drinks, of course..."Sex on the Beach", "Mai Tai", mojitos, you name it. The regular places usually close at 1 or 2, but it's easy to find more local, underground places that keep on going to the wee hours of the morning if you want to - either through some locals you've hooked up with or the hundreds of the energetic tuk-tuk drivers that stand around the exit area at closing time (who will recommend anything from sleazy prostitute joints to respectable discos, only the latter of which we were obviously interested in).

From Bangkok, we took a plane to Krabi in the South and stayed there for a night. Not a lot of things happening here as it's mostly just a passing-through point for travellers going to the islands, but once again we ended up in a local after-party thing, this time a special karaoke place or event where each group could get separate rooms - not for sleazy things, but for singing karaoke! There were a couple of other tourists there as well, but for the most part, this was an underground Thai place.

The next day, we took the boat to Ko Phi Phi Don, one of the most popular islands outside Krabi/Phuket, which was one of the most unfortunate victims of the tsunami a few years ago. We had expected a somewhat laidback place with a few bungalows and a pub or two, but this place has really grown since then and I'm sorry to say - not necessarily for the better. There are more restaurants and pubs than your heart desires, including two noisy beach discos, one of which was appropriately named Ibiza bar (appropriate because this now looks like Ibiza when it first started up). I'm not averse to these things myself, but to wade through hordes of tourists - mostly young, tan, wellbuilt swedes - sort of took some of the "authenticity" out of the exotic island experience. However, we rented a longtail boot one day and cruised out to sister island and national park Ko Phi Phi Leh. This was much better, we did some fine snorkling and visited the same beach where the Leonardo di Caprio film THE BEACH was filmed.

Then it happened. My worst travel enemy struck once again - i.e. my very own stomach! We had to prolong our stay at Phi Phi for 3-4 days while I was coping with this (mostly just lying in the hotel room and/or the beach), and had to drop our planned trip to East coast party island Ko Samui.

On the other hand, this opened up for a shorter visit to Cambodia, which we had initially planned, but then discarded. So when I was feeling more or less up for it, we took the boat to Phuket, went to a travel agency, took a plane to Bangkok and directly to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where we arrived in the evening. This is a quite different country from Thailand. Poorer, with less infrastructure and more visible poverty. Not as developped. Quite fascinating, but also a "wake-up" call to see this kind of poverty up close (and certainly puts our own luxury hobby here in another perspective). Since this was an impulse trip, we knew nothing about the country, not even the currency. But we bought a Lonely Planet, booked in at a recommended place and went for walk in the city. The riverfront area is the most popular to tourists, but we went to some markets here and there to get the right "vibe". Like Bangkok, this was also full of impressions - colours, life, traffic, noise.

The next day, we took a river boat up the Mekong River to the Tonle Sap Sea and Siem Reap, the "base city" for people visiting Angkor Wat. This was an interesting experience. A fast boat at about 20 knops, but with no outside rails or security to speak of. Amazing that no one fell overboard during its 6-hour duration. But it also allowed us to see parts of rural Cambodia - small villages and townships in and by the riverside. Siem Reap was a fine little city as well, but clearly shaped by the increase in Angkor Wat tourist stream (with its own "pub street" and everything).

As for Angkor Wat, it was obviously an impressive piece of architecture. Massive in scope, very much like the Egypt pyramids. However, I can't help but feel a bit let-down - I guess mostly because of the massive tourist number (making it out to be more of an amusement park) and the "adapted" ruins and wats themselves, with wooden floorboards and sloppy restoration work here and there.

Anyways, we returned to Bangkok a couple of days later (we had no time for visiting the Killing Fields, unfortunately), made time for one more party (where I spent far more money than I should....I think I had a blackout!), and then flew back to Oslo via Amsterdam. I'm now totally jetlagged and need to sleep.

All in all, a great trip, and I'm definitely going back to Southeast Asia - perhaps on a more extended roundtrip to the whole region - Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, perhaps even Burma etc. If you know how to steer away from the worst tourist traps - or at least put in time for MORE than just that - you'll be in for a treat. The prices are great for "rich" Westerners like us, the people are nice, the heat is welcome and the nature can be pretty awesome.

I'll put out a few pictures on facebook when I get the time.