Scott is officially back 'on the road' again. Its been a long absence, of over 13 months, but I finally have a backpack full of dirty clothes and useless items which I'm hauling around the idyllic beaches and temples of south east Asia.... only this time I have company. My lovely lady has decided to forgo her usual high accommodation and food standards to rough it with me for 5 weeks.
Of course, some people might say I've never really been 'off' the road, as in the months since I last contributed to the blogosphere I've been teaching English in Seoul. However, that has become the norm for me now, and hence I feel any writings on the subject would be somewhat dull and strained. I'm pretty sure no one wants to hear whether I had porridge or toast in the morning, leading on to another uneventful day of work, a quick pint and a bit of telly.
Once again, I find myself with some interesting (to me alone probably) subject matter to fill my prose. And unfortunately, I find myself with some dead time with which to fill these pages with my words of wisdom. This is entirely due to an intense tropical storm raging around me, enabling the paradise island in Thailand on which I now sit, to conduct a fair impression of The End of Days.
Fortunately, it hasn't all been like this. The first four days on Langkawi were literally blistering hot. I say 'literally' because of the effect said sun had on my lady's nose! I enjoyed Langkawi thoroughly. It's location just on the Malaysian side of the Thai border affords it the status of a duty free island. This means it is a little more liberal than the rest of Malaysia, which is already pretty liberal for a Muslim country. It is also blessed with the aforementioned weather, and some stunning beaches.
We chose to stay on Pantai Cenang, which is the busiest beach on the island, and even that is quite a relaxed affair, although it is equipped with all the amenities you might need, and quite a lot that you don't! Its slightly more expensive than the rest of South East Asia here, but still very reasonable to a European or North American mindset. We were able to secure a spacious bungalow with aircon, fan, and a clean, hot shower for 80 ringgit ($27) a night between us. It really is much cheaper travelling with a partner, as most prices are per room, not based on occupancy.
The only let down has been that as neither of us were carrying our driving licences, we were unable to rent a scooter. They are very unbendable on this, there are no exceptions and police checks are common. As one local waiter informed us "it is strict, this is not Thailand!". Every cloud has its silver lining though, and this particular one enabled us to spend more time hanging out at the beach, sunbathing, relaxing and letting the grime and echo of screaming Korean schoolchildren wash away further with every tiny wave hitting the glistening white sand. After a few days somehow managed to race by and feel like a lifetime simultaneously, we were almost ready to move on. However, one last challenge remained.
Pantai Cenang has more parasailing activity than I've seen anywhere else in the World. The people taking part ranged from athletic young Scandanavians, to middle-aged Indian women in full traditional garb! In fact, seeing the latter do it is what really pushed us on to have a go ourselves. If she can do it....
We got a good deal from one of the guys for a tandem ride, and before we knew it we were strapped to a parachute and a motorboat. At this point all that was left was to pray we wouldn't fall flat on our faces. The motorboat engine roared, the parachute billowed, and after a few quick steps we were gracefully ascending above the Andaman Sea. CA (my aforementioned 'lovely lady') chose this point to try and wiggle her arse into the seat harness, which made us rock all over the place. A few high-pitched screams from yours truly both made her stop, and shattered all illusions of me being calm and collected in the face of danger!
Actually, I exaggerate somewhat. The ride was surprisingly calm considering we were about 100 feet in the air, hovering over the beach or only 5 feet of water most of the time. The only slightly hairy part was the landing. We had seen very different standards from the various punters. Think a humming bird to a baby hippo with no legs and you get the idea. After the first bout of screams and whistles from below, it was my job to pull as hard as I could on the rope. After narrowly avoiding umbrella tops and sunbathers we let go and prepared for the moment of truth. And it I don't think I'd seen a better landing all week! A 5.0 - 5.0 - 5.0 surely! Unfortunately, you'll never know just how excellent it was, because our camera chose to run out of battery while we were in the air!
Unable to top our little display of our aeronautics, there was nothing much to do other than pack up our belongings and move on. Thailand next.
Monday, 7 March 2011
Monday, 14 December 2009
Arachnaphobia
Its 7pm on my second to last night in Boracay... and I'm nearly ready for bed! Why? Well its mostly because of a terrifying incident last night. It was 2am and I'd just finished watching Arsenal battle to victory over the unfortunate yet uninspired Liverpool, and just popped into my bathroom before my eyes closed completely. Now, I should point out, I moved into a room made mostly out of bamboo two days ago and, although spacious, its a little too close to nature for my liking, largely thanks to the big gaps in the floor opening onto the bare ground 4 feet below. I'd already discovered a rather large cockroach and been plagued by an increase in mosquito bites, which unfortunately turned out to be just a practice run.
So, this night, I shuffled bleary eyed into the bathroom and switched on the light, which immediately revealed the largest, fattest hairiest spider I've ever seen, hanging about 10 inches from my face in the middle of the room. Now, everyone knows I hate spiders, so might be prone to exaggeration about their size and hostility to justify my own fear. However, not this time, this one really was of tarantula proportions. It's body was easily over 3 inches long and more than an inch wide, while its legs were each as long as the distance from my wrist to the tip of my forefinger. I didn't know what type it was at the time, but I've since found a picture to match it, and apparently its a Huntsman (this is not the actual one, bit was just the same as this).
Now there was no way I could sleep with this monster in the next room! I shut the door in a panic, not wanting it to escape into my sleeping quarters. I needed a plan. No, actually, I needed a stick! The only thing available was the curtain rail, so I carefully removed the curtains, put on my shoes, and started to enter the bathroom. Then I saw my towel hanging up, so i added it to my armoury. I swung open the door and knocked the spider to the floor, next I threw the towel on top of it, then proceeded to jump up and down on the towel like a mental case. After about the 100th jump I deemed it enough to have made a spider pancake. I lifted the towel up, only for the spider to calmly meander out and across the room. Aaarrgh! I jumped out of the room and continued to poke at the spider with my 7 foot long curtain rail, until eventually it crawled out of the window. Relief. Or actually, I thought, as its not dead, what if it comes back in through the gap in the floor when I'm asleep?! With this in mind, I laid in the middle of my bed with the light on for the next 3 hours, until eventually my heavy eyes won over my irrational fear and I entered into a fitful sleep.
Insane isn't it? How I'm happy to let a lizard wander about my room wherever it wants, but as soon as a cockroach, or especially a spider, comes along, I turn into the old woman from the Tom and Jerry cartoons who leaps onto a chair and hollers whenever the mouse comes near!
Apart from my Steve Irwin-esque adventures, everything is going pretty well here in paradise. The only downside is that the weather has been pretty cloudy the last 4 days so my tan is not quite what I'd expect, but I'm sure its better than most of the people who have spent November and December in England or Korea! I have a friend arriving here tomorrow, which typically coincides with my last night! Then its on to Hong Kong to meet up with Martin and Pete.
More adventures to follow. And, hopefully, the only things to go bump in the night will be of the two-legged variety!
So, this night, I shuffled bleary eyed into the bathroom and switched on the light, which immediately revealed the largest, fattest hairiest spider I've ever seen, hanging about 10 inches from my face in the middle of the room. Now, everyone knows I hate spiders, so might be prone to exaggeration about their size and hostility to justify my own fear. However, not this time, this one really was of tarantula proportions. It's body was easily over 3 inches long and more than an inch wide, while its legs were each as long as the distance from my wrist to the tip of my forefinger. I didn't know what type it was at the time, but I've since found a picture to match it, and apparently its a Huntsman (this is not the actual one, bit was just the same as this).
Now there was no way I could sleep with this monster in the next room! I shut the door in a panic, not wanting it to escape into my sleeping quarters. I needed a plan. No, actually, I needed a stick! The only thing available was the curtain rail, so I carefully removed the curtains, put on my shoes, and started to enter the bathroom. Then I saw my towel hanging up, so i added it to my armoury. I swung open the door and knocked the spider to the floor, next I threw the towel on top of it, then proceeded to jump up and down on the towel like a mental case. After about the 100th jump I deemed it enough to have made a spider pancake. I lifted the towel up, only for the spider to calmly meander out and across the room. Aaarrgh! I jumped out of the room and continued to poke at the spider with my 7 foot long curtain rail, until eventually it crawled out of the window. Relief. Or actually, I thought, as its not dead, what if it comes back in through the gap in the floor when I'm asleep?! With this in mind, I laid in the middle of my bed with the light on for the next 3 hours, until eventually my heavy eyes won over my irrational fear and I entered into a fitful sleep.
Insane isn't it? How I'm happy to let a lizard wander about my room wherever it wants, but as soon as a cockroach, or especially a spider, comes along, I turn into the old woman from the Tom and Jerry cartoons who leaps onto a chair and hollers whenever the mouse comes near!
Apart from my Steve Irwin-esque adventures, everything is going pretty well here in paradise. The only downside is that the weather has been pretty cloudy the last 4 days so my tan is not quite what I'd expect, but I'm sure its better than most of the people who have spent November and December in England or Korea! I have a friend arriving here tomorrow, which typically coincides with my last night! Then its on to Hong Kong to meet up with Martin and Pete.
More adventures to follow. And, hopefully, the only things to go bump in the night will be of the two-legged variety!
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Boracay
Greetings one and all. After a long, hard slog of a year (13.5 months actually) in Korea, I'm back 'on the road' and so, as you can see, I'm also back in the blogosphere.
This past year, I've only ventured out of Seoul for a 3 days, and that was way back in February when I hopped over to Shanghai for lunar new year. In short: I had a good craic, it was very cold, the city is a nightmare to find your way around, I went up one of the tallest buildings in the world. There you go, blog done.
But back to the present, as things on the travelling front have taken a sharp upturn and now I find myself on the paradise island of Boracay in the Philippines. As you can see from my last post, I've been planning to do this little trip since December last year, so I'm mighty happy to be here.
I arrived here last Sunday 22nd November, after a brief one-night stopover in Manila. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I've heard and read the opinions of many people who think this place is too touristy and overdeveloped. Well, all I can say is, those people must usually take their holidays with Robinson Crusoe if they think this place is too much. The beach is white and beautiful, and almost empty towards either end of it. Admittedly, it gets a little busier in the mid-section, but even there, its nowhere near as crowded as its Thai or even Vietnamese counterparts. The people too, can be compared favourably to their Thai or Vietnamese cousins. They are incredibly laid back and friendly, and always seem happy, even though they are poor as church mice.
Behind the beach runs a strip of restaurants, bars, hotels, dive shops and other services for tourists. Lots of these places are constructed from bamboo, or driftwood perhaps, enabling them to blend effortlessly in with the line of palm trees in front of them. Some hotels and bars, such as the popular Hey Jude, are a little flashier, but there's nothing too garish (yet!). By the way, if you think that a place called Hey Jude would be a great place to unwind with a beer to you favourite Beatles classics... you'd be wrong. House music pumps out all night long.
One very unique thing about the Philippines is the transport. In Manila the streets are thronging with brightly painted Jeepneys, a vehicle that was first built out of the old Jeeps that the Americans left behind when they left. But in Boracay, no cars are allowed so the primary mode of transport is the 'trike'. Trikes are basically motorbikes with a shell built around them to provide seating beside and behind the driver, a bit like tuk tuks but a slightly different shape. Same same but different!
So far I haven't done much, and to be honest I don't really plan to do much either! Thus far, the main part of my day has been taken up with laying on a sun lounger in the 30 degree heat. This is sometimes combined with some light reading, and often interspersed with a bit of swimming in the warm, clear blue sea. After this, it soon gets round to dinner time when I have the difficult task of choosing between freshly caught seafood, or an array of international cuisine. Then of course, its time to hit a bar or five to drink the tasty local fifty pence beers and look at the tasty local birds! How will I cope with two more weeks of this?
This past year, I've only ventured out of Seoul for a 3 days, and that was way back in February when I hopped over to Shanghai for lunar new year. In short: I had a good craic, it was very cold, the city is a nightmare to find your way around, I went up one of the tallest buildings in the world. There you go, blog done.
But back to the present, as things on the travelling front have taken a sharp upturn and now I find myself on the paradise island of Boracay in the Philippines. As you can see from my last post, I've been planning to do this little trip since December last year, so I'm mighty happy to be here.
I arrived here last Sunday 22nd November, after a brief one-night stopover in Manila. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I've heard and read the opinions of many people who think this place is too touristy and overdeveloped. Well, all I can say is, those people must usually take their holidays with Robinson Crusoe if they think this place is too much. The beach is white and beautiful, and almost empty towards either end of it. Admittedly, it gets a little busier in the mid-section, but even there, its nowhere near as crowded as its Thai or even Vietnamese counterparts. The people too, can be compared favourably to their Thai or Vietnamese cousins. They are incredibly laid back and friendly, and always seem happy, even though they are poor as church mice.
Behind the beach runs a strip of restaurants, bars, hotels, dive shops and other services for tourists. Lots of these places are constructed from bamboo, or driftwood perhaps, enabling them to blend effortlessly in with the line of palm trees in front of them. Some hotels and bars, such as the popular Hey Jude, are a little flashier, but there's nothing too garish (yet!). By the way, if you think that a place called Hey Jude would be a great place to unwind with a beer to you favourite Beatles classics... you'd be wrong. House music pumps out all night long.
One very unique thing about the Philippines is the transport. In Manila the streets are thronging with brightly painted Jeepneys, a vehicle that was first built out of the old Jeeps that the Americans left behind when they left. But in Boracay, no cars are allowed so the primary mode of transport is the 'trike'. Trikes are basically motorbikes with a shell built around them to provide seating beside and behind the driver, a bit like tuk tuks but a slightly different shape. Same same but different!
So far I haven't done much, and to be honest I don't really plan to do much either! Thus far, the main part of my day has been taken up with laying on a sun lounger in the 30 degree heat. This is sometimes combined with some light reading, and often interspersed with a bit of swimming in the warm, clear blue sea. After this, it soon gets round to dinner time when I have the difficult task of choosing between freshly caught seafood, or an array of international cuisine. Then of course, its time to hit a bar or five to drink the tasty local fifty pence beers and look at the tasty local birds! How will I cope with two more weeks of this?
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Let's Party Like Its 2009!
A predictable title for what is now becoming my bi-annual blog post, I know. But predictability seems somewhat appropriate for what has been a fairly unsurprising, uninspiring festive season.
I find myself in Korea, which at this time of year is ironically soulless. Don't get my wrong, I join in with everyone else back in the UK in having a whinge about the Xmas lights going up the day after Halloween and women buying turkey's and family size Twiglet tubs in June. But when its not there I miss it.
This year I went with my friends to the Seoul Millennium Hilton hotel for the lunch buffet on Xmas day. The food was tasty and plentiful but, like many Korean attempts at interpreting western culture, it just wasn't quite right. Their cardinal sin was providing no roast potatoes whatsoever (which almost forced me to make a sharp exit). They did however have an array of seafood, salads and cheeses for starters, and more desert options than even my mum provides. And yes, I did try most of them.
New Year's eve was good fun. A fair few of us met in Itaewon, in a fairly trendy little establishment called Bricx. Beers were drank, conversation and merriment were had, Auld Lang Syne was sung, and taxis were got home. A pleasant, but uneventful night.
Ah well. The holiday season in Korea isn't all that bad. I could be in far worse places. Basra, Helmsland Province, and Mogadishu spring to mind. And at least I don't have to deal with credit crunches, or the something like 1 in 3 chance I'll be stabbed on the way home from my Xmas party by a knife wielding teenager who already has 2 asbo's and 3 demonic offspring to take his place when he finally hangs up his hoodie for the last time.
Please excuse me. I just came over a bit Daily Mail for a second there. Let's resume normal service shall we?
So, now we're in to 2009 and its time for those inevitable thoughts about plans, hopes and aspirations for the coming year. I didn't make any new year's resolutions as such, but there are a few things I'd like to do at some point this year. Number one on the list is give up smoking. And I'd like to do that sooner rather than later. I just need to set a date and get myself mentally prepared for a couple of weeks, like I did last time.
The second thing on the list is to travel some more. Now I'm in Korea until October so that one might stretch into 2010. But some of it could happen this year as I may well go somewhere like Thailand or the Philippines for a month or so before heading home to Blighty. That way I'd get home around the right time for Xmas. Anyway, that's a long way away yet.
Of course I have some more general aspirations that I assume are shared with almost everyone else in the western world. I want to make a bit of cash, get a bit healthier, and meet a significant other (preferably a gorgeous, smart, millionairess, michelin star chef... hold on, shit... I'm describing Nigella Lawson!).
And perhaps, dear readers, I shall even update this blog a bit more frequently... but I wouldn't bet even your now worthless negative equity mortgages on it.
I find myself in Korea, which at this time of year is ironically soulless. Don't get my wrong, I join in with everyone else back in the UK in having a whinge about the Xmas lights going up the day after Halloween and women buying turkey's and family size Twiglet tubs in June. But when its not there I miss it.
This year I went with my friends to the Seoul Millennium Hilton hotel for the lunch buffet on Xmas day. The food was tasty and plentiful but, like many Korean attempts at interpreting western culture, it just wasn't quite right. Their cardinal sin was providing no roast potatoes whatsoever (which almost forced me to make a sharp exit). They did however have an array of seafood, salads and cheeses for starters, and more desert options than even my mum provides. And yes, I did try most of them.
New Year's eve was good fun. A fair few of us met in Itaewon, in a fairly trendy little establishment called Bricx. Beers were drank, conversation and merriment were had, Auld Lang Syne was sung, and taxis were got home. A pleasant, but uneventful night.
Ah well. The holiday season in Korea isn't all that bad. I could be in far worse places. Basra, Helmsland Province, and Mogadishu spring to mind. And at least I don't have to deal with credit crunches, or the something like 1 in 3 chance I'll be stabbed on the way home from my Xmas party by a knife wielding teenager who already has 2 asbo's and 3 demonic offspring to take his place when he finally hangs up his hoodie for the last time.
Please excuse me. I just came over a bit Daily Mail for a second there. Let's resume normal service shall we?
So, now we're in to 2009 and its time for those inevitable thoughts about plans, hopes and aspirations for the coming year. I didn't make any new year's resolutions as such, but there are a few things I'd like to do at some point this year. Number one on the list is give up smoking. And I'd like to do that sooner rather than later. I just need to set a date and get myself mentally prepared for a couple of weeks, like I did last time.
The second thing on the list is to travel some more. Now I'm in Korea until October so that one might stretch into 2010. But some of it could happen this year as I may well go somewhere like Thailand or the Philippines for a month or so before heading home to Blighty. That way I'd get home around the right time for Xmas. Anyway, that's a long way away yet.
Of course I have some more general aspirations that I assume are shared with almost everyone else in the western world. I want to make a bit of cash, get a bit healthier, and meet a significant other (preferably a gorgeous, smart, millionairess, michelin star chef... hold on, shit... I'm describing Nigella Lawson!).
And perhaps, dear readers, I shall even update this blog a bit more frequently... but I wouldn't bet even your now worthless negative equity mortgages on it.
Thursday, 19 June 2008
TaeAn
Last weekend, I finally got out from the belly of the smog choked beast that is Seoul. My hagwon (school) has an annual tradition of heading out to a beach or moutain for a workshop, team-bonding exercise. I must admit to being a little apprehensive, with 'team-bonding' conjuring up visions of David Brent going home to get his guitar before launching into Free Love on Free Love Free Freeway. Another thing putting a slight damper on my enthusiasm was the fact that our west coast destination was the sight of one of Korea's worst oil slicks only a few months ago.
I needn't have worried. Our pension was a lovely wooden building, looking across the expansive mudflats, over the handful of islets, and out to the Yellow Sea beyond. We had one pension for the boys and one for the girls; each containing one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchenette/living area, and a balcony.
In the afternoon we took a stroll down to the beach on the other side of the peninsula. My visions of an ecological hell were thankfully unfounded, with no sign of any oil anywhere. Instead, I found a picturesque little beach backed by pine trees. Also behind the beach, was a small farm settlement whose name translated as 'No Crime Village'!
In the evening, we had a barbecue and some drinks outside our pension. Unfortunately there were no burgers or chicken so we had to make do with Sang Yap Sal, the fatty bacon type thing that Koreans love. We chatted, played a few drinking games, and had a very good evening in the fresh air. I even managed to catch the second half of Spain v Sweden to round off a nice night. Next morning it was time to trudge back to Seoul and rejoin the 20 million strong collective. I'll have to get to the coast more often.
This weekend I'm going to see the South Korea v North Korea World Cup qualifier, so I'll try and get some pics and a match report up if I can find my missing camera charger.
I needn't have worried. Our pension was a lovely wooden building, looking across the expansive mudflats, over the handful of islets, and out to the Yellow Sea beyond. We had one pension for the boys and one for the girls; each containing one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchenette/living area, and a balcony.
In the afternoon we took a stroll down to the beach on the other side of the peninsula. My visions of an ecological hell were thankfully unfounded, with no sign of any oil anywhere. Instead, I found a picturesque little beach backed by pine trees. Also behind the beach, was a small farm settlement whose name translated as 'No Crime Village'!
In the evening, we had a barbecue and some drinks outside our pension. Unfortunately there were no burgers or chicken so we had to make do with Sang Yap Sal, the fatty bacon type thing that Koreans love. We chatted, played a few drinking games, and had a very good evening in the fresh air. I even managed to catch the second half of Spain v Sweden to round off a nice night. Next morning it was time to trudge back to Seoul and rejoin the 20 million strong collective. I'll have to get to the coast more often.
This weekend I'm going to see the South Korea v North Korea World Cup qualifier, so I'll try and get some pics and a match report up if I can find my missing camera charger.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
One year...
Oops, it's been nearly three months since my last post. How did that happen. Well to be honest I haven't got much to say at the moment. The long, cold Korean winter means everybody pretty much hibernates for a couple of months. I've been working, then hitting the town at the weekends, but that's about it.
I did manage to get out of Seoul and do some paintball a month or so ago which was good fun. It was interesting to see how Korea is outside of the big city and seeing the Han River completely frozen over was very impressive. I'll get some photos up of the day if I can get hold of any as we did look pretty funny in our Rambo gear.
One important milestone has passed recently. On the 13th March I had been away for one whole year. One complete calenday year without setting foot on British soil. I wonder if that makes me a real ex-pat?! Speaking of time, I've now got only 4 1/2 months before I do walk on that green, green grass of home again. I'm looking forward to a little UK holiday!
Now spring is here I'll be looking to get out of Seoul a bit more, and perhaps see all those sights around the city that I haven't yet visited.
I did manage to get out of Seoul and do some paintball a month or so ago which was good fun. It was interesting to see how Korea is outside of the big city and seeing the Han River completely frozen over was very impressive. I'll get some photos up of the day if I can get hold of any as we did look pretty funny in our Rambo gear.
One important milestone has passed recently. On the 13th March I had been away for one whole year. One complete calenday year without setting foot on British soil. I wonder if that makes me a real ex-pat?! Speaking of time, I've now got only 4 1/2 months before I do walk on that green, green grass of home again. I'm looking forward to a little UK holiday!
Now spring is here I'll be looking to get out of Seoul a bit more, and perhaps see all those sights around the city that I haven't yet visited.
Sunday, 30 December 2007
2007
Well, here we are on the last day of 2007. It's been a pretty eventful year for me to say the least. I've been out of the UK for over three quarters of it for a start, visiting 7 different countries along the way. My occupation has changed from something mundane to something relatively unusual and I now live 8000 miles from home. Such a lot has been going on that I should take time to review it, so I thought I'd do a few of those silly best/worst lists that you always get in the papers at this time of year.
Let's start with obvious - BEST COUNTRIES VISITED (in reverse order):
5. Thailand
4. Vietnam
3. Cambodia
2. Japan
1. India
BEST FOOD:
3. Noodle soup and baguettes (Vietnam)
2. Big fat prawns (Goa, India)
1. Green curry (Thailand)
WORST FOOD
5. Kimchi (Korea)
4. Grasshopper (Cambodia)
3. Dweji Galbi (Korea)
2. Bebimbap (Korea)
1. Kimbap (Korea)
BEST JOURNEYS
3. Train ride from Hampi to Goa
2. Allepey to Kochi by boat through the backwaters
1. Boat down the Mekong from Chiang Kong to Luang Prabang
WORST JOURNEYS
3. Saigon to Phnom Penh (purely for hangover level!)
2. Bangalore to Hampi (1st attempt!)
1. Siem Riep to Bangkok
BEST SCENERY
3. Ko Phi Phi (Thailand)
2. Hampi (India)
1. Luang Prabang (Laos)
WEIRDEST INHABITANTS
3. Japan
2. India
1. Korea
FITTEST BIRDS
3. Thailand
2. Korea
1. Japan
GRIMMEST TOILETS
3. Thailand
2. Laos
1. India
WORST POP MUSIC
3. Korea
2. India
1. Thailand
Anway, that my review of the year for now! I'm off for a rest before the big party tonight.
Let's start with obvious - BEST COUNTRIES VISITED (in reverse order):
5. Thailand
4. Vietnam
3. Cambodia
2. Japan
1. India
BEST FOOD:
3. Noodle soup and baguettes (Vietnam)
2. Big fat prawns (Goa, India)
1. Green curry (Thailand)
WORST FOOD
5. Kimchi (Korea)
4. Grasshopper (Cambodia)
3. Dweji Galbi (Korea)
2. Bebimbap (Korea)
1. Kimbap (Korea)
BEST JOURNEYS
3. Train ride from Hampi to Goa
2. Allepey to Kochi by boat through the backwaters
1. Boat down the Mekong from Chiang Kong to Luang Prabang
WORST JOURNEYS
3. Saigon to Phnom Penh (purely for hangover level!)
2. Bangalore to Hampi (1st attempt!)
1. Siem Riep to Bangkok
BEST SCENERY
3. Ko Phi Phi (Thailand)
2. Hampi (India)
1. Luang Prabang (Laos)
WEIRDEST INHABITANTS
3. Japan
2. India
1. Korea
FITTEST BIRDS
3. Thailand
2. Korea
1. Japan
GRIMMEST TOILETS
3. Thailand
2. Laos
1. India
WORST POP MUSIC
3. Korea
2. India
1. Thailand
Anway, that my review of the year for now! I'm off for a rest before the big party tonight.
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