SE Asia

I should have probably written a separate blog for each country, but I'll do my best to keep it short...


Thailand
I've spent quite a bit of time in Thailand since I've made Bangkok my "home base" for the rest of my travels in southeast Asia. It's a great city! Very modern, overcrowded and a bit polluted, but the people are really nice and there's loads of things to do. I went out for a few whiskey buckets with Jenny on Khao San Road and saw a 3 meter tall golden buddha!


In Chang Mai, I took a yoga class and tried a 3 hour class to learn the basics of Muay Thai boxing. It's quite a bit different from kickboxing, but I really enjoyed it! I went on a 3 day trek in the mountains. We slept in the hillside villages. I rode an elephant and went down the river on a bamboo raft. One night, the children put on a little show for us in their traditional costumes...It was so adorable!


The Islands
...more to come here, so be sure to come back for an update...I will be visiting the islands in southern Thailand in mid-October...


Cambodia
The highlight here by far is the Angkor Wat. This is an area just outside of Siem Reap that has loads of huge, elaborate temples. One was even used to film part of Tomb Raider! I got up really early to watch sunrise over one of the temples...It was spectacular. I rented a bicycle one day and got out of the "city", if you can call it that. :-) It was amazing to see the beautiful, green, tropical landscape. I saw a couple of boys playing in the river with the cows...Just gorgeous little kids!



Vietnam
I spent a few days in Saigon (Ho Chi Mihn City). I went to the Mekong Delta one day, where we rode on a cute little Vietnamese boat. Back in Saigon, I went to the War Museum. It was extremely depressing, and made me feel very guilty and ashamed of some of the things that happened during the Vietnam War. There were graphic photos of people burning from bombs, being tortured, etc. They also showed photos of people who are deformed even today from the chemicals that were used in the war. The worst bit of the museum, I think, was that there were 2 fetuses in jars that had severe deformations and died. I had to leave and take a break from the museum at several points during the 2.5 hours I spent there because it really almost made me cry. I'm glad I saw it though...Probably one of the best museums I've ever been to.

Then I took a break and went to Mui Ne beach for a few days to catch up on my tan. I met Jenny there from Ireland, and we really got along great. We've met up several times in Asia, actually, so you will here more about here in other countries.



Laos
What an amazing country...This was my surprise favourite of Asia! It was absolutely beautiful, the people are so friendly, and there aren't too many tourists going there yet. I went on a 4.5 hour hike in the mountains outside of Luang Prabang. It was so beautiful!!! I also saw the amazing Kuang Si waterfall. Then, I went tubing down the Mekong River in Vang Vieng (which is really all about drinking BeerLao)! I had a shot of some sort of really strong liquor that is served in a bottle that has a dead snake coiled up inside of it!!



Malaysia
I met up with Jenny again in Kuala Lumpur. There's not too much to see there (just another big city really) so we decided to head to Tioman Island, off the southeast coast of Malaysia. We spent most of our time on the island laying in the hammock and reading or sleeping. It was so nice to relax for a few days. We went snorkelling one day. They took us to two sites, but unfortunately we could only snorkel at the first one because there were hundreds of jellyfish at the second site! I got stung by a couple of them, but it really didn't hurt that bad. We saw some cute little monkeys on our island. One night we had a fresh fish dinner by the ocean - It was delicious! On a side note, the men in Malaysia are the worst in southeast Asia, but they're not anywhere near as bad as the Egyptian men.



Singapore
Singapore is an amazingly modern country. It really doesn't fit in with the rest of Asia at all. Jenny and I walked along Orchard Road, a huge shopping district. They have Prada, Armani, Tiffany, and tons of other extremely expensive stores.
We took a river cruise and a cable car ride to see some great views of the city. Of course, Jenny and I had a night out were we had to have our Singapore Slings!! :-)