South East Asia 2011

So my night at Bangkok airport wasn't the greatest thing I've done over my 4 months away. Firstly it was pretty loud in there when you're trying to sleep! The seats looked good but were very uncomfortable, so I had to take the floor option. They still have announcements every 10 minutes over the tanners at silly o'clock in the morning. The lighting is so bright it burns your eyes and the main one was that it was fa-reezing in there! I wore my hoodie for the first time since my flight out here, that air-con must cost so much to run I tell ya!! So I wouldn't exactly say my 10 hours flew by but I think I got about 2 hours sleep. I'm starting to sound like Victor Meldrew I think I'll stop (Aye Dad?!). But in all its bad points I've just listed, Bangkok airport was still pretty impressive. Once I'd checked in, I got through security etc I found the Leicester City gear! There was one stool in the middle where everyone walks past, then there was a little section in one of the shops with a big picture of Yuki and then there was a bigger stand in the sports shop! My flight with AirAsia was good, we left on time and we got to Singapore in just over 2 hours. Once through security and passport etc I jumped on the underground (which is amazing!) and found my way to my hostel. After waiting around at my hostel for about an hour to check in, I went in the search for the Singapore Flyer. It's the same concept as the London Eye but it's over 35metres taller and is actually the largest observation wheel in the World. I had a whole cabin to myself as the attraction wasn't exactly 'booming'! It cost roughly £15 to do, so not exactly cheap but this is Singapore after all! The view from the top of the wheel was wicked, I had bright blue skies and sunshine too which helped! The Singapore Grand Prix track pretty much circles the Flyer at the bottom and the pits are in throwing distance. They're currently doing work to the pit area and I was free to walk around, up and down the pit straight, on the actual track!! It's really good because you can see the tyre marks in the pit area and on the starting grid too! After this, I walked across the Marina Bay (in the sunshiiiiiiiine!) and ended up at The Marina Bay Sands complex. One word sums it up, MONEEEY!! It's a very impressive building and has a infinity pool on the very top of it. I didn't go up as it was £20! I went back to the Marina at night to take a few photos then retreated to bed as I was pretty knackered!

Tuesday was a bit more of a relaxed day, I didn't leave the hostel till around 12. I went and saw the famous 'Raffles Hotel' but I didn't go to the ridiculously priced Long Bar! After this, I walked around endless amounts of shopping malls near Raffles and then down Orchard Road. Singapore is generally pretty expensive, similar to London really, although i did see a box of 12 chocolates for £150!! After the 'shopping' I made my way back to the hostel, then to the airport to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur. Singapore Airport is a step up from Bangkok, it's got everything you would want! London need to rake note I'm telling ya! Singapore was good fun, I was only there for 1 night but I feel I saw the main things. It didn't really feel like Asia to me though, everything was in English, it was really, really clean but more importantly I wasn't offered drugs, a tuk-tuk, a taxi or a motorbike for my entire stay! So my AirAsia flight was good once again, it only took 40 minutes and we actually arrived 20 minutes early! After being stamped in, finger printed and collecting my luggage etc, I jumped on a bus/tube combo to central KL. I was staying at the same place I was at before, that made it my first and last hostel of my 16 week trip!

Wednesday was a very early start (especially for a backpacker!) as I wanted to go up the Petronas Towers Skybridge. I was up at 6.30 as it's first come first served and they only allow a certain number of visitors per day. I think I was about 100th in the queue and I got there at 6.50AM! I finally got a ticket 2 1/2 hours later and I chose to visit in the afternoon as I was pretty hungry and tired! When I went to visit the Skybridge, it was unfortunately raining! It wasn't too bad as the view was still decent-ish and I've already seen the KL skyline back in April when I went up the KL Tower. In the evening I had a curry which I've been craving for since April, as expected, it was amazing!

Today is D-Day! Not done much so far, had a lie in and I've packed my bags for the last time! I'm going to chill at the hostel until about 3ish watching football before heading to the airport!

If you've noticed that my blogs have been getting longer towards the end of my trip, it's because I started writing them on my phone during bus trips, if only I had thought of doing it this way at the start of my travels, rather than at the end, doh!

So this is finally the end of my South East Asia adventure. 6 countries in 16 weeks, 7 different currencies, 2 time zones, 21 bus journeys, 2 train journeys, 1 Grand Prix, 6 Scuba Dives and a lot of stamps in my passport! It doesn't seem like 16 weeks, it feels more like 3 as time has absolutely flown by. I've travelled over nearly 5000 miles in Asia and written 23 (insightful!) blogs. I've somehow managed to get over 3,800 views on my blog too which is amazing! Who are these people reading my day to day life for the pass 4 months?! One more thing, thanks for reading this and letting me share my thoughts and feelings with you on what has been a very memorable, challenging but brilliant 116 days. Now for that 18 hour trip home......

On Thursday morning I left Siem Reap (on time!) at 8AM and headed back to Bangkok. We reached the town of Poipet, the Cambodian side of the border in 3 1/2 hours. It seemed like a simple procedure at the border crossing. Get off of the bus, get stamped out of Cambodia, walk across to the other side and then get stamped into Thailand. Simple right? Well after 2 1/2 hours, it didn't seem and sound as simple as I'd hoped! The first part went ok, getting stamped out of Cambodia, the problem was with the Thai side. It took well over an hour queuing to get stamped, then we had to wait another hour for the bus to pick us up! That's another thing, I specifically asked when booking my bus for 1 bus for the whole journey, not 2 different buses. I didn't get that, we had a bus in Cambodia then a minibus in Thailand, nightmare!! And this was supposedly the VIP service too! Ah well, that's Asia for you I suppose! Anyway I reached Bangkok in 4 hours from the border and was greeted with rush hour, typical! So I was traveling door to door for 10 hours. I checked straight into the same hotel I was in the last time I was here. I didn't really do much on Thursday evening, I grabbed some food at an Indian Restaurant where I was the only white person in which meant it was really good! Arriving back in Bangkok was the first time that it really hit me that my trip was coming to an end. I was in Bangkok over 10 weeks ago but it seems just like the other week...

Friday was my shopping blitz day! Firstly I headed to the Paragon Shopping Mall to buy my TPL All Stars V Chelsea ticket. I had to buy the ticket from the cinema area at the top of the mall (bit weird?!). "Would you like to see Harry Potter, Harry Potter or Harry Potter?" nah I'll just have a Chelsea ticket please! The area I wanted was 'sold out' (more like the locals only part!) but I got one behind the goal, upper tier for 500 Baht (£10). Bargain. After this, I headed to MBK to get all (well, most) my shopping done. After about 4 hours of walking around 7 levels and bartering hard for some bargains, I called it a day as I was pretty knackered! They sell all kinds of stuff in MBK, but what I loved the most was that they're already selling the fake, brand new Premier League shirts! They can't have been out for more than a few weeks!

Saturday was a bit of a quiet day and I didn't really do a lot. I moved from the Hotel I was staying at to the hostel I was previously at in Bangkok last time around. This was the hostel where the Flip Flop crime was committed back in May! I had another look for them, but to no avail, obviously! Anyway I headed back to MBK to buy a few more things and that was about it. I did however get caught in a rain shower sat in the back of Tuk Tuk for about 10 minutes on my way back, not cool. I also officially can't fit anything else in either of my bags, both are totally rammed!

I left my Hostel in central Bangkok on Sunday at 12 noon on a minibus heading for the airport. The journey took about an hour once we got through the traffic. Dropped my luggage off at the airport and jumped on a train heading back towards the city so I could get to the Rajamangala National Stadium. I got to the ground, via a taxi by about 2PM. I then walked around the ground until I saw a sea of Blue and White, so this was where everybody was!! You basically had to go through a mass check point, yes all 50,000 people through one gate!! The organises need to re-think there plan if they think that's the best way to do it! It was absolute carnage because every ticket and bag had to be checked about 3 times before you actually got through! Anyways, once I was through the chaos and into the ground, I got a seat in the lower tier (in the shade, spot the tourist!) right on the corner flag as it was unreserved seating. Every seat had a Blue and White flag too to take home! So yeah, I was basically sat in my seat 2 1/2 hours before kick off! To be fair, the large majority of the Thai Chelsea 'fans' had there Blue and White shirts on, although I did see a Chelsea shirt with 'Gerrard 8' on the back! All the pre match stuff was all in Thai so that was fun! They had some fireworks then 2 people came down from the stadium roof with the 'Coke Super Cup'! Was all a bit much for a pre season friendly but I suppose it's a big deal for this lot! The crowd were very enthusiastic to say the least, they obviously didn't know about Daniel Sturidges' shooting ability! The game wasn't too bad considering, Chelsea didn't get out of second gear yet they still won 4-0! It was just short of the 50,000 capacity and it was quite a nice ground, another one ticked off the list! It was a bit of a nightmare getting away though, I waited for about 45 minutes to get a taxi back to the nearest railway stop which was under a mile away! I made it back to the airport anyway and I'm waiting here until my flight to Singapore which isn't until 7AM!

I've actually really enjoyed my second time in Bangkok. I wasn't so keen after my first experience, maybe it's because I've already done all the touristy bits and I've been more relaxed about it all. I've noticed you hardly actually get hassled here, well compared to Vietnam and Cambodia anyway! Bangkok has got some serious money, some of the buildings, shopping centres and rapid ally the airport are all really impressive. The excellent underground and sky train transport is top notch, it's so quick and easy to get about, wish I could say the same about London! I've much more enjoyed taking the public transport in Bangkok as it feels more like Asia, more like proper Bangkok.

I'll end my blog here for the time being and I'll pick it up again when I'm in Singapore. This has turned out to be a pretty long blog actually so apologies for that! One more blog to go after this then that's your lot I'm afraid!

I left Sihanoukville early on Saturday morning and surprise surprise it was raining! I got a slightly more expensive bus this time ($6) for more comfort and it was definitely worth it! The journey took just over 6 hours. I haggled down a price with a tuk tuk driver to take me to my hostel and I basically ended up telling him where it was as he didn't have a dinky!! He didn't get a tip....I didn't really do anything for the rest of the day apart from chill at the hostel and go in the swimming pool (got to take advantage haven't you?!)

I didn't really do too much for the actual day I was in Phnom Penh. I had a lie in which was good. I took a wonder down to the riverside for a bit, then went and saw the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship monument and the French independence statue. I also walked pass the Cambodian Royal Palace but didn't go in as it was closed! I wasn't too bothered as it didn't look quite as impressive as the Thai one I did back in Bangkok. There was a bar right next door to my hostel which was absolutely packed with locals. They were all shouting and screaming at the Cambodian kick boxing on the tv, they were all throwing money about too. There must have been over 150 blokes in this small place with 2 TVs which couldn't have been more than 24"!

I left the Cambodian capital on Monday morning and head west to Siem Reap. The journey was supposedly on the countries best road, but if by best they mean bumpiest then I'd agree! On the way I saw a pram being carried on the back of a moped with a family of 4 holding on for dear life, I'm going to miss Asia! The bus took just over 6 hours and we were greeted by loads of tourist hunger tuk tuk drivers! They were all shouting and screaming for business but luckily I had pre booked my hostel and they arranged a free pick up for me, result! As I arrived late-ish I just grabbed some food, arranged a tuk tuk for the next day around the temples and went for a swim.

On Tuesday I went to tour the temples of Angkor. To 'do' the temples, so to speak you can either go with a company or hire a tuk tuk for the day. I went with the latter as it was only $10 compared to $15 the companies wanted! I was also able to pick and choose which temples I wanted to go to and could stay however long or short at each one. So my day started off with my driver 'Lin' picking me up from my hostel. We had to double back though as he forgot his wallet, good start! Anyway it all went pretty smoothly after that. I visited the main and biggest temple first, Angkor Wat. It was very impressive with amazing views all around. I spent about an hour there and it felt like I was in Japan with all Jap tourists flashing there cameras everywhere! It's amazing how they built these huge temple so many years ago with barely any resources. After this I went to a few more temples, Angkor Thom, The Bayon and The Baphuon but I unfortunately cut my foot open on some rock! This kind of dampened the day a little bit and it didn't help that I lost Lin, so I was walking for longer than I wanted too trying to find him! Ah well. After I found him we headed to my favourite temple, Ta Prohm. It had all these massive trees growing right through the middle of it. The roots all wrapped around the stone, quite incredible. It then absolutely chucked it down so I called it a day. All in all I spent about 5 hours looking around the temples, I don't think I even saw 30% of them as there's so many! That 5 hours was enough for me, some people buy the 3 day pass but sod that! I'm glad I visited the main and most impressive ones and I'd definitely recommend doing it.

Today is a bit of a nothing day really, I'm just chilling out, packing my bag for the last time (buying a suitcase in Bangkok!) and generally doing as little as possible. I'm going to head down to the market in a bit to buy a couple of things and exchange my US Dollar (don't ask) into Baht, not an exciting day at all.

I'm leaving to Bangkok tomorrow meaning that my time in Cambodia is over. I've really enjoyed Cambodia, despite getting a cold, quite a bit of rain and cutting my toe quite dramatically! The people in general have been so friendly and kind, the complete opposite to the Vietnamese. Cambodia is so laid back with just a chilled out vibe, nothing moves too quickly and why should it? I've managed to do it pretty cheaply too so I can now 'splash some cash' in Bangkok!! I'm going to do a bit of shopping in Bangkok and hopefully catch the Thai Premier League 'All Stars' against Chelsea on Sunday before spending the night in the airport (should be fun...) before my early flight down to Singapore.

So not really much to report to be honest. I've just been relaxing and not doing an awful lot before the sightseeing of Angkor Wat (Siem Reap) and the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur!

I was with a couple of girls that I met on the slow boat in Laos for 5 days whilst here. Was good to see a familiar face hundreds of miles away from where i originally met them! It's funny that you bump into people you saw x amount of weeks and miles ago but it does happen quite often!! Anyway, they had a few friends here from back home so we had a few heavy nights down at the bars on the beach. It's rude not too when it's only $1 a drink!

They also do BBQs down the beach during the day for $3. You got a choice of 3 different meats, chips, salad, and garlic bread, not bad! I went a few times and opted for barracuda and beef which are both really good! I've also had a few more beef luc lacs here too which have also been really good!

The only bad thing about my time in Sihanoukville was the weather. It's been touch n go, one day it rains and then the next it's blazing sunshine. It's a bit annoying as there's nothing else to do here apart from sit on the beach. I suppose I can't moan too much as it is the 'rainy season' and it hasn't really affected me until now! We spent one of the rainy days at a little cinema thing which was pretty cool! We got our own little room and had a selection of endless amounts of movies, it's just a shame the majority voted for X-Men!!

With the weather being poor, it's at least allowed me to book my hostels for my last 2 weeks. I've also been able to do a bit of research and plan what I'm going to do with my remaining time.

Sihanoukville is a developing beach town, so in a few years I think the place will really take off and be the place to go in S.E.A. I'm glad I've been now as it's not totally ruined, yet! They're still building the main road to the beach but the hotels and restaurants seem to be nearing completion.

I've decided that I'm leaving Sihanoukville and heading back to Phnom Penh a day earlier than I planned because of the boredom! This will at least give me time to see the palace in phnom penh that I didn't have time for when I was originally there.

After 2 nights in Phnom Penh I'll head about 5 hours west to Siem Reap where all the temples of Angkor are. They call the temples at Angkor Wat the eighth wonders of the World so I'm looking forward to it, should be good.

So in Takeo I ended up hiring a bike everyday as it was a lot easier to get around for $1 a day. I and a few other volunteers ate this noodle dish with a friend egg at the local morning every morning for 75 cents. It was really good once you got past the smell of the place! We always ended it off a few sugar cane juices for 25 cents! Everything in general was sooooo cheap in Takeo. One of the other volunteers bought some dog one evening so I had to give it a go! It tasted a bit like beef but more chewy, it was quite nice as it goes! Haven't got a clue what type of dog it was though. Talking of food, we also had some really good proper Khmer food a few nights. It's called Beef Luc Lac and it's amazing! I really hope it's possible to cook back home and i'd certainly be willing to do it!

Anyway, back to the reason why I was there, the Orphanage. We were able to do whatever we wanted tbh. Most of the time we just played card games, Football and Frisbee. Some of them seem to use you as a punchbag! All the kids were really friendly and chatty, it had a sort of day center sort of feel. Every kid is an individual and each has there own story and reasoning for why they've ended up at the Orphanage. At one point, one of the kids found a Scorpion and then taunted all the volunteers with it! He took the poisonous part off of the scorpion but it was still pretty funny watching him taunt everyone and chasing after them! On one of the afternoons it absolutely chucked it down. All the kids were going mental and pushing and dragging all of us into the rain. Once this had been achieved, we had a mass game of football in the rain right through the middle of a giant puddle, carnage doesn't describe it! Unfortunately I think I caught a cold off of one of the kids which wasn't to good! It made me cut my last day at the center short which was a shame but I'm all good again now.

So after 4 1/2 days volunteering, I left Takeo on Friday morning on the 7AM bus BACK to Phnom Penh (north-bound) although I wanted to go to Sihanoukville (south-bound). This was because Phnom Penh is the only destination from Takeo which was a bit annoying but there's no other way around it. I actually paid the local price too which was good, It was actually half the price I paid to get down to Takeo! On the way back to PP we had to get off of the bus to help push an overloading truck out of some mud! So there we were, 20 odd people at 8 'clock in the morning pushing a truck out of some mud, you could tell this was proper, rural Cambodia and I loved it! Anyway, once we arrived at the bus station in PP I jumped straight on to another bus heading for Sihanoukville, I was literally in PP for about 5 minutes. The bus was packed with locals and 4 other westerners. As I was last on, I was squashed in at the back with a family of 5 who had bought 2 seats between them, great! I'm not going to lie, I was pretty glad to reach Sihanoukville after 5 1/2 hours on that bus! So all in all, Friday was a pretty long day, over 8 hours travelling in total. I met up with a couple of girls I was with in Laos who are staying at the same hostel as me which is good. We spent the day on the beach today getting pestered by kids selling fruit, bracelets and lots of other things!

I think I'm going to be on the beach at Sihanoukville for about a week. I'm giving myself a treat and topping up my tan for the last time before I head home! I've got under 3 weeks left now which is incredible! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. I'm kind of looking forward to flying home now, rice and noodles have gone past the point of enjoyment! So Mum if you're reading this, don't even think about cooking them when I get back!!