East Asia: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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  Over the Indian Ocean, India
Saturday, January 21, 2006

This entry is a little different from our earlier ones. Instead of reporting on one place, it's a look back at the East Asian part of our travels. We'll give some best/worst lists (we love lists) and an overall financial picture of the trip, which we hope will be useful to other current and fuure travelers (hi brian, christine, rebecca, michael, leigh, mike, marie, and dave!).

Top 3 Favorite Cities (if we must force ourselves to choose only three):
1. Hanoi, Vietnam
2. Hoi An, Vietnam
3. Tokyo, Japan

Best Sites / Experiences (in no particular order):
- Meeting Nhat and family in Hoi An, Vietnam
- Visiting the Ramalinggam's in Tokyo, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Angkor Wat and Evenings at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Siem Reap
- Riding an elephant and seeing the elephant show in Northern Thailand
- Traveling in Vietnam with Ruth and Doug from London
- Beach time in Borneo
- Motorbike riding in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand
- Bokor National Park, Cambodia
- Halong Bay, Vietnam
- Getting clothes made in Hoi An, Vietnam
- Snorkeling in Koh Tao, Thailand
- Christmas Dinner at Sensi Paradise on Koh Tao with Bob and Wendy from Seattle

Least Favorite Sites / Experiences (in order):
1. Sihanoukville, Cambodia (sleeze-infested wasteland)
2. Koh Samui (over-hyped and a crowd worth avoiding)
3. Chiang Mai, Thailand (completely over-hyped)
4. Hoi Chi Minh, Vietnam (doesn't compare to other spots in Vietnam -- if you like the idea of Saigon -- you're really thinking of Hanoi)

Best Food:
1. Hoi An and Hanoi, Vietnam
2. Thailand
3. Penang, Malaysia

Worst Food:
1. Hue, Vietnam (it is supposed to have great food we just chose bad restaurants)
2. Phnom Penh (not sure if we ever really discovered what Cambodian food was)

Most Important Items In Our Packs:
1. Headlamp (for reading at night when there was no bedside lamp which was often, and also useful as a flashlight)
2. Travel Alarm Clock (besides the obvious use -- ours shows the temperature in celcius and fahrenheit, and shows the date and day of the week -- important when you just can't remember)
3. Ultrathon Bug Repellant (it WORKS -- thanks Heather Hurst for the recommendation)
4. Advil Cold and Sinus/ Sudafed (you can't get these abroad and for us there is no substitute)

Least Useful Items in Our Packs:
1. Palm Pilot (broke one month into trip - replaced with notebook and pen)
2. Marriage Certificate (people don't care if Kristy's last name matches airlines tickets/visas/or even passport).
3. Money Belt (we leave everything we can in a room or hotel safe and go out with small amounts in cash).

And now for the money-talk. As a whole, we underestimated how much our daily costs in SE Asia were going to be. Sometimes we were under, sometimes a little over, sometimes ALOT over. Usually, when we went way over our daily budget it was a result of high accomadation costs. Honestly, we got tired of staying in cheap guesthouses and wanted a little more luxury which, of course, you have to pay for. We've decided that going forward, in order to stay on budget, we need to devote no more than a third of our daily budget to accomodation.

Here's how our daily totals broke down (includes food, surface transportation, entry fees, souvenirs, laundry, internet and toiletries. These figures don't include airfares):

Japan: Estimate $200/day Actual $195.13
Hong Kong: Estimate $150/day Actual $137.18
Thailand (Mainland): Estimate $60/day Actual $73.26
Thailand (Islands): Estimate $70/day Actual $105.33
Vietnam: Estimate $80/day Actual $73.25
Cambodia: Estimate $70/day Actual $77.52
Malaysia: Estimate $80/day Actual $115.73
Singapore: Estimate $150/day Actual $163.28

For the airfares we budgeted $170 (what were we thinking?) and actually spent $718. We originally were going to take only two flights, but we ended up taking five. We're very soft and just couldn't bear to do it all overland. Since we're a little over budget we're decided we're not going to eat for a month. (Just kidding!)

That's all we can think of for now. If anyone has any questions or interests don't hesitate to ask. We are currently in India, which is a whole new ballgame.
We promise an update on that soon.

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