Journey’s End
We have now safely returned from the hard road of travelling
to my parents’ home in Beragh, Co Tyrone. Things are unsurprisingly unchanged
apart from the cold that hit us like a brick wall when we got out of the
airport. But the warmth of Southern California beckons and we fly out on Tuesday
(11th Dec) morning.
As a way of a review my wife and I have put together some of our most, and least favourite aspect of our travels. To spice it up a bit we
picked a number of categories and then wrote them independently.
BEST CUISINE
Mrs Says: My award goes to Thailand (I can picture my husband rolling his eyes as he reads
this since I know he will be raving on about Malaysian faire and how nothing
else can possibly compare). Malaysian food was very good, but the Thai food we
ate was absolutely delicious. I love all the coconut milk, lemon grass,
galangal and cilantro/coriander they use in their cooking. Some of my favourite
Thai dishes were Tom Yum Gai (Thai Chicken Soup) and Massaman curry . . .mmmmm
my mouth is now salivating!
Verdict: Thailand
Mr Says:
No contest here. The three main ethnic groups in Malaysia, Chinese, Malay and
Indian seem to be in constant competition to try and prove their superiority,
this doesn’t always end up being a positive, but when it comes to food the
diversity combines to become the world’s best street food. My wife is no doubt
going to say Thailand in this category, but for me while their food was good,
it tended to be either too spicy or too sweet.
Verdict: Malaysia
Mrs Says: I have decided to give this award to
Cambodia. Although the only food I ate that made me physically sick was from
India and Laos, Cambodia gets the Worst Cuisine Award as they eat cockroaches
by choice….Insane in the Membrane! Even looking past all the insects, their
stir fries and fried rice were boring and always left you feeling unsatisfied and
craving a snickers.
Verdict: Cambodia
Mr Says:
Indian food was no doubt the biggest let down when it came to food. In fairness
meat was pretty much out of bounds due to hygiene as were hawker stands but
this still didn’t stop us getting sick. Most of the food was veggie slop with
rice and an uninspiring bread, that bore no resemblance to Indian food we get in the West. With that said though Cambodian food was disgusting,
Red Ant sauce, frogs, fried (or raw) insects, rice porridge, take your pick Cambodia
had a whole host of food to help you lose weight by being uneatable. It wasn’t
all complete doom and gloom though as could always pick up a baguette and Siem
Reap had some of the best Western food of our trip but neither saved Cambodia
from ending up bottom of the pile.
Verdict: Cambodia
BEST SIGHT
Mrs Says:
The Taj Mahal or the Temples of Angkor, Taj Mahal or Angkor hmmmm it’s a tough
one. They were both incredible, but since the Taj is in India I will give the
award to Angkor ;)
Verdict: Temples of Angkor
Mr Says:
I won’t start going on describing the Taj again as I already got a bit carried
away in my Agra post, but in my defence I reckon it is all justified. Other
places worth a mention were the rocks of Hampi and the Elora and Ajanta Caves,
and Angkor Wat. Although none came close to the marvel left by the Mogul Empire
Verdict: Taj Mahal
MOST HUMBLING EXPERIENCE
Mrs Says:
While waiting in Mughal Sari train station, outside Varanasi, I was sitting on
a bench and begun watching a family in front of me that clearly lived at this
horribly dirty and disgusting rat filled train station. At first I saw the son,
who was around 4 years of age, sitting on his own and only wearing a small pair
of shorts, think Mogli. A middle class Indian that was sitting next to me saw
me watching him and must of noted a concerned look on my face as he leaned over
and said to me “Don’t worry about him, he is a bad person.” The boy was soon
joined by his mother, who was about my age and completely deaf and his younger
sister who was about 1 ½ and wasn’t wearing a scrap of clothes. The mother and
sister had just come from the toilets, where she had just given herself and the
girl a bath as well as washing the children’s clothes, hence their lack of
clothing. She begin miming to her son to go hang the clothes out to dry on the
railings upstairs and it was clear formal sign language was something they will
never know. After the son came back, he
began to run around with his sister and shortly returned to get his mother’s
attention. He was alerting his mother that his sister had just peed all over
the floor leaving a very large puddle considering the size of the child. The
mother ran over and took her daughter by the arm back to the toilet to give her
a wash and then collected scraps of newspapers lying about on the floor to use
to clean up the young girl’s mess. Now I guess this doesn’t seem at all
significant to you reading this, but the amount of people in India we saw urinating
and defecating in public was immense. There is pee and poo everywhere and mother
could have just easily let the puddle sit there. I found the situation
incredibly humbling as the mother was homeless with two children to look after
with no ability to hear or speak to them and still showed incredible dignity by
cleaning up her family’s mess in this horrifically filthy station.
Verdict: Dignity of
Deaf Homeless Mother
Mr Says: There is no doubt that Indian poverty is horrendous,
but I was fairly ruthless in my opinion of it and switched off from it as best
I could, but the first (of many!) sight of public defecation in India was a
shocking sight. Having a private place to poo is something that we take for
granted in the West and the sight of a fully grown man doing his business in
full public view I thought was appalling. Apart from the obvious reaction of
disgust it also appeared that that the man had reached rock bottom in terms of
dignity. The Indian perspective is undoubtedly different and it was probably
all just part of his daily routine, but it left me with a lot to think about.
Verdict: First Indian Defecation
MOST DESIRABLE PLACE TO
IMMIGRATE
Mrs Says:
As we travelled through India and SE Asia, I often thought about how lucky I
was to grow up and live in the “West,” where we all expect and take for granted
a certain standard of infrastructure, food hygiene and non-corrupt government. There
are many people in the world that do not enjoy such luxuries including the citizens
of India, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. If I had to immigrate to one country we
visited, it would be Malaysia. Malaysia was the wealthiest country were we in
and as a result has excellent food hygiene, great roads, toilet paper in the
WCs and I would be able to live a comfortable life similar to the standard I am
accustomed to in America and Ireland.
Verdict: Malaysia
Mr Says:
Although many of the countries we visited had great sights and were fantastic
to visit, living in them would be a different kettle of fish and for this
category I was definitely gravitating to the most developed countries. So it
comes as no surprise that the most developed country, Malaysia is the forerunner
here. Life would just be easier here, English is widely spoken, the
infrastructure is exceptional, there is a high standard of living and has lots
of super cheap and delicious food. So, despite the ethnic tensions,
restrictions on non-Islamic religions and expensive beer Malaysia eases to No.1
spot in this category.
Verdict: Malaysia
LEAST DESIRABLE PLACE TO IMMIGRATE
Mrs Says: India, no explanation required.
Verdict: India
Mr Says: India immediately jumps to mind for this category, but
if I was forced to it I am fairly confident that I could live and work there.
English is by and large understood and people at least appear to have an
urgency (which is usually misplaced) about them. However the lack of beef on
the menu, the corruption, the lack of logic and the general craziness of it all
would make life far more difficult and frustrating than it needs to be. The
lazy, go slow attitude of Laos and lack of English would also make it a contender
but India as it so often does overwhelms all other opposition here.
Verdict: India
MOST EMBARRASSING
MOMENT
Mrs Says:
While in Langkawi, Malaysia my husband and I decided to rent a scooter to tour
around the island on. I had never driven one before and since my husband is
good at anything he touches, we thought it best my husband drove and we agreed
that once we got out of town he would give me a lesson. We travelled up north
on the island to a beautiful waterfall and my husband began to give me a
scooter lesson in the car park. The parking lot had “minders,” not dissimilar to
the men you pay to ensure they don’t steal your car when you park near Drumcrondra
Road for a football match. So of course my lesson was taking place under their
watchful eyes. I was doing alright at first and drove around in a few circles
until I decided to drive on the periphery of the car park and ended up at the
bottom of a small downward slope. I was having trouble getting back up the
slope and throttled a little too hard before taking off the brakes a little too
fast and was about two seconds away from crashing into a parked car before
regaining control of the scooter. Now at that point, I figured I better give
the scooter back to my husband and thought we should go back to our accommodation
when one of the minders begins to shout at my husband, “If you want to train
your wife, you need to go somewhere else! If she crashes you are going to have
to pay!” Of course my reaction to him was a very mature, “yeah, yeah, we were
leaving anyways!”
Verdict: Langkawi Scooter
Lesson
Mr Says:
We had hired an Auto Rickshaw to take us around the Elora caves in India and
the driver was extremely courteous and friendly, most unlike usual auto drivers.
However, while visiting some of the caves we were, as usual, getting the
relentless bombardment for attention from Indian tourists and street vendors
alike. Frustrated, I had tried to wander away from the hordes and decided that
the next person to cross our paths would receive the sharp end of my tongue. Unfortunately,
the direction I was wandering was out of bounds and unfortunately for our own
Auto driver he tried to direct me in the correct direction. I didn’t recognise
him as our own hired driver and mistook him for one of the regular harassers and
give him a very blunt expletive. My ever reliant wife quickly corrected my
mistake “That is our driver!” and the innocent driver could see the funny side
of it. It didn’t help my embarrassment however and my wife had a great time
laughing at me over the next few days! I also made just as big of a fool of myself
with my exchange with a Malaysian bus driver, but he was a rude chap and I was
a lot more embarrassed about telling our mild mannered Auto driver to (ahem!)
“go away”
Verdict: Elora Caves
Auto Driver
FRIENDLIEST COUNTRY
Mrs Says:
Cambodia, hands down. Of the Cambodians that could speak English, they were all
so chatty and enjoyed joking around with us. Of the ones that couldn’t speak
English, they were still very polite and always smiling at us or offering us
some of their food, even if that food was cockroaches.
Verdict: Cambodia
Mr Says:
On face value this should be India as people are always rushing up to you to
talk to you however they always have an alternative motive: getting your Money! The most genuinely
friendly people were probably the Cambodians, but the people of Laos are
probably on an equal footing here. Also I should point out that the efficient
and fun loving Vietnamese were my favourite people, but they were a little too
pushy and blunt to be considered friendly as such. Nevertheless the Khmers of
Cambodia win this one, based on the fact that many of them have just lived
through the genocide of the Killing Fields and they seem to smile relentlessly!
Verdict: Cambodia
BEST JOURNEY
Mrs Says:
We had missed the daily ferry to Koh Mook in the Trang Islands off the west
coast of Thailand so we had to charter a longtail boat to get there. This journey was about an hour through
incredible clear turquoise waters with beautiful views of karst islands and
since it was only the two of us and the boatman, I felt like I was on my
honeymoon again.
Verdict: Koh Mook Long
Tail
Mr Says:
Good and easy journeys were few and far between but the overnight train from
Trang in Southern Thailand to Bangkok was a revelation. No rats or faeces in
the station and on board the train mice and cockroaches were also missing. The
beds were made up by the staff and provided a reasonably comfortable sleep
despite the train being a little juddery. There was even a proper dining car
that served beer! The most disappointing aspect was that most of the journey
was at night and we didn’t get to enjoy the trip for a little longer.
Verdict: Trang to
Bangkok Train
WORST JOURNEY
Mrs Says: Ugh, there were far too many terrible journeys
on this trip! Most have already been pushed back to the recesses of my mind
never to be remembered again along with all the other horrors of my past (Boyz
to Men, scrunchies, my bangs/fringe….shudder).
So I am not surprised that the only ones I can remember very well were in the
last part of our trip, getting to and around Vietnam. I have ruled it down two
journeys with Runner Up going to our bus journey from Hanoi to Hue, which our
Lonely Planet stated should be 12 hours. Damn you Lonely Planet and your
underestimations! The bus departed Hanoi at 8am and didn’t arrive in Hue until
1:30am; seventeen and a half hours later!
This left me so incredibly frustrated and with no choice, but to do what
any self-respecting woman would do in the situation: take it out on her
husband. The winner though has to go our journey from Luang Prabang to Dien Bien
Phu. We anticipated that this journey
would take two days and were not surprised when we had to stay the night in
this dump of a place, Muagh Khua. I ate something dodgy in Laos and woke up
vomiting, which continued on for the next two days. My husband reasoned with me
that it would be better to keep going then to stay another night in Muagh Khua,
so I got dressed and gave it a go. After waiting for over 5 hours for the bus
to even turn up, we got on only to find it was already full of cargo including
live chickens and boxes and boxes of red bull. It took 8 hours to go 67 miles
over sorry excuse for roads through the mountains all the while I had to hold my
head out the window and rest my feet on red bull.
Verdict: Luang
Prabang to Dien Bien Phu buses
Mr Says: Although
the chicken bus from Laos to Vietnam was awful, the bus from Hampi to Mysore
was a bedbug nightmare come true for me. My seat seemed to be the only one
infested and the bedbugs happily munched on me all night long. It was
absolutely horrendous and I suffered from the swelling and itching from their
hundreds of bites for days following, so even though the bus was relatively
comfortable and the road good, but the dreaded black mites made this trip for
me easily the worst.
Verdict: Hampi to
Mysore Bus
FAVOURITE PERSON WE MET
ON OUR TRAVELS
Mrs Says:
This is a difficult one as we met so many other people travelling around with
such interesting stories. From the Australian that drove a motor cycle up the
length of Vietnam, to the artist from Curacao permanently travelling and
funding it by selling her art online or the Canadian who just finished working
In the Philippines for an NGO helping to develop East Timor, it is hard to pick
just one. It is funny though my favourite person wasn’t another traveller, but
a local hotel owner in Koh Mook Thailand. I regret that we never even got his
name, but he was one of the kindest, gentlest people I have ever met. He had
lived out in LA and New Orleans working for motorcycle shops for a few years before
returning to Thailand to work as a shrimp farmer before eventually opening up
the CocoLodge with his sister. He had this beautiful waist length hair and was
all “one with nature,” but in a genuine and sincere way. He took my husband and
I out snorkelling and to the Emerald cave and we couldn’t help just enjoy being
in his presence.
Verdict: Koh Mook
Coco Lodge Owner
Mr says:
Difficult one this, the owner of Coco Lodge on Koh Mok was a legend, but I
think that this award goes to our young German friend Robert. Robert went for all the cheapest things
possible, lowest train class, worst hotels and India still didn’t take a flinch
out of him. We met him at filthy Mugal Sari train station in Varanasi and while
I walked around grimacing at the rats and faeces, Robert told us how much he
was enjoying his travels in India. Despite his low budget, Robert always seemed
to have money for another beer and after he had his fill in the pub in
Darjeeling he would race back up the hill to try and meet his 10pm curfew,
which he usually failed! I hope those exams went ok Robert, if you are still
reading!
Verdict: Robert the
German
OVERALL WINNER Best
Country
Mrs Says:
I hate to sit on the fence on this one, but it is impossible to choose. My
favourite place we went was definitely Koh Mook in Thailand as it is paradise
on Earth, but I could not say that about some of the places we were in in the
interior of Thailand. Likewise, India was so challenging to travel through, but
was very rewarding as we fortunate enough to be able to see sights like Taj
Mahal, Ajanta Caves, the Jodhpur fort and tour the backwaters of Kerala. I
guess if I was forced to give an answer, the best country award should go to
the one country I would really like to go back to if I had the chance, which would
be Thailand. There are so many other
islands along the west and east coasts that I would really like to explore and
relax on their beaches.
Verdict: Thailand
Mr Says:
The countries of South East Asia were a lot easier to travel in than India,
however India rewarded the difficulties and frustration of travelling with her
amazing sights. No country I think could have such varied and inspiring sights
as the Forts and Palaces of Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal or weird and relaxed Hampi
and the carved caves of the Deccan Plateaux. And of course let’s not forget you
can kick back on the beaches of Goa or Varkala. So in spite of everything bad
about India there was a whole lot of good and all of it (good & bad) was a
mind-blowing experience.
Verdict: India
So there you have it folks, that is the end of
our travel blog. I would like to thank you all for spending your time reading
the blog. I have to say that although it was sometimes stressful and a burden,
I have enjoyed writing it so I hope that you enjoyed reading it. I wouldn’t
mind doing a weekly blog on something else, but I am not sure on the subject
area, I have had a few ideas: “Weekly Beer Blog”, “An Immigrants Tale”, “LA News
review from the Dude”. I will let you know about if and when I get it going. But this is the end of MandMs Asian Adventure
so, Goodbye and Happy (Merry?) Christmas.
