So every time I mention that I'm traveling thru Asia, I get a barrage of suggestions. This post is for you to add your comments to so I have a written summary of suggestions.
So if you have suggestions for:
- Accommodation
- Transit: buses, flights, trains, boats ?
- activities: ruins / geography / swimming / snorkeling / anything
- General advice
- Singapore
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- Laos
- Cambodia
- Vietnam
- China
- Nepal
- India
- UK
- Netherlands
9 comments:
Possibly the best travel find I've ever found, anywhere. The Hotel Atlanta, Bangkok. Especially for us vegatarians, as it's the best traditional Thai vegetarian restaurant in the city. It's a bit of hike, right down the bottom of Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road, and the air-con costs extra, but for a touch of luxury on a budget, this is the place to be.
http://www.theatlantahotel.bizland.com/
Have you thought about bag/pack security? i.e. when your bags are out of your sight or control, can you be sure they haven't been tampered with?
Checkout Korjo Safety Travel Seals, for instance, available in packs of 20 from Jaycar and probably other places.
One of the most useful things we took was that hand sanitizer gel - its pretty cheap and lasts ages.
Also i kept passports/ large denominations of money etc. in one of those moneybelt things. just the budget, no frills variety - its just less conspicuous.
When arriving at various destinations, especially major tourist centers like Bangkok make sure you read lonely planet guide or whatever to find the 'tourist area' e.g. Khao San road - and when arriving at airports, take a taxi to that area and find accomodation. You can try booking in advance over the phone, but often its a waste of time, as they just fill rooms on a first-come, first served basis.
Don't use airport booking desks, or ask taxi drivers at the airport where a good place to stay is, since they'll take you to a ridiculously overpriced place close to the airport in exchange for a kickback.
When mobbed by taxi/tuk tuk/motorbike taxi operators in thailand/cambodia/anywhere in asia - stay cool. They can be pretty daunting when there are a lot of them all yelling at you at once.
Preferably know of the name of a place you want to go before disembarking from the bus/train/ferry, and make them take you there, don't let them suggest alternatives - even if the place you picked is full, you'll be able to take a break and sort out your next stop without the pressure of them hassling you. Anywhere a taxi driver takes you at their suggestion will be where they get commission, and wil probably be expensive.
In india, don't donate to the beggars who try to scam you into buying tins of milk powder or other large-ticket items 'for their baby' - they resell the milk powder back to the shop owners for a kickback.
In india, you'll frequently be asked to visit a tourist shop so your driver can earn coupons - this gets tiresome after a while but visiting a couple and browsing isn't too bad - these shops are incredibly overpriced though.
It is very important to learn to haggle/negotiate - it'll take a few days of getting ripped off to learn that you have been getting ripped off, but the best advice is to be brutal - if they offer a price, halve it, at least, and work from there. You can almost always threaten to go to the next driver, or walk over towards another area, and you'll find the price drops pretty quickly.
When travelling by bus, or even by car, if your journey is long, it pays to take a cushion or some type of padding since you may be stuck on a rock-hard bench-seat for many hours.
The local buses in many asian countries are cheaper than cheap, but avoid crowded city routes or long trips - when in india, travel by train class 2AC (2nd class air conditioned) or better is recommended, or in AC buses - the roads are pretty crap and cheap buses often have no space to stow your packs etc. you have to fit yourself and your luggage in the same seat.
Keep your sense of humour - it can be very frustrating getting pestered constantly to buy things, but the worst thing you can do is get upset about it. just smile and say 'no thank you' (you'll doing a lot of smiling and be saying no thank you a hell of a lot, but getting angry just makes them think you'll buy something off them to make them go away if they keep getting in your face.)
Hopefull some of those suggestions help you out, you'll have an awesome time!
-Pete
you so gotta have some good food in these countries. Especially Malaysia. They make delicious noodles, i keep banging on about them, Mee Goreng. You can get vegetarian too. But normally they have shrimps, and a selection of meats in a light curry sauce with noodles and tomatos and things!
Man im hungry now just thinking about them!
Nice one Pete, some great advice! And, ur, thanks Marksy - cause you suggested it, I'll try eating when Im over there.
http://www.airasia.com/site/en/home.jsp
this site is pretty good for flights in and out and also within Malaysia.
www.asiatravelmarket.com is also another option for travel. A travel meta search engine.
Sorry, the asiatravelmarket.com is from UK to Asia. they have asiatravelmarket.cn but that is in Chinese for travel from China to other Asian destinations which won't be much help :P
Thanks Xuan..
Hiya
Well...where do I start.
We covered most of pennisular Malaysia, Indonesia and South Thailand over 3 mths last year. Will give ya the lowdown on my 'Malaysian Experience'. The highlight of the trip was definitely the Perhentian Islands - white sandy beaches, beautiful clear water, great diving and snorkelling and laidback malay people.
http://www.perhentian.com.my/
Though we did go straight there after arriving in KL as KL was humid, stormy and we were badly jet-lagged. Take a bus to Kota Bharu (islam capital of Malaysia, so quite strict, bare shoulders are a no no). All hostels will help you with water-taxi tickets. At the time we were there, you could only take taxis to the water taxi (cant remember place name), bout 1 hr.
Go to Long Beach on Perenthian Kecil - great party beach. Few places sell alcohol since its muslim, but the chinese malay places do. Cant prebook accomodation there, but we found a cheap place during the busy times in August - the Rock Garden, 20RM per hut. Very very basic though :)
Anywhoo, great beach and the best diving my friend has ever done. Recommend it, even though its abit of a missh to get there!
Other stuff in Malaysia:
- Melaka, pretty city done up for the tourists, good place for malay cultural background
- Cameroon Highlands, tea plantations, beautiful, clean, freezing at night. Not nice if its raining but we did some nice walks
- Penang/Georgetown, cool city/island. The food here is the BEST! Safe as chips to eat from the hawker stalls, again, had the best food here.
- Taman Negara N.Park, didnt get here, but heard good stories from travellers if you like the nature walks :)
Bout it.
Only did lower South Thailand for a full-moon party. Its obviously quite commercialised now and lots of accomodation are being turned into air-conded concrete palaces. But its still a great all night party on the beach and you have your lady there with ya to protect you from the lady-boys!
Few more basic tips:
-AirAsia rocks, defn check them out for flights, flew with them 3 times
- Steal an airplane pillow! Small, fits into backpack and you dont have to use dirty, mouldy hostel ones
- Check out the good ol 7/11's to see what the normal water price is so you dont get ripped off
- Always try to haggle/negotiate accomodation prices (even if its a free brekkie) gotta try. And if you can handle walking around with your backpack, check out a few hostels first as the accomodation listed in LP, RG etc normally hikes up their prices.
- Always break your big notes at a safe place like the 7/11 and keep the small change. Many a small vendor/place/taxi will rip you off with change etc.
- Money belt is a must
Had enough yet? haha
Im so jealous! You are going to have a trip of a lifetime.
Have fun :)
I hope you make it to the Perhentians!!
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