I have been back from my backpacking trip around Southeast Asia for 3 weeks now.
I wrote three travelogues about my trip. I am posting them below.
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JUNE 29th
I have been traveling for almost two weeks. In the time I’ve had the opportunity to explore Hong Kong and the South of Thailand. Andy and I leave for Burma tomorrow. I am both anxious and nervous to visit a country whose people have been condemned to a living hell.
Hong Kong left me broke…spending at rate of $100 a day for food, accomodation. Not that backpacker friendly. Thailand has left my tummy full of red curry and green curry at $2 a pop.
Hong Kong - some thoughts from HK:
- It’s overdeveloped, buildings tower over you like an Asian Manhattan.
- The city is overwhelmingly filled with expats that have come to seek their fortune in what has become the gateway to the Asian tiger economies.
- Good dimsum. The city makes it a challenge to hold on to my vegetarian diet. Armed with fellow travelers that speak Mandarin fluently, I got by okay. My fellow Asian travelers also confessed to me that having dimsum in HK is every Asian boy’s fantasy.
- It doesn’t feel too different from many big American cities. There is familiarity all over, if you look for it. It has plenty of McDonalds for travelers and expats to find comfort in. The way McDs has reinvented its image in HK is also interesting. They are like an semi-upscale trendy eatery in HK.
- There was a point in time when I was standing in the middle of a well-lit street at night thinking to myself “Lost in Translation feels pretty accurate right now.” I think any giant East Asian city could make me feel that way.
Bangkok + South of Thailand:
My experience here is very different from that of HK. A two bed room in a guest house costs around $10 per night. I’ve been getting by and living well on $25 per day. The first couple days were in Bangkok where we put in orders for some premium shirts at the best tailor in Bangkok (at a cheap rate of $30 per shirt)! We also visited the Grand Palace and the temple right next to it (Wat Phra Kaew). It’s obvious that Buddhism is the backbone of Southeast Asia, and I am more than appreciative of the beauty that this backbone has inspired the locals to create in the form of temples and other architectural glories.
In the past couple days I’ve had a chance to spend some days on the beautiful beaches that Thailand has to offer. Andy and I made our way out to Phi Phi Island where Leo DiCaprio filmed “The Beach.” It was a very nice beach, but it was raining. Despite the weather we ran into the water with Frank, Mei and Matt. I think rainy beaches carry their own kind of beauty. Especially on a beach that is consistently voted the best public beach in the world.
Then Andy, Frank and I left for the Ko islands in the gulf of Thailand. We spent time on both Ko PhangNan and Ko Tao. Ko PhangNan is where the fabled “Full Moon Party” takes place. The party is a bit of a legend among backpackers and the island certainly lives up to it. We had a good time there and then we headed to Ko Tao for some diving. The dives were around an area called “Chumpon Pinnacle” and “Green Rock.” It was nice to be in the water again and to swim with the fishes. Literally.
I suspect that internet access in Burma will be a bit more difficult. Part of the reason for this is that the Junta supposedly takes screenshots of your screen in web cafes every 5 minutes. I am afraid of the breach of privacy and may choose not to use the internet while in Burma for the next 5 days.
I have finished one book so far. Shantaram. It was really great and is an addition to my list of favorite books. It’s an endearing story about an Australian expat in Bombay and his experience there as he goes on to work in a slum and become a member of the Bombay mafia. It’s autobiographical in many ways of the life of the author, Gregory David Roberts. If you find yourself looking for a big entertaining story with a considerable amount of meaning behind it, I highly recommend it. I am now working my way through the rest of Atlas Shrugged, and just bought a copy of Kerouac’s On the Road for $7.
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JULY 11th
Andy and I have safely made it back from Burma. For the past week Andy and I have been hanging around Northern Thailand in Chiang Mai for some trekking, cooking lessons and a 3-day massage course. We head to Luang Prabang in Laos tomorrow.
Burma was an adventure. When we first arrived at the airport, half of the lights in the airport went out. This event helped to set precedent in my mind about what the rest of the journey would be like. Immigration asked me a handful of questions to ensure that I am not a journalist.
Driving through the capital city of Yangon gave me a very eerie feeling. You get the sense that this is a country that got left behind ever since the military took over and began nationalizing industries in 1962. Fifty years ago Burma was the crown jewel of SE Asia with top-tier universities and an ongoing rivalry with Thailand. Going through the main city in a car past many decrepit buildings, you come to realize that those golden ages are forgotten dreams lying in the memories of those elderly people that have lived in the country for several decades.
There are no ATMS in Burma due to restrictions placed against the country. You must arrive with all of the cash you intend to spend in USD. You are in big trouble if you run out of money as there credit cards are not accepted anywhere. As we walked around the city whispers floated around us asking if we wanted to “change money.” The Burmese Kyat officially trades at a farcical 6 kyat to $1. The black market rate fluctuates around 1200 kyat. Changing money on the black market in streets next to a park was one of the shadiest things I’ve ever done. In some cases, we were walked to back alleys and were not allowed to count the money while the black market people counted it for us. We walked away knowing it was a scam. Eventually we got a handle on the best ways to change money.
Burma’s ruins in Bagan and Mandalay are breathtaking. What left me even more breathless was the genuine altruism and kindness of the Burmese people. Andy and I saw maybe 10 tourists over the course of our 5 days in the country. As a result of the dearth of tourists, the experience is much more personal when we met locals, some of which were open to chatting with us about the political situation and climate. At a restaurant in Bagan that we had dinner at, the owner openly told us about his declining patronage because people are afraid to come into the country after the cyclone as the military junta continues to deny visas. We also met an older electrician on the overnight bus to Bagan that bought us dinner in Yangon five days later.
I am looking forward to Laos.
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August 3rd
I have been back in the States for just over a week. The final leg of
our trip took us around Laos and Cambodia.
I forgot to mention in the last email that in the Northern Thai town
of Chiang Mai, Andy ate crickets and maggots! He confessed to me that
he prefers crickets over maggots. I was afraid to try them (and they
don’t fit into my vegetarian diet). You can see pictures in the
Thailand album. Link to photos is below.
In Laos, Andy and I went white water rafting for the second time. My
first time was in Thailand. I want to try and do some more in the
States, so if anyone is interested let me know and maybe we can plan
something together. We also did some rock climbing up some limestone
walls in Laos. It was also my first time climbing up a real rock
wall. That was a lot of fun but my body was sore for days.
The draw of Laos is the laid-back and relaxed culture. I could feel
the difference immediately when we got to the country. Everything
seemed to move at a slower pace. When I ordered a croissant at a
small French bakery in Luang Prabang, I remember thinking that the
service was slow enough to make a German McKinseyite livid. ha. ha.
Cambodia was the second most developing country we went to. The first
being Burma. The traffic in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, was
crazy and Andy and I had great fun renting bicycles and trying to
navigate through the chaotic waltz to get to Khmer Rouge sights. We
also had a chance to check out the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat.
Around Angkor Wat, I met up with Andrew, a Kiwi friend that I met in
Istanbul who is motorcycling through SE Asia. Always nice to see old
friends in new places.
After a hectic week of packing and moving up to the Bay to start my
job, I finally got a chance to upload my pictures. You can find them
here: http://picasaweb.google.com/harshjshah
My favorite and what I think is my best photograph from the trip is here:
http://harshjshah.googlepages.com/bagan.jpg
It was taken in Bagan, Burma.
