July 9, 2013

Hotel highlights: Where we stayed in Asia

We’ve experienced everything from the most basic hostels to luxury resorts while travelling in Asia. Gotten used to tiny bathrooms, some with just a shower over the floor, where drenching the toilet as you wash yourself is just part of the package. Dealt with bugs in the shower, sandflies in the bedroom, slept in rooms with windows, rooms where only the bathroom had a window, rooms with no windows at all.

Here’s some of the places that stood out.

SS City Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Our little room was tiny but clean and in good condition, and a place we were more than happy to return to at night – just what we needed.

Nakara Longbeach resort, Koh Lanta. The nicest place by far of our whole journey – for one glorious night. (We then moved on to the cheaper Lanta Palm Beach resort, which was – more or less – next door. Still fairly nice, with a friendly and entertaining manager, though he was often nowhere to be found.)

Rainbow Guesthouse/Hostel, Bangkok. Budget accommodation – shabby but serviceable, the rooms were pretty dingy. But the location was top, the inhouse Indian restaurant was pretty rad and all around the friendly staff helped create a great vibe. Just watch out for those low ceiling fans.

Hak’s House, Siem Reap. Admittedly a little far from the town centre (10-15 minutes on foot), it’s a quiet oasis with a decent free breakfast plus books and TV in the lounge.

Binh Duong 2 Hotel, Hue. Away from the backpacking street of Pham Ngu Lao, this wee hotel is still handy to everything. It’s right around the corner from a local market, close to the river, and within walking distance of plenty of eateries.

Pearl Suites Grand Hotel, Hanoi. Super friendly staff, tucked away down a quiet alley in the centre of the Old Quarter, free water, tea/coffee, and an awesome breakfast – what’s not to like?

July 8, 2013

RTW budget: What it costs to travel in SE Asia

RTW BUDGET BREAKDOWN WHAT IT COSTS TO TRAVEL IN SE ASIA

So, after six weeks in Asia, what was the damage?

Confession: I didn’t track those first four days in Malaysia. We were getting settled into travelling, using a lot of cash gifts from the wedding, and spent some on phone calls and taxis to meet with friends and family – but also had some meals covered by them. It was all a bit messy, in short.

I did, however, track our spending pretty closely from then on. Here are the Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam breakdowns.

Averaged out, that came to…

NZ $82.10 a day

Could you do it for cheaper? Yes, absolutely.

We weren’t out to spend as little as humanly possible. Our budget is more reflective of a flashpacker budget – frugal but not cheap, comfortable not stingy. Starting our trip in Asia meant we could be a little looser with the purse strings and have a bit of a honeymoon phase before entering bona fide backpacker mode in the Northern Hemisphere.

Our travel style

Accommodation was in guesthouses and budget hotels, usually about about $12-15 for a double air con room.

Booking.com

Food varied widely – anything from $1-2 street food/pastries to $5 meals at restaurants. If you eat like a bird and don’t mind eating noodles for breakfast, you can probably get by on $3-6 each a day . If, like us, you have a normal to large appetite, you’ll spend more – potentially a lot more. (That said, portions aren’t uniform. Some are so small you could practically inhale a bowl in one go; others are reasonably sized, though in most cases I was left wanting more.)

We love food, so we were happy to splurge quite often. There were plenty of fruit smoothies, milkshakes, fizzy, and sugarcane purchases. (Don’t forget about drinks – you’ll spend a couple bucks on water every day, and you won’t want to miss out on the fresh fruit drinks in Asia. The cheap alcohol tempted even us non-drinkers into a few mixers throughout Thailand and Vietnam.) There were treats like cake, snacks, and ice cream from time to time. But our food expenditure really went up in Vietnam, because T got sick multiple times there, and after the first time, was (understandably) wary of street food. From then on, he stopped eating soup – which is, of course, the staple in Vietnam) – favouring starches and solid stuff, and mostly ate in restaurants rather than on the street. I still ate street food at least once a day, though.

Transport wise, we mainly travelled overland. Train, bus, minivan … We used public transport a few times, but most of the time, it was taxis or tuktuks. They’re convenient, not too expensive, and most of all, more comfortable for T, especially for journeys where we were lugging our packs around.

July 5, 2013

RTW budget: What it costs to travel in Vietnam

RTW BUDGET BREAKDOWN WHAT IT COSTS TO TRAVEL IN VIETNAM

We took it slow in Vietnam, spreading our time out over more than a fortnight. I actually wish we’d returned to Thailand earlier and perhaps fitted in a visit to Chiang Mai, but flights were cheapest early in the week, and I wanted to book well in advance in order to lock in good rates.

I’m also going to include spending for our last couple of days in Asia, which were spent back in Bangkok.

Thailand

June 19 – $46.22 (including shared taxis and meals out with our CS hosts; again, free accommodation)
June 18 – $57.28 (including transport to and from airports. Free accommodation through Couchsurfing)

Vietnam

June 17 – $56.64
June 16 – $15.72 (drinks, etc, aboard the Halong Bay tour, the only exclusions in the price)
June 15 – $40.55
June 14 – $273.33 (including tickets for overnight Halong Bay cruise)
June 13 – $44.94
June 12 – $34.49
June 11 – $31.42
June 10 – $77.05 (including sleeper bus tickets from Hue to Hanoi)
June 9 – $71.92 (including motorbike and fuel)
June 8 – $73.96 (including motorbike rental and fuel)
June 7 – $77.95 (including transport from Hoi An back to Danang)
June 6 – $44.55
June 5 – $38.73
June 4 – $65.34 (including transport to Hoi An from Danang)
June 3 – $184.93 (including sleeper train tickets up to Danang)
June 2 – $97.51
June 1 – $64.29
May 31 – $48.11
May 30 – $40.92
May 29 – $33.12

There were some expensive days (e.g. Halong Bay tour and restaurant splurges, especially in the very internationalised Ho Chi Minh) and some cheap ones (particularly while T was sick and not eating much). Overall, though, Vietnam was still a very frugal destination – especially now that we look back on it through a European lens…

July 3, 2013

The unglamorous side of travel

Travelling always looks better from the outside. Instagram snaps, vivid as paintings. Pithy tweets and breathless postcards. You don’t see the slow travel days, the queues, the trips to ATMs and money exchange counters, the quests for toilet paper or pantyliners.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t give up this experience for anything. But here’s an unvarnished look at some of the least glamorous parts of travel…

Saturation point
You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the squelch of sweat-soaked backpack straps on bare skin for hours on end. Mmm, moist.

Tiny thrones
Or perched sideways on the toilet because there’s no room to sit straight on it.

Disorientation
It’s always fun waiting for an hour in the scorching sun for your transfer to the bus. And then getting shunted off that bus later at either a) the border, and only a vague idea of how to proceed or b) in the dark in the middle of a new city with no idea where you are.

A bug’s life
Sandflies swarming your bed. Ants, roaches, lizards and more scuttling around your bathroom. Nothing to see here; move on, folks.

Dodgy doors
See that light filtering in through the cracks between the panels on the door? The gouges out of the edge on the bathroom door? Ain’t no thang.

Got any anecdotes of your own to share?

July 2, 2013

How to survive sleeper buses in Asia

How to survive on sleeper buses

It seems like an awesome idea. Travel while you’re sleeping – covering precious ground AND saving on a night in a hostel. Depending on the journey, a bus ticket might cost next to nothing – perhaps as much as a bed would. What’s not to like? If you suffer from poor sleep, you’re not alone. As many as 25% of Americans have acute insomnia. But about 75% of those people recover, discover other types of sleep aids aromatherapy is an ancient practice still used today test it.

What are sleeper buses?

Sleeper buses may not be as comfortable or convenient as sleeper trains, but they’re a hell of a lot cheaper. Expect anything from upright seats that hardly recline to bunk berths with either fixed or adjustable angled seat/headrest and juuust enough flat legroom for a small to average-sized person.

Behold, a fairly nice sleeper bus in Vietnam:

What to bring on a sleeper bus

There’s only one thing that is an absolute must in my books: Something to cover the velcro on the headrests. As you can imagine, it’s rather painful when that stuff sticks to your hair. A scarf or spare shirt will do the trick. (This doesn’t seem to apply to Vietnam buses, but on budget sleeper buses in Thailand and Cambodia, watch out…)

Orrrrr, if you wanna get all fancy about it…

A top quality pillow, if you like your home comforts. I’ve seen a lot of travellers with those U-shaped neck pillows from The Comfy Traveler.

A sleep mask, if light bothers you. You probably won’t have control over the aisle lights, and other passengers in nearby seats might keep their personal ceiling lights on or inexplicably decide to start snapping photos of each other, sending camera flashes richocheting around inside.

Earplugs, if you’re sensitive to noise. Sometimes your fellow passengers will have zero interest in sleeping (though hopefully they’ll turn their headphones way down). Some will snore or sleeptalk. Once in a while your driver might think it’s a good idea to blast dance music at top volume. You just never know.

Are sleeper buses worth it?

Well, you save on a night’s accommodation, but sometimes it evens out. You’ll never get as good a night’s rest as you would in a real bed. Worst case scenario, you spend the rest of the day crashed out in your next room, recovering from the journey.

If, like me, you can sleep anywhere and are on a tight budget (or timeframe), then sleeper buses might be the way to go. It’s really a matter of priorities. Since I’m travelling with T, who’s about three times my size, we’ve learned to go for more comfortable options if possible.

In Thailand, I would go for the train; the price difference is negligible. In Cambodia there are no trains, but you could opt for a daytime bus journey instead. In Vietnam, the train is so much more expensive that I’d say buses are probably worth the savings (or, if you’re pressed for time, flights are not much more than train tickets).

Google, Google, Google

The best way to ease the journey? Use a reputable bus line!

Research the best bus companies for your chosen route and go direct to their office. Booking a seat through your hotel or a random travel agent can be risky; who knows what random, scruffy bus line you might end up on.

The good ones tend to provide blankets and water and communicate clearly when there’s a rest stop or when the final stop is imminent; others nothing at all.

Believe me, budget sleeper buses are THE PITS.

July 1, 2013

Vietnam: Love it or hate it

Halong Bay at sunset

Vietnam is a polarising destination. Without exception, I’ve found friends, couchsurfers, and bloggers either adore the country (rare), or found it a disappointment (the majority).

I get it. It’s understandable why some find Vietnam underwhelming.

Getting sick at some point seems par for the course. That can easily sour your experience, logical or not.

Getting ripped off is also part of the deal. Be it paying twice the highest amount listed on the side of the food cart (while the tourist couple ahead of you were only charged a 50% premium) … or getting charged a different price for the exact same item at the exact same shop by the exact same person on different days … or that pause when a random stallholder throws out a price no doubt conjured out of thin air – probably the highest number they think they can extract from you. But hey, are you really going to quibble over a few cents here, a dollar there?

For all that, though, I’m in the first camp.

Scenes from the Reunification Palace

I’d decided I liked Vietnam already by the time we got off the bus.

The drivers seemed to stick to their side of the road most of the time. The heat in Ho Chi Minh seemed downright mild after Cambodia. And our bus stopped exactly where it was supposed to stop, just a few doors down from our hostel.

I don’t know if that’s because we travelled with a good bus company or if it’s simply a function of arriving during the day. We’d previously always arrived at dawn, when it was still dark or close to it. Result: a busload of disoriented passengers, ripe for scammage from local drivers. Here, just a few drivers clustered around the doorway, and half-hearted would be too kind a word to describe their sales efforts.

Admittedly, Vietnam isn’t the most welcoming country for tourists. Visas are required for most nationalities, and they’re expensive. English signs/menus are few and far between, though I actually really like and respect that.

What really elevated the experience for me was the people – the friendly hotel staff in Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi (not Saigon, though) and the equally friendly couchsurfers we met all through the country. While not many are in a position to host visitors, most are eager to meet up for a coffee or to show you around. Heck, most seem to use Couchsurfing to meet travellers at the local meetups and practise their English – in Hue, I found a local student through her post offering herself up as a free tour guide to tourists. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would have rated Vietnam quite so highly. It made all the difference. Little things, like learning what the giant red building you pass every morning is (their high school), or their instinctively taking your arm to guide you across the road, because even after two weeks of acclimatising, getting from one side to the other is still a scary proposition.

Monkeying around at Halong Bay

As for the eating, I found Vietnamese food surprisingly enjoyable, and downright sublime in some of the central regions. I didn’t really know what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle yet full-bodied soups.

That said, two weeks was enough. Enough of the noodles, the traffic, the sickness, the heat, all of it. I must admit we did very few of the typical touristy things in Vietnam, but I still feel I got as much out of it as I could. (I don’t say ‘we’, because the whole country was a bit of a bust for T, who was under the weather for most of the time.)

No, Vietnam wasn’t the easiest, but it was a one-of-a-kind experience, and I’m thrilled to have the memories.

2000 islands in Halong Bay – the mind boggles. The varying shades of mountain give you an indication of distance

The Amazing Cave, which well and truly lives up to its name.

June 30, 2013

Link love (powered by haggis and waffles)

As a few of you guys mentioned on Twitter this week, backpacking in the heat can be a real drain. But it beats backpacking in the cold and rain. London, Edinburgh, and now Brussels have been pretty darn grey and chilly – bring on summer proper Europe!

To commemorate the death of Google Reader, I thought it was time for a long overdue link roundup. Here’s a few of the posts I enjoyed recently:

As Tony at Landing Standing points out, you don’t have to travel to find yourself. Here’s 16 pointers to spice up your life if it’s just not feeling all that interesting right now.

Here’s Mutant Supermodel breaking down sexism in video games.

Cassie shares some thoughts on home ownership, tangible and intangibles alike.

The always outstanding Sarah of Yes and Yes on how to deal when people disappoint you.

Entertaining yet honest, Michelle Woo lists the things she wishes she’d known before having a baby.

Budget and the Beach recalls the simplicity of childhood summers.

And finally, Kelly of Cordelia Calls It Quits on why there will always be a reason NOT to.

Farewell Google Reader – it was great while it lasted. Don’t forget to check that you’re still subscribed to NZ Muse in your new reader of choice. Here’s the RSS link.

For those adopting Bloglovin or Feedly, try these:

Or, if email is your drug of choice, type your address into the subscription box over there on the right (or click here to visit the site if you’re currently reading this through a reader).

Orrrr, keep up via Twitter or Facebook. Whatever floats your boat!

June 28, 2013

What to expect when you travel southeast Asia in low season

Rain

The low season is the off season because it’s wet. We travelled in May/June, which was still very dry. You might get anything from odd showers through to heavy rain. We found that rain didn’t seem to last very long, though – usually a few hours at most. Apart from one big storm in southern Thailand, it hardly rained during our trip at all.

Low prices

Accommodation prices drop like a rock, and you may well have your pick of rooms in certain places. Case in point: our first resort on Koh Lanta…

Limited choice

A lot of places close down during the quiet season, which is a bummer. While stuck in Krabi between transfers, I went wandering through the town looking for food. To say that there wasn’t a lot to choose from would be an understatement. Luckily, I stumbled across the local markets and picked up a clam curry, fried veggie fritters and some coconut treats.

We also found that the boats between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh weren’t running, leaving us no choice but to catch a bus – a bit disappointing, since I’d hoped to get a taste of river travel that way.

With all that said, aside from south Thailand, it was still incredibly busy everywhere we went. Bangkok was bustling, Angkor Wat was packed, and Halong Bay was pretty darn crowded too – I can’t imagine what it would be like in peak season.

Do you normally try to travel off-peak?

June 27, 2013

My tropical island bucket list

Pop quiz: Do you know where Fiji is?

When I got stuck trying to explain New Zealand’s location to a bunch of Vietnamese, I had to invoke Australia (of course). New Zealand just wasn’t on their radar, nor were Fiji, the Cook Islands, or indeed any other Pacific islands.

Which isn’t all that surprising, really. I know nothing about the islands around Spain, say, or the Caribbean – heck, most of my European geography was picked up in the last few months while planning this leg of our journey.

That said, there are tons of islands in the Asian/Pacific region I’d love to see one day. Here’s my top four:

Niue

By: Pia Waugh

Raw, untouched, stunning. Aside from walking, swimming, and whale watching, there isn’t a whole lot going on there. There’s only one flight a week to Niue from New Zealand; that’s how off the beaten trail it is. We ended up choosing Rarotonga for my birthday in 2011, but next time, it’s the non-touristy option all the way.

Bali

By: Nate Robert

Colourful, tropical, exotic. Bali holidays never go out of style – it’s one of the top destinations in the world for holidayers, whether you’re into surfing, diving, shopping, visiting temples, or just relaxing.

Vanuatu

By: eGuide Travel

Snorkelling, diving, volcanoes … Vanuatu is said to offer a huge range of natural wonders from picturesque beaches to wild waterfalls, paired with a refreshing hawker-free tourist culture.

Tahiti

By: Michael R Perry

Coral, pearls, dance – Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia and no doubt an interesting mesh of cultures. We’ll actually be stopping over in Tahiti for a day on our way home – our last stop before returning to Auckland. I hear it’s crazy expensive, so one night will have to do it for us.

June 24, 2013

Four tips for travelling with your partner (or, how to not kill your travel buddy)

I’m not gonna lie. Sometimes T drives me around the bend, and vice versa.

Travelling with a partner is a double edged sword. Travelling alone means no compromising, but conversely, no one to share the experience with. Travelling with someone else flips that equation on its head – and sometimes that’s a real challenge.

Accept your different travel styles

Learn what they are and how to work with them. T always needs entertainment, especially on journeys. I zombie out, watch the scenery, and doze.

One of you will no doubt be the one who comments on everything that’s different from home, and who struggles to adapt. Try your best to shrug off that lens, accept the local customs, and understand how the culture might be shaped by historic, social, and economic forces.

Take turns being sick

Take turns tucking each other in, hogging the toilet, going out to pick up food or in search of Gatorade/Revive.

Cultivate normalcy

Take breaks from sightseeing. Find a routine of some sort. Sleep in. Watch the latest Game of Thrones or a cheesy old movie.

Be patient

Most of all, make allowances. When you’re sweaty, sleep-deprived and starving, be kind to one another. Learn when to bite your tongue and when to be accommodating.

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Hotel highlights: Where we stayed in Asia