What I'm glad I brought--a six week traveling perspective

I haven't talked about trip practicals in a while, but as I've gone through this journey I think it's a good idea to share some information as my vacation wraps up. I'll compile a list on this post (possibly to be added to later) with some of the things that were essential to making this trip easy. Lonely Planet and other guides have similar lists and, who knows, they may be essentially the same. That's for you to find out, because I have no reason to look back at them again :)

• Torch/flashlight/headlamp
• Earplugs and Eye mask (especially for sleeping on night trains/buses and hostel dorm beds)
• A small towel or sarong (in case your hostel doesn't have one or other unexpected times you need to dry off)
• A plug adapter
• Two of EACH: credit cards and debit cards (I will explain why in another post--but basically just have your bases covered)
• Some cash in US$ (sorry, people from other countries, but USD is almost universal)
• Lots and lots of ziplock bags and a couple trash bags
• Quick drying clothes
• Liquid detergent for doing your laundry in the sink in a pinch
• Laundry line that can be put up anywhere (lots of places have drying contraptions, but not everywhere)
• Lots of DEET lotion for bugs--it really is miraculous
• A medical kit--used it the second day all the way up to yesterday for myself and other people
• Good sunscreen that will stay on with water, time, and sweat--don't cheap out on this
• Shoes or sandals with arch support--you will be walking a lot! I have Chaco's (below) and they were fantastic. I mixed them up with flip flops every few days--it's nice to give your feet variety, and avoids weird tan lines :)

         

• A backup camera (mine was my iPhone)
• iPhone or similar (Skype is cheap, FaceTime is free, backup camera, watch and alarm, computer for when your hotel has wifi but no desktops--which happens frequently, it has pictures of home and family to show curious locals... Should I keep going?) 
• If you do bring your iPhone or iPod touch, back it up on iCloud and make sure you can find it with the "find my iPhone" app. That way, if it does get stolen, you still have your pictures and you can lock it and wipe it remotely (and locate it if you're lucky) so none of your information is in a thief's hands.
• Clothes that are temple worthy (pants and sleeves for men, skirt covering knees or pants and sleeves for women)
• Long pants, though they sound impractical for the heat, are helpful because they keep bugs and sun at bay, help you blend in more (people here don't wear shorts) and are generally better accepted at nice restaurants with dress codes. And I don't even think there's that much of a temperature difference anyway.

And for the random things:

It's a good idea to memorize your passport # and expiration date. You'll need to recall it so much that saving the hassle of taking it out will be a huge relief.

Knowing hello, goodbye, and thank you in every language you encounter is really probably all you need--and it works wonders

Got into Cambodia--safe but a bit scammed

Ah, Cambodia, Thailand's much poorer neighbor. Our bus ride to the border was already an ill omen. My companion put his leg up to stretch it on the bus while we were both listening to headphones and his iPhone slipped out without either of us noticing. What he did notice was a man and his friend getting off the bus quickly and then, once off, turning to look where we were sitting as the bus started to pull away. He felt uneasy about that and immediately checked for his phone, which we ended finding out was gone. Luckily for him it was a company phone that he was going to be switching off of soon anyway, so there is really no financial setback--just the inconvenience of not having a phone number for a while.

When we got to the border, our tuk-tuk driver dropped us off at a building that was trying to look like a tourist information building. In typical fashion, it was just a shop trying to make a couple bucks off of tourists and they tried to hurry us into the building. By now we are so used to it we just walked away without a problem, passing all of the signs saying you had to get your visas for Cambodia before you depart Thailand and you should get your visa with them for "bery cheap". Of course, just another silly scam that at this point we are too smart to fall for. Once we crossed the border and were going to get our visas in Cambodia from the officials, there was a section for a passport photo. We paid our visa fee and were told that the fee for not having a photo (we didn't have one) was 100 baht, or $3. However, the man never actually charged us for the photo fee. Then a different official took us aside to tell us to pay the fee, which felt very sketchy. However, I didn't think that officials in a government building would scam us so we paid him. It wasn't until later that we found out that he was in fact scamming us and the passport photo "fee" was a total farce--how frustrating! Obviously it's not the money; it's just the idea that even in official institutions you can't trust them to treat you right.

After we got through to Cambodia we were shuttled to a place that overcharged us about $4 for a taxi ride, which was better than I was expecting. Normally a two hour ride into town is about $10 a person, and we each paid about $14, so really it was an amazing deal compared to America. The tuk-tuk driver that was supposed to take us from the taxi stop to our hostel was obviously ordered to take us to some hotel he makes a commission for, so I told him we already had reservations at our hostel of choice so he would actually take us where we wanted to go instead of insisting we stay somewhere else. Then he tried to get us to buy a tour for today, which I refused.

Long story short, I'm looking forward to a day in Angkor Wat not just for the temples, but to get away from the massive amount of people trying to get in on some of my USD by any means necessary. So far we have been very smart travelers, if I do say so myself. But you always get caught off guard sometimes--and you live and you learn! The Cambodians I've met that work in the restaurants are absolutely lovely, so it's not all of them either. You just have to use your head and adapt as you go.

Loving Bangkok

So far I've loved what we've seen of Bangkok. I met up with my travel companion two nights ago and we got up early to see some beautiful temples. We took the river boat to Ko Ratanakosin and, as I've heard many a time, had many scams tried on us just after disembarking. An apparently nice man stopped us and looked at my map, telling us that Ko Ratanakosin was closed until 1 pm that day and that we should see a different Wat instead. He also told us that my companion, wearing shorts, wouldn't be allowed in. He was about to get a tuk-tuk to take us somehere better before I hurried us away. More people stopped us to tell us it was closed, he wouldn't be allowed in, only Thai people could visit today, etc. Even if there weren't tuk-tuk's around, they tried to con us. However, we didn't listen and were rewarded: the complex was open til 4 and if clothes weren't appropriate (like shorts) they provided pants free of charge. We explored for about three hours, and it was stunning!

We ate lunch at the least dodgy street market we could find, and I thoroughly enjoyed my food. We headed to Wat Pho in the afternoon, and after getting Buddha'd out we headed back to our hostel in Bangkok for a quiet night so my companion could get acclimated to his jet lag.

Landed in Bangkok. My, how western!

I got into Bangkok about 7 hours ago. The airport was immaculate, and had much better A/C than the Vietnamese one. It's very obvious from the start which one is the wealthier country. I took the sleek new airport train to the city center and the BTS (city train) to get to the street near my hostel. Everywhere we stopped there were TV's playing Thai and English ads for different cosmetic products, Canon cameras, and even KFC. Like with everyone here, I'm amazed at how bilingual this country it. Not only do they need to know another language, but also an entirely different alphabet. I don't know how good they all are, but it seems like they are better at speaking English than the average Vietnamese person and since their ads are in English I can guarantee they are better at understanding it.

After I got off the train, I was surrounded my McDonalds, Burger King, and Starbucks. I hadn't eaten lunch and had a weak will after no American food the past week, so I caved and got a giant Starbucks drink, which was delicious (and served to me in very good English) but it cost about twice what a meal + drink in Vietnam would cost. First world luxury comes with a price! I then found my hostel, which is very nice, and took a long shower. Now I think I'll do laundry (we have a hanger in the room) before I get caught up on this blog so my clothes have time to dry. It's not like any of you are awake anyway!

It seems like since Bangkok is more western, it may be easier to use my Visa card here. In Vietnam, it was pretty much all cash--you could never rely on someone having a credit card machine. We'll see how it goes though. I would recommend for anyone travelling to get at least $100 of the native currency before they get out of the airport. I wouldn't have been able to take the train without it or get on my Hanoi shuttle either. Don't rely on them taking US dollars (though that's your best plan B, for sure).

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs

Just an update on practical travel problems. So far, I've been using my Deet lotion pretty regularly and only really got bug bites (2 or 3) when I didn't put it on. So that has been a great success. I think the permethrin treatment of the clothes has worked well so far too, because I haven't gotten any bites through my clothing either. However, I either got bitten by fire ants or some other bug when I was on my Halong Bay tour and may have gotten bitten by bed bugs in a couple places already. They don't itch, but they are clearly a rash and look like small bites on my arms. No fun at all! The hostel we are staying at is very clean, but it's really hard to tell when you have bed bugs or where you might get them from. Hopefully the rash/bites will start to go down, or I'll start looking pretty ridiculous soon.