From watching for counterfeit cash, begging children, stray animals everywhere, and seeing the slums that are no more than sheet metal boxes on stilts, a month and a half in SE Asia has reminded and taught me a lot about perspective. It’s not my first trip here, but it is my first extended stay. These are my experiences with the good, the weird, and the bad.
The Good
The Food
The way to my heart is through my stomach. I’ve never heard of half this food before, but oh my, is it ever tasty. Western food is everywhere, but the best finds have been at ma-and-pa shops. For less than $2 a meal for soup, chicken, rice and veg, it’s a serious bargain for the amount you get on the plate. You may have to stare down a big bowl of crickets or frogs’ legs while you’re eating, but it’ll be worth it.
The Services
Need a mani-pedi? $4. Massage? $5. You won’t be able to walk a few minutes without having a few shops trying to get your business. The prices range by a few dollars at each spot, but the services remain the same. You can get a $5 beach-side massage on your neck and shoulders while enjoying a cold beer, or get your legs/pits/brows threaded at the same time.
There’s also never a shortage of drivers to take you from one place to the next. In Bali, taxis started at $0.70, and a trip from one end of Kuta Beach to the other will cost about $3. If you decide to use a taxi, make sure you find one with a meter if you can. If hiring a driver isn’t your thing, and you’re staying more than a week, renting scooters is a very inexpensive option. $3-$5 a day for a scooter, (less gas, which is only $2 per tank,) is a great deal that allows a freer trip than relying on a driver.
Some of the best deals are with Tuk-Tuk drivers. While they tend to have you in the palm of their hands at airports and ferry ports, they are an inexpensive way to get a group of people a long way for cheap. They cost about $2/head, which may sound like a lot, but when you’re in the middle of the jungle at a rave at 4 am, they’re an absolute god-send.
The Weird
Yellow Vodka
It’s not booze. There are shops all over the roads that have inexpensive bottles of a strange yellow liquid in Absolut Vodka bottles. These are most assuredly not booze. Luckily, most shop workers will let you know before purchase that it is, in fact, petrol.
Insects are Food
I thought it was a fluke when I saw a cart full of scorpions, spiders, and other assorted insects for sale on food carts in Siem Reap. Turns out, it’s common to see locals of all ages digging into bags full of insects as a snack. One of the first local restaurants visited featured a stainless steel bowl filled to a peak with fried crickets.
Squatting Toilets
One thing I will never get used to is walking into a bathroom stall and seeing a squatting toilet with a bucket of water sitting next to it. After my time in Thailand, I knew it would be prevalent in the less developed areas of this trip, but it never fails to disappoint. On top of this, toilet paper isn’t used by locals, and can be very expensive depending on the area you’re in. Luckily all accommodations so far have supplied a roll or two for the stay.
The Bad
Saying No
Walking ATM syndrome is a real thing. Everyone is trying to get you to buy something. In the tourist areas like Kuta in Bali, the shop-lined streets are a bustle with shop workers calling out prices and trying to get you to “just look, yes?” Being asked to take day tours, taxi rides, buy X, Y, and Z, are the norm. Even on a simple 5-minute walk, you will likely be asked about two dozen times if you want a ride, goods, or services.
At the beaches, merchants come up and offer mani-pedis, sunglasses, ice cream, or trinkets to travelers and tourists lounging in the sand. Fortunately, once you begin to develop a tan and start blending in a bit with the locals, it calms down.
Fun fact: I will never be that tanned.
Traffic
One way street and sidewalks don’t exist to scooter drivers. Having avid riders nipping at your heels on the sidewalk can quickly go from annoying to dangerous if you’re not watching your surroundings. Crossing the street is very daunting at first, and traffic circles seem damn near impossible. Once accustomed, you begin to realize that it is, in fact, the tourists that are the danger on the roads.
Pests
I hate bugs, but they love me. Mosquitoes and sandflies have been after me ever since I stepped off the plane in Bangkok. It’s not that I don’t slather myself in repellant on a daily basis, they don’t care if I’m rocking a 40% deet coverage from head to toe. Unfortunately, I’ve become the mosquito repellant for most of my friends, as they remain unscathed and wholly un-itchy for most of the trip. Rats are commonplace in most cities, and cockroaches are almost inescapable. Pests in all forms become a fact of life very quickly.
It’s said time and time again, but when you travel, you leave a little piece of your heart everywhere you’ve been. So far, that has been the whole truth. With four months to go, I can’t wait to see what’s next on this big adventure.
Driven by a passion for travel and all things marketing. Fuelled by tea and sarcasm, she’s a gypsy at heart with a knack for telling stories.