44 replies to this topic

[Cheyne]

Evening guys

Just thought id check in to let you know im still around, just travelling through Asia as we speak.

Ill be on the road until August when I eventually settle in London, after which iv got a few more ideas I plan on doing with SoundPunk, but ill run that by you guys then.

Hope everything is well, I see we've got a bunch of new members too, so welcome to all our new guys

We've been keeping a running blog going for a our travels .. if you'd like to check it out, you can here: http://kittenandllama.com/


Cheers guys, speak soon!

- Cheyne

[Spectrum]

Hey mate, pics are looking totally awesome, envy all the way. Bit if spam about, deleted the topics, but not before Jester got his 2cents in and rewrote their posts in a style that only he can!

[Jester_Fu]

Lucky bastard.

I take it you're kitten?

[ryanedward85]

I visit S.E. Asia quite regularly as my GF is from that part of the world and have been fortunate enough to spend time in all the S.E. Asian countries. Agreed about Laos it is so poor in their capital city but I swear I have never seen so many Hummers in my life, not even stateside. If you are still there or go back there check out the Scandinavian Bakery. They do some great food there, as does a small resto bar just around the corner. We went to the Mekong and just jumped into the river to keep cool. The folks are very friendly and always look smarter than folk in Thailand and Cambodia, with those log skirts. Never really liked the Thai people as they were very money orientated. They were also extremely deceitful and two faced. Last month I visited Malaysian Borneo to go Jungle trekking. It was super great. I love S.E.Asia, it's just a real pity that the locals treat their countries like an open sewer or landfill site.
Glad you are enjoying your trip though.

[Mark Shaw]

It's the same in all 3rd World/ Developing Countries. The see the environment as an obstacle to their way of life, unless they can make money off it. Look how the rain forests are being obliterated in Asia and Central/ South America. We were the same in the west last century.

[ryanedward85]

The thing I really hate about visiting Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam is just how much the charge for visa's. At least $35US for each county. At least with Thailand and Malaysia they don't charge you. They seriously need to rethink the prices if they want to encourage tourism to these beautiful countries.

[Mark Shaw]

unfortunately, with 3rd world countries the only major income is what they can glean off foreign nationals/ companies. Visa fees, work permit fees and bumped up entrance fees to sites is a sure way to generate income.

[rhythmboy]

ryanedward85, on 01 July 2011 - 10:39 PM, said:

I visit S.E. Asia quite regularly as my GF is from that part of the world and have been fortunate enough to spend time in all the S.E. Asian countries. Agreed about Laos it is so poor in their capital city but I swear I have never seen so many Hummers in my life, not even stateside. If you are still there or go back there check out the Scandinavian Bakery. They do some great food there, as does a small resto bar just around the corner. We went to the Mekong and just jumped into the river to keep cool. The folks are very friendly and always look smarter than folk in Thailand and Cambodia, with those log skirts. Never really liked the Thai people as they were very money orientated. They were also extremely deceitful and two faced. Last month I visited Malaysian Borneo to go Jungle trekking. It was super great. I love S.E.Asia, it's just a real pity that the locals treat their countries like an open sewer or landfill site.
Glad you are enjoying your trip though.

You ever get to Australia? We're just next door you know, should drop in and say hi sometime

Sounds like you've been around the region a bit, pretty awesome commitment given how far away the US is from us. I've done Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo - worth saying the cities over the countries since I never left them, mostly going over for short trips to play gigs for a Hong Kong based promoter.

I like each for different reasons but KL is one of my favs, our hosts were really hospitable and showed us a great time, diverse mix of people and the street food is awesome. Same could be said for Tokyo, totally loved it and the people we spent time with were a bit more underground so we got to see a seedier side of life there

Taipei - felt like an alien from another planet. They don't get many white folk there and we had a singer from the West Indies with peroxided hair with us - she literally caused traffic jams and near collisions. However I still loved the place, very Chinese in a lot of ways still, and they know how to make good espresso coffee!

Singapore - too clean, too oppressive for me. Very 'safe' unless you want to misbehave And the constant heat and rain get tiring.

Hong Kong - exciting, high energy, neon wonderland, great shopping. But overcrowded and polluted as all fuck and people tend to ignore you.

Would love to see Vietnam and more of Malaysia, hope to get there next year for a holiday.

[ryanedward85]

Due to family commitments I visit S.E.Asia very regularly. I used to have similar views on Singapore to you, however my last visit was much more enjoyable (enjoyed universal studios)
Off to HK in 2 months.
Borneo was great, the jungles were mind blowing. Highlight was trekking in the jungle and literally bumping into a herd of over 80 Pygmy Asian Elephants that were feeding 15 feet in front of us, then looking up to see an Orang Utan in a tree watching us, watching the Elephants. a memory that will stay with me for ever.

[Mark Shaw]

Visiting South East Asia is something I would like to do. You cannot get much more different to the US than Borneo or Hong Kong.

[Cheyne]

Sorry about the late reply on this, I only just figured out how to get this reply box to work on my iPad (need to disable rich editior)

Yea we've done a month in Thailand, three weeks in Laos, and I'm in Vietnam on cat ba island in halong as we speak about to get a very long bus down to hue in southern Vietnam.

I loved Laos, the people there are amazing, the nicest people Iv ever met, it really makes that place great. Were not enjoying Vietnam as much due to the sheer rudeness of the people and how much everyone is just trying to get your money... Everything is a scam, there's no avoiding it, you just have to make sure you don't get scammed too much.

Rigged taxi metres, overpriced tours that don't include what you paid for, dodgy bus companies, fake parking inspectors.. I could go on. It just seems like your constantly pulling money out of your wallet. Were hoping it gets better down south otherwise were just going to skip to Cambodia.

[rhythmboy]

^ Very interesting Cheyne, I was just researching holidays in SE Asia for later in the year and was checking out Vietnam, but then later started to think more seriously about Malaysia. I've been to Kuala Lumpur twice and really liked it there, would like to see more of the country. You've just helped us with our decision

[Cheyne]

Yea, I wouldn't make Vietnam the focus of your trip, se Asia has much better And friendlier places on offer. I can highly recommend Laos, particularly luang prabang in northern Laos, it's very beautiful. We've also found Vietnam to be quite dangerous in terms of robbery, I'm sure this goes hand in hand with the people who just seem to dislike tourists in general.

We've just checked out of some shit hole on halong city, been on a bus for 18 hours, and we decided to treat our selves a bit and booked a 4 star hotel in hue. Big difference in quality and customer service when your spending more the $20 a night. We've been hanging out with backpackers lately but this time we've decided we needed a bit of luxury.

Heading south to hoi an in a few days then down to nha trang to hit the beach.

Happy to share some more Advice with you if you want, we've heard lots about Cambodia too, and well be there in a week or so.

[ryanedward85]

Word of warning Cheyne, Cambodia is just as bad as Vietnam. If not worse. They see westerners as mobile ATM's. Vietnam is better once you get away from the obvious tourist traps. Philippines is pretty bad as well in places. Everyone is trying to get your money. At least on the beaches in Malaysia and Philippines vendors don't bug you all day, trying to flog their wares. Enjoy your trip tho, it is all part of the S.E.Asian experience. I'm off to HK/ Maccau and China in 2 months.

[steve.childs]

This hatred to tourists in Vietnam, is it aimed at all tourists or primarily French and Americans?

[rhythmboy]

ryanedward85, on 24 July 2011 - 05:18 PM, said:

I'm off to HK/ Maccau and China in 2 months.

I've been to HK nearly ten times playing gigs - great for short visits the markets are great and it's high energy and safe, but expensive and really crowded.

Always enjoyed my time there but admittedly got to stay in some pretty nice hotels and had local hosts who took us to the good clubs and restaurants

China also high on my priority list, love Chinese culture art and music.

[ryanedward85]

I have had some pretty negative experiences with Chinese so my view of them is very tainted. Hope that my visit will change that view.

[Cheyne]

Hey guys, I feel I should revise my last post. We've headed south a fair it now, been to cat ba island, hue city and now in hoi an about to leave for nha trang tonight.

The last few places have been great, the people were nicer and we didn't feel like we weren't wanted there. We loved hue city, it's nice place.

The crime is still everywhere.. I just had my $300 polarized rayban sun glasses stolen while I was at an ATM machine in a quiet street.

Anyway, I guess it's worth saying that Vietnam has a lot to offer, but maybe don't end your trip with it, theres a lot of shitty things that can happen.. Bad bus trips, theft, rude people etc that can leave a bad taste in your mouth. At first everyone was rude, but now were meeting some very nice people.
Yesterday we went on a day trip with a nice old Vietnamese man and he showed us around his village, his wife cooked us a big lunch and he took us fishing and pottery making. It only cost us $10.

I just wrote a long blog post about it here if you want to read more http://kittenandllam...-are-looking-up

[Cheyne]

steve.childs, on 26 July 2011 - 08:38 PM, said:

This hatred to tourists in Vietnam, is it aimed at all tourists or primarily French and Americans?

It appears to be any tourist, or at least any white tourist. Often we would be getting dirty looks and made to feel uncomfortable and we didn't even open our mouths. French, American, australian, it didn't matter.

It was steaming hot, but my girlfriend was too paranoid to wear shorts out, the guys on the street would all just stare at her ass, in a very obvious way, laughing at each other and pointing.

We said to our selves that if things didn't get better in the next two locations we were going to leave Vietnam straight away and cancel the rest of the country... But it got better, the people got nicer... They smile when they scam you at least now

It's not fair to bag out all of Vietnam from a few bad experiences, the south of Vietnam seems to be much better.

Generally where to tourists go, is where the people are nice.. There's more crime, but peope are nicer in general. I guess they have to be to make sales.

[ryanedward85]

Cheyne, I had similar experiences in Thailand. I found the people to be generally two faced and untrustworthy. Land Of (Fake) Smiles. Though my experiences were somewhat better down south, especially around Krabi and Nakhon Sri Tammerat. People in Bangkok were just foul, almost without exception. Speaking of Thailand, have you heard of the PDC (Pattaya Diving Club)? It's when a Wealthy Farang meets the girl of his dreams, not knowing that she has a Thai boyfriend/ husband + 3 kids and then mysteriously takes a running jump out of their apartment window in very suspicious circumstances. Police are unwilling to investigate and when they do they find out the girlfriend and her Thai hubby knocked him off for his money/ property/ Harley Davidson Motorcycle.