Start of my journey
Door: Jeroen
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jeroen
15 Augustus 2017 | Cambodja, Khett Siem Reab
Hello everyone that is interested in my stories about my experiences here, in the not so sunny but very hot part of the world called Asia.
First of all, the journey started with 33 other people. I have been organizing a trip (with Phil and Naomi) for a group within my student association for the 10 year anniversesary of said group (het Zoutkorrel). We were scheduled to leave on the 15th of july. Unfortunately, that did not work out. The connecting flight from Kiev to Bangkok was cancelled and thus my group was eventually delayed by 2,5 days. We arrived somewhere late afternoon in Bangkok and booked a minivan in advance to take us to the hostel. First time coming outside was quite the suprise regarding the heat. It is very humid here and always around 30 degrees or higher. Coming out of an airconditioned environment, it felt like a warm blanket wrapping around you instantly (it still does a bit...). Everyone started sweating immediately, but who can blame us. We come from a very cold land where summer time consists of 20/25 degrees, with not a lot of sunshine.
Arriving at the hostel, everyone went to clean themselves up and afterwards drink cocktails in the bar across the hostel. A communal dinner was held by us (Phil Naomi and me, aka the ''Sub'') and after dinner some of us went out for drinks while the others went to bed, including me.
Next day we were picked up at our hostel at 7 am to go to Kanchanaburi. Since we had 2,5 days delay we couldnt do anything in Bangkok. Phil and I were going to travel together afterwards so we didn't care too much. One thing to know about het Zoutkorrel, people like to drink. A lot. Often. No matter how much sleep they would get. As you can imagine, some people needed to be kicked out of bed when our pickup arrived at the hostel. With sleepy heads and hungover faces we were set to go to Kanchanaburi with 4 minivans and 2 tour guides. After a long drive we arrived at the floating markets, we got on these long tailed boats that had a huge engine (truck I assumed) on the back that powered a long pipe with a screw on the end of it. The floating market was amazing, imagine it being in a traffic jam with boats. There are vendors on each side of the canal and small boats often occupied by old ladies that were going in the opposite direction. Every vendor and boat selled either food or souverniers and was our first experience with negotiating prices. I bought some pork chops and mango sticky rice. The mango sticky rice was sold for 150 baht (something like 3,5 euro) and I got the price down to 100 baht (2.6 euro) which I thought was good. I discovered later that the price of mango sticky rice is 50 baht...
After the floating market we went to one of the war cemeteries build around Kanchanaburi. A beautiful place and well maintained, had a lot of Dutch graves as well. To be honest, I didn't know anything about Thai war history and was to soon to find out. We went to the hotel we were staying in and dumped all of our bags. Soon after we went on the same type of boats as the floating market on the river. We visited a small museum of the Kwai river and went to a underground temple. When we went to the temple it started raining, and I discovered what monsoon rain was. You will get soaking wet within 2 seconds. At the museum I discovered that Thailand was occupied by the Japanese during the second world war and forced prisoners of war alongside with other Asian workers to build a railway going from Bangkok to Myanmar.
Next day we went to the Hellfire Pass memorial museum. It was a small museum with a lot of stories on how life was during that time. A lot of cruelties happened there, 1/3 of the railway workers died. We went to walk through Hellfire Pass itself, with an audio tour. It was a place of hell and it felt weird walking through it in present day, knowing what horrible lives men had.
After the museum we went to see the Erawan water falls, one of the best national parks in Thailand so Ive been told. There were 7 tiers of waterfalls and the highsest was a trek of 2 something kilometers. Our tourgide told us it would take 1/1,5 hours to get up there, but we the minivans needed to leave in 2,5 hours since we needed to catch the nighttrain to Chaing Mai.
Along with 5 other people, we rushed to the 7th waterfall in 45 minutes. We were exhausted and sweathing like crazy when we arrived at the top. One little fact, appearently in all fresh waters in Thailand there are fish like in a fish spa that will eat dead cells of your feet. I was not worried when I got told that, since fish spa fish are small. These fish however were not that small. They were between 10 and 15 cm's big. There were around 10 people at the pool, they didnt make any sounds, just small chatter. We, 5 adult men, went into the water. As soon as we sat still for 2 seconds, fish were biting us. We all started screaming like little girls.... 3 of us didn't get used to the fish and didn't really sat still. Another friend and me gave in and let the fish nibble at our feet. I imagined it to be painless, but you could really feel the fish take little bites off you. Strange but fun experience that was. Our journey downwards was also in a quick pace, as we almost ran on the stairs downwards and arrived in 20 minutes at the 2nd tier waterfall, were the rest of the group was. After a quick dip we went back to the minivans to take us to the nighttrain.
We got in Chiang Mai somewhere 09:30 and got a redcab to our hostel. Chiang Mai was a way less busy city than Bangkok and smelled way less. This city was ofcourse also packed with tourists, but there wasn't as much influence of tourism as there was in Bangkok. Everybody went to do their own stuff, and for me that was going to a massage spa with 3 friends. I got my first Thai massage and it was very nice. A little bit painfull but nice.
Next day was a city tour in Chiang Mai, but first we went up the mountain to visit a temple there. The temple was beautiful and our tourgide was nice and spoke good English, which by the way is something rare in Thailand. The city tour itself also consisted of a lot of temples and ended in a big market. In Thailand, a lot of things are build very open as it is always warm enough to be in open air. So were these markets, no doors to go through but it had a roof and several stories. Food and clothes were sold at the market, an interesting variety of those.
We also did a hiking tour to a mountain tribe, 2 hours away by car. Our tour guides were not really talkative and didn't really say much to us. They took us to a local market to get food and water supplies for the mountain. After that we went to a butterfly and orchid farm. It was quite beautiful but also boring, as there was not a lot of different species.
We went further with the cars to the mountains and arrived a local restaurant where we had lunch. We found out that the elephants there werent treated nicely and thus we chose not to ride the elephants. We did go to feed the ones that were at the restaurant. An hour later we were starting the hike to the top of the mountain, which was 2,5 hours. After the heavy ordeal we arrived on the top of the mountain where it was a bit colder which was a warm welcome. All the houses there were on high poles and made out of bamboo. The place was breathtaking and we had a nice view on other mountains and the valley of where Chiang Mai was. The locals made us a simple dinner.
The campfire was lighted and soon we were all having beers with the tourguides. The tourguides started to open up and we made friends with them.
We slept in dorm houses with the beds on the ground, every pair of beds had a mosquito net. It wasn't the most comfortable bed but everyone was able to sleep well after some beers and the hike. Next day we were descending again and walked a different track to go to a waterfall. We had a nice dip in the waterfall, which was also a welcome relief of the heat.
Next day in Chiang Mai I attended a cooking class with a few others. Unfortunately I felt sick that day and thus couldn't eat my selfmade dishes. Nonetheless it was a fun and usefull experience, cause appearently there are a lot of things that you are not supposed to eat from your dishes. I also learned that I don't like Thai Parsley (which tastes like koriander) and Thai Basil (tastes like anijs< dont know english word at this point and internet is waaaaaaaaay to slow to be bothered to look it up haha). Come to think of it, I think I will never cook during my travels. It's just really a hassle to go out and buy food to cook when you can get cheap food everywhere.
With everybody checked out of the hostel, we went to the airport of Chiang Mai to catch a plane to the south of Thailand where we went on a bus and a boat to get to the tropical island Koh Pha Ngan. We arrived at our resort and were relieved to have nothing planned and just chill at the pool and beach. This place was fantastic, it was everything that you can imagine of a tropical resort. White sandy beach with coconut treas and hammocks and a pool in our resort. The days spent here were nice and relaxing, we only did a snorkling tour which in my opinion was not really good. Tour guides didnt explain anything, a lot of people got cuts in their feet because they didnt get warned that coral is very sharp and that it is stupid to be in a vertical position. Also not really smart of people as well haha.
Nightlife was good in the bar strip, where people partied on the beach with music from clubs and cheap alcohol. There were burning jump ropes and burning limbo dance challanges. It is really nice to be able to walk around in shorts and tshirt at night when going out, especially when youre on the beach!
At this point I had to say my goodbyes to a lot of people, including my girlfriend Hannah. Poor girl has to miss me for half a year! Saying goodbye was hard, people whished me well on my journey and we parted ways. Phil, me and 5 others stayed behind to spend more time on the island, and were off to Koh Samui the same day. After 1 day Naomi left us to go on a family trip in Vietnam and Cambodia. Phil and I will see Naomi again in 2 days, here in Siem Reap. The 6 of us rented scooters and went around the island for a couple of days. We visited the ''city'' of the island and went to beaches. I booked a dive with a padi organization and had 2 dives at Chumpon Pinnacle. The reef there was really beautiful, spotted a few crustaceans lots of different fish including the titan triggerfish, the infamous aggressive fish of Thailand. I'd say that this was one of the best dives I've had. Unfortunately my cellphone did not think that and I got it drowned by accident in the sea.
We went back to Koh Pha Ngan after a few days and spent a few days there with scooters as well untill the full moon party. The scooters were 125cc, but that was really necessary as a 20% steepness is not uncommen on this island. We sat at a bar that was located on the top of the mountains overlooking the rest of the island and the sea, and futher away was Koh Samui. Saw a beautifull sunset the day after the full moon party. The full moon party itself wasnt that great. Its really just a huge gathering of drunk people on the beach.
After the full moon party, Phil and I parted ways with the rest and were off to go to Bangkok where we would spent 5 nights. This was a mistake, since there is not a lot to do in Bangkok. On the first day we went to see the grand royal palace but we thought it was too expansive for our budget and thus went seeing some temples. The temples really get boring after a while actually cause there is not much difference between them and we had seen our fair share of temples back in Chiang Mai. After the temples we went to a park in the middle of Bangkok where water monitor lizards were walking around freely. We ended our day in a huge shopping mall and went to see Dunkirk in a very fancy movie theater. Rest of our days consisted of either doing nothing and watching netflix or just wandering around eating at different places and hang out at the shopping mall. Our hostel was so shit that we didn't want to be there. There were no foreigners in our hostel, it was dirty and there was some sort of weird internet cafe on the second floor where shady figures spent their time. The beds there were 5 cms thick and hard. The bed cover wasn't really tight on the bed and came off every night. We discovered that our beds were covered in blood stains.....
We were relieved that we were going to Cambodia. We took a taxi to the bus station, the meter was on and we thought we were not being scammed. Guess again! The cab driver didn't tell us we needed to pay a fee for a highway, but that wasn't too bad. The driver made a loop of 20km because she drove the wrong way on the high way. We sweared silently and in Dutch, but it didn't bother us too much since we were glad to leave Bangkok.
So now we are in Siem Reap, Cambodia. There isn't much in this country. On our way here we went through 2 villages. The main road to here was only 2 lanes, 1 for each direction. Trash is scattered at the sides of the road, and there is a lot of dirt. If it were raining the whole country would be mud, even muddier than Thailand. It smells here but it isn't too bad. Siem Reap is a big village without skyline and very spacious. It really is a mix of very poor structures with 21st century buildings and machines. I like the currency here as they use american dollars instead of their own currency. Well you get your change back in riel when it is under a dollar but that isn't half as bad as it sounds. I never saw usd before and I think it is strange looking money, but I get used to it very quickly.
We have not really done anything yet here in Siem Reap. The first night we went out for drinks since it was Phil's birthday at 00:00. Today we spent our day binge watching all of season 7s game of thrones episodes at our guest house. So this is my journey so far, I will try to write more often so that I won't write for more than an hour like this time haha.
Let me tell you some basics of my journey so far.
You can't throw toilet paper in the toilet, it needs to be thrown in a bin. Most toilets here have a bidet, and some have toiletpaper available. Some toilets are squatting toilets and most of them only have a bucket of water next to it. Luckely, I was never in dire need to use such a toilet and could always find a better one. I am afraid though that once on this trip it will happen :')
Thailand consisted of mud and arbours, lots and lots of arbours. I haven't seen much wildlife in Thailand, also not many insects. There are a lot of ants though, which will bite you. There are not a lot of birds around and all cats dogs and livestock are considerably thinner than the ones I know at home. There are also a lot of stray dogs and cats here, which everyone is avoiding mostly. They are not aggressive though, but Thai owned dogs at shabby locations tend to be aggressive and some will even chase you on a scooter!
The fact that you can't drink water from the tap here doesn't really matter, as every super market (well not really super, you can't buy much. It is more like a gas station like we know) is always opened 24/7.
Gettting iced drinks here is not too great, everything is freaking sweet! They also give you a weird look when you want your hot coffee black, I guess Asians have a huge sweet tooth for it.
A lot of Asian people don't really see you as human, they see you as an income. There are a lot of scammers, and always start a high price with everything. You can bargain it down ofcourse, but after a while you just want a normal cheap ride or anything without having to bargain for it.
Unfortunatly, I look nothing like an Asian and am thus always spoken to when walking around. The people in tourist places are really persistend in offering you rides or their merchandise. But thank god for the invention of music and headphones!
I guess this is it for now, I'm starting to get tired and I think I have written enough for now. I hope you enjoyed my writings! Let me know what you think! If you have any recommendations please tell me =)
First of all, the journey started with 33 other people. I have been organizing a trip (with Phil and Naomi) for a group within my student association for the 10 year anniversesary of said group (het Zoutkorrel). We were scheduled to leave on the 15th of july. Unfortunately, that did not work out. The connecting flight from Kiev to Bangkok was cancelled and thus my group was eventually delayed by 2,5 days. We arrived somewhere late afternoon in Bangkok and booked a minivan in advance to take us to the hostel. First time coming outside was quite the suprise regarding the heat. It is very humid here and always around 30 degrees or higher. Coming out of an airconditioned environment, it felt like a warm blanket wrapping around you instantly (it still does a bit...). Everyone started sweating immediately, but who can blame us. We come from a very cold land where summer time consists of 20/25 degrees, with not a lot of sunshine.
Arriving at the hostel, everyone went to clean themselves up and afterwards drink cocktails in the bar across the hostel. A communal dinner was held by us (Phil Naomi and me, aka the ''Sub'') and after dinner some of us went out for drinks while the others went to bed, including me.
Next day we were picked up at our hostel at 7 am to go to Kanchanaburi. Since we had 2,5 days delay we couldnt do anything in Bangkok. Phil and I were going to travel together afterwards so we didn't care too much. One thing to know about het Zoutkorrel, people like to drink. A lot. Often. No matter how much sleep they would get. As you can imagine, some people needed to be kicked out of bed when our pickup arrived at the hostel. With sleepy heads and hungover faces we were set to go to Kanchanaburi with 4 minivans and 2 tour guides. After a long drive we arrived at the floating markets, we got on these long tailed boats that had a huge engine (truck I assumed) on the back that powered a long pipe with a screw on the end of it. The floating market was amazing, imagine it being in a traffic jam with boats. There are vendors on each side of the canal and small boats often occupied by old ladies that were going in the opposite direction. Every vendor and boat selled either food or souverniers and was our first experience with negotiating prices. I bought some pork chops and mango sticky rice. The mango sticky rice was sold for 150 baht (something like 3,5 euro) and I got the price down to 100 baht (2.6 euro) which I thought was good. I discovered later that the price of mango sticky rice is 50 baht...
After the floating market we went to one of the war cemeteries build around Kanchanaburi. A beautiful place and well maintained, had a lot of Dutch graves as well. To be honest, I didn't know anything about Thai war history and was to soon to find out. We went to the hotel we were staying in and dumped all of our bags. Soon after we went on the same type of boats as the floating market on the river. We visited a small museum of the Kwai river and went to a underground temple. When we went to the temple it started raining, and I discovered what monsoon rain was. You will get soaking wet within 2 seconds. At the museum I discovered that Thailand was occupied by the Japanese during the second world war and forced prisoners of war alongside with other Asian workers to build a railway going from Bangkok to Myanmar.
Next day we went to the Hellfire Pass memorial museum. It was a small museum with a lot of stories on how life was during that time. A lot of cruelties happened there, 1/3 of the railway workers died. We went to walk through Hellfire Pass itself, with an audio tour. It was a place of hell and it felt weird walking through it in present day, knowing what horrible lives men had.
After the museum we went to see the Erawan water falls, one of the best national parks in Thailand so Ive been told. There were 7 tiers of waterfalls and the highsest was a trek of 2 something kilometers. Our tourgide told us it would take 1/1,5 hours to get up there, but we the minivans needed to leave in 2,5 hours since we needed to catch the nighttrain to Chaing Mai.
Along with 5 other people, we rushed to the 7th waterfall in 45 minutes. We were exhausted and sweathing like crazy when we arrived at the top. One little fact, appearently in all fresh waters in Thailand there are fish like in a fish spa that will eat dead cells of your feet. I was not worried when I got told that, since fish spa fish are small. These fish however were not that small. They were between 10 and 15 cm's big. There were around 10 people at the pool, they didnt make any sounds, just small chatter. We, 5 adult men, went into the water. As soon as we sat still for 2 seconds, fish were biting us. We all started screaming like little girls.... 3 of us didn't get used to the fish and didn't really sat still. Another friend and me gave in and let the fish nibble at our feet. I imagined it to be painless, but you could really feel the fish take little bites off you. Strange but fun experience that was. Our journey downwards was also in a quick pace, as we almost ran on the stairs downwards and arrived in 20 minutes at the 2nd tier waterfall, were the rest of the group was. After a quick dip we went back to the minivans to take us to the nighttrain.
We got in Chiang Mai somewhere 09:30 and got a redcab to our hostel. Chiang Mai was a way less busy city than Bangkok and smelled way less. This city was ofcourse also packed with tourists, but there wasn't as much influence of tourism as there was in Bangkok. Everybody went to do their own stuff, and for me that was going to a massage spa with 3 friends. I got my first Thai massage and it was very nice. A little bit painfull but nice.
Next day was a city tour in Chiang Mai, but first we went up the mountain to visit a temple there. The temple was beautiful and our tourgide was nice and spoke good English, which by the way is something rare in Thailand. The city tour itself also consisted of a lot of temples and ended in a big market. In Thailand, a lot of things are build very open as it is always warm enough to be in open air. So were these markets, no doors to go through but it had a roof and several stories. Food and clothes were sold at the market, an interesting variety of those.
We also did a hiking tour to a mountain tribe, 2 hours away by car. Our tour guides were not really talkative and didn't really say much to us. They took us to a local market to get food and water supplies for the mountain. After that we went to a butterfly and orchid farm. It was quite beautiful but also boring, as there was not a lot of different species.
We went further with the cars to the mountains and arrived a local restaurant where we had lunch. We found out that the elephants there werent treated nicely and thus we chose not to ride the elephants. We did go to feed the ones that were at the restaurant. An hour later we were starting the hike to the top of the mountain, which was 2,5 hours. After the heavy ordeal we arrived on the top of the mountain where it was a bit colder which was a warm welcome. All the houses there were on high poles and made out of bamboo. The place was breathtaking and we had a nice view on other mountains and the valley of where Chiang Mai was. The locals made us a simple dinner.
The campfire was lighted and soon we were all having beers with the tourguides. The tourguides started to open up and we made friends with them.
We slept in dorm houses with the beds on the ground, every pair of beds had a mosquito net. It wasn't the most comfortable bed but everyone was able to sleep well after some beers and the hike. Next day we were descending again and walked a different track to go to a waterfall. We had a nice dip in the waterfall, which was also a welcome relief of the heat.
Next day in Chiang Mai I attended a cooking class with a few others. Unfortunately I felt sick that day and thus couldn't eat my selfmade dishes. Nonetheless it was a fun and usefull experience, cause appearently there are a lot of things that you are not supposed to eat from your dishes. I also learned that I don't like Thai Parsley (which tastes like koriander) and Thai Basil (tastes like anijs< dont know english word at this point and internet is waaaaaaaaay to slow to be bothered to look it up haha). Come to think of it, I think I will never cook during my travels. It's just really a hassle to go out and buy food to cook when you can get cheap food everywhere.
With everybody checked out of the hostel, we went to the airport of Chiang Mai to catch a plane to the south of Thailand where we went on a bus and a boat to get to the tropical island Koh Pha Ngan. We arrived at our resort and were relieved to have nothing planned and just chill at the pool and beach. This place was fantastic, it was everything that you can imagine of a tropical resort. White sandy beach with coconut treas and hammocks and a pool in our resort. The days spent here were nice and relaxing, we only did a snorkling tour which in my opinion was not really good. Tour guides didnt explain anything, a lot of people got cuts in their feet because they didnt get warned that coral is very sharp and that it is stupid to be in a vertical position. Also not really smart of people as well haha.
Nightlife was good in the bar strip, where people partied on the beach with music from clubs and cheap alcohol. There were burning jump ropes and burning limbo dance challanges. It is really nice to be able to walk around in shorts and tshirt at night when going out, especially when youre on the beach!
At this point I had to say my goodbyes to a lot of people, including my girlfriend Hannah. Poor girl has to miss me for half a year! Saying goodbye was hard, people whished me well on my journey and we parted ways. Phil, me and 5 others stayed behind to spend more time on the island, and were off to Koh Samui the same day. After 1 day Naomi left us to go on a family trip in Vietnam and Cambodia. Phil and I will see Naomi again in 2 days, here in Siem Reap. The 6 of us rented scooters and went around the island for a couple of days. We visited the ''city'' of the island and went to beaches. I booked a dive with a padi organization and had 2 dives at Chumpon Pinnacle. The reef there was really beautiful, spotted a few crustaceans lots of different fish including the titan triggerfish, the infamous aggressive fish of Thailand. I'd say that this was one of the best dives I've had. Unfortunately my cellphone did not think that and I got it drowned by accident in the sea.
We went back to Koh Pha Ngan after a few days and spent a few days there with scooters as well untill the full moon party. The scooters were 125cc, but that was really necessary as a 20% steepness is not uncommen on this island. We sat at a bar that was located on the top of the mountains overlooking the rest of the island and the sea, and futher away was Koh Samui. Saw a beautifull sunset the day after the full moon party. The full moon party itself wasnt that great. Its really just a huge gathering of drunk people on the beach.
After the full moon party, Phil and I parted ways with the rest and were off to go to Bangkok where we would spent 5 nights. This was a mistake, since there is not a lot to do in Bangkok. On the first day we went to see the grand royal palace but we thought it was too expansive for our budget and thus went seeing some temples. The temples really get boring after a while actually cause there is not much difference between them and we had seen our fair share of temples back in Chiang Mai. After the temples we went to a park in the middle of Bangkok where water monitor lizards were walking around freely. We ended our day in a huge shopping mall and went to see Dunkirk in a very fancy movie theater. Rest of our days consisted of either doing nothing and watching netflix or just wandering around eating at different places and hang out at the shopping mall. Our hostel was so shit that we didn't want to be there. There were no foreigners in our hostel, it was dirty and there was some sort of weird internet cafe on the second floor where shady figures spent their time. The beds there were 5 cms thick and hard. The bed cover wasn't really tight on the bed and came off every night. We discovered that our beds were covered in blood stains.....
We were relieved that we were going to Cambodia. We took a taxi to the bus station, the meter was on and we thought we were not being scammed. Guess again! The cab driver didn't tell us we needed to pay a fee for a highway, but that wasn't too bad. The driver made a loop of 20km because she drove the wrong way on the high way. We sweared silently and in Dutch, but it didn't bother us too much since we were glad to leave Bangkok.
So now we are in Siem Reap, Cambodia. There isn't much in this country. On our way here we went through 2 villages. The main road to here was only 2 lanes, 1 for each direction. Trash is scattered at the sides of the road, and there is a lot of dirt. If it were raining the whole country would be mud, even muddier than Thailand. It smells here but it isn't too bad. Siem Reap is a big village without skyline and very spacious. It really is a mix of very poor structures with 21st century buildings and machines. I like the currency here as they use american dollars instead of their own currency. Well you get your change back in riel when it is under a dollar but that isn't half as bad as it sounds. I never saw usd before and I think it is strange looking money, but I get used to it very quickly.
We have not really done anything yet here in Siem Reap. The first night we went out for drinks since it was Phil's birthday at 00:00. Today we spent our day binge watching all of season 7s game of thrones episodes at our guest house. So this is my journey so far, I will try to write more often so that I won't write for more than an hour like this time haha.
Let me tell you some basics of my journey so far.
You can't throw toilet paper in the toilet, it needs to be thrown in a bin. Most toilets here have a bidet, and some have toiletpaper available. Some toilets are squatting toilets and most of them only have a bucket of water next to it. Luckely, I was never in dire need to use such a toilet and could always find a better one. I am afraid though that once on this trip it will happen :')
Thailand consisted of mud and arbours, lots and lots of arbours. I haven't seen much wildlife in Thailand, also not many insects. There are a lot of ants though, which will bite you. There are not a lot of birds around and all cats dogs and livestock are considerably thinner than the ones I know at home. There are also a lot of stray dogs and cats here, which everyone is avoiding mostly. They are not aggressive though, but Thai owned dogs at shabby locations tend to be aggressive and some will even chase you on a scooter!
The fact that you can't drink water from the tap here doesn't really matter, as every super market (well not really super, you can't buy much. It is more like a gas station like we know) is always opened 24/7.
Gettting iced drinks here is not too great, everything is freaking sweet! They also give you a weird look when you want your hot coffee black, I guess Asians have a huge sweet tooth for it.
A lot of Asian people don't really see you as human, they see you as an income. There are a lot of scammers, and always start a high price with everything. You can bargain it down ofcourse, but after a while you just want a normal cheap ride or anything without having to bargain for it.
Unfortunatly, I look nothing like an Asian and am thus always spoken to when walking around. The people in tourist places are really persistend in offering you rides or their merchandise. But thank god for the invention of music and headphones!
I guess this is it for now, I'm starting to get tired and I think I have written enough for now. I hope you enjoyed my writings! Let me know what you think! If you have any recommendations please tell me =)
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
