South East Asian Travel

Paintingesque
Originally uploaded by zekkelley.

If you're in Thailand during what would be winter months if it wasn't so warm, my most highly recommended destination after seeing more traditional Thai attractions is Mae Fah Luang Garden. Situated in the small northern city of Chiang Rai, this garden rests 950 meters (3,117 feet) above sea-level in the northern-most province of Thailand and, as such, is home to such a strange variety of plants that it feels as if you're no longer even anywhere close to Thailand; the most common description of how it looks is like Switzerland. The price of admission is extremely reasonable (considering other far less interesting places often charge twice as much or more) at ฿150 (a little less than $4 US) and includes entrance to the Doi Tung Royal Villa and the Late Princess Mother's Autobiography Hall as well as the garden. I enjoyed it enough that I'm definitely going back.

What's one of the worst things about traveling? For me, it's knowing that I'm being swindled out of money just because I'm not familiar enough with the place to know better. One place that I'm constantly reminded of this is at Don Muang airport. After going through customs and on your way to go outside, there's usually a large group of people waiting trying to pick up people for taxis. Don't use those people - they charge very high prices. If you take my advice, you might then pass them up and go outside only to be greeted by a requirement to buy a ticket to wait in line for taxis. Don't do this either; there's no reason to buy a ticket, they're just taking your money. What's the best thing to do then? Upon clearing customs and seeing the large crowd waiting for people you should see escalators which go up to the departure area. Go there and walk out the departure area doors and you'll be greeted with taxis dropping other people off and no requirement to give your money to swindlers. Remember, though, always use the meter.

Temple Gaurdian
Originally uploaded by zekkelley.

After the night market, I found what proved to be the most interesting aspect of Chiang Mai: Wiang Kum Kam. It's the ruins of an older city located a short drive from Chiang Mai. The first thing you'll see upon arriving is what's pictured above - Wat Chedi Liam. Next to the temple sits a fairly large chedi housing buddhas representing each of the wives of King Mengrai:

Inside the temple:


Along with Wat Chedi Liam, there's a series of other places to see; you can ride a little trolley, a horse (though that is ridiculously expensive), or, if you hired a truck to take you around, it. The two other most interesting things I saw were...

Wat Pu Pia:


Wat Khan Tom:


Overall, Wiang Kum Kam isn't the most beautiful or the most interesting set of temples that I've ever seen but it's still pretty nice.

Night Market Bustle
Originally uploaded by zekkelley.

The first post concerning Chiang Mai is about the night market. I arrived Sunday afternoon, found a gusthouse to stay at, and rapidly found that all the nearby roads were being closed to vehicles; I soon found this to be due to the large number of people setting up shop and the increasingly larger number of people walking through the streets. The night market was about to begin so I went and got my camera...

I thought the most visually appealing aspect of the market was the many lights being sold



Other than the lights, it was fairly normal for a market like that in Thailand with various nicknacks being sold and, as there was such an incredibly high percentage of the night market visitors being foreigners, probably a bit more souvenirs than normal.

I went to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai after the new year started and will be posting some thoughts on both those cities shortly. As for general feelings, I didn't like Chiang Mai at all and have no desire to ever go back but with the possible exception of going to Doi Inthanon and Chiang Rai was much better

I recently needed to get a student visa made and decided to take one of Air Asia's new routes to Hanoi, Vietnam. The following is an account of my experiences...

A Note about Vietnam and Visas

Vietnam requires most people to obtain a visa before arrival; some that are exempt from this requirement are Scandinavian countries and Asian countries; You should check if not sure though. I, unfortunately, wasn't exempt and had to go to the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok on Wireless Road. The most convenient way to do this is to go to the Phloen Chit Sky Train station. From there, a quick ride on a motorcycle or a couple hundred meter walk (turn left when going away from On Nut) will get you to the embassy. Once there, fill out the form, hand it in, pay the ฿2500 for the tourist visa, and give them your passport. You can then pick it up the next day from 4PM (the embassy's hours are 8AM - 11AM and 1:30PM - 4:30PM (I think)).

Running Total: ฿2500

The Flight
As with all Air Asia flights, the price included but one thing - transportation - and that's exactly what was supplied; the flight was on time, uneventful, and a good deal (I got a round-trip ticket for ฿5100). The flight from Bangkok to Hanoi is about 1 hour 50 minutes and the one that arrives at Hanoi at around noon provides plenty of time to get to the Thai Embassy.

Running Total: ฿2500 + ฿5100 = ฿7600

Arrival at Hanoi
The airport in Hanoi is fairly nice compared to some other airports in the region and processing through immigration was fairly quick. Upon exiting, I decided to get a taxi since I wasn't sure about how much time I had until the Thai embassy closed and got one for US $12 (Vietnam is similar to Cambodia in that US dollars are used there as if they were the country's own currency but less so than Cambodia - tourist related things all ask for dollars and the embassy will only take them). The trip from the airport to the actual city is about 30 minutes and offers some fairly depressing sights; the general look of Hanoi's outskirts is that of intermixed poverty and industrial development.



Running Total: ฿2500 + ฿5100 + $12 = ฿8080

In the City
The actual city of Hanoi looks fairly interesting...

The general look is that of many 3 - 5 story buildings that look slightly old with the occasional French looking one for variety



My hotel, the HOANG CƯỜNG, was very near here on NGUYỄN THÁI HỌC. I chose it mainly since it was a couple hundred meters from the Thai embassy and it wasn't too expensive - $15 per night for a small room with an even smaller TV (undoubtedly the smallest TV I've ever seen in a hotel).

Running Total: ฿2500 + ฿5100 + $12 + $30 ($15 x 2) = ฿9280

Many of the upper levels of buildings are similar to this



The Traffic

One thing most people are likely to notice is the traffic; it's chaotic and dominated by motorcycles - I've never seen anywhere else with more of them being used than Hanoi





Communism

One thing that adds quite a bit to the visual appeal of Hanoi is the look of communism. On many of the streets you're likely to see everything from banners displaying the hammer and sickle, people dressed in clothes that just scream Russia (I went when it was cold), and even statues of Lenin:



Paintings usually looked pretty communistic too



Guards too



Food

I mainly ate only at little places down side roads; they were cheap ($0.50 - $0.75) but, unlike in Thailand, merely edible. The one tourist type place that I went to was the Ȏ Sin restaurant which specializes in snake...



The menu



The grilled rib



A display



The owner



My grilled cobra ribs was about $5 so...

Running Total: ฿2500 + ฿5100 + $12 + $30 ($15 x 2) + $5 + $5 (for all other food) = ฿9680

Tourist Type Places

I went to Hanoi to get a student visa made so didn't really try to go to too many places. I mainly just went to kill time. Here's where I did end up going (by hiring a motorcycle guy to drive me around all day for $12)

A war museum



A temple



Ho Chi Minh's house



A pagoda





Conclusion

Overall, I thought Hanoi was moderately interesting but not overly so. The architecture was rather boring, the food bland, and everyone out to get as much money from foreigners as possible. I'm glad I went once but a second trip certainly doesn't sound appealing.

As for other costs
Return trip to airport: $20
Thai student visa: $60
Airport tax: $10 (I think)

Totaling $90

Total: ฿2500 + ฿5100 + $12 + $30 ($15 x 2) + $5 + $5 (for all other food) + $90 = ฿13280 or, rounding up for errors or things left out, $350 ($290 minus the visa)