That‘s definitely what we enjoyed most! And that’s when we feel at home (wherever we may be), give us some trees and hills, some rocks and rivers or just some cute animals … and we are happy 🙂
The beaches are sometimes very nice, too, but you are not really alone there: far too many instagram junckies!
The trees and mountains in Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), the Orang-Utans in Borneo, the cutiest monkeys ever on Penang (Malaysia) and the amazing butterfly farm there were quite impressive. Top of the top were definitely the Luwaks in Ubud (didn’t even know that such cute animals existed) and sitting for hours in the monkey park there. All the many monkeys we have seen in Thailand just made our day, like we have seen them today right in front of us at a road near the forest park in Cha-Am. Could watch them for hours, especially when they don’t get frightened by us and therefore don’t get aggressive. Seeing the elephants here was not a joy, binded at a short rope waiting to be ridden by some tourists… no joy at all to look into their sad eyes. Also the animals in Okinawa (Japan) at the sea aquarium: horrible conditions! Dolphins and sea turtles with nearly no options to really take a swim. Made us feel very angry and we had for a short moment the „Free Willy“ movie in mind, but didn’t want to spend the rest of our lives in Japanese jail…
Being in nature has always been our favorite and we will never forget our walk through the old park in Okinawa with the most impressive “Aywa“ tree (the biggest and most powerfull banyan tree we’ve ever seen)!
Tokyo has been one of these spots, too. All the small temple sites right between the skyscrapers and not to forget: Sakura! The cherry blossom has been one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen. One just cannot image what it is in real life to see all these thousands of trees, all looking different and what happens when the wind blows and you stand right under these trees …. Just Magic!
Also the green rice terraces and hills in Bali were a joy to look at as the green felt so rich and energizing.
But after all, same as with the food: we enjoyed everything very much, but we are also really looking forward to some green meadows and European forests as we like them so much – not to mention our longing for mountains and the Highlands 😉
While thinking about Asia and food, mostly we imagine exotic vegetables, spices and herbs, cocktails and fruits. All together an explosion of taste.
Unfortunately the reality is much more simple. Food in Asia is to have something to eat, not really to enjoy. Therefore the local food is mostly easy: rice + something. Toped with different convenient gravies containing whatever. Some vegetables, often cheep cabbage and onions. Noodles were also made from rice so nothing to win. Potatoes (if you find some) were mostly with black parts and horrible taste. We had only a few really tasty local dishes, e.g. Curry soup in Thailand or Ramen in Japan. But having that same dish every day makes it not more enjoyable. Worst food we have had was in Malaysia and (surprise surprise) in Bali. THAT was really the biggest disappointment because we heard so much about the Indonesian and especially the Balinesian kitchen. But when it happened that we left food on the plate, it was in Bali. And we tried also the expensive end exclusive Balinesian restaurants. But same, except the high bill at the end. Only exception was Ubud, where we had some really really good food and drinks (Andy even had a half a million steak), great locations and very good coffee.
One of the reasons for the sometimes poor food quality in Southeast Asia could be the explosion of the 7/11 and family mart stores. In every 500 meter radius you will find at least one. And they all sell the same: chrisps, chocolate and ice cream, ready to microwave noodle soups or rice dishes. So the need of tasting real and good food seems to get lost (This might be one of the reasons why also Asian people get more and more overweight…). Of cause there are some exceptions but they are rare to find ( and you never know before how it tastes).
Also very common is the street foot. Easy for us: we never tried. Was that a big mistake? Maybe. But seeing the fish and chicken laying all day long in the sun, seeing all the flies arround, seeing the way how (or better how they didn’t ) clean their cooking utensils, seeing all the bottles of sauces and gravies and Magie Fix around doesn‘t really let us feel comfortable. Besides the fact that we love sitting in a nice location for eating which is logically not the case with street food.
So the other possibility is searching for restaurants operated by (mostly European) foreigners. They bring their special food skills to Asia and most of them try to use their original ingredients. And we found plenty of them all over Southeast Asia. So we had lovely French, Italian, Greek and German food. For sure they are much much more expensive than the local ones. But also the environment was much more comfortable, the service often exceptional. Not only plastic chairs at dirty plastic tables, but wooden furniture in nicely decorated places. In local restaurants it often happened that the starter come after the main course or your partner has finished his dish before yours even is being served. For us this was the proof that eating has not the same ‚feeling well allover touch’ in Asia as in Europe.
Besides the food there were also: the drinks. Here there is a big big diffenence to the way we drink while eating. Drinking in Asia is not necessarily something that comes together with eating. So it’s absolutely normal just having a little bit of water with your meal. And water was always the cheepest drink or even for free in some countries. Drinking Wine is a nightmare in Asia, so exorbitant expensive that it’s not worth buying it. Beer is, compared to the food, also very high priced, so it could happen you pay more for the beer than for the food. (Remembers me to the Bavarian: beer is food!) And the locfal beers are not the best ones, after 6 months We are really looking forward to the German diversity of beer and having a nice glas of wine.
What’s really cool in every Southeastern country is the fresh fruit and the smoothies they make out of them. Nearly every day we had our watermelon and mango shake (ordered extra without sugar). Easy and so tasty. That’s something we will really miss because the fruits tastes much much better (and even different) from the imported ones in Europe.
What’s left? Cocktails, sure. We would say the most disappointing part and of a result of it we skipped ordering cocktails at all after a while. Mostly fully overpriced, and only little (and worse case: local) liquor. We started making our own drinks and we felt much more comfortable with them.
Summerices to: Yes, we have had some very nice and tasty food and drinks (mainly in the bigger or Metropolitan cities with even some great local micro brewery beers like in Tokyo or Singapore). But overall: for us the common Southeast Asian kitchen is a myth busted. We have had enough and will mostly not miss it after 6 months 😉
Fruit shake in Thailand
Red Coconut Curry with rice, our favorite in Thailand
Pad Thai and Mango, Thailand
Green curry, one of the best we had
Just boiled eggs, delicious
Tried a original BBQ, not worth doing it twice
Faye’s favorite
Sometimes hotel food is not the worst one
Red wine in Malaysia, expensive but I enjoyed it so much
The only really good cocktails we had in Thailand
Ramen, Japan
Batter backed chrysanthemums that Faye enjoyed in Tokyo
Hanami with German sausages
Very expensive Ouzo in a Greek Restaurant in Thailand
The best local Pad Thai I had
500000 rupiah Tenderloin, Bali
Apple crumble with ice cream, in the most beautiful Cafe in Bali
Traditional Balinesian dish, Bali … it was ok, but that’s it.
German sausage with Sauerkraut and beer in Singapore
Most shocking and frustrating experience the last 6 months! Only since we started traveling through Southeast Asia we realized how bad it is about our earth and that especially in Thailand there is very poor understanding concerning environmental issues. You won‘t find any beach here that has no plastic rubbish on it, either plastic bottles or already micro plastics. And if they even take care of the beach, you will find a lot of plastics in the bushes behind, even at 5 Star Resorts the roads between the resorts are full of rubbish and smell horribly. It seems like there is no sense for waste reduction here. For example: Thais like to buy their special iced Thai Tea wherever they go, so they get their tea in a plastic mug with plastic cover and plastic straw in a plastic packaging together with a special plastic bag for carriage. All that for one tea!!! If you go into a 7/11 supermarket you can be sure to get at least 5 plastic bags for your shopping, the heavier items will even be packed in two bags. We feel like aliens here when we show them our reusable shopping bags we always take with us. But there is hope: in a huge supermarket we saw one cashier with a big sign „No plastic bag“ and a notification that one day in the week they have a plastic free shopping day. The big difference in Malaysia, Japan or Singapore is the significant question: Do you need a plastic bag?
Bali was even better: no plastic bags in the supermarkets, only reusable ones or cardboard boxes. What a relief! Thanks to the Green School project and some teenagers who really made a great change in their country.
But what really shocked us in Bali was the air pollution due to the thousands and thousands of scooters on the streets and even pavements, as there was nearly everywhere a traffic jam all day long. Being a pedestrian for example in Ubud made no fun at all, the scooters just drive on the pavement with no taking care of the people walking there. There are just far too many vehicles on the poor roads there. You can really see and smell the smog in many cities, as Taxis, buses and coaches even when standing in their parking lots have their engines running to offer air conditioning inside (even if it‘s just for the driver). By seeing that the European discussion about global warming sounds ignorant and arrogant.
Singapore was quite a difference. Very clean, not smelly and an environmental understanding you could see everywhere. They even offered e-scooter. Japan also had better standards, even if the beaches we saw in Okinawa also had the big plastic problem and the dead corals everywhere were quite shocking.
Another issue is the monoculture of palm oil plantations we saw in Thailand and Malaysia, you can drive from the east to the west coast of Southern Thailand and see nothing else than palm oil trees and factories for the processing. 2 Liter palm oil only cost about 50 cents…
In Thailand we also saw many people just burning their rubbish, including plastics, in front of their houses, children playing nearby. Quite a horror to look at! On Koh Samui one of the restaurant owners told us that they have been collecting all their island rubbish on the hills in the middle of the island for about 8 years now and the government still doesn’t have a clue what to do with it…
Yes, these experiences and pictures we have seen the last months really made a great impression on us, really shocked us deeply and showed us how important it is that things must change!
Below you see typical pictures we saw on our trip, not especially horrifying ones:
As we really enjoy the hotel here with all its staff and surroundings, we decided to stay at the “I calm Resort” for our remaining 9 days here in Thailand. We have seen and experienced so much the last months that we both felt like it’s enough. So we will do some recap work and will post a special topic every day with our personal opinions concerning the countries we visited. Very very subjective of course, but we thought, why not? That’s how our journey the last 6 months has been: You meet a hand full of people here and there, mostly working in accomodation facilities or restaurants and some tourists, see a hand full of places in a country, enjoy a hand full of meals and drinks somewhere and then decide whether you like it or not. And that’s what we are doing right now, putting it all together and having a look at it from different perspectives 😉
After nearly 6 months of traveling the size of my “wardrobe” hasn’t changed (only some items in it) and it still feels very nice to own not that much clothes as before. I have already sewn some of my beloved dresses and even more than once (what I never did at home). The value of things changes dramatically if you only have a 40 Liter bagpack and only things in it you really really need or love 😉
As there are now only 2 1/2 weeks left until we return, we decided to pimp up our lives and call the remaining days our “holidays” (just to allow ourselves a higher budget, of course) and here’s where we landed: “I calm Resort Cha Am”. LOVE IT !!!
Above: That’s our room
I Calm Resort 369 Ruamjit Alley, Tambon Cha-am, Amphoe Cha-am, Chang Wat Phetchaburi 76120, Thailand
Metropolitan cities really have a special flair and Singapore is definitely one of the top and worth a visit! Felt so easy being here … only problem: you need a lot of money to enjoy all the stuff 😉 So after 4 days in Singapore (and spending a good lot of money here) tomorrow we will head for Thailand a last time before our journey back to Germany starts on June 6th 🙂
Sooo beautiful and like everything else in Singapore so different watching it by day or night. They even offer a musical show in the evening (we had the retro version, guess they just knew that we were watching ^^). And it was quite funny sitting on a lawn together with all these many people from so different cultures and watching the show. But that’s what makes Singapore so interesting: being so very multi-cultural!
Great exhibition for all ages, we made it even twice – instead of going out at the exit sign we just started over again 🙂 Everything felt like magic, flowers popping up when you touched a wall, thousands of tiny lights that made you feel like standing in a neverending matrix and so much more (that pictures cannot really show)…
We have to confess it’s not THAT great for us as we have somehow hoped. So much tourism always has many side effects and also shows the negative aspects of people, in Bali these are especially the taxi drivers that nearly chase you down the streets and don’t accept a “No”. Usually we want to be friendly to strangers, but that’s often not possible as they just don’t stop. Same with the vendors at the beach or restaurant employees, standing in front of their shops and trying to convince you to come in, a friendly “No thank you” is just being ignored. So we learned not to smile at Balinese people when we are on our way and to ignore their talk. Very strange for us and not really a behavior we enjoy. Of course, we met some nice and friendly people, too. But somehow, from the many reviews about the Balinese people we have heard before, we imagined it a little bit different. Furthermore we have never seen so many ignorant car, scooter or bus driver before, chaotic and selfish with their horns, as if the secret mantra is kind of “get out of my way” or “me first”. Sure due to an overload of cars and scooters and permanent traffic jam and smog especially in the Southern region. We learned to accept the fact: that that’s what too much tourism does to a country and its people. It has surely good sides, too, but you don’t get to see much of them as one of these tourists someone else just tries to earn some good money with 😉
After 5 months of traveling I have the overwhelming feeling of being so very blessed in my life. All the good and not so good moments, all the nice and not so nice people, all the easy going and not so easy going situations have brought me to where I am right now. Words cannot describe these feelings and insights, but it’s as if you want to say thank you to everybody you have ever met, for every situation you have ever had. And maybe especially for the difficult ones, as these are the ones that push us forward, force us to move, force us to change directions. Therefore I’d herewith like to thank everybody who stepped into my life, for whatever it was, being very kind or being very ignorant (or whatever) … helping me and loving me or forcing me to change my life as I felt uncomfortable with the situation… thank you for making me what I am now. I don’t know what this is … let’s call it LIFE (as it is presenting itself through me). Blessed is how it feels to me, and I’d like to thank everybody for that!
After 5 days staying in between rice fields in kind of no-where-land (no restaurants, no groceries, no shops) with only locals around, and after a group of local teenagers ignorantly disrupted our wish for privacy, we decided to get back into civilisation and a little bit more privacy and luxury (means no stalking teenagers, far less insects around us, aircon that is working, restaurants around and a real shower) And YES, that feels yummy!!!
