In English: Malaysia was actually our final common destination on this nearly four-months trip. While Vickan continued to the Philippines and met up with her family there, Kristin chose to go back home to Sweden to surprise her family just in time for Christmas.
We thought it might be fun with a little summary, where we list some observations we made along the way. After all, we have visited seven countries during these almost four months. We have seen cities and beaches, cheap and expensive (or, everything is relative..), big as well as small. Some places have surprised us in a positive way, while others have become places we are unlikely to return to.
INDONESIA:
Here we stayed for almost two months and we visited Sumatra, Java, Bali, Gili Trawangan and Flores. Such a wonderful country! The food is amazing, and so are the people and the attitude, and it is very cheap. There is also a great variation of nature and wildlife here, depending on which island you go to. Our favorite is Bali, although for example Gili Trawangan forever will mean something extra to us since, we took our diving certificates there.
SINGAPORE:
Great city with lots to see and do. It is quite expensive compared to other cities in Southeast Asia, but ok anyway. What we remember the most from here is probably when we visited the Marina Bay Sands rooftop bar and looked out over a beautiful, night-lit Singapore from the 57th floor.
VIETNAM:
This was our second visit to Vietnam and unfortunately it did not give us a better impression than last time. Although we visited beautiful places like the Halong Bay and Sapa, this country is not a favorite. Honestly we do not think the people as particularly pleasant, either against each other or against visitors, and it feels very hectic all the time and dirty everywhere. However, their egg coffee is a real hit!
MYANMAR:
This is a country that is not yet particularly exposed to tourism, although some tourist destinations attract large crowds. Bagan is a city that impressed us, with all its temples and pagodas. Like Vietnam, here is quite dirty and messy, but the differences are big between cities. If you want to go to an extremely cheap country – this is it! Unfortunately we saw bears in cages here and a large number of elephants used for elephant riding. The use of animals for entertainment purposes is a growing problem in the country, due to increased tourism, and we can only sincerely ask you to please, be an animal-friendly tourist if you go here.
CAMBODIA:
Here, Siem Reap was a pleasant surprise, and the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem were really like balm for the soul. None of the islands are yet particularly exposed to tourism and it was nice to visit places that have still ”survived” from it. However, we thought Cambodia was quite expensive. You mainly use US dollars here and prices are always rounded up to an even dollar.
THAILAND:
We have both good and bad things to say about this super popular destination. Some islands we visited have taken us in amazement, while Koh Lanta actually became a real disappointment. However, we got positively surprised about how clean the typical tourist destinations have become. Some drastic decisions have really given results. This became the second country we experienced as an expensive country compared to the others, but everything is relatively as said.
MALAYSIA:
Overall a very clean and orderly country and the people speak really good English. Langkawi was a positive surprise from the not so flattering comments we had heard about the island beforehand, George Town was a real hit and Kuala Lumpur was a lovely city with everything a city should have.
So, this is our last post for this time. We have done a truly incredible trip that we can think of with joy. Everything fantastic we have seen and all the nice people we have met – a memory for life!
However, our blogging do not stop :). We will be back on the next joint trip, and we will also blog separately when we set off on our own. You follow our individual trips by selecting the tab with our respective names in this blog, or by looking at our separate pages directly:
mappingtheworld.se/kristin
mappingtheworld.se/victoria
Many thanks for following us here. See you again soon!
Big hug