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South East Asia

septembre - décembre 2022
Backpacking with a pinch of thesis writing En savoir plus
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  • 53empreintes
  • 9pays
  • 113jours
  • 327photos
  • 37vidéos
  • 37,3kkilomètres
  • 23,5kkilomètres
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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 65

    Langkawi — Farewell to Malaysia

    4 novembre 2022, Malaisie ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Langkawi was so intense. Despite not wanting to fly in general, in order to make it in time to the lantern festival in Chiang Mai, I decided to fly in from Penang.

    I stayed at the bed attitude hostel in Cenang. The island is duty free and feels a bit like a huge airport, everywhere stores can be seen selling big bags of chocolate, boose and alcohol. Also plenty of options for water sports. The weather could have been better, but the place felt like full of energy.

    After a walk by the beach I met with Rita (the one I met in Penang) and we went out for dinner with a nice Dutch couple. I didn't actually eat because hours earlier I got a huge chocolate bar from one of the free duty stores and stuffed my face with it...

    After dinner they all had to leave so I returned to my hostel where I met Mat, an Italian guy who I'd previously been introduced to in Penang by Alison, the three super young and energetic Norwegians that I had met in Cameron Highlands, and a bunch of other people who's face was familiar from other places. Also met Petr, a Czech that was volunteering at the hostel. We challanged the Norwegians to a dart game and Petr managed to get the first and only perfect 60 points round I have ever seen.

    We ended the night at the Bam-boo bar, where a Halloween party was taking place. Silly dances all around!

    Next day started slow after the party. Niko, a German guy I met while partying invited me to go explore some waterfalls. We rented scooters and off we went. I always feel so happy when the sun is shining and I find myself driving a scooter through the empty roads of a paradisiac island.

    The seven wells waterfall was stunning and had a small natural slide that was good fun to go down. After having a swim we went to the sky bridge cable car, but it was already too late to go up. Although we did get to see some nice dusty monkeys, a funny looking gecko and a cat hunting some funny looking birds.

    Later I met with Rita (from Ipoh) and Vanessa. We got to spend a nice evening at the Cenang beach watching the impressive fire show.    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 67

    Krabi — Pause on the way to Chiang Mai

    6 novembre 2022, Thaïlande ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    Krabi became my first stop in Thailand (Satun doesn't count) after having missed my boat to Koh Lipe.

    Both Yohanna and Valentina entered Thailand with me. Yohanna also came to Krabi for one night whilst Valentina left us in Satun to take on the brave task of crossing Thailand in bus towards Chiang Mai.

    Both me and Yohanna felt destroyed from our days in Langkawi. Turns out that a great hostel atmosphere and cheap drinks is a killer combination.

    We booked accommodation in Ao Nang, a small town by the beach recommend by Rita Oliveira. To get to the hostel we shared a grab with Laura, a German dancer that told us about her love for dance hall, a Jamaican hip-hop-inspired dance style. Her Instagram was fire!

    I finished the day with my first delicious pad thai, in the company of both Yohanna and Rita.

    The next day Rita left Ao Nang and me and Yohanna did the monkey trail to a nice little beach where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

    I had a strange incident while randomly walking down the street. A ladyboy approached me and tried to hold my hands while asking in a raspy voice "do you wanna come with me?" My instinct reaction was to abruptly take a side step while exclaiming "no way!" The ladyboy was not amused and as I walked away they gave me a very non lady-like slap on my shoulder. It was so sudden that left me a little shook and thinking about the whole Thai ladyboy culture. On one hand it's very cool that the Thai society is so accepting, but on the other it's also sad how much ladyboys are associated to prostitution and maybe even human trafficking. I hope I get a better understanding of it by the end of my time in Thailand.

    Yohanna left in the afternoon and I just relaxed until the next morning when I went climbing at Railay beach.

    Railay beach is beautiful! A very inaccessible beach walled by sharp cliffs and lush vegetation. The rocks offer thousands of routes for daring climbers of all levels, attracting from the most clueless tourist to the most experienced climbers. I'm afraid I fit in the former rather than the latter.

    I had never done rock climbing before and I loved it. The guides were extremely good, kept a very close eye on us, never giving much slack on the rope. I fell a few times, but barely lost any hight. Besides keeping the climbers safe they would continuously shout suggestions for how to climb the wall. Very useful when you don't know how to approach a route.

    While climbing I met an Italian guy who took photos and a video of me climbing and promised to send them later. And a German girl who was training to become a police woman.

    At lunch time I said goodbye to my new friends and the beautiful Railay beach. While walking by the village behind the beach, with its hippie cafés and restaurants, I promised myself I would return there one day.

    Once back in Ao Nang, and having a few hours to kill until my flight, I decided to go for a thai massage at a parlor recommended by Laura. It was called "the blue" and it was very clean an professional looking. I paid 360 THB and got one hour of deep and intense Thai massage. Perfect for recovering from the climbing in the morning.

    After my massage I made my way to the airport where I was going to take a flight to Chiang Mai.    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 68

    Chiang Mai — lantern festival

    7 novembre 2022, Thaïlande ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    My introduction to Chiang Mai was a rollercoaster. My flight landed after 10 pm, whereas the check-in time at my hostel finished at 9 pm.

    Upon arriving at the hostel I was presented by an intimate solo guitar concert. Two of the guests were taking turns playing the guitar to a handful of other guests in a very intimate environment.

    Despite feeling like I was crashing a private party, I couldn't bring myself to leave the lobby. I lingered enjoying the music until I discreetly introduced myself and joined the audience.

    The music oscillated between myazaki movie's soundtracks and personal compositions. When they finished I thanked them and went up to my room following the instructions I had received from my host.

    To my surprise, there was someone else's stuff on what should have been my bed. After a good half an hour of asking around if anyone knew who's stuff that was I gave up, stored everything aside and layed on the bed. Not even 10 minutes later a girl appeared, she looked as surprised as I was. Together we tried contacting the host to no avail. On one hand it was late and me being the guy it would make sense for me to go out looking for a bed somewhere else instead of her, but on the other hand I had all the instructions from my host confirming my booking whereas she just assumed that that was her bed because it was the only empty one when she arrived...

    Not wanting to kick her out I offered to sleep in the lobby hopping we could sort things out with Ton the next day, but she found a hostel available nearby and left. The next day I found out that there was a problem with booking.com and agoda that made all bookings made through them not valid. Luckily I had booked through Hostelworld. I still felt guilty about the whole situation though.

    I    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 73

    Chiang Mai — I'm a local now

    12 novembre 2022, Thaïlande ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    After the Yi Peng and the Loy Krathong festival finished everyone started gradually leaving Chiang Mai to continue their travels. I, on the other hand, moved to a nice hostel called Loyy that had a nice coworking space.

    I spent one week there, I slowed down, took care of emails and software updates and planned a few more things related to my trip.

    Chiang Mai being the biggest urban centre in the region, other travelers would come and go from the neighbouring regions. I met Valentina after she returned from Chiang Rai, she joined me for some yoga and we later had a nice evening watching some Muay Thai fighting. That same day we also had Rita Oliveira and her Czech friend join us for lunch. Yohanna also passed by coming from Pai, we had lunch at a nice vegan restaurant and spent some time petting cats at the cat cafe. Later, Rohan, also coming from Pai, joined me for a great evening at the jazz bar by the north gate of the city.

    In general I tried to do some yoga in the morning and often would meet with whoever was in town. It didn't end up being a very productive time.

    I later found that Rita and her friend had joined a Buddhist monastery for a vipassana meditation training. This monastery looked stunning, located in the middle of the mountains close to the border with Myanmar. I decided it would be better use of my time to go there, and that's what I did!    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 81

    Pai — first Impressions

    20 novembre 2022, Thaïlande ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Up the mountains from Chiang Mai, hidden behind seven hundred something curves of windy road, lies Pai. A charming small town surrounded by beautiful nature.

    There's one main street — the walking street—bursting with shops, stalls and movement. After sunset it gets taken over by one of the nicest night markets I've been to.

    It's also very touristy. In between the typical curry and pad thai restaurants I saw plenty of trendy looking cafes and fancy looking burger joints.

    The town's streets end up at a small river's bank. On the other side small roads run through rice fields and the sparse bungalows and houses of touristic resorts.

    My hostel was a 10 min walk uphill on this side. The chill guest house had an open common area with a baboo structure for shade, a campfire, plenty of hammocks and a bar. The name fit the hostel like a glove.

    There I met Eliot and Brian, both British and solo traveling. Brian showed me a nice and cheap local restaurant in the walking street and the had a pleasant dinner together. He worked for the public sector, more specifically in forest and wildlife maintenance. He gave me an glimpse of how the public domain works behind the scenes, and how some private companies manage to take advantage of public money.

    After enjoying the night market, and doing grocery shopping for Angela (a girl I met online that was staying at the temple and and asked nicely if I could bring her some supplies), I called it a night.

    The next day I went to the bus station hoping to get a bus to Wat Pa Tam Wua, but everything was fully booked. I could only get a car for the next day. I ended up chilling in a hotel called love of Pai and going to the temple one day later.    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurSouth East Asia
    Jour 82

    Wat Pa Tam Wua — life as a monk

    21 novembre 2022, Thaïlande ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The journey to the temple was interesting. Left my hostel "love of Pai" around 6:30 a.m. and walked the 15 min to the bus station to make sure I'd get a place in the 7 a.m. bus to Wat Pa Tam Wua temple.

    The bus was closer to a pickup truck, with two rows of bench-like seats running along the sides of a semi open back side, like so many taxis in Thailand are. The floor in-between the seats was full with luggage, big sacks of vegetables and miscellaneous cargo. My legs layed frozen somewhere in the midst of sacs.

    The winding road gained a lot of altitude during the 2 or 3 hours long trip. The views of the mountains above the morning mist were breath taking. The car sped through the curves with little regard for conventional driving rules or passenger comfort.

    Next to me sat a nice german girl. We got along well but unlike me she decided to stay in silence for the duration of her stay in the temple. Even though we were going to share the same routine for the next days, I bid her farewell at the entrance to the monastery and did not speak to her again.

    At the temple Mon Pai, a volunteer lady at the temple, introduced us to the basic rules of the monastery, thought us how to bow and pay respect to the monks and gave us white clothes to replace our own.

    After, I brought the bed linen to my room where I found out I'd be sleeping on a wooden bed frame with little more than a thick blanket for padding... Despite sounding terribly uncomfortable I had some wonderful nights of sleep there.

    Before joining the daily activities I had some time to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the monastery. Hidden in a valley, surrounded by forested mountains, the place felt outside of regular space and time. The peacefulness was contagious.

    That first day I was quite lost, not knowing the routines and costumes of the monastery. I simply tried to follow the example of my more experienced peers.

    The large Dhamma hall was the epicenter of our days — every activity started there. I joined some buddhist chanting to start with and after a short speech by the abbot the monks were served their food in a ceremony by volunteers and the rest of us later got into a line to serve ourselves. All the food was provided through donations and cooked by volunteers, as the monks are forbidden to produce, cook or store their food. They go out to the villages every day collecting food donations with their bowls in a ritual called the alms. They believe that depending on regular people on a daily basis keeps them humble and connected to their community.

    The vegan lunch was the last meal of the day. After lunch I met with Angela outside of the Dhamma hall. Angela is a Chinese girl with some sort of brazilian descendency that I didn't get the chance to fully get to know. I met her online and when she found out that I was heading towards the temple where she was staying, she asked if I could buy her a few things, which I did.

    Unfortunately she took the vow to remain in silence and so I didn't get to talk to her during our stay. I was a bit bummed that the cool people I was meeting decided to do a silent retreat.

    Regardless I started getting into the routine. We did two long mediation sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Each session comprised around one hour of walking mediation through the woods, twenty minutes of sitting mediation and twenty minutes to lying mediation. Besides these, we had chantings and other shorter mediation sessions, and one hour of helping the volunteers do maintenance around the monastery. I would usually sweep fallen leafs off the grounds. We would wake up at 6 a.m. and go back to bed around 8 or 9 p.m. which I was surprised to find out that worked really nice for me.

    My forced silence only lasted until the next day when, to my surprise I see a familiar face arrive at the monastery. It was Jana, the German girl I had met on the lantern festival and together with her friend joined the Chiang Mai gang for drinks a couple of times. She arrived at the temple with a new friend — Serena, an Italian lady that she met on the bus on the way to the temple.

    Luckily for me these two didn't do any silence vow and so we could hang out for the reminder of my stay, which was really nice.    En savoir plus

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