Top 5 Things I Learnt in South East Asia

Hello Wonderful People!

While traveling around South East Asia, it soon became very apparent that there were so many cultural differences to adapt to. Being a Western tourist also didn't help matters, as you definitely stand out from the crowd, making you an easy target for anything from scams to fascination. I have complied another fabby dabby Top 5 list of things that I learnt while in South East Asia; all of which I never really thought about before travelling, but I now look back on with fond memories as they shaped my journey in so many ways.

Asia time

Absolutely nothing runs on time in South East Asia, yet there seems to be a strange sense of cohesion so your day isn't overly disrupted. At first we were always sent into a blind panic that we'd missed our train or bus, but we soon learnt that the majority of public transport runs at least 30 mins to an hour late.  Don't be fooled though, Asia Time doesn't just apply to transport, your meals will also fall victim to bad timing. One person will receive their food, and an hour or so later another meal will appear for someone else. My first experience of Asia Time (as we fondly labelled it) was getting a night train to the ferry port for the Full Moon Party. Now, the train was already running an hour or so late (which took us a while to realise as everything was in Thai & sadly we were typical Brits abroad who couldn't understand a thing), making us a tad nervous that we wouldn't make our ferry, as the train was already so late. Oh what fools we were. After settling into our bunks for the night we drifted off to sleep, knowing we would get a wake up call for our stop in the morning. However, no such wake up call came as the train was now running 3 hours late, thanks to the drivers stopping for 2 hours in the night to go for a meal. I am NOT kidding. Of course we missed our ferry and had to wait another 3 hours for the next one. We were not happy bunnies. However, this journey gave us a tiny glimpse into the world of Asia Time and pretty much every journey after this followed suit. But hey ho, you learn to go with the flow and Asia Time really does teach you to relax, we got to our destinations in the end and that's all that really matters.

You will get scammed

Walking round with a huge backpack and a puzzled look on your face really helps you stand out from the crowd. You may as well walk round with a label pinned to your back saying 'tourist alert, I am clueless'! I wouldn't exactly say I got badly scammed while travelling South East Asia, but a lot of people took advantage of my situation, especially in the beginning when I hadn't wised up to some obvious scams. There are a few easy tricks to watch out for while travelling and an obvious one would be paying way over the odds for a taxi/ tuk tuk/ motorbike ride. This happened to me a couple of times, one that stands out the most (and is easy to avoid) is getting on a motorbike after a nigh bus. These little devils took advantage of my super sleepy state (it was 5am, I'd just stumbled off the bus and didn't know my way around) and took me on a merry goose chase around the city, when my hostel was a 2 second walk away. They then had the cheek to charge me the equivalent £6 for the liberty. Bare in mind my 2 nights hostel accommodation only cost £4, then they were royally ripping me off. An easy way to avoid this is to double check where the night bus stop is in relation to your hostel, that way you'll know if it's walkable or have a rough idea how long it will take to get their via taxi. Another tip to avoid being scammed is to haggle. As a western tourist it is pretty obvious that you've got some spare cash to spend, so many people will try to take advantage of this and up the prices to get themselves a better deal. It's pretty standard to haggle for everything in South East Asia, so just go for it! I say this with ease now, yet I only got the hang of it after 6 weeks and soon left for Australia where my new found skill wasn't so handy.

People will be fascinated by you

Prepare yourself for constant stares, pointing and whispering because it will happen. I remember walking round a town centre trying to find somewhere to eat and absolutely everyone I walked past stared. They didn't even stare subtly, I mean at least me sly about it! As we couldn't find anywhere to eat, we decided to get some food from 7/11, and this is where I experienced my first ever racist encounter. As I was paying for my food, there were white chocolate and brown chocolate bars on the counter, the cashier proceeded to point to the white chocolate bar, point at me then laugh hysterically with her colleague. Ruuude. I did find it quite amusing though. I also had a pretty disturbing encounter with one Thai lady, who grabbed my arm and started stroking it while saying 'I like your skin, I want your skin.' Errrmmm... is this a compliment or should I run before getting skinned alive?! So the moral of this story is, prepare to be the object of peoples fascination. Many people in South East Asia, especially in the more remote towns and villages rarely see white people and as a result find you intriguing, so don't be offended!

Road safety goes out of the window

Look both ways while crossing the road. Always wear a seatbelt. Never go on a bike without a helmet. I would never dream of breaking any of these golden rules in England, where we have pretty amazing road safety. However, they all seemed pointless in South East Asia, where road deaths are common place, and I didn't see the need to follow them. Logical I know, but I'm still here to tell the tale. The roads really are madness in South East Asia and it's pretty hard to describe unless you've seen it for yourself! But after a while you get used to it and find yourself dodging the traffic in an attempt to quickly cross the road. Even though I never hired a motorbike myself, I know plenty of people who did all of whom had some sort of injury to show for it. Even though I didn't ride a bike myself, I found it perfectly acceptable to hop on the back of one without a helmet and be driven through the hectic traffic holding on for dear life. My mother seriously would have had a heart attack if she'd seen me. Sorry mum.

You'll forget what toilet paper is

Ahhhhh the bum gun, how I miss you! The toilet systems in South East Asia aren't the best and can't cope with toilet paper. Don't even bother trying, even the tiniest bit of paper will block the loo. As a result, the amazing bum gun is use to clean up after you've been for a number one or two. The bum gun (as it's been nicknamed by backpackers) is a small trigger hose located next to every toilet and to use it is rather simple: aim and fire. Once you've hosed yourself down, use a bit of toilet paper to dry off (always chuck this in the bin provided NOT down the loo) and hey presto, you have a clean botty. The whole concept of the bum gun seemed bizarre when I first started travelling, however I grew to love it and it really does do a fabby job. 

 

 

Bizzle people!