Why...don't I have a question for Kuala Lumpur?

My last Malaysia stop was in the heart and capital of the country, Kuala Lumpur. My first impression upon landing in KL was not a great one since my flight was delayed 3 or 4 hours and by the time we landed, it was 8:30 PM and we were starving! The airport was also an annoying distance to the City Centre. The only thing that made up for the inconvenience was the smart life decision made by Denise - she purchased a bus ticket from the AirAsia website as she booked the tickets for 3 RM - that's ONE DOLLAR Canadian everyone. So yes, that is definitely the best purchase made.

We arrive and check in at the hotel finally around 10PM. We drop off our luggage and high tail it to our neighbouring bar/club/restaurant street for some food. We settled for some pizza and I needed a drink after a long day, so I got a Long Island. It felt nice to be in a more developed metropolitan city again after leaving Singapore. Anyhow, after chowing down our pizza within minutes, the bartender comes by and asks how my drink was and if I wanted another one. I declined. He continued to ask us if we were heading out to "party party" after this. We told him we were pretty tired from our long day and will probably go back to the hotel to rest. But man was this guy persistent. We asked for the bill and he brought it over with a complimentary shot of limoncello for me, and asked if we wanted to go "party party" with him, and to drop by after he's off work at 12:30, 1 ish. Again, we say no, paid the bill, and left with him waving at us as we hurried away.

Our second day in KL was...sweaty. Penang was HOT, but dry hot. KL was HOT, but HUMID HOT, which is a lot less tolerable. We slept in a bit more in KL and finally wandered out to Chinatown in search of some lunch. Our visit in KL was just a lot of meandering and slightly getting lost in the streets. We hung around Chinatown, the old civic centre, and Little India a bit and went into malls a lot because it was so flipping hot. We spent the evening at the Patronas towers, snapping photos. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I didn't really have much memorable experiences, but it was a must-see place as KL is the symbol of Malaysia. The City was indeed beautiful and very metropolitan. It was obvious it was a hub for visitors too as we encountered so many tourists everywhere we went.

colourful Little India

Really yummy glass noodles with soft shell crab :D 

You know what this is.

In the end, our one full day spent in KL was pretty relaxing and enjoyable despite the heat. We had to leave quite early to catch an early flight to Hanoi. Boy, was the airport ever busy at 4:45 AM. The earlier the flight, the cheaper it is I suppose. The Low Cost Carrier Terminal, or the LCCT, was a complete...disaster. It was literally a large box, made out of metal. It was just a mess, full of people and aggressive Asians everywhere. Yes I am harsh at my own race. We finally check in, and located the entrance to our gate...only to discover you can only enter 45 minutes before your flight. Ridiculous. We were pretty dead tired from our 3 hours of sleep and was grateful for the three hour flight to Hanoi.

I'm not sure I would revisit KL again unless I was there in transit. I'm sure the City has a more varied night life but we were just too exhausted to explore at night.

Next up - Hanoi, Vietnam (my favourite part of my trip!)

Why are taxis so expensive in Brunei?

Brunei. Many people don't know where this tiny nation is located. Well, if you refer to my previous post, you would see a little tiny country located on the north coast of Borneo, lodged within Malaysia. The main reason behind our visit to Brunei is from sheer curiosity. I remembered memorizing the long capital city name for this tiny nation in Grade 6 geography. Bandar Seri Begawan. BSB for short. Such a long name for such a small nation. Brunei is a constitutional sultanate nation, ruled by...well a Sultan and other ministers (mostly family members). The Sultan is highly revered in the nation, as every public place we visited had photos of the Sultan and the Queen on their walls. Bruneians speak a standardized form of Malay, but they did display quite a bit of Arabic on signage around town.

We intended a short stay in Brunei. We flew Royal Brunei Airlines from Kota Kinabalu to BSB in 40 minutes. It was a beautiful 777 plane with really pretty flight attendants.

Royal Brunei Airlines flight attendants

Brunei Dollars, equal in value to the Singapore Dollar

Now, I had to dress a lot more conservatively in Brunei as they have stricter Muslim rules than Malaysia. It was also bloody hot though so I was sweating profusely walking around the city centre. Walking around the small city centre, it was pretty evident that everything is done by the government. There was nothing extravagant about BSB except for a few buildings here and there but the streets were well kept. The city centre also did not feel like a city centre. Unfortunately, BSB seems to be quite sprawled and of course, very vehicle-oriented due to the cheap oil available in their country. There was no way we could've walked from our hotel (which felt like in the middle of nowhere) to the city centre without heat stroke or crossing a dangerous road. Thus, we had to hire a cab...(I'll get to my problem later on).

We toured the Royal Regalia Museum, which is where the Sultan shows off some of his gifts from countries around the world. No photos were allowed though, so I can't share with you all the gift from Jean Chretien to the Sultan... It was a granite sculpture of a seal. When other governments were gifting swords, gold necklaces, and the like, we gave him a sculpture of a seal (or was it a walrus)? After being excessively chilled by the violent air conditioning inside the museum, we headed outside to tour the city centre but then it was pouring rain while it was sunny. It was a strange weather phenomenon. When the rain finally slowed, we visited the post office where I mailed some postcards and visited the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, decorated with gold leaf. The attendants were very nice and quite chatty and showed us a separate side where the women pray. Since this is the mosque the royals frequent, there were escalators for their use to their VIP room upstairs...We went to Kampong Ayer afterwards and took a half hour boat road around the village. It was pretty shocking how many people still lived in this water village on stilts without any sewage treatment.

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, decorated in a gold-leaf dome

Brunei's version of Teh - with palm sugar. SO GOOD.

It was unfortunate how small the city centre was. Denise and I ended up wandering around the mall nearby and discovered something fun and interesting inside the arcade - it was a karaoke box! We sang 2 songs - Leehom and FIR. That was the most Asian moment of the entire trip. We explored the water village some more by foot and took some photos and then decided to head back to the hotel. Due to the lack of taxis, we went to the Sheraton in the city centre to ask for their assistance in calling a cab. We waited about 15 minutes and a cab finally showed up and we paid the 15 Brunei dollars for the 10 minute ride...Had a pleasant Indian feast for dinner and headed back to the hotel since there was not much to do in BSB at night.

Kampong Ayer (Water village) with the Mosque in the background

Inside of the Empire Hotel and Country Club - $1.1 Billion US was spent on the construction of this place...

The next day, we decided to visit the Empire Hotel and Country Club. The interesting story behind this hotel was that it was built by the Sultan's brother, who was also the ex-finance minister. His brother spent excessively on a lavish life. Apparently, he owns over 90 properties around the world with a 2000+ car collection. Anyhow, he built this country club as a royal getaway for family and friends. In total, he spent USD1.1 billion - a hefty sum considering the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur cost about USD 1.6 billion. It was from all the imported Italian marble and other luxuries inside the country club. The Sultan apparently fired his own brother from the finance minister post and sold a lot of the other lavish and silly facilities his brother wasted money on. 

Now, getting to the question of this entry - why are the taxis so bloody expensive in Brunei? Well, according to our taxi driver who drove us to the Empire hotel, there are apparently only 45 taxis in the entire country. He broke it down for us - about half are waiting at the airport, 10 in other parts of the country, and the rest in BSB. Our cab from the airport to our hotel was 25 Brunei Dollars. Our trips to and from the city centre were 10 or 15 each way. Our ride to the Empire and then to the airport was 50. FIFTY! It wasn't even that long of a drive. So in total, we spent over 100 Brunei Dollars on cabs within 2 days. 

At the end of the trip, I was quite surprised at what I saw in Brunei. Even though the country has the 2nd highest HDI in South East Asia after Singapore and the 4th highest GDP per capita in the world, the regular inhabitants did not seem wealthy at all. They seem to live comfortably without worrying about money but they also did not live a wealthy life. It was obvious the money was controlled by the Sultan and distributed on top of people's salaries. People drove modest cars, dressed conservatively, and had the necessary day to day items. According to my Lonely Planet guide, Bruneians apparently like to shop - but I didn't really see too much evidence of that during my stay.

We waited a lengthy delay for our flight to Kuala Lumpur and was thoroughly bored at the airport. Next entry - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! 

Blog, Interrupted

Interrupted for good reason. You see, I'm leaving Taipei tonight. The city is crying and I'm a little reluctant to leave. This has been the longest I've ever stayed in Taipei since I moved to Canada when I was seven. It's been such a wonderful trip back and exceeded all my expectations. The best part has been reconnecting with my relatives and with my native country. I still regard myself as Taiwanese after all these years even though I said earlier that I had trouble fitting in with the culture. That is still true to a degree, but I'm sure if I lived here for a year or two, I'd feel a bit more at home. But, "real life" for me is still in North America and I have to head back to live that life. I know have the choice to move back to Taiwan to be with my family, but I know that that option is not the best choice for myself.

我今晚就要離開台北了. 台北正在為我哭而我也有點捨不得. 至重到Canada, 這一次回來是所有最長地. 這一次回來真的有感受到家人的團圓而且也再次認識. 雖然我以經跟台灣現代文化有點落差, 我還是台灣人. 如果再住了一兩年就可以容入台灣的社會. 可是, 我的"真實"生活還是在Canada而我必要回去面對現實.

So thank you Taiwan...the last three months have been memorable and eye-opening. There are still so many places I still need to visit in this tiny island of Formosa (and much more to eat). See you...soon.

謝啦, 台灣. 我會努力的每一年回來的!

Where on earth is Kota Kinabalu?

Many of you may not have heard of Kota Kinabalu (from now on referred to as KK) before. I never heard of this place until we were doing our trip research. Kota Kinabalu is in Borneo Malaysia, in the state of Sabah. Here is a context map of Borneo:

So now you have your geography lesson of the day. It was quite interesting because when you enter Sabah from Peninsular Malaysia, you still have to go through customs and get stamped. We thought we were in the wrong line at first haha. We arrived at KK pretty late at night and didn't spend time exploring the area at 11 PM. Our stay in KK was by far the shortest in total. We pretty much had one full day in KK since we arrived so late and departed early in the morning.

Thanks to our trusty Lonely Planet guide and its maps, we already decided on where we wanted to visit on our full day excursion - to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, where there is supposed to be pretty decent snorkeling. We devoured a filling breakfast at a nearby kopi tiam in our Asia City Complex, and walked for about 30 minutes to the ferry terminal where we got our boat tickets and paid our marine park entrance fee. There are quite a few islands in the Marine Park, and we chose Manukan for its snorkeling availability and the fact that its not so deserted that we feel stranded. In the end, we did see some nice fishies and got our tan on a bit. However, it's pretty evident that tourism has played its part in both preserving and destroying the coral. We saw a lot of dead, bleached coral and the areas that were still alive had relatively small colonies. That's the thing about tourism - the concept of preservation will still have negative effects from the masses of tourists that flock to this area. However, without the Marine Park designation, the coral reefs may also be destroyed by pollution, overfishing, and the like. 

We left the island around 2PM due to a change in weather. We went back for a nice shower to wash off all the salt, and fell asleep to National Geographic...I guess we were a bit worn out and the beds were just so comfy... We finally got ourselves up and headed out for some kopi tiam food and a walk around the city centre. KK is not known for its urban attractions. Many visitors head up to Mount Kinabalu or to the jungles nearby to see orangutans and the world's largest flower. But since we arrived so late in KK and didn't want to spend a lot of time traveling to other destinations, we opted for a more relaxing snorkel. Anyhow, KK really isn't too interesting to go around at night. Like many Asian cities, the main attractions are food and shopping, which we did. 

Dinner in KK. it was a bit strange. Delicious lemon tea on the left. 

One of the main streets in the city centre. a lot of cars.

grilled seafood (slightly overpriced in my opinion)...I was too full from dinner to have any though

I left KK (en route to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei) feeling a bit empty to be honest. I think it was because we were there for so little time. I think it would be worthwhile to check out the orangutans and Mount Kinabalu with more time and more money to spare on tours. Several airlines fly to KK's international airport (which is surprisingly quite updated) from many countries. I really wish I had more time in Malay Borneo. Kuching is supposed to be worthwhile checking out too. 

Next stop: Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB (give yourselves a pat on the back if you thought of the Backstreet Boys) in Brunei Darussalum, the land of oil and the Sultan! 

Why do the food vendors close so early in Penang?

Penang by far was my favourite part of the Malaysia leg. I stayed in the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural centre of Georgetown. Although a small historical/colonial centre, Penang is known for hot weather and thus my walking speed was greatly reduced. Georgetown really is an interesting place. Its colonial history along with the groups of immigrants from all over S.E. Asia has created a diverse cultural location. It's essentially a melting pot of the former immigrants and they all seem to get along so well.

One of the many mansions built by wealthy Chinese merchants

One major qualm I had, was the fact that so many of little eateries serving good Penang food closes at 2 PM! Yes they have night hawker stalls, but they're not the same thing! Nonetheless, food was pretty decent in Penang. I've never really been a fan of curries and the same goes for the laksa. I think it's the smell of the fish sauce that I find unappealing. However, I did have a whole lot of other, very cheap food that suited my tastes very well - especially this duck rice we had for lunch. Yum.

DUCK RICE <3 

Penang has the largest (I think percentage-wise) Chinese population in all of Malaysia. Thus, it was quite easy to get around using Mandarin. It was nice being able to identify with Chinese cultures that exist elsewhere as there were similarities as well as differences (especially in dialect). On our last day in Penang, we visited Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Penang-based house. The curator there was pretty excited about my Taiwanese heritage and spoke to great detail about his life and his accomplishments that I never knew much about (I really don't know too much about Taiwan's history).

Other Malay, Islamic, and Hindu cultures are integrated but their identities seemed to be kept separate as well. In Canada, the cultures and especially the offspring seem to integrate too much into western society and cultural identity is lost. Cultural districts are also extremely apparent in western culture. In Penang, so many places of worship are in such close proximity to one another (quite easy for sightseeing) despite there being cultural districts as well.

Our four day stay in Penang (and one day trip to Langkawi) was a great introduction into Malay culture(s). We met a lot of friendly people in the tourism service industry around town. We also had a pretty fun time shopping in Penang as Denise bought a pair of shorts for 10 RM (just a bit over 3 CAD) and I bought a pair of nice sandals for 22 RM (less than 8 CAD).

Langkawi

Beautiful Pantai Tanjung Rhu

I'll speak briefly about our day trip to Langkawi as well. We initially wanted to visit the Cameron Highlands (inland, hilly, and known for their tea growing fields). However, due to the lack of timely and affordable transport to and from Cameron Highlands, this tour operator at a travel agency suggested we visit Langkawi via the 3 hour ferry. We hired a tour guide/driver to take us around Langkawi in four hours.

Langkawi was reaaaaaaaally pretty. I know there are a lot of other beautiful beaches in Thailand as well but I really enjoyed the scenic karst/limestone landscape of Langkawi. The beaches were so clean and the little island was so cute and quite well maintained. I also got a bit of a sunburn in Langkawi too... It was obvious much of the recent development on the island was due to tourism influences but there were still some local agriculture and cattle in the interior of the island. I wasn't on the island long enough to get a holistic feel of the island so I would love to go back there someday. Did I mention the island is also duty free?

I highly recommend Penang (and Langkawi) as destinations in Malaysia. I noticed a lot of travellers stop in Penang, take the ferry to Langkawi, and then move on to Thailand from Langkawi via several ferry services. Just a warning, Penang is quite hot (but thank god it wasn't humid).

The night hawker stalls by Gurney Drive

Why are things so pricey in Bintan?

Ok I'm getting off my procrastinating arse and writing about the places I visited!
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To be honest, there's not too much to say about Bintan, Indonesia. I have never been to Indonesia before, and Bintan would not be my first choice place to visit in Indonesia. However, to keep my parents from worrying, I decided on a resort-y locale just a short ferry ride from Singapore. Bintan was definitely a place to relax by the pool and read a book. It was unfortunate that costs in Bintan have been driven up by the Singapore visitors. The food was extremely expensive, as were the activities. Not wanting to spend too much at the beginning of our trip, my friend and I were thrifty and just went on one excursion to a mangrove area. Bintan is also known for their beaches. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and too windy to venture into the ocean. The beaches also weren't very clean when I was there, so I was quite disappointed.

From the rather pleasant mangrove tour. 

As for the food, I had the spiciest meal of my life at the Indonesian restaurant.

I literally could not feel my tongue after this meal. This dish is pretty much a fish dish cooked with this pepper sambal sauce. The rice and shrimp chips were all gone at the end of this meal, as was the Strawberry Fanta (kinda gross) and two glasses of water.

My short time in Bintan (barely 3 days) gave me a small insight into Indonesian culture. The people there are all quite friendly and spoke decent English. Our driver who picked us up to go to the mangroves was very chatty but kept stressing how poor Indonesia is. The same goes for our guide for the mangrove tour. An outsider might feel, well I'm paying quite a bit of money here in Bintan...so how can you be poor? I think as a collective, the nation of Indonesia is poor. In Bintan where tourism thrives from Singapore, the tourism dollars don't seem to have too much local benefits. Sure it provides jobs at hotels and tours, but they aren't highly paid at all.

I wouldn't recommend Bintan as a place to visit unless you lived in Singapore or Malaysia. It was relaxing but I was also slightly bored and irked at the high price of food. The island was a lot larger than I thought and costs of hiring a car and exploring the island is also not suitable for more frugal travelers. My goal of the trip was not really to stay at a resort but to explore and experience the local culture. Definitely did not do too much of that in Bintan.

Where are all the mosquitoes in Singapoh?

So I've been busy this past week and finally got around to finishing up this post! Enjoy. 

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I started off my trip in the bustling and orderly world class city-state of Singapore. I was extremely excited to return to Singapore after 17 years. If you do the math, I visited Singapore when I was 5 and it was my first trip on an airplane. This time, I came with my sister for her first visit to Singapore. It was quite a long flight from Taipei to Singapore - took a little over 4 hours. The instant I got off the plane, I felt the heat.

In the 3 full days I spent in Singapore, I was able to see so many sights but still had many places I wanted to visit. I was very impressed with the orderly image Singapore exuded - clean, tree-lined boulevards, taxi stands, efficient public transport, even the hawker stalls were super clean. Additionally, the sewers did not smell like so many other Asian cities and Toronto for that matter. There were also no mosquitoes to be found!

The first day upon arrival, my sister and I made our way around Bugis, Chinatown, Clarke Quay and the Esplanade. We went searching for a good Hainan chicken in Chinatown but was unable to find a decent one unfortunately. The rain started coming down so hard that we just stayed close to the MRT station. The Esplanade is also beautiful. It's a great spot to admire the glittering Singapore skyline from two sides. On one side, you have the financial district. The view of the Esplanade Theatres (aka durians), the Singapore Flyer, and the recent Marina Bay Sands Hotel (Moshe Safdie ftw) is absolutely stunning. We were able to catch the amazing Marina Bay Sands light show right from our hotel room balcony (alongside some McNuggets and fries I picked up at the 24hr McD's beneath our hotel hehe).

We made our way to Sentosa the second morning with my friend Niklas from Sweden. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with Sentosa. The only part I really enjoyed was Palawan Beach. The attractions are aging, and the group of Japanese students we came across were unimpressed with the CineBlast 3D ride we took. A new Universal Studios and Sentosa Resorts opened not too long ago but it really wasn't my goal to ride roller coasters during my stay in Singapore. After some lunch and trekking around Chinatown and the very nice albeit small Red Dot Design Museum, my sister and I headed back to our hotel and once again, got caught in the tropical downpour. After a dinner which numbed my tongue (yeah too spicy), we found our way to Marina Bay Sands' SkyPark to enjoy the night view. It was magnificent.

I then went to enjoy another night view from my hotel, The Stamford. Niklas and his friends were heading up to the New Asia club. Got in for free because I was a guest and it was a pretty spectacular view, second after the SkyPark. Music was Top40 and the club, like the one of the clubs I went to in Miami, had some older folks lounging with champagne. I guess the hotel is better suited for an older clientele. It was a pretty fun night with some really yummy Moet champagne and some dancing on the 70th floor.

The third day, we headed back to Marina Bay Sands (yeah we just love that place) to go to the ArtScience Museum, also designed by Moshe Safdie, and shaped like a lotus. I really enjoyed the well-planned and labelled exhibits and the generous air conditioning inside. It was worth the lofty S$30. Headed to Orchard to gander at the street of malls and ended up at Forever21 with two new dress purchases (yay). One observation that I did have about Singapore is the overabundance of shopping malls. Consumerism has become a national sport of some sort. Malls are everywhere, especially along Orchard. It's ridiculous how many TopShops there are too! We then made our way to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. Wow was it ever far but it was quite worth the unique experience. Denise arrived later that night and we had a hell of a time trying to get on the wi-fi. I never expected it to be so difficult for free wi-fi for visitors!

The final day, my sister left for Taipei in the morning and Denise, Niklas, and I visited Suntec City to walk around the Fountain of Wealth. I didn't feel any wealthier and I certainly don't feel wealthier after this trip! It was time for Denise and I to head to the ferry terminal to catch our ferry to Bintan, Indonesia.

I left Singapore with a will to return. I would love to visit other parts of the City and try more of their food. The melange of cultures also reminded me of Canada although Singapore felt much more multicultural with so many official languages. Clean, mosquito-less Singapore really is a world class city unlike any other. I would bare the equatorial heat once more and get caught in the afternoon downpours again to enjoy this City.

I have returned

I got back to Taipei two days ago and I'm freezing in the cool Taipei temperatures. I've been pretty busy uploading and editing some photos and the blogs will come very soon. I have to say I felt different when I stepped off that plane in Taoyuan's CKS Int'l Airport. I don't know if I was feeling slightly worn out from all the flying but the last legs of my trip in Vietnam and Cambodia was definitely inspiring. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami also happened while I was in Halong Bay, Vietnam. I had no idea it happened until I returned to Hanoi where there was cell reception, tv, and internet. It was alarming and I felt an enormous amount of sympathy for the Japanese. Their ability to cope and calm and orderly reaction to such a tremendous act of nature is truly inspiring and I respect them greatly for that.

For me, tourism isn't just about seeing the sights; it's about understanding and experiencing cultures, interaction, and respect. I'm curious to see how people in different places live, eat, and interact. It was nice to learn about other aspects of Chinese heritage in Malaysia and see the influences of religion on the cities. I was also scoping out potential sites for study in grad school (when the time comes). Tourism is planned and promoted in different ways in all the countries I visited.

I wrote down some thoughts and some of the interesting things I saw during my travels in my little Moleskin notebook. I will try to blog about them as soon as I can before I forget (I seem to be quite forgetful lately...)

First up...Singapore.

To be continued...

TOMORROW

GOOD NIGHT.
I NEED SLEEP.
BE BACK IN A FEW....














WEEKS

(after my run two days ago) 

2 more days!

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently but I've been feeling slightly lazy as well as busy. 我最近也好像都沒有寫中文 - 的確變懶也忙. There's been something going on everyday and I've also gotten some exercise in as the weather has warmed up. The weekend was quite busy, meeting up with old friends (yes I have some) and catching up. They returned to Taiwan to study and I really admire them for that. 我最近跟幾位高中同學見面. 這些朋友回台灣讀書其實我蠻欣賞ㄉ. To be honest, one of my biggest fears is moving back to Taiwan (if that were to ever happen). I know everyone can get accustomed to a new place after a few months or maybe years, but if I were to come back, it would be challenging and add a lot of pressure on me. I don't think I'll grow and mature as much as I could if I were on my own elsewhere. I digress. My classmates are well adjusted to life here in Taipei and they seem to be loving getting in touch with their roots while getting a great education.

As always, it's been a food-ful few days too. I had wonderful meals with my friends, which consisted of Japanese lunch, a western brunch, and an all you can eat sukiyaki. On Monday, my sister treated me to Shintori, this high end Japanese restaurant. Man I did a lot of eating.

In other upcoming news and the title of this entry, I'm leaving for my 19 day trip to South East Asia! Everything is booked and I just have to apply for a visa and confirm a flight with one hotel. So here is my itinerary for those who are curious:

(I should've labeled the locations on the map but now I'm too lazy)

1. Singapore 新加坡
2. Bintan, Indonesia 印尼
3. Penang, Malaysia 馬來西亞
4. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
5. Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei 芠萊
6. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7. Hanoi, Vietnam 越南
8. Halong Bay, Vietnam
9. Siem Reap, Cambodia 柬埔寨

I've been busy preparing things and looking up things to do in these places. It's going to be a pretty long trip but I'm excited to see these places! I was deciding whether to go to Europe or South East Asia for my graduation trip but I think I made the right decision with SE Asia. It's unlikely that I'll be updating once I'm gone so I shall try to blog tomorrow before my trip!