My Adventures In Asia

In July I went on an adventure through Asia, I went to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. It was definitely an unforgettable experience and I saw about one hundred new things in a day.

Day 1: I arrived in Bangkok at 9 in the morning and my dad and I were very tired so we spent the morning in bed. We then went to explore a bit of Bangkok and after that we went to the night market where I bought a Ferrari jacket and had pad Thai at a local restaurant.

Day 2: We went to the Grand Palace which was really interesting and school kids had to pay tribute to the king wearing all black and saw kids embarrassed because they forgot to wear black. We then went on to see Wat Pho where there was the temple of the reclining Buddha and the Golden Buddha. We then went on to go to the weekend market and later on went to the Bangkok downtown where we had some Japanese food and then went to a bar to play pool.

Day 3: Bridge on the River Kwai
We got up at six and got on a bus, our first stop was the floating market where I went on a boat and there were people selling things and I got a T shirt with the Chang Beer logo on it. We then got onto another bus to go to the Bridge on the River Kwai, we talked to the the other tourists on the bus who were from Manchester, China and Australia. When we finally got to the Bridge on the River Kwai, the museum was quite dull but the bridge was the interesting part. When we got back to Bangkok, we went to the Khaosan road for some scran and had a walk around.

Day 4: Arriving in Siem Reap
We got to the Bangkok airport and flew to Siem Reap, the flight was only half an hour and getting a visa was very quick. We were then taken on a tuk tuk to the hotel and later on we went to pub street to have some food and looked around.

Day 5: Exploring through Angkor
We had to get up at 4 in the morning and were then taken to Angkor Wat and we saw the sun rise. We went through the temples of Angkor which made me feel like Indiana Jones and it was also a good workout as I had to walk up them. We then went to the Cambodian landmine museum which was really tragic and I bought a postcard for $1. We then went to the war museum were we could pick up guns, I felt what an AK47, RPG and PPSH was like and after that we went back to the hotel to relax at the pool.

Day 6: The village
I got up at 6 in the morning and was taken on a tuk tuk through the rural area and saw kids going to school. For breakfast I had chicken noodles at a local restaurant that the driver knew and we talked to him about Cambodian politics and he got nervous all of a sudden and mentioned that those who support the opposition get sent to prison. After that we were taken to another temple were we could literally go inside of it and I had to put my phone torch on to see and I truly felt like Indiana Jones. We were then taken to the village, we went on a boat to go on a boat to see the lake which was really cool and after that we had lunch with a Cambodian family. The Cambodian food was delicious and nothing like I had seen before, we then talked to the driver about different things about Scotland and he told us about his relatives who were in the Khmer Rouge regime and had to eat crabs and frogs. He then took us back to the hotel, we took some time to go to the pool, I talked to some students about how I wanted take a gap year and after that we went to pub street for some food, we had mango smoothies which were made by kids on the street and went to the market to buy souvenirs. When we were walking through pub street, we found a Scottish pub so we went in to have some drinks and play some pool. I put on some Scottish music and by that I mean DJ Badboy which could be heard all across the street.

Day 7: Bus through Cambodia
We went on a bus journey across Cambodia to get to Phnom Penh and it was a very long bus journey. Thankfully there was a TV on the bus so I watched some bizarre Cambodian TV and listened to my audiobook. When we finally got there, we decided to go to a Cambodian restaurant and we had to get there in the dark. On the way someone sped past on a moped and tried to steal my dad's phone.

Day 8: Killing Fields
We went to see the Killing Fields memorial, I saw bits of bones and teeth left on the ground. There was also a memorial with skulls and it was indicated how they were killed with hoes, hammers and sharp bamboo sticks! We then went to Tuol Sleng which was a torture prison and is now a museum for the Cambodian genocide. I learned about the upsetting history of the genocide, it was a place of nightmares and I saw bloodstains still left on the wall. After that we went on another bus journey into Vietnam to get to Ho Chi Minh city and it took ages.

Day 9: Ho Chi Minh city
We went to the war remnants museum, it covered very grim stuff in the Vietnam war such as the Mai Lai massacre and Agent Orange. When we got back to the hotel I went to the pool, a group of noisy Australians were there and they gave me a free beer. We then went to the bar area of the city to have some food and went to a bar to play some pool. We played a game of table football with some gap year kids and got absolutely thrashed.

Day 10: The Cu Chi Tunnels
I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels which was one of the places where the Viet Cong troops lived and is now a museum. I was shown how they made traps out of the metal from dropped American bombs, they looked extremely brutal and I got to see what crawling through the tunnels was like and it was super tiring in just 3 minutes. The coolest part was that I got to fire guns, I got to fire an M1 Garand and a Browning machine gun and it was awesome. Then we went to the palace which was the place where the Vietnam war ended, it was really interesting as it is kept in its original condition and there were Viet Cong tanks from the war there. We then went to a bar to eat some Vietnamese food and walked around the pubs in that area.

Day 11: Flying to Hanoi
When we were in the airport I bought some tea and some salt and seaweed flavoured crisps and they surprisingly tasted nice. When I got on the plane I talked to a Vietnamese man named Joe, he was very interested in life in Scotland and I talked to him about football and music. When we arrived I decided to have a burger for tea, we then had a look through the markets.

Day 12: Halong Bay
We went on a 4 hour bus journey to get there but it was definitely an unforgettable experience, I met a South Korean and four English people and I even got the chance to kayak in the bay. Just seeing it was amazing and even seeing the rural Vietnamese landscape. When we got back we went to a restaurant to have some Vietnamese food which was really nice and cultural.

Days 13-14 Hanoi
We went to the Hanoi Hilton which is interestingly a map in Black Ops, it was a prison in which the French kept the Vietnamese rebels and the Vietnamese rebels kept the American prisoners of war. It was interesting just looking inside, I also visited the Vietnam women's museum and I learned about the history of the rebels in Vietnam. I saw a statue of Lenin and I thought that the communist sentiment is very cool in Vietnam. I then for the first time had Korean BBQ which was amazing, it was cooked on a grill on the table in front of me and it was really nice beef. I then walked around the lake and went to a bar to get thrashed in pool by my dad. The next day we went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, it was a long queue, because I was wearing Jeans I got exhausted and a Vietnamese guy told my my Jordan 11s were cool. Seeing Uncle Ho's body was really cool too, the guards there were intimidating and even moved my arm out my pocket while I was walking. Next I went to the ethnicity museum which was interesting as I learned about the ethnic groups in Vietnam, I even got to see the traditional houses of Vietnam and after that we went to have some lunch and saw a place called the "Obama cafe" After that I bought a fake Hugo belt and shot glasses for my friends. We went to have Vietnamese beer by the lake, walked to the pub street to have some beers which was great fun, my dad was guilt tripped into buying gum off a women selling it walking through the street and didn't even chew the gum. After that we talked to some expats, one of them was from Shetland and he had some great banter with him.
Days 15-17 Kuala Lumpur
I had to say that getting to KL was rather hectic, it took ages to get through the airports and the passport queue took an hour. When we got there we had possibly one of the worst pizzas ever and in the supermarket there was a haram section that contained beef and alcohol and it was cut off. The next morning we visited the Petronas Towers which was underwhelming, the view was nice but it didn't say much about KL, after that I saw the third Planet of the Apes film prequel, in the cinema there were annoying noisey kids in front of us and then for tea we had Thai food which shows there wasn't much in KL. The next day we went to the shopping centre to just relax and went to the cinema. We then got ready to go back and I wasn't looking forward to an overnight flight.