Bali to London Overland: South East Asia Recap

Let’s not talk about how overdue this post is, but I’d like to introduce you to my Bali to London overland series, with this South East Asia recap!

So, to bring you up to speed, I’m travelling from Bali to London without flying. I will be taking a few boats (it’s hard not to when you’re starting and finishing on an island 馃槈 ) but I’m travelling primarily by bus and train.

My first part of the journey was, obviously, getting through South East Asia. This was a journey of contrasts – I went through some very, very touristy places (hi Ao Nang) but also experienced local life and travel, mainly in Sumatra.

I travelled nearly exclusively by bus, but did take one train in Java and one in Vietnam, and used a motorbike tour to get from one destination to another in Vietnam.

As I’d already travelled Laos extensively earlier in the year (you can see my itinerary here), I opted to leave it out of my Bali to London overland trip. My route thus went Indonesia – Singapore – Malaysia – Thailand – Cambodia – Vietnam and then into China.

There will, of course, be more extensive posts about the destinations and bus routes – I’m still travelling, but I’ll be in full work mode when I get home! 馃檪

 

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So without further ado, let’s look at it, country by country.

Indonesia

Bali

Why did I begin in Bali? Well, I wanted to find the furthest logical point where I could start this trip from. Ideally, I would have started in Australia or New Zealand and travelled back from there without flying. But it’s quite tough to do that – the only boats shuttling between the two countries and Indonesia are cruise ships or cargo boats.

I couldn’t afford/ didn’t want to go on a cruise, and while going on a cargo boat does seem to be minutely possible, it looks more likely that people trying to travel by cargo boat will have a fruitless endeavour – and I can’t say that being holed up in a cargo ship on my own has been a life-long dream of mine. In fact, many other accounts from people who have done this kind of trip before have reported that they’ve ended up flying this little bit.

I’ve road-tripped around the whole of Australia, so to be honest, it seemed a bit pointless to do the same and then fly just this little bit!

My other option was to start further east in Indonesia and take boats in between the islands. But this would have meant another flight to get out there initially, more expense, and longer travel time. I am limited on time – I’m doing this whole trip in five months as I need to be back in the UK in September as my sister is graduating – so Bali seemed like the most obvious place to start.

So I headed out to Bali on a solid 30 hour door to door journey (including a 9 hour layover at Guangzhou airport, a city that I’d be returning to later on that trip). The flight was pretty stressful and I was hoping that it was a clear sign that air travel just ain’t for me, and not an omen of what laid ahead.

I arrived exhausted in Bali, and had 4 nights at Serenity Guesthouse in Canggu to help me recover from crazy jetlag. Except I didn’t actually feel all that jet-lagged – for the first time in my life after flying out to Asia, I wasn’t up until 3-4am! Maybe my body is just so used to hopping continents by now – or the journey to get to Bali was just so stressful that I needed to sleep for four days after.

I spent the first few days just hanging around Serenity, doing yoga, eating fantastic food and adjusting to the heat. I did make it out to the Tanah Lot Temple and took in a couple of Canggu sunsets.

It wasn’t my first time in Bali, so I wasn’t too bothered about rushing around and seeing everything. You can see my 2-3 week Bali itinerary here and a few other posts about Bali are linked below.

I wanted to start this overland trip from Uluwatu Temple. It’s located pretty far south on the island, with dramatic cliff views and is a spectacular sunset point. I thought its geographical position and its significance to Balinese culture made it a great spot to begin.

 

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So I headed to Uluwatu on my last night in Bali – I stayed at an awesome hotel called Uluwatu Breeze Village that I highly recommend – and watched the Kecak Fire Dance. It’s a rather touristy show, but does demonstrate the traditional Balinese dancing and was very interesting.

The next morning, I got up and left – I was on my way home.

You can see my vlog of Bali here.聽

First up, I had to get out of Uluwatu. Local taxis are expensive in Bali and there is no bus service – I was keen to see if I could jump on a bike to Denpasar, but there wasn’t anyone available to drive that distance (it takes about an hour and a half). So I ended up in a taxi to Denpasar Bus Station, where I could take a local bus to Gilimanuk in the North West of the island and could then jump on a boat to Java.

The bus drove through some incredible scenes – paddy fields lined with palm trees and beautiful mosques (the north of Bali seems to have more of an Islamic influence, although it is predominantly a Hindu island). It is completely different here to the tourist hotspots of the South!

Then, it was time to jump on the ferry that took me to Java. I got on the ferry just as the sun was setting, and could see Balinese jungle on one side, and the descending under a Javenese volcano on the other. It was a pretty surreal beginning.

Java

After a very confusing disembarkation of the ferry (I had to go downstairs to where the cars were parked, made a friend on a motorbike, and then feared for my life as I walked out with the snaking vehicles), I arrived in Banyuwangi, Java at about 6pm – and had signed up to do a volcano hiking tour of Ijen that very same night – leaving at midnight.

After a family dinner in my guesthouse with the hosts, other guests and some very sweet local kids, I went to bed for a solid one hour sleep before the hike. The hike up Ijen was tiring – but so worth it. I definitely recommend. I stayed at Banana Homestay in Banyuwangi and HIGHLY recommend it – the hosts were everything a guesthouse host should be: kind, considerate, generous and helpful.

I’d made some friends in the guesthouse, and we hatched a wild plan – to try to undertake the journey to Mount Bromo in the same day. It ended up being about 11 hours of travelling – we took a local bus from Banyuwagi to Probbolingo, arrived into Probbolingo at 7pm and then took a shuttle up the mountain. Then we went to bed, this time for 4 hours of sleep, before waking at 3am to hike to the Bromo viewpoint. Again, spectacular.

 

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Not groundbreaking information, but 2 overnight hikes back to back does kinda wreck you. I originally wanted to get to Yogyakarta on the same day, but my body did not want to sit on a 10-14 hour bus again that day. So my friends and I opted to take a 3 hour bus to Surabaya and stay in a hostel there. Surabaya’s not up to much, and to be honest, neither were we.

We woke up the next day at 6:30am (still too early!) to continue to Yogyakarta. Again, it took us all day and we arrived at Jogja (as the city also goes by the name of) in the evening. I would really recommend taking the train in Java – it’s much more comfortable and takes a lot less time. Nonetheless, I could actually get a decent night’s kip once in Jogja – I’ve never been so happy to be in a hostel dorm bed in my life.

My two days in Jogja were spent riding on the back of my friend’s bike in the nearby countryside and walking around the city. I didn’t make it to the two main attractions of Yogyakarta – Borobudur and Prambanan – but I have no doubt that I’ll be back.

Then I took a night train to Jakarta. Although I had a seat and not a sleeper (I don’t think Javanese trains have sleepers), it was 1000x better than the buses. I arrived in Jakarta kind of sleepy, but ready to explore the city in a day. Unfortunately, Jakarta had other plans – and absolutely poured it down. The National Museum of Indonesia was cool though!

I stayed with a girl from Couchsurfing that night and we had a lovely evening talking about travelling, Indonesia, and all sorts.

Here’s my vlog of Java

You can also check out my Java itinerary here.聽

Then, the next day, it was time for the transport mode that I was possibly most nervous about – a 60 hour bus from Jakarta to Pekanbaru in Sumatra. I decided to take this bus to speed things up, and I’m glad I did. But wow, it was an experience!

The bus was firstly 4 hours late to leave. Not a huge problem, I anticipated delays here and there on this overland adventure. The issue was, everything was in Indonesian, it wasn’t clear what gate it was leaving from, and there were multiple times when I thought the bus had already left. I combatted this by making myself known to absolutely everyone working in the station and it worked – not one, not two but three people came and found me when the bus was there!

Then it took 5 hours to get to the port – a journey which on Google maps said should take 1.5 hours. Jakarta traffic doesn’t mess around. We arrived at the ferry at 9:30pm, when I thought we’d arrive sometime in mid-afternoon. After the ferry crossing where all I wanted to do was sleep but I couldn’t due to an extraordinarily loud live music performance, we made it to Sumatra.

Sumatra

The bus journey was a mix of one of my worst and best travel experiences. Worst because, well, it was a 60 hour bus. My reclining seat was broken, and I ended up sleeping folded over. Loud music was played at various intervals throughout the night – although I was told that that was so the driver didn’t fall asleep though, which I was very in favour of.

I won’t go too much into detail about the bus here – there will be a separate post about that and it will most certainly make it into my book – but I will say that a mixture of rain and bad roads meant that a 37 hour bus turned into a 60 hour bus. What made it bearable were the amazing people around me. My Indonesian is very very limited, but some of them could speak a little English and I managed to communicate with those who I didn’t have a common language with by the foolproof tactics of body language and drawing pictures.

Everyone came and introduced themselves to me, many wondered why on earth I was taking a bus from Jakarta all the way to Pekanbaru (most of them were stopping earlier on in Sumatra, where other people got on for the last leg to Pekanbaru), shared food and we had a lot of laughs.

You can see my experience in this video:

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Finally, I arrived in Pekanbaru at about 3am, 2 and a half full days after leaving Jakarta. After rocking up to a full hotel, and having to take another motorbike across the city to find a hotel with vacancies (there only seemed to be one in all of Pekanbaru), I collapsed, exhausted, into a real bed.

I was planning on just having a chill/ recovery day that next day, but I actually ended up having one of the most memorable experiences of my trip. I was really keen for some decent food, and headed to a vegan cafe in town. I not only had some amazing food but also met the lovely owner, who invited me to a food festival that afternoon!

I ended up at this festival, and as I was the only tourist there… I was asked to go on stage and to give a speech. It was a pretty hilarious travel experience, but I made some great friends, had good chats, and ate lots of fantastic food!

The next day was another travel day. I was going to attempt to get from Pekanbaru to Singapore in just a day. I did it – it involved 4 boats, a bus, more friendly locals, and a mad dash from the domestic to the international ferry port in Batam Island, losing my entire bag of dirty laundry on the way. Solid move Claire.

Singapore

I made it to Singapore! I stayed in a capsule hotel throughout my time there, you can see it below.

I’ve been to Singapore before – you can read my 2 day itinerary here – so most of my time in the city was spent relaxing and recharging. I did, however, spend more time looking around Kampong Glam and Chinatown, and made it to Marina Bay Sands for sunset.

I also met up with two friends I’d met earlier last year in Oaxaca, and had a great day out in their area of the city. That’s part of the great thing about travelling – you make friends from all over the world!

After 3 days, I left Singapore – another day, another transport ‘mare. I had booked a bus leaving at 5:30pm and was arrived to get there at 5pm. So I was planning on leaving my hostel at 4pm to give myself ample time – but of course, life had other plans and I couldn’t find the bus routes, then booked a Grab taxi that ended up cancelling, then went to get the Metro and used my ticket on the wrong line – I couldn’t get to the right one without buying another ticket and there was a huge queue at the machine.

I ended up on a bus, the way I’d originally meant to go, and arrived at the bus station at… 5:28pm. I literally saw a bus pulling out and thought ‘DAMMIT that’s probably mine…’. The sweaty mess that was myself ran into the office, and I asked if I’d missed my bus.

I didn’t think to say which bus I was getting on, so the woman working at the office looked absolutely perplexed and asked me for my details. Then she very calmly said ‘wait outside, it’ll be there in a minute’. No idea how I made that bus, but I did.

Here’s another Singapore vid – how to see the city on a budget. Here’s a post about Singapore on a budget as well.

Malaysia

We entered jungle as soon as we arrived in Malaysia (well, on the motorway with jungle either side, but it sounded more poetic). I was staying in Melaka first, a Southern city. This is a really interesting place – it has British, Dutch and Portuguese influences yet is strikingly Malaysian (with a beautiful mosque!).

It’s also HOT. It was around 30 degrees but incredibly humid, making walking around without looking like I’ve just jumped in a swimming pool with all of my clothes on a bit of a challenge! I ended up seeing a bit of the city in the morning, then sheltering back in my pod capsule for a few hours and returning to the night market in the evening.

The next day, I was off to Kuala Lumpur. Again, I’ve been here before (here’s my 2 days in Kuala Lumpur itinerary), and I didn’t have much planned for this trip – I had a freelance project that I wanted to get done and needed reliable WiFi.

It was also this day that my laptop decided to break which was fab, but after a few discussions with Apple Support I realised all I needed to do was update it. So the laptop was thankfully fine, but I lost about 4 hours of my working afternoon!

So, after arriving into the Cameron Highlands the next day, I had to find good WiFi again and get the job done. The next day I did a hike through the tea plantations, which was really beautiful and I very much enjoyed some cooler weather.

 

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I was battling with my mind a bit on this day though. This is something I’m going to write a lot more about in my book, but something triggered my anxiety and it kind of got the better of me on this day. While I enjoyed the beauty of the hike (and it was very important that I got out and did it), my mind was going berserk at the same time. This anxiety flare-up did kind of impact the rest of my time in Malaysia, but I’m happy to say that so far, that’s the only one time it’s got the better of me throughout this whole trip.

The next day, I headed to Langkawi by bus. It was the first day of Ramadan, and I foolishly didn’t wake up early enough to eat a full meal before sunrise – while Malaysia is home to a lot of different ethnicities, it is predominantly Muslim and everywhere I passed was closed.

I also didn’t want to be disrespectful by eating the snacks I had in a public place, so I ended up eating a packet of crisps and some Oreos in the toilet when I had to change buses! Hygenic, I know.

I made it to Langkawi and found a restaurant, was served by one of the friendliest women I’ve ever met, and crashed out in my hostel.

The next day I headed out to the Langkawi Sky Bridge. This was the other side of the island to where I was staying, but the taxis weren’t too expensive. The Sky Bridge is well worth the visit – I was lucky enough to see both the view and experience the clouds come in, which was pretty terrifying!

I also made friends with another solo traveller who also wanted a tonne of pictures taken, so that was pretty handy. We went to the 3D Langkawi Art Museum which was cool, but I didn’t get the chance to check out much else in Langkawi. However, I do have a wonderful guest post from Yen who blogs at Swing Adventures about the best things to do in Langkawi – check it out!

 

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Everyone says to me ‘aren’t you afraid?’ the truth is, I am. In fact, there are times when I’m absolutely terrified. In the half hour before this picture was taken, I’d had a panic on a cable car, had to deal with my monkey phobia, and was then scared of even taking my phone out on this bridge in high winds. I also get scared about ridiculous stuff – more on that at some point in the future, but I’ll just say I’ve had to have some pretty intense therapy this year for my mental health. But I’m also one of the most stubborn people I know. And I know I can never give into my fear. Even though I’m scared a lot of the time, I won’t let it stop me. And this is one of the key parts of the therapy I’ve had – I have to put myself in these scary situations, not react as I normally would, and see how they’re not as scary as I thought. So basically this trip is one huge therapy exercise ?. In all seriousness, I know it’s getting better. And it’s only now when I look back, I can see how far I’ve come ? So I hope anyone reading this can face their fears as well. There’s a beautiful world on the other side of fear 鉂わ笍 ? Langkawi, Malaysia. 13,276 miles from London

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The next morning, it was time for another country. I was heading to Thailand – Krabi, to be specific. I’d arranged my transport with a lovely man at the boat deck the day before – looking back I think I could have done it independently for a bit cheaper but he did throw in free pick-up and passport pick-up when I was booking the tickets.

Thailand

I was pretty excited to get to Thailand. It was my fourth time in the country, and every time I visit I find more to love. My stomach and I were also very keen to eat a lot of food – my hostel breakfast was cancelled due to Ramadan and I’d overslept again without making it out to find something to eat. Once I’d crossed through customs, I remembered that much of Southern Thailand is also Muslim, meaning that many restaurants were also shut. Whoops…

Luckily, the man who picked me up knew an open street food stall and helped me get some rice, veggies and tofu to go. Then it was to the bus station, and on a four-hour bus to Krabi. I arrived in Ao Nang (the beach part of Krabi) at about sunset and… I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so touristy (apart from maybe Koh San Road in Bangkok).

It was hectic, and I was very very grateful that I’d booked myself in a 4* hotel rather than a backpacker hostel. The backpacker scene in Ao Nang seems intense.

I spent a couple of days in Krabi, took a longboat to Railay Beach and ate some good yet very expensive food. Then it was time for a night bus to Bangkok. Here’s my video about it:

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And then straight away, I did a cooking course, which you can see here:

That was pretty much the extent of my time in Bangkok. I love this city, I think it has so much energy and is great fun, but it was the sixth time I’d been there in the last year (yeah, I don’t know why either) so I was happy to chill out a little before seeing lots of stuff in Cambodia and Vietnam. You can check out my 3 days in Bangkok itinerary here.

Cambodia

Cambodia left a mark on my heart. There is so much beauty in this country, coming in the forms of landscapes, food, and people, but also so much tragedy. I do believe it’s important to really learn about this while in Cambodia, so we can begin to understand what local people have been through – and that it is a country still healing and to remind us to travel respectfully and responsibly.

I undertook a very, very long (18 hours in total!) journey from Bangkok to Koh Rong via Sihanoukville. Koh Rong can be another partyparty kind of place (just to clarify, I don’t have a problem with backpackers partying in general, but when it becomes all that people do in a place and it really impacts locals and their lives, especially when it doesn’t bring in economic benefit to them, then I do). As a guy I met on the bus to Kampot who was in a very bad way (black eye, injured leg, groaned every time we went round a corner) said to me, ‘everything goes wrong on Koh Rong’.

 

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I was more keen on things going right, so I opted to stay at a much quieter side of the island. Coconut Beach is a lovely scenic spot, with the option to stay in tents right by the sea. It was pretty perfect – I could literally open my tent zipper and see the ocean, and the beach was just a few steps away. I only had two nights here, and I didn’t leave the Coconut Beach area, but it was absolutely wonderful.

Then I headed back to the mainland, had 4 hours to kill in Sihanoukville (which was 4 hours too many) and boarded a van to Kampot.

If you go to Kampot, you MUST stay in Eden Eco Village. It’s my favourite accommodation I’ve ever been to. The rooms are rustic huts, they open out to the most EPIC view over the river which is lined with palm trees, the food is delicious with plenty of vegan options, they offer free yoga, and they run off solar power and have composting toilets – so are true to the ‘eco’ name. They also hire people from the local village and train them up themselves, giving opportunities to locals.

You can see what else I did in Kampot here:

I was so gutted to leave Kampot, but I had to carry on my journey. Next up was the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. I wanted to spend two full days here, so I could dedicate an entire day to learning about the genocide history which was sure to be very harrowing.

I may write another post about the Killing Fields and S21 Prison at some point, but I want to make sure I write about it as ethically as possible. As I mentioned earlier on in the post, it’s so important to visit because it really helps us understand both the country’s past, but also its present.

Visiting these places reminded me to always be kind to everyone, and to support locals as much as possible. It’s a hard day, but it’s definitely worth doing – but I would advise taking some time to think about the reasons for visiting first, and not treating it as just another tourist attraction.

My tuk-tuk driver took me to see some other sights in the city the next day. These included a couple of temples a short drive away, the National Museum and the Royal Palace. They are also well worth checking out while in Phnom Penh.

 

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The same driver had also organised my transport to Can Tho, Vietnam the next day. It was another multi-transport epic involving a van, a car, a border crossing, another van, a bus and a taxi, taking about 13 hours door to door.

Vietnam

It was good to be back in Vietnam – and even better to be in the Mekong Delta, a beautiful area that’s not explored by all that many tourists to the country. I was staying at a wonderful homestay, and the host took us on his boat to see the floating market, offered us bikes and took us on a sunset cruise. He also organised my transport further north to Da Lat.

The homestay is called Boutique Lodge Can Tho, and I highly recommend it if you’re heading to the Mekong Delta.

 

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This is another incredible place in Vietnam – the countryside around Da Lat is wonderful. And I stayed at another great homestay with wonderful people and amazing food, called Beginning Homestay. I also did a motorbike tour around the town and saw lots of its beautiful nature.

I was spending 2 weeks in Vietnam and stopping at quite a few places, mainly because I wanted blog information for quite a few spots to add to my Vietnam itinerary, so the next day I was on a sleeper bus (in the daytime like the unconventionalist I am) to the coastal city of Nha Trang.

Its main attractions are the beach, the SkyBar and mud baths. The mud baths are good fun, I definitely recommend. The beach was too hot for me, but the SkyBar was quite cool and even offered Sangria as a complimentary drink. Then, a bit light in the head, it was time for yet another night bus.

The night buses in Vietnam are pretty fab – they half recline so you do kind of feel like you’re in a bed, they drive at about 150 kmph (may not be exact) and overtake far too many times to feel safe. Somehow, all of this relaxes me, and I generally get a fantastic night’s sleep. For some reason, not on this one though – I tossed and turned until I was woken up at 5am and told to get out on the highway, along with everyone else who was getting off at Hoi An.

 

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After dealing with overpriced taxis, fellow backpackers getting rather het up about losing out on five pence and about 20 pretty angry dogs, I found my guesthouse.

The guesthouse was delightful, and the very kind owner let me check in early. He also had free bikes to use, so I teetered down to Hoi An’s beach on one and enjoyed a cool coconut there.

The bike kind of gave up on me on the way back – the handlebars slipped so far to the side that I riding while tilting my entire body 45 degrees to the left – luckily a friendly local appeared with a hammer and made the bike just about rideable until I got back!

 

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I spent some time in Hoi An town that day as well: I got an extraordinarily cheap vegan pho, I drank tea, and I saw the town by night with its many lanterns – although I didn’t realise that they actually went into the water and learnt that they probably do go straight into the sea, which made me sad.

Hoi An isn’t my favourite place in the world – I find it just that bit too touristy, and it doesn’t feel like Vietnam to me – but I know a lot of people do love it, so I hosted this guest post by Bradley from Dream Big, Travel Far about the best things to do in Hoi An.

What I did love about Hoi An was the countryside around it, which I saw in much more detail on a bike tour of the area the next day. I was heading inland, to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and was going to see rural Vietnamese life along the way.

I learned so much more about the war than any book or documentary could ever tell me – my guide was a War Veteran. He’d lived through the war, and some of his stories sent shivers up my spine. I was really grateful that he shared this part of his life with me – he certainly didn’t have to, but it really helped me get a full understanding of the war.

This trip also encompassed the Hai Van Pass, which is a beautiful area where you don’t have to decide if you’re a mountain or beach person – you can enjoy them together! Top Gear featured it, and it’s easy to see why.

After a quick stop in Hue, I was travelling again – this time on a train to Dong Ha City. This isn’t somewhere where many travellers go but is one of the most important places to visit in Vietnam to learn about War History. I did a tour of the DMZ with another War Veteran who also gave his own first-hand experience of the war.

Then it was up to Phong Nha, one of the most impressive cave complexes in the world. It’s home to the largest cave in the world, the second largest cave in the world and basically nearly every large cave in the world.

You can only go into the largest cave in the world if you are on a guided tour which requires intense skill and preparation, costs $3000 and the tickets of which sell out faster than Beyonce tickets. So yeah, I didn’t quite make that one, but the other caves are pretty cool as well.

 

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Then it was time for another night bus to Vietnam’s capital, manic Hanoi. I’ve been to Hanoi lots of times too, so I was happy to just chill out for most of the time – as well as eat AMAZING food – and gear myself up for China!

I left Hanoi at about 9pm on a night train to Nanning, China. I felt like a swarm of butterflies were having a party in my belly – even though it was my fourth (which is apparently my number when it comes to visiting Asian countries…) time in China and I knew what to expect, it meant a whole leg of my journey had been completed.

South East Asia Conclusions and Lessons

 

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  • South East Asia took quite a lot of my time and when looking at the map it didn’t seem like I’d progressed all that much, but the fact that I was travelling mainly on buses meant that I was going fairly slowly. It’s much easier to speed through China, and I knew that I would be going through Russia very quickly – so I was happy to take some time to enjoy some spots in South East Asia that I hadn’t visited before.
  • Even though South East Asia is a VERY touristy place, there are still many, many spots that are well worth visiting. I’ve seen quite a lot of the region now, but there are still plenty more places that I want to visit.
  • I also realised the importance of really learning about this area’s history. I made an effort to learn more about Cambodia and Vietnam’s recent history, but everywhere in the region is very historically rich – and it really teaches us a lot about the country, and helps us become more respectful tourists.
  • Responsible tourism is so important in South East Asia, more than anywhere because some people do have a tendency to treat it like a huge backpacker playground. There’s obviously nothing wrong with backpacking South East Asia and having a good time – but there is a line, and many people cross it. On this trip I chatted to more locals rather than just be always in the backpacker circles, and learned some new perspectives. Staying in homestays really enables this.
  • It wasn’t my first trip in South East Asia, and it most certainly won’t be my last, but I learned a lot, saw some new places, and have plenty more on my list!

South East Asia Quick Questions

 

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HIGH:聽Climbing Ijen really sticks out for me, there was just something about it – I guess it was also because it was right at the start of my journey and I met some really lovely people.
LOW:聽This whole anxiety mess in Malaysia. I was VERY proud at how I reacted and came out of it though.
FAVOURITE PLACE:聽Kampot in Cambodia
BEST MEAL:聽Definitely some form of Pho in Vietnam (I’m an addict). Probably the $1 one I had in Hoi An!
BEST JOURNEY:聽The Can Tho to Da Lat sleeper bus – I literally slept like a log the entire way.
WORST JOURNEY:聽The Surabaya to Yogyakarta bus. It was so long and I was so sleepy!

Just some last things…

 

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Una publicaci贸n compartida por Claire Martin (@clairesfootsteps) el

Firstly, thanks so much for reading this post! Just reading this helps me and my writing out a lot and I’m eternally grateful 馃檪 If you are visiting any places I’ve mentioned, please do check out my guides and itineraries, I’m confident that they will help you when travel planning!

I’ve included a few links to YouTube videos in the body, but if you want to check out my YouTube channel click here. If you enjoy my videos, I would really appreciate likes on them (it really helps me out with the algorithm), comments and for you to subscribe if you’re interested in seeing more videos!

I’m also very active on Instagram, I post to stories a lot and on the feed most days (when WiFi permits!) so please do check out my Instagram here. I’ll also let you know there when my next recap is live!

I’m writing a book –聽well I’m not right at this second but I will be when I am home! If you want updates about the book, be sure to be following me on either YouTube or Instagram for updates!

If you have any questions about anything on this trip, let me know either by Instagram direct, commenting here or sending an email to [email protected]. I’ll address them all in a YouTube video when I’m home! 馃檪

Coming soon – China, Mongolia and Russia recap!

 

One thought on “Bali to London Overland: South East Asia Recap

  1. TJ says:

    Loved reading this Claire – we’re thinking of travelling China to London overland so keen to read your next recap – is this out now?

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