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Here in China you get a free packet of AA batteries with every three Snickers you buy. Score.
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Jul 31, 2010 09:36
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Patong is the sleaziest and most disgusting place I have ever been in my entire life. Stay the gently caress out of Patong.
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Aug 1, 2010 17:52
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Most backpackers will just tie their big bag with everything on the back, but I personally don't like that solution; it raises the center of gravity and makes the bike more tippy, makes it harder to take on a passenger, and isn't as convenient for accessing your stuff. I used two saddlebags and also strapped my huge bag down. I was seriously worried about the bike being able to carry all my poo poo (I'm on a RTW trip so unlike most SE Asia backpackers I have more than just board shorts and a Tubing in the Vang Vieng Laos singlet), but once you actually get here and see some of the ludicrously huge things the locals carry around on the backs of their bikes, you forget about it. We were travelling with a British guy for a while who had his girlfriend on the back, plus both of their 70 litre backpacks stacked on top of each other. It was a thing to behold. I tried riding his bike just after we arrived in Hue and the bags were still on it and I made it about five metres before it wobbled out of control and I nearly dropped it. But, hey, he managed it.
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Aug 3, 2010 03:40
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brendanwor posted:Wikitravel is all I use, personally. It avoids the problem of being outdated, and tends to have more than enough info (unless you're the kind of person who has to plan out a full itinerary for a trip). Wikitravel is fantastic - it's honest, it's got a good layout, easy to use etc. I can't loving stand navigating my way through TripAdvisor and Hostelworld.
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Aug 19, 2010 12:16
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Actually the Vietnam Lonely Planet is really good (aside from listing stupid bullshit like the Temple of Literature in the top things to do). Even in out of the way places like Pleiku or Dong Hoi it has really up-to-date info and excellent maps. Compare this to Lonely Planet China, which I'm using now, where even the maps - the one thing you can usually rely on LP for - are absolutely atrocious.
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Aug 19, 2010 13:18
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Edit: for those of you who have been to Cambodia recently, do they still have Beer Klang? The one with the elephant raging out on the can, that's like 9% alcohol? I was there in May and never saw anything like that, it was all either Angkor or Anchor (which is confusing).
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Sep 7, 2010 03:46
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I have a 12 hour layover in Brunei between London and Perth. It's probably the only time I'll ever go there, so what's worth checking out?
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Oct 28, 2010 23:41
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I'm pretty sure I am, it's 30 days visa free for EU citizens. Although this is the first time I'll ever have left an airport during a layover - is there something else I should know about?
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Oct 30, 2010 11:20
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Ribsauce posted:If you want to do a motorcycle trip from Saigon to Laos to Cambodia to Northern Thailand is the Minsk still the way to go? It seems like you can't get any parts past Laos but with a Honda you can get whatever you need anywhere. My friend and I were talking about this and he is worried about the Minsk. The lucky bastard is about to go on an epic SE Asia trip by bike. His only thing is he wants a clutch on the bike, not automatic. All the bikes I rented back when I was there were automatic, hell I didn't know how to work a clutch. Also, from everything we have read the Minsk breaks down all the time. He just wants something that works and can get fixed anywhere if it stops working. I loved the hell out of the Saigon-Hanoi trip I did on a Minsk earlier this year, but that was more in spite of the bike than because of it. I now loving hate Minsks and will never touch one again. For the entire second half of the country it was breaking down literally every day, and 90% of mechanics refused to look at it. I met a Norwegian guy in Hanoi who had bought a manual Honda (not a scooter; it was the kind of big bike the Easy Riders use) for $600 US. For only three hundred extra dollars I could have bought that and had a much better time. The only thing Minsks have going for them is their low price, and in retrospect I really regret not shelling out the tiny bit extra for a better bike and a better trip. Having said that if he does decide on a Minsk tell him to check the serial stamp on the steering column. There's a string of numbers with a single letter in them, and the letter corresponds to the year. Mine was B, which was around 1980, and obviously the older a Minsk is the more prone it is to breakdowns. My friend had a T (1996, the sport model with the higher and harder seat) and it ran much more smoothly than mine. Relatively, though, they're all pieces of poo poo that were built in a lovely country and exported to another lovely country and butchered by lovely mechanics for years.
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Nov 2, 2010 00:51
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Pompous Rhombus posted:What, like an XR250, or one of those 110-125cc ones that have the gas tank up top and look kinda like a real motorcycle? If it was an XR250 for $650 (in Vietnam, where they've been banned from being imported for years) it was definitely stolen or otherwise not legit, and the mechanics I talked to said those little Hondas were not much more reliable. It was something like this, which I guess is a Honda Bonus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henrytapia/443632633/ Of course I don't know how easy it would be to actually find one for sale, every other backpacker ad in Hanoi was for either Minsks or scooters. I do lay the blame for lovely breakdowns squarely at the feet of the Vietnamese, who don't take care of their things and then don't fix them properly when they break. I'm sure if I got a Minsk fresh off the factory line in Belarus and took it back home it would be great, and I'm sure if an XR-250 spent twenty years at the hands of Vietnamese mechanics it wouldn't run so well either. And I do suspect most Vietnamese mechanics will have trouble with manual transmission bikes. I guess you should just buy the newest bike you can regardless of what it is.
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Nov 3, 2010 01:14
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
If that's your code how do you intend to sell it at the end of your trip? Ribsauce, there are two Western bike dealers in Saigon. One is named Kevin Raven and deals in Minsks and Hondas, all of his Minsks that I tried ran like poo poo though and the guy himself is a wanker. The other is Kurt, fattyontherun@hotmail.com, who is much friendlier and more affable. He sold a Minsk to some acquaintances of mine and it hosed up on them the next day (although I suspect this may have been their own fault with an oil/petrol fuckup), he refused to give them their money back. On the other hand some friends of mine bought a Minsk off him and never had a single issue with it (the only ever Minsk I came across that ran flawlessly). edit: if you do go with Kurt don't let him talk you into using his lovely Vietnamese mechanic who is just as lovely as every other Vietnamese mechanic and (like all of them in tourist areas, and many more besides) will charge you Western prices.
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Nov 6, 2010 00:08
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DO NOT BUY A BIKE FROM A BACKPACKER
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caberham posted:Call me crazy but I actually think traveling by overland is a lot more interesting than flying Travelling overland in Asia is a lot different than in Europe. Namely, it sucks.
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Nov 17, 2010 13:35
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Traveling by train across Europe was really fun and I hope the experience in SEA will be similiar.
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MrFrosty posted:The sea gypsy town is now a market street booming with bars, shops and massage parlors, with still more under construction. I haven't been to that many Thai islands, but I'd be extremely surprised if someone could point to a place that's a better example of horrific overdevelopment than Ko Lipe. The island is literally 3 or 4 k's long and there's like fifty resorts on it.
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Nov 21, 2010 06:02
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brendanwor posted:Soi Bangla, Patong Beach, Koh Phuket Yeah but that's on Phuket which is an enormous island connected by a bridge to the mainland. Whereas Ko Lipe is basically a sandbar in the middle of nowhere.
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Nov 22, 2010 15:53
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 08:33 |
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MrFrosty posted:Heheh. Well things aren't quite so bad as that photo brendan poster up there. And the beaches really are amazingly beautiful. Bila beach in particular, just a tiny strip of sand with a chill little bar on it. gently caress I wish I was back there instead of the office. I know I'm already gigantic SE Asia sourpuss, but if you think Ko Lipe's beaches are beautiful then please sample Australia, where they aren't coated in rubbish and where the marine life is still alive. Actually has anyone experienced Malaysia's beaches/islands? I blitzed through it on my way to Thailand, but then heard really good things and figured that in retrospect I should have gone snorkelling and diving there instead. What I heard was that because they're a first-world country they take a bit more care of their reefs, wildlife etc, confirm/deny
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Nov 22, 2010 15:57
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