South and Eastern Asia

My travels through Asia started in October 2001 when my plane landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. My plan was to spend around 1 month in Nepal, 2 months in India then fly on to a brief stop in Thailand on the way to Australia and New Zealand. This plan was soon discarded as I found that traveling without fixed plans is a much better way to travel.

Two and a half months in Nepal was followed by another couple months in India. On the recommendation of a friend I decided to stop in Bangladesh and Burma on my way to Thailand. In Burma another recommendation led me to Cambodia; Laos was right next door so I spent another month there. Back in Thailand 10 months after I started I was finally ready to head off to Australia.

I have been asked what was my favourite part of the trip. There is no easy answer to this, each of the places I visited were very different experiences. Nepal was all about beautiful mountains and friendly people, India was like Varanasi, new and old mingled in a tangled web of alleyways and holy places, pilgrims, tourists and cows. Bangladesh was a whole new level of chaos and a complete lack of other tourists. Burma was more sedate and simple, small towns, ancient temples and monks, with a unseen big brother looming in the background. Cambodia was a mix of partying and relaxing with other travelers, ancient ruins and bamboo huts in the jungle, with many physical reminders of the destruction of war. In Laos there were green jungles, brown rivers and rice paddies. Thailand was a way point and return to shopping malls and movie theatres.

These were my experiences in that time and space, I am sure I could visit all of these countries many more times and each time have a completely different experience. Fortunately that gives me a very good excuse to visit these places again.