Re: FWD: FWD: FWD: FWD: Travel Quiz - fill it out, add some, and send it back!

On 7/25/07, *Andrew Donovan* <acd333@gmail.com > wrote:

If you don't send this back within 1 day you will have bad luck
shopping
for the rest of the trip!

What was your favorite country, overall? Laos both for the people
and the sights.

Malaysia has been pretty awesome.

What was your least favorite country, overall? Vietnam both for
the people and the sights.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that one.

What was your favorite city, overall? HoChiMinh or Bangkok

I also liked Bangkok.

What was your least favorite city, overall? Vientiene

Sapa, Vietnam

Which country had the best food? Vietnam

No way! Korea!

Which country had the worst food? China

No way! Vietnam (except Hoi An)!

Which country had the nicest people? Laos or Malaysia

Malaysia Truly Asia.

Which country had the most unfriendly people? Vietnam

Vietnam. Although we did meet some really great people there.

Which country was the cheapest? Laos

China was quite cheap for a lot of stuff too.

Which country was the most expensive? Thailand - due to us shopping

Or Malaysia, with all the diving.

Which country would you most like to go back to? China

China

Which country will you never go back to? None of them.

I think it will be a while before I head back to Vietnam.

What are your top 5 experiences in Asia? 1.Korea - Taekkyon 2.China - Great Wall
3. Cambodia - swimming in Crater lake 4. Laos - Biking on the Bolaven Plateau OR swimming in the waterfall near Luang Prabang 5.Malaysia - waking up in the jungle with a two foot long monitor lizard under my hammock OR catching that big
catfish.

1. Uncle Tan's jungle trip (www.uncletan.com)
2. Taekkyon
3. Tubing/rope swings in Vang Vieng
4. Scootering around the Bolaven Plateau
5. Scuba diving Sipadan

What are your worst 5 experiences in Asia? 1.China - booking train
tickets, AND 2. When that crazy lady accosted us by that temple in Chengdu. 3.Vietnam - hearing 'hello moto?' every 2 seconds 4.Cambodia - skidding across
gravel after we crashed our motorbike 5.Bangkok - realizing we'de
spent nearly 4000 dollars in a week.

1. Arriving in Sapa, realizing I was nearly robbed by a hill-tribe lady
2. Nearly running over a small Cambodian girl
3. Nearly every time we got in a tuk-tuk or taxi in Vietnam
4. Watching a hill-tribe lady in Sapa try to sell me drugs when her kid is right beside her
5. Walking through the mud/water/sludge in the jungle to get dinner

Name 3 things that you never would have pictured yourself doing a
year ago. Sharing a bathroom with a tarantula, swimming in
brown muddy water and finding it 'refreshing', eating tarantulas,
crickets, grasshoppers, and frogs.

1. See #5 above
2. An amazing belly-flop
3. Eating goat udder.

Worst bus ride? China - when we were in the back of a rusty bus on
a bumpy, curvy, gravel road for 10 hours and there was a guy eating
a chicken and throwing the bones on the floor, which ironically was
next to the cage that housed the live chickens.

Definitely from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan... Tara was throwing up, I had my head between my knees... things weren't so good.

Best use of money? Chinese spa and Thai massages

Our 1$ accommodation in Don Det, Laos.

Biggest waste of money? Halong Bay

I second that. Although there were a few hair salon appointments that cost more....

Best tour? The Mekong Delta from HoChiMinh to Cambodia

Tubing in Vang Vieng.

Worst tour? Halong Bay

I'd go with the great wall 'tour'. Getting a tour guide who only spoke enough English to tell us to pay the road tolls and lie to us and say the vehicle needed to be inspected so we had to wait in this jade store....

Which tourist attraction overwhelmed you the most? The Killing
Fields in Phnom Penh.

Buddha caves, Datong, China

Which tourist attraction was the most disappointing? The Forbidden
Palace in Beijing.

Yeah...

When were you the most tired? In China.

Yesterday night, after 10 dives in 3 days.

When were you the most hungry? In China

Most of Thailand...

What do you regret doing the most? Nothing

Well... a better trip would have included more China, less Vietnam.

What do you regret missing the most? Dalat in Vietnam

Climbing in China.

What is the most important thing you learned on this trip? That I
have the best travel companion in the world!

If I let Tara spend money on her hair, she thinks I'm great.
But seriously: communism just doesn't work, and a lot of bad stuff happened over here during the Japanese occupation, Vietnam war, and Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Railway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandakan_Death_Marches

How many times did you wish you were back at home? Only a handful
of times... =p

Hmmm....

How many times did you wish you were back in Korea? Whenever I think about Taekkyon and all the friends we made.

Every time I think of kimchi or bibimbap.

What is the first thing you want to eat when you get home?
Tarantulas... oh we can't get them there can we? Okay, then, good
bread, cheese, and blueberries!

Brown bread, red wine, golden olive oil, and pink salmon. And my own cooking.

To the nearest hundred, how many people said 'hello' to you? About
3,500

Counting every annyong-haseyo/ni hao/sabaydee/sawatdee/etc I'd say closer to 3600, about 30 a day.

Out of the 120 or so nights spent in various forms of
accommodation, how
many would my mom have deemed acceptable? nice? luxurious?
Acceptable - 50%, Nice - 20%, Luxurious - 0.0083%

10% - 5% - 0%

What was your favorite dish? Green Mango Salad or Vietnamese
Spring Rolls

Cao Lao, in Hoi An.

What was your least favorite dish? Chinese vegetables sitting in 2 inches of oil.

Rice noodle soup just doesn't do it for me.

What part of the trip changed you the most? Experiencing how
people with virtually nothing can be so happy.

Definitely the teaching in Korea. Nice to feel like you make a difference.

To the nearest ten, how many times did you (Tara) drop/break/step
on/spill/lose
something? no comment... Andrew.

To be fair, it was probably about 30 times.

To the nearest ten, how many times did I (Andrew) wake up
yelling/sleepwalking/talking/etc? Probably once a week. I only slept walked once in our hostel in Bangkok. I woke up standing out in the hall wondering why Andrew was making such a big deal about me being out there!

I didn't, however, wake any other people up on this trip.

What were the three most interesting animals you saw in the wild?
Orangutan, Monitor Lizard, Leopard Shark

The monitor lizards were awesome, as was the civet cat, and the scorpions.

Just finished up our diving here in Semporna, Malaysia. Absolutely amazing... we saw just about everything there was to see underwater. Definitely would recommend Scuba Junkie (http://www.scuba-junkie.com/) to anyone else who is planning on diving Sipadan.
Well, days are getting short now. I think we are under two weeks till we are home. Hope all is well with everyone and we will see you soon. I will also try to get some pictures up from the jungle.
-Andrew