Asian awards 2013

We spent a whole year in Asia, mostly south east but also Indonesia and the Philippines. So we thought after the South American awards last year we should also give awards for the things we liked the most in Asia.

We started in Hong Kong which we count as a country here. Then we went through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and finally, Brunei Darussalam.

best food award

This was quite a debate. Thai food just won, Vietnamese getting a very close second place. It's fresh, tasty, healthy, often cheap and almost impossible to cook bad. If you can handle the spices, that is.

most exotic culture award







Definitely China. Basically no English anywhere. Cantonese (or Mandarin, sounds the same to us) is extremely hard to pronounce and let's not even start about the writing... The people are as different to us as it gets. But it is safe for tourists, and magically, things always work out somehow in the end.

best diving awards

Indonesia is a diver's dream. There's everything from the smallest to the biggest. Everything! And often it's very affordable.

best accomodation award

Often it's not dirt cheap but the quality was always good. Even the cheapest rooms have flat TV and hot water. Consistency won for Vietnam. It's always good.

best historical site award

Angkor Wat and the surrounding ruins in Cambodia. It's such a big area, you can spend weeks here if you're into this sort of thing. The work and money that went into the restauration is incredible. Also incredible is the bribes you need to pay to become a guide at this UNESCO world heritage site...

most relaxed award

In Laos you can just be, without being shouted at or without any big rip-offs. Outside Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng, that is. Sit down, grab a Beer Lao and just stare at all the green around you.

best airport award

Singapore's airport is just worldclass! You could be happy to spend a few days just exploring the parks, restaurants and cinemas here. Or you might never want to leave.

most adventurous travelling award

You get nowhere easily in the Philippines. 5 hours on the roof of a jeepney because there's no more space inside or being soaked in seawater for 9 hours on a bangka, every trip is exhausting. But more often than not, it is worth all the hassle.

friendliest people award

Cambodians love to joke, always smile and are extremly friendly. Never ever did we get a bad tempered answer just because we didn't feel like buying something. We always felt welcome in Cambodia. And all this after the hardship they had to go through in the past years, it's very moving. Just thinking of Cambodia and its people still brings a smile on our face.












best people watching award

Life happens on the street in Vietnam. We spent hours and hours drinking coffee and watching the life go by. And just to see for the first time children crossing the streets in Vietnamese traffic is stunning.

best beds award

There are some terrible beds out there, believe me. Cambodia though had some of the best and also best priced beds we've come across.

easiest travelling award

In Thailand you can get a ticket to anywhere and everywhere. Choose any agancy, tell them where you're heading and you get there. If it takes 3 buses and 3 boats through 3 countries you'll get it, on one ticket. Makes you lazy.











best big city award

We normally don't feel comfortable in big cities but Hong Kong was different. We spent a week here without getting bored! (For us, that IS long in a city!) It's easy to get around and very safe. It's chaotic in a nice way. Old and new often only one street apart. Good shopping too. Beaches, viewpoints, markets. What else do you need?













cheapest diving award

On Ko Tao we dived for 17€ per person. In Indonesia we paid at least 20. So, 17 wins.















least dangerous traffic award

Brunei Darussalam has clearly the most polite drivers. They stop even when you are not planning to cross the road. You could walk around blindfolded and not get a scratch. And that is worth an award in Asia.













best coffee award

Vietnam's very strong and very sweet coffee is just the best. Enjoy it hot or cold. After about three of them you can't sleep for two days. And still you want more of it.














most breathtaking landscape award

The views you get around Yangshuo and Xingping are the best we've ever seen. The river that runs through hundreds of high peaks is lined with bamboo and water buffalos. If you climb up a hill, you'll be alone. It's truly breathtaking.












most budget friendly award

Apart from Luang Prabang, Laos is very reasonable priced. A motorbike for 4€ a day and a whole ensuite bungalow for 3€ a night you get in busy places. Now imagine how little you pay far off the tourist trail.













best capital award

Hanoi is so busy and often hot that you forget everything else and just concentrate on the streets ahead of you. It's beautifully chaotic, but also colourful and full of flowers and trees. Amazing food everywhere, coffee shops and stylish boutiques, Hanoi is our all time favourite.












best national park award

The Komodo national park in Indonesia is stunning over and under water. For the small amount you pay they seem to do really well. The guides are friendly and full of information and are your only insurance when you encounter the dragons. Also the amount of fish around Komodo is incredible. Everything from sharks to manta rays frequent the reefs here. Also recommended: watching the sunset from the deck of a boat after a great day of diving.

pity award

 Malaysia was several times so close to win but there was always something wrong. It's hard understand what Malaysia is, or wants to be. It's a big collection of good and not so good. But they have orangutans and that's great. It's still worth a short visit.

Sultans and gingers

We didn't just come to Borneo to dive. Everyone knows what this island is famous for, our ginger brothers the orangutans! There's a rehabilitation centre a few hours away from KK but aparently it's so crowded that we didn't bother going. So we had to go elsewhere and that was the state of Sarawak. KK lies in the state of Sabah, in the north east of Borneo, Sarawak in the middle north. Between these states lies, like a wedge, the sultanate of Brunei. Or Brunei Darussalam, the "pagoda of peace". We checked flights and buses and came to the conclusion it would make most sense to take a boat to Brunei and then a bus to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Because Brunei is cut in two parts and the two Malaysian states are autonomous, it would take us hours just to get through the checkpoints if we would do all by bus. We also booked tickets home. This was a sad moment, pressing the "book" button on our flight to Europe. Now it was clear, we were going home,

The boat to Brunei leaves at the harbour in KK. It's actually two boats there's a stop at Pulau Labuan, a tax free island where casinos are getting in the dirty cash which is not liked to be seen on the muslim mainland... The boats were fast and cold! We haven't been this cold since the Andes and we couldn't see the point of cooling down a boat to 15 or so degrees when everyone comes in wet from sweating. It's just stupid. In Brunei we arrived outside Muara, a town on the north coast about an hour away from the capital Bandar Seri Begawan where we were heading. At the harbour we hoped to get a bus heading to Muara but there weren't any. There was a bus stop but no buses. I asked a police man about it and he started to explain that there should be one coming only to be interrupted by a taxi driver shouting something in Malay. From then on the police man said that there are no buses and we should go with this man and his taxi. He didn't even have a taxi, it was just a normal car. Our first encounter with a Brunei official wasn't the best.

We decided to ignore the drivers and to wait for the bus. At the bus stop. After two hours Anni went to ask someone and they didn't know but one man working at a travel agency offered to drive us to Muara town after his shift was over. For free! He refused money and hurried us in the right bus heading to Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB. He also warned us that Brunei is boring. Nothing to do, no alcohol, no parties, just quiet. The opposite of Thailand. The ride was nice, it remembered us a bit of Singapore, everything green and clean, big houses and good cars. The capital was not that big and we walked to a guesthouse mentioned in the Lonely Planet. The price was high but then Brunei isn't cheap. The room was ok but the toilets were pretty bad, thinking about what we paid for it. Then we went for a stroll and dinner in a cafe and we liked it! The cars stopped when we wanted to cross the road and the food was good quality. We also got good photos of the big mosque at sunset, the ultimate Brunei shot.

The next day we just walked around and tried for the first time to follow lonely planets walking tour. We took a shortcut after 10 minutes to the big mosque. Sadly it wasn't visiting hour and non muslims are asked to stay away. At the river we took a water taxi to have a closer look at the floating village, the world's biggest. It's huge. We just saw a small part of it and it's fascinating how everything is on stilts, houses, walkways, towers, mosques and big schools. Here live the people who built Brunei. All the immigrant workers who can't afford land in the tiny sultanate and don't earn enough to even dream about doing so. Just like in Switzerland. We really wanted to get in to one of the two big mosques but one was closed and the other far away and I was getting sick so we called it a day and booked tickets out of the pagoda of peace.

Early the next morning we caught a bus to Miri in Malaysia. There we had to get another one all the way to Kuching. We left Miri at 12:30 and arrived in Kuching around 02:00 in the morning. We thought the "terminal sentral Kuching" would be quite central but it wasn't. It's about half an hour drive away from the city. There were only taxis waiting and they didn't bargain. Not an inch. And we had no power at this time with no other options and they knew it. So we paid and left. After not much sleep it was time to change the hostel, it was expensive and not worth it. So we walked through half of the city with our backpacks. That makes you realize the extreme heat and humidity in Borneo. It's hot. And I was getting more sick every day. The hostel we chose looked awful from outside but was very new and cosy inside. Nice staff and a good room for a decent price. Just the other guests were a surprise. Everyone was sick. It felt like a hospital, coughing and sneezing everywhere, people running to the toilet and back, it was just great. We stayed over two weeks with me being sick first and then Anni. We couldn't go anywhere so we read a lot and used the internet. We also had the first interesting converstions since Cambodia with a young lad working in the hostel about Malaysia, corruption and how dangerous it is to say these thing out loud in public. Scary.

Finally we got to see orangutans. Not in the wild but almost, in a rehabilitation centre where they nurse injured or orphaned monkeys back to health. They live in the forest surrounding the park and are free to leave whenever they please. They are also free to come to the feedings so sometimes there's many of them, sometimes none. Our bad luck was that we went there on a sunday. It was packed with locals. Asians behave, in our eyes, pretty bad in public places, screaming and pushing like a group of teens in a Justin Bieber concert (or at least that's how I imagine a Justin Bieber concert). First the rangers made an announcement on how to behave when the orangutans are coming. Be quiet. Then they led the crowd to a feeding place where they thought the monkeys would be most likely to show up. They didn't. Either they weren't hungry or it was just too loud. There are signs everyweher saying you should be quiet, in English and Malay, but no one cared. On the way back to the exit there was suddenly noise in the trees and branches were cracking. Orangutans! Just above our heads they climbed along the ropes that are fixed for them, like highways, through the trees. It was fantastic to see but hard to enjoy with all the others yelling and boxing their way to the best spots.

On one of our last days we set off to catch a bus to the Bako national park, a peninsula close to Kuching. It was the main day of celebrations for the state of Sarawak. A good day we thought, so everyone would be in the city watching the parades. It wasn't, public transport didn't work that day. No buses, not even taxis! So we joined the crowd, got a Malaysian flag from someone and headed slowly back to the hostel because there were no parades going on at the moment. We saw enough already, the last few days was training for the army for the big day and there were police cars and tanks driving past our hostel and fighter planes flying low over the city. That was it. The last days. We packed how we always packed and shared a cab to the airport. The last time through Kuala Lumpur and on to Bangkok where we spent our last night in Asia. The next morning we flew with Norwegian's Dreamliner to Stockholm (for 200€)! It was a nice finish, or at least a flight i looked forward to.