How much did all of this cost? My travel summary.

Now when I’m back, I can finally summarise my trip.

I went travelling for almost 3 months (from 4^th of September - 22^nd November) and there were few reasons behind this particular length of time and dates:

1. The contract for our place in Newcastle run out on the 4^th of September that’s why I decided to begin my journey on that day

2. Since I graduated around May this year, I told myself that I will work full time for the next three months and whatever I earn within this time I will spend on travelling (I didn’t want to touch my savings). From my calculations that would let me to go travelling for around 3 months.

3. I planned to be back before December to still be able to catch the Christmas hospitality employment madness and get hired quickly for the Christmas period and a little bit beyond to repair my traveller’s budget as quick as I can after coming back (before I start to look for some more serious occupation)

4. From my experience of being in Australia for a year, I knew that long time away from home just doesn’t work for me and that I quickly reach the limit of excitement and new experiences absorption. After too long travelling, I get overwhelmed, permanently tired and I just want to go to home, to my own bed, familiarity and ‘normality’. Three month time of South East Asia was just perfect.

How much was the total bill?

My budget for travelling was £3000 (including flight tickets) and I spend probably around £2900. Which means I did fantastic!

-          The most expensive were the return flights to the UK (£640)

-          Right after that was transport around SEA, all the buses, train tickets, taxis, tuk tuks, ferries, and internal flights. Moving around didn’t happen every day, but every few days I had to spend on average £10-£20 on transport. I have been on 8 flight in SEA and apart from flights to UK the most expensive flight I booked was from Bali to Bangkok and it was around £110.

-          The next ‘expensive’ thing was accommodation. I say ‘expensive’ because for Western prices it wasn’t expensive at all. I made a rule for myself that I find the best looking place with the best location for around £5 (no more than £6/night), the best if its below that (and most of the time it was). Great majority of the time for that price I was getting a single room (often ensuite) and maximum number of beds I would accept to stay in was 4 bed dorm (females only if possible).

-          The cheapest thing of all times in SEA was the food and drinks. Everywhere and all the time (apart from North Vietnam...) there was wide availability of the most delicious and real Asian food for next to nothing. The best Pad Thais and Watermelon Smoothies I have ever tried were on food stalls on a streets of Asia for £0.40-£0.75. Phenomenal.

Overall I was spending around £20/day including everything in South East Asia.

The most useful things I had with me:

-          Iphone (Google Maps saved my life so many times! And personal hotspot kept me connected to the world where there was no wifi)

-          The plug extension (I bought my 3 socket extension in Cambodia and it was one of the best purchase I did. Once you arrive to the hostel you have at least three things to charge: phone, camera and laptop/netbook and you too often find only 1 socket in your room, very often at the opposite wall than where your bed is, and for some reason very often the socket is as high as the light switch)

-          My boyfriends hoodie (multipurpose – as a pillow, blanket, pillow cover (if the one you have looks dodgy), rain cover, towel if necessarily, its sleeves and pockets as an extra storage to bring your stuff to the airplane, etc)

-          Netbook (its just so good to have your own computer with you, I could transfer my photos and update the blog as I go. I alsoended up helping lots of people around who needed access to the computer and if not mine, there would be non around.)

-          DEET (although pure chemical and not very healthy for you, it was irreplaceable and worked wonders when it came to protection from mosquito bites)

The most not useful things I took:

-          Books (any kind that you don’t want to leave behind and end up carrying for 3 months in the packpack)

-          2 pairs of Nikes I thought I would need (WRONG! I only used flipflops for my whole stay in Asia)

-          Socks

-          Long sleeve tops (I was told they are necessarily for protecting you from mosquitoes. In reality it was so hot that even the thought of putting it on was making me dizzy.)

Things I wish I took with me from UK:

-          The shampoo (if you have any particular cosmetic needs and you are not familiar with Asian brands, you will NOT find what you are looking for or even a close equivalent of it in Asia)

-          A nice swimming suit (my boyfriend told me that I can buy anything I can imagine in Asia. Well, not the kind of swimming suit that I needed so much but could not find anywhere in SEA)

-          Nail varnish and nail colour remover (I ended up buying a ridiculously expensive ones in Vietnam - more expensive than in UK! Because the DEET + the varnish I had on me till then = big big mess)

-          Linseeds (my body is very grateful when I regularly eat them)

Things I missed the most while travelling:

-          My boyfriend

-          Evian water

-          The fact that you can open a window and the cold air comes in

-          Mosquito free life

-          Not needing to apply heavy sunscreen on my face every day

Things I will miss the most from SEA:

-          My relaxed and ‘I can afford EVERYTHING’ mood

-          Delicious and cheap cheap food

-          Fruit smoothies

-          Extensive contact with nature

-          Not being surrounded by TV, newspapers and people blindly repeating news and opinions and meeting very helpful and smiley people all the time and every moment being reminded that 99% of humans on this planet are genuinely of good nature.

During the last two months of my stay in South East Asia, the most frequent question I have been asked was ‘Are you travelling on your own? Are you not scared?’

‘Yes. No.’ – I would answer 

-          During 2 months of travelling on my ‘own’ (first month I was with Darwin) I never felt alone or lonely; you always meet people. In fact I found myself looking for a time on my own sometimes cause I was constantly surrounded by people and wanted some space.

-          What is it to be scared about? Do you take basic precautions like not walking on your own in the middle of the night on the back streets? Do you know how to buy a train/flight/bus ticket and travel in your own country? The same idea applies in Asia. You don’t know something? Ask. Something goes not according to the plan? Change your plan - you have no deadlines and no obligations. In the worst case you will loose few pounds by booking other hostel or another bus ticket.

-          When I was on my own, I found everybody twice as willing to help as when I was with Darwin or somebody else. I learned to use this fact for my advantage.

-          I learned to be (even more) assertive. Asians, especially in touristy areas are great at selling you things. Sometimes they convince you to buy things you don’t really want and often (too often) they make you feel sorry for them (e.g. 10 year old girl selling you postcards) and that’s why you end up buying things you don’t need. While it’s important to stay sensitive and recognize people in real needs, I learned not to spend my money where I felt pushed to do so and walk away not feeling bad about it.

-          I realised how much of a bad ass I really am. I actually believe that especially a girl has to have some balls to go travelling on her own in a first place! I love it and I think it a huge skill and advantage that helps and will help in many situations in life :)

Bali

I decided to write a separate post about the Indonesian island Bali, because it definitely deserves attention.

When going there, I didn’t know much about the island apart from  seeing it in the movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ with Julia Roberts and hearing stories from Stefanie who just couldn’t wait to go and take me there (Bali is a common weekend getaway for people from all over Indonesia, especially Jakarta).

Stefanie and I took the short domestic flight from Jakarta and 1,5h later we landed in Bali. The climate and atmosphere were straight away much different to what I experienced in Jakarta or Bandung. The hotness and extreme humidity reminded me of Fiji and the whole place felt like holidays and relax.

Stefanie found a great deal for accommodation on Groupon so our weekend was spent in a comfortable villa with a lovely swimming pool in Kuta city centre. Stefanie and her friends who joined us for a weekend didn’t let me rest – we hired a car with a driver (which was really cheap) and we visited several must-see places in Bali. The traditional dance in a sunset in Hindu Temple on top of the cliff was just spectacular.

Unfortunately Stefanie and her friends had to go back to work on Monday in Jakarta and I stayed another 9 days exploring Bali on my own. I moved to the North part of the island where I stayed in an unbelievably cheap hostel, right on the beach and where I met a lovely French girl Marine who became my travel companion for the rest of the time in Bali.

Hostel I stayed in for £4/night, including cooked breakfest and free drinking water

I will never forget almost every night nature performance of a spectacular thunderstorm in front of me, beginning far away on an open sea and within 1h or so reaching us with the heavy rain and lightening dancing around our hostel, while I was sitting comfortably on a sofa at the reception patio. For this show only it was worth going to Bali!

I even managed to catch one lightening on my phone camera

After spending in Bali nearly 2 weeks, I can agree with Stefanie – it is a place that no matter how many times you go to, something will always surprise you, there is always something more to see and you will never be bored. Bali offers such a diverse landscape – there are unreal cliffs and perfect waves for surfers in the South, long white sand beaches in the middle coasts, black sand beaches in the North, forests, Volcanoes, rice fields, waterfalls in the middle of the Islands that everyone will find something to do.

And most importantly – Bali is very very cheap.

I definitely felt in love with the place, with the relaxed and welcoming people, cheap and delicious meals. I can easly call it the Paradise Island.

I have been asked if I felt that the place is as spiritual as it’s presented in ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ movie and I have to say that I have not felt particularly inspired by it in that way. That is not to say that Bali is not spiritual – exactly opposite, I just think that because I was preparing mentally to going back home, I missed my boyfriend very much and I was moving around quite a lot I just didn’t fully hit the spiritual spot of the island. But it only makes me want to come back there one day, take my loved ones and experience Bali all over again. I will certainly consider Bali as my honeymoon destination as well :)

The last destination – Indonesia

This post has been in my mind for a long time, but I have been completely discouraged to complete it by the terrible quality of internet in Indonesia. The photos just wouldn’t upload and I thought the text without photos would not make much sense. Since all the photos are on Facebook now, I can write about my time in Indonesia.

Jakarta

Jakarta is a massive capital city of Indonesia. Although spending there almost a week... I don’t have many pictures of it. And if they are, they are inside cafes, restaurants or houses. It is because I have never seen such a difficulty of getting around the town as I have experienced in Jakarta. The population of this capital is almost 10 million, but including suburbs where from most people make their way to work in Jakarta every morning, the number rises to around 18 million (comparing to London with around 15 million people, including suburbs).

The problem with Jakarta is that there is no underground, trains, subway or any other public transport (apart from buses) that would make people move around the city therefore every family in Jakarta owns on average two cars (some have motorbikes) and as you can imagine it creates continuous, ever-present and unbelievable traffic jam on every road, pretty much at any time of the day.

The traffic is bad to the point that when people finish their work, they go to the closest shopping mall to hang out with work colleagues for the next few hours, just so the traffic can go down and they can go home in 20 min instead 2 hours time. It really is unthinkable to me.

I was very lucky that I stayed at Stefanie’s and I had her and her brother taking me in their car with them, so the hours and hours spend stuck in the traffic were actually not that bad. Its accurate to say that if you live in Jakarta you get old in your car (that you spend your life there).

Additionally, the traffic makes the city incredibly dirty and polluted and even more to that – there is no park or any green area that people would just walk to and relax. For that reason the social life happens in countless shopping malls around the city. 

What I found very interesting about the place, is that everywhere you can see random people directing the traffic and/or helping drivers to join the main road when they come from the side road or leave your parking space by standing in the middle of the street (like policeman when the traffic lights are broken, except that they are no officials) stopping other cars so you can pull out your car from the parking space. It is a great win-win situation where drivers get much needed help to navigate in a very tight traffic and 'street helpers' get the tip from every driver they help.

I genuinely feel sorry for all the citizens of the city like Jakarta, it must be really hard to find a balance of work and relax and healthy life in there. I'm so glad I had Stefanie and her brother there, because if I didn't, just for the city itself, I probably could say that I will never be back.

48h in Singapore

The quality of internet in Indonesia is very disappointing, especially after experiencing a super speed wifi in Singapore. The photos are already on facebook so I will not be putting them again here. It takes forever to upload them!

I was looking forward to see Singapore, I don't really know why because it is quite a new city/country without a depth of history like Thailand or Malaysia and therefore there is not that much to sightsee. I roughly knew that its very, even pedantically clean, quite expensive, its mostly made of tall corporate buildings, it has a famous zoo and botanic gardens (to which I didn't go) and that chewing and selling a chewing gum is prohibited.

I found out that people call it a 'fine city' because the famous ban signs are everywhere and you can get fines for almost everything: littering, smoking, eating, drinking and chewing the gum (government calculated that removing used gums from the pavements is more expensive than banning it all together).

I loved how clean and well maintained the place was, every detail of the city seemed to be thought through. I definitely loved the super extra fast internet (about which I only found out 2h before my leaving to the airport as it uploaded lots of my photos within seconds which normally take hours...), and at the end it wasn't as expensive as I though it would be - still cheaper than UK and the airport was fantastic: free hotspots and TV screens which play different films everywhere, so your time at the airport flies by.

On the flip side, I was the only backpacker I saw there. Singapore looks and feels like 'posh Asia', everyone is extremely elegant and everything seem very materialistic: the label of your shoes and brand of your phone matters. It has a fast pace environment and everyone around is wearing work uniforms and ID's hanging from their necks. Rush  rush rush.

Apart from walking around and admiring and absorbing the city vibes and views from outside, pretty much the only activity I did was the Flight Simulator Experience. The reason for it was because I only had one full day in Singapore and I wanted to do something I havent done in Asia before. I have seen places like Botanic Gardens. Animals in captivity (ZOO) and even Warner Bros Studio (something like Disneyland) were not quite what I was looking for.

 There are only few simulators like that for a public use, I know for sure one is in Melbourne and one here in Singapore. Although it is an exact replica of cabin of Boeing 737, the graphics through the 'windows' were not that great ( I choose to fly from Krakow to Katowice but first time I realised that there is a desert between these two cities). The simulator also didn't move while turning the airplane which I'm sure would be a fantastic addition. Although I think the price was a bit high for it (around £80 for 30 min flight), it was an amazing experience and I will never have the same feelings while entering an airplane again because now I know what the pilots in a cabin are doing :)