So Not Lost!

Tubing, for better or for worse, has become the activity most associated with Vang Vieng in Laos. It has become THE thing to do there, with the town’s entire industry effectively built around it.

To the uninitiated, tubing is essentially taking an inflated inner tube (or any ring-shaped floatation device, for that matter) and floating down the Nam Song River.  Every day (or more accurately, every afternoon), hordes of backpackers float down the river, stopping only to “refuel” by grabbing a Beer Lao or a bucket of some whisky mix.

It’s a love-it-or-hate-it thing for tourists in the area; some scoff at the idea and try it just once (or never try it at all), while others find themselves sticking around in Vang Vieng far longer than they thought they would.

If you are at all interested in tubing, here are a few basics you need to know before you do so.

bars along Nam Song River

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It’s unfortunate that when one mentions Bangkok these days, the first thing that people think of is violence and danger, no thanks to the ongoing Redshirt drama. Indeed, people are reconsidering and ultimately dropping Bangkok from their itineraries following recent violence in the city which saw a Japanese tourist wearing a red shirt get beaten, not to mention calls by Arthur Frommer – not once, but twice – to completely avoid not just Bangkok, but the entire nation of Thailand.

(As I’m writing this article, things have only gotten worse, so much so that I personally wouldn’t recommend going to Bangkok right now, either.)

And that’s a shame, because Bangkok is such a wonderful city. I visited it at the end of February this year, just a little over a month before the madness began, and I had a great time there. One of the major factors that contributed to my enjoyment of Bangkok was the food. All you need to do is walk around Bangkok, and you’ll find some great Thai food, either at a roadside stall, a sit-in restaurant, a marketplace, or anywhere within walking distance from the city’s major tourist attractions. Step outside the Royal Palace, for example, and you’ll be greeted by an entire area with plastic chairs and tables, large umbrellas, and signs advertising Pad Thai.

Thai street food stalls

In Bangkok, I was fortunate enough to reconnect with Mark Wiens, who I’d met in Manila the previous year thanks to CouchSurfing Also known as Migration Mark (or simply @migrationology to Tweeps in the know), Mark introduced me to some delicious authentic Thai food. It’s always great when you’re taken care of by someone who’s “in the know,” and Mark is definitely “in the know” when it comes to Thai food, as evidenced by his list of 100 Food Dishes To Eat Like a King in Bangkok: The Ultimate Thai Eating Guide.

with Thai food expert Mark Wiens (yes that's the best photo we have together)

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I decided to take it a little easier on my first full day in Singapore, leaving most of my sightseeing for the walking tour I was planning to do the next day.

Because I was staying right at the heart of Little India, I figured the most natural start of my day was to look around that particular neighborhood. Little India is very different from the rest of Singapore, pulsing with a different, vibrant energy. It really does feel like a slice of India within Singapore, even as it (generally) conforms to Singapore’s penchant for cleanliness. The shophouses in the area have been restored and repainted with bright colors, making them even more eye-catching.

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I woke up on Saturday morning wondering if I made the right decision to stay for just one full day in Kuala Lumpur. On one hand, I’d already seen all the major sights and destinations that I wanted to visit: Petronas Towers (even if I didn’t get to go up on the skybridge), KL Tower, Bukit Bintang, Merdeka Square, Little India, Chinatown, and Jalan Petaling. On the other hand, there were still a lot of things I missed out on. I didn’t get to enter a single museum, for example, though whether or not that was such a big loss is still debatable. I didn’t stay long enough to get the hang of the railway system. I missed out on some quick day trips outside of the city center, like Putrajaya or the Batu Caves. As I started to gather my things, I contemplated staying in Kuala Lumpur just a little bit longer.

I didn’t have a set schedule for Kuala Lumpur and Singapore; all that was set in stone was that I had to be in Singapore by Tuesday morning to catch a plane to Macau. I debated whether or not to spend a little more time at Kuala Lumpur at the expense of time spent in Singapore. Ultimately, I decided that not seeing everything at least gave me some incentive to return to Kuala Lumpur in the future. With that decided, I called up the bus companies to figure out the departure times of their buses to Singapore. I settled on one that left at around noon.

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The second half of my whirlwind tour of Kuala Lumpur began after the lunchtime rain. While seeking refuge from the rain in a restaurant along Jalan Bukit Bintang, I tried to plot out the rest of my day. The guidebook I borrowed included suggestions for some walking tours around Kuala Lumpur’s Colonial District and Merdeka Square, Little India, and Chinatown. Each tour route seemed to flow into each other, so that was the perfect itinerary for the second part of my day.

I walked towards the nearest train station, but I was sidetracked by a couple of malls that I had to go through in order to get there. Okay, that made it sound like I didn’t want to go through the mall; the truth is that my guidebook mentioned a Borders bookstore at one of the malls I was going to pass through, so I had to check it out. Being at Borders was like the mothership calling me home. The bookstore carried a lot of books that I was interested in: Plays and scripts, travel books, even Broadway music sheets. I picked up a few books (a couple of plays, a Bill Bryson book, and a pocket guide to Singapore) then continued with my plan for the afternoon.

The first stop on my walking tour was supposed to be Masjid Jamek, one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, I spent so much time distracted by Borders that by the time I got there, it was closed to visitors (or at least I assumed it was closed to visitors). The exterior looked absolutely wonderful, and I had a nice view from the top thanks to the train station beside it. It’s too bad I didn’t (or couldn’t) go inside.

From there, I walked towards Merdeka Square, passing beside the Sessions and Magistrates Courts. That building was built in 1910 to house the Federated Malay States Survey Department. It’s a pretty (and large) building that was a good introduction to the architecture at the old Colonial District.

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