Not-So-Monthly Travel Update: SE Asian Invasion

Since we’re changing regions, we figured this would be a great time to give a trip update. August 15th will officially mark the end of our 20th month since we got rid of it all and started roaming around the world. So what better time for an update than now, as we trade in tropical beaches for extreme desert heat. We’ve actually completely changed our initial plans and later in this update will explain why and where we’re roaming around next! This is one big update, encompassing several months, but we’ll try to keep it brief. So let’s get started!

Our Entire Southeast Asia Trip at a Glance

• Time Period: 115 days (16.5 weeks)
• Countries: 4
  • Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines
• Number of beds slept in: 42
• Place-to-place transport segments: 37
  • Planes: 8
  • Boats: 16
  • Trains: 3
  • Busses: 14
  • Vans/Cars/Motorbikes: 4
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites Visited: 4
  • Georgetown (MY), Gunung Mulu National Park (MY), Kinabalu Park (MY), Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PH)
• Dives logged: 10
• Different types of locally-brewed beers sampled: 89

Route & Highlights of Roaming Around the Malaysian Peninsula

Our (last) Month #17 Travel Update left off with us departing Thailand for Malaysia.

It was the happenstance of an inexpensive flight to Kuala Lumpur at a time when our 30-day stay was ending in Thailand that brought us to Malaysia’s capital. We really didn’t know much about this country before coming in and we never intended to travel here. Kuala Lumpur was initially a place to simply figure out where our next destination was going to be, so it’s a bit ironic that we ended up staying there longer than any other country we’ve traveled to so far!

Malaysia turned out to be one of our biggest surprises during our travels. And we really packed it in during those six and a half weeks, from the moment we landed in KL, where we marveled at its huge Patronas Towers and the enormous shopping malls. From there it was a quick jaunt to Langkawi to explore the ecology of this mountainous island off the country’s Northwest Coast.

Then we ferried off to Penang for some incredible eats in the UNESCO region of Georgetown, before doing a complete about-face. We turned right back around the Langkawi to celebrate our wedding anniversary in style at the amazing Danna Langkawi. After that, it was time to cool off in the Cameron Highlands to explore its famous tea plantations and do a bit of hiking. Moving on, it was a quick detour to Singapore to visit a friend who took us around exploring this vibrant city’s nightlife while, taking in a few tourist sites during the day.

Route & Highlights of Roaming Around Malaysian Borneo

We soon jetted off to Malaysian Borneo, which would end up being a highlight of our travels. Shortly after landing in Kuching, we got our first tastes of the amazing wildlife with introductions to proboscis monkeys and orangutans. It was soon time to descend to the underground again, so we set a course to the enormous Mulu Caves where we attempted to venture into the largest cave chamber in the world.

We then took a series of tiny flights to the extremely remote Kelabit Highlands for some trekking, cultural immersion, and more amazing food in and around the village of Bario. (Am hoping to post much more about these latter two experiences.) Next of the agenda was Malaysian Borneo’s other half – Sabah – and we made a beeline to the famed dive site of Sipidan, which totally lived up to its reputation of one of the best dive sites in the world. I’m still compiling all the incredible video which we also look forward to blogging about.

We then went from spotting turtles and sharks to searching for pygmy elephants and crocodiles, which took us on a series of photo safaris up and down the Kinabatagan River.

Route & Highlights of Roaming Around the Philippines

Our journey through Malaysia came to an end in the seaside city of Kota Kinabalu that has inexpensive connections to the Philippines. Since we’d always wanted to travel here, it was natural progression in our itinerary.

Our stay in the Philippines began in its capital, Manila, and we arrived just in time for Fourth of July celebrations, which is celebrated here as Filipino-American Friendship Day. We didn’t hesitate for a chance to indulge on a hot dog and watch some fireworks!

Just as Tropical Storm Egay (Linfa) was bearing down on the Philippines, we departed on a nauseating 24-hour ferry ride, followed by a series of subsequent “trains, plains, and automobiles;” or in this case “boats, busses, and tricycles.” We finally arrived at Moalboal in time for the weather to improve enough to get our first taste of the Philippines’ underwater world.

We then ventured to the tiny town of Oslob for the absolutely incredible experience snorkeling with whale sharks. https://youtu.be/2WGB2nEL87k We reluctantly left those gentle giants and ventured down to the university town of Dumaguete and onward to the tiny secluded Apo Island, where the agenda was: relaxing, scuba diving, and snorkeling around with more sea turtles than you could ever imagine.

After making our way back to Cebu, we hopped over the Palawan, landing in the town of Puerto Princesa. Its from here that we embarked on an excursion that took us into what is known as the longest underground river in the world, Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River.

Yet, for us, the real highlight of Palawan was all the incredible island hopping, which we did lots of at the island’s northern reaches, around El Nido.

After an all-day ferry to the island of Coron, we took in our first-ever wreck dives, exploring Japanese vessels from WWII, which was simply awesome. https://youtu.be/s82ITSJzs_Q We finally wound back up in Manila, where we once again could reap the benefits of reliable Internet and plot our next moves!

From Islands to the Desert to Bavarian Beer: This Is Where We’re Roaming Around Next!

Those next moves have brought us to here in the scorching hot desert environment of the Middle East. We’re now roaming around the United Arab Emirates, basing ourselves in Dubai. So how did we end up here? Well it begins with the idea of returning to Europe by the Fall (more on that in a minute). So it dawned on us that we’re in the perfect position for one of travel’s ultimate journeys: the Trans-Siberian Railway! Our plans from the Philippines was to continue this journey through Southeast Asia.

Vietnam was the logical next step geographically. And we then had some really interesting plans to explore China. That would take us into Mongolia, where we’d prepare for our rail voyage across the huge expanse of Russia. Sounds great, right? We sure thought so. But it turns out that obtaining the visas for all of those countries is extremely time consuming and quite costly. We also discovered that technically US citizens can only obtain a Russian visa from in the US. And while some online accounts suggest loopholes which could potentially get us that visa abroad, if it didn’t work out – we would have unnecessarily squandered weeks of our time and hundreds of dollars (possibly about a thousand) in visa fees and associated expenses.

This would then leave us in a bad predicament of scrambling to buy expensive last-minute airfare. As our budget continues to dwindle, we can definitely come up with much better spending opportunities than to waste it away on administrative fees, last-minute plane tickets, and lots of headaches. That’s when I spotted a cheap flight from Manila to the Dubai. A lowly $200 would transport us 4,302 miles away to this futuristic desert oasis we’re now writing from. So just like that, our entire itinerary completely morphed. From Dubai there are a number of connecting flights to Europe and elsewhere in the region, so flying there seemed to (literally) be our ticket out of southeast Asia. The Great Wall and an epic journey on the Russian rails will have to wait for some other time, as we’re now excited to explore a entirely different region! And what round-the-world itinerary is complete without a stop at the famous pyramids of Giza! After the UAE we’ll begin a two-week itinerary going up the Nile and roaming around ancient Egypt! It should be an interesting time to visit Egypt post-revolution. And it shall certainly be an interesting biology experiment to see how our bodies react to the extreme desert heat we’re expecting there. Current forecasts are predicting temps reaching 117° F (wtf!?)

This pic was actually taken at a movie set we visited while in Morocco.

We’ll eventually need to cool off, so we’ll change continents yet again, winding up back in Europe after having left there nearly a year prior. A flight from Egypt will take us to Budapest, Hungary, where we’ll be looking forward to some goulash and beer! We haven’t really had a chance to plan out anything in Budapest yet. So if you’ve been, we welcome you to drop us a line with any recommendations! After Hungary, we have no idea where we’ll be roaming next. Except for one thing… We’re going to Oktoberfest!

We first visited Munich in August 2014, a little too early for Oktoberfest. (Though its never too early for beer & pretzels!)

By October 1, we’ll be back in Bavaria for Europe’s ultimate Fall Festival! We’re heading to Munich where we’re hooking back up with Stoke Travel (who we joined previously for the Haro Wine Fight). We’re getting pumped for one helluva party! And if you have a wild hair, its not to late to come join us! Stoke Travel has some really fun and cheap Oktoberfest accommodation. So come join us in Munich for a liter or ten!

Last year we attended an Oktoberfest event in Brasov Romania. Now we’re ready for the real thing!

Once our märzen-enduced hangovers wear off, we’re hoping (fingers crossed!) to score another repositioning cruise deal, returning back to the USA. If it works out, this will mark our third voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and will also mark the first time we’ve made it fully around the world! But we’ll see. Our plans are always evolving, so it’ll be remarkable if we can even manage to follow the journey we just laid out here. Phew, that’s a lot! I’m a little exhausted just think about what lies ahead yet looking forward to every minute of it! As always, thank you for following along this crazy journey of ours!