Here in South Korea it’s unfortunately just a boring Hyundai 4-door sedan. Sure, the driver drives like a maniac, but that’s no different than the US. It’s not nearly as fun and exciting as Vietnam — weaving in and out of traffic going the wrong way on the back of a motorbike. Or Thailand — going offroading sitting in the back of a truck bed with 8 other tourists. The following is primarily a picture blog showing the different taxi’s we’ve encountered by country.

One quick definiton: A tuk-tuk is the name most commonly given to these modes of transportation for hire and what I use to call a few of the following “Taxis”.

Southern China

The tuk-tuks in southern China make you feel like Robin from the old “Batman and Robin” TV show. “Holy Bill of Rights, Batman!”

Northern China – Beijing

The tuk-tuks in Beijing were slightly different. They were enclosed rather than open-air (most likely due to the cold weather). Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to ride in one, but I’d imagine there’s no chance they’re actually warm inside.

Vietnam #1

The most ubiquitious form of “taxi” is the motorbike. While walking down the street the most common thing to hear is, “moto?”. Most of the time I believe these “taxis” are simply people with motorbikes looking to make a few extra bucks.

Vietnam #2

Also in Vietnam, particularly Saigon, are the bicycle rickshaws. These are great because they drive into the traffic as if they’re indestructible tanks. But the motorbike’s actually do stop for them, it’s rather impressive.

Cambodia

Cambodia gets the most versatile award for their tuk-tuks. They’ve taken a standard motorbike, added a little hardware on the back and then simply tow a very comfortable 4 to 5 seater compartment behind them. What’s great is that the compartments seem easy to remove and then you’ve got your regular motorbike back again.

Thailand

Thailand’s interesting form of a share taxi is called a “songthaew” – I’m still not certain I know how to pronounce this correctly. Thankfully they’re also referred to as a “baht bus”. They’re simply a pickup truck with two rows of seats.

If you have any other interesting Taxi transportation methods, leave a comment, I always enjoy learning about new ways to get around town!

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Two days ago we flew out of Southeast Asia only to find ourselves back in China, the land of staring.  Jason and I both found that we were sad to leave SE Asia, even more so than I would have thought.  We will never forget our first trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand (yes, we plan on visiting these countries again due to the fact that there were many places that we never got to visit due to timing issues).  The cost of living in SE Asia is plenty of reason alone to make us want to come back, but discovering the other qualities that we were not anticipating were equally as amazing.  For the most part, these three countries could have been fairly interchangeable when it came down to it.  There wasn’t much of a middle class anywhere; there wasn’t much in between the major cities which were very developed to the families living in wooden shacks on farmland.  However, we were able to spend enough time in each country to notice that each country did have their own distinct flavor.

Vietnam

Out of the three SE Asian countries that we visited, Vietnam was our favorite.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was our first experience with a heavy tourist population, therefore there was English everywhere (which, coming from China, was a huge breath of fresh Vietnamese air).  Maybe it had to do with the fact that not only was there English everywhere, but the people were so used to tourists that the staring was almost non-existent.  The Vietnamese people seemed more open to helping us when we needed help, whereas some of the Chinese people took some time to warm up to us after we established the initial ‘smile and hello’ (they don’t encounter as many tourists, so it is completely understandable why they would be more curious and inquisitive).  Maybe it had to do with the fact that the food was completely amazing.  Or the fact that we attended two weddings and even stayed at the parents’ home of our new hotel manager friend.  I think it was all of the above.

Cambodia

Speaking of nice people, if I had to create an award for the nicest people on earth, so nice to the point that it was ridiculous, the Cambodian people would win hands down.  No contest.  I had heard from one of my friends’ boyfriends that the Cambodian people were the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and this became apparent immediately.  The Khmer (the Cambodian word for… Cambodian) people are genuinely nice and the children are the most smiley kids you will find anywhere.  Every smile you give will be met with an even bigger Khmer smile, and this goes for grown men as well, something that I found extremely rare in other countries.  If you are sitting outside of your hotel, the owners will light a mosquito coil at your feet just to make sure you don’t get bites.  They will serve you food from their own family’s dinner table and are extremely happy when you eat it.  They will take the day off of work to drive you around the city and buy you dinner just because you’re their guest.

Thailand

Unfortunately we were only in Thailand for 13 days due to stomach and Visa issues (clearly those two problems are meant to be experienced together) but it was clear from the second we got off our minibus to Koh Chang that this would be the most populated country of tourism we may ever visit.  I mean it wasn’t a big newsflash for us- everyone wants to visit or has visited Thailand, it’s the ultimate exotic beach getaway equipped with western food at every restaurant and “lady bars” to suit every hairy Caucasian male above the age of 50.  It seemed like there were more tourists than locals and there was virtually no need to learn any of the Thai language.  It was like being in a country that was built for tourists.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against this unlike many other tourists.  I’m not one of those “get away from all the tourists” types and I enjoy being around other people who are doing the same thing.  The people of Thailand were also extremely friendly and welcoming, although I didn’t see as many kids as I did in Cambodia which made me sad, but if I had I’m sure they would have been just as smiley.

Random Quote of the Day: In Bangkok we met up with a friend (Jason, the cyclist traveling throughout Asia- What’s up, Jason?!) for 7-Eleven beers on the side of the road (classy) when a Thai prostitute who must have won the “Most Desperate Hooker” award grabbed every man in her sight in attempts to make some cash.  She then came up to Jason (my Jason) and attempted to seduce him.  After about thirty seconds of obvious rejection, Jason (the cyclist) saved the day by telling the woman, “Sweetie, we’ve only been together for 6 months, I don’t think I can handle the competition.”

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I never thought I’d say this, but Jason and I are officially PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water scuba divers.  We took a three day training course on a rather large island in Thailand called Koh Chang and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.

I’m just going to say this upfront: this is not going to be a post about some miraculous occurrence during our dive training.  In fact, in the scheme of scuba trainings it was probably a very average, non eventful course.  However, if you compare that to the fact that it was absolutely incredible for us, it says a lot about scuba diving in general.

To be perfectly honest I had never expected to become a certified diver in any sense, and neither had Jason.  It was just one of those things that we felt was necessary.  We were in Thailand, after all, and becoming certified back in the States is significantly more expensive (so we heard).  After a few days of deliberating whether it was foolish to spend that much money on something that we may never do again, we of course decided to do it.  Why not, right?

In a nutshell, on day one we found ourselves watching instructional videos, completing some tests, and then heading to a huge Olympic sized pool for our confined water training.  On day two we boarded the boat and completed two of our very first dives!  Day three we were back on the boat and completed two more dives to complete our total of four dives, then we took a final exam to pass the course.

The most startling moment of my experience was the very first breaths of air I took underwater.  Our instructor had told us that one of the most difficult things for first timers to get used to was simply breathing underwater since our bodies weren’t meant to do such a thing.  I took this very lightly since I didn’t understand how that could be possible with the security of a regulator (the piece of equipment that supplies the air into your mouth), but the second I descended into the wonderfully clean pool, I experienced a very strange freak out.  I understood EXACTLY what it meant to feel that feeling of ‘we weren’t meant to breathe underwater’.  I mildly panicked, held my breath, then mildly hyperventilated for a few breaths, then eventually started calming down.  The number one rule in scuba diving is to never ever hold your breath.  I would say that not holding your breath during your first scuba descent seems impossible to me since you have learned to hold your breath underwater since you were a child.  It only took about 30 seconds to get used to this alien feeling, but it was one of the most bizarre things I have ever felt in my life.

Our first dive in the ocean was a crazy mix of emotions; excitement, fear (the ocean scares the sh*t out of me), anxiety, happiness, tranquility, etc.  Once I got over my initial fear of being eaten by a shark on my first scuba dive, my biggest fear was the descent.  You know the feeling when your ears feel pressure as you swim into depths deeper than five feet?  That’s what happens when the outside water pressure squeezes the air spaces inside your body- in diving you must “equalize” to blow air into your air spaces as you descend.  Unfortunately, this freaked both of us out on our first descent.  Jason had to go back up to the surface after a small panic attack while descending, something that is common among first timers.  He experienced pain in his ears, causing a mild hyperventilation and then the panic set in.

For anyone out there thinking about scuba diving for the first time, my advice is to do it.  Whether you are planning on taking the full PADI Open Water course, or you just want to do what’s called a Discovery Dive where you just go out for one day, you will find that diving is even more amazing in person.  There are not that many things I have experienced that impressed me more than I anticipated; I tend to get overexcited about things only to be disappointed.  That is not the case with diving.  DO IT!

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