I'm headed back to South East Asia this summer! I was wondering what I was going to do the whole time. All my friends will be in the middle of their college term and Home Sweet Home Nakhon Phanom won't be the same without my canadian partner in crime. Then it hit me. I can do all of the things I wanted to do when I was sixteen but didn't have quite enough freedom or time to do. For example, take the train from bangkok all the way down to Bali. I'm not joking. As a U.S. citizen, I don't need a visa to go to any of the countries in SE asia for shorter periods of time. I can take the train and get off along the way at different beaches, take a few ferries out to the islands and then return back on the train down to Bali and back!
Just imagine it. Monsoon season. Spicy noodle soup. Teal waters. White beaches. The full moon party on Ko Phang Ngan, venturing farther and farther south where the Wats (buddhist temples) give way to mosques, The Perhentian islands, Climbing Mount Kinabalu, Trekking through the Mangrove swamps and seeing the giant fireflies light up the rivers, dancing in Kuala Lumphur, and heading farther and farther south.
Borneo, Singapore and finally Indonesia! I'll try and meet up with an Indonesian I knew 4 years ago and then I'll head back up the way I came. Stopping at the andaman sea, making doing some rock climbing on the cliffs there, farther and farther north, back to bangkok.
The 2nd class train ticket from Bangkok to Bali is roughly $50. At least, that's what I've seen so far.
All I need now is a buddy to go with me. I was thinking about maybe meeting up with some Israelis. My summer should be incredible.
