Life As A Backpacker in South East Asia

Backpacking: what an adventure! Albeit, I think the majority of it was spent having drinks with other foreigners and lacking a little in the 'culture' department, but it was still a great time. I was only about 20 years old. This was my second time traveling overseas to South East Asia. I was on a Canada World Youth exchange program a year or two before, so I was able to reconnect with some friends living in Jakarta, Medan and Bali. I actually went back to the village that I spent months in volunteering. It was odd because I thought I would know my way back easily. I found myself questioning that confidence after about 20-30 minutes on a motorcycle taxi thinking to myself, "this doesn't look familiar" haha - my memory evidently has a sense of humour!

As for my time as a 'backpacker'... was it a 'cultural' experience? Did I take much from the trip that would help me develop my self? Do I have regrets about being on the beaten-to-death tourist trail? I answer yes and no to all the above questions. I look at life as if everything has a yang to its ying... a zig to its zag.. and so forth. I may have been on the 'tourist trail' but man did I have fun.





After meeting up with my Indonesian friends (aka CWY Alumni) I took a flight into Bangkok. I stayed a night on Khao San Rd by myself before meeting up with a couple good friends. Wow... what a place. I wouldn't go back there to stay, but I'm glad I experienced it. Everything is for sale on that road - and I mean everything. I spent a lot of my time hanging out with other tourists and my hometown friends swimming on rooftop pools, smoking cigarettes and drinking Chang beer. It was great. We would go into the seediest looking clubs just for the experience - a story to talk about at a later date. I still have the privilege of bringing these stories up to my buddies every time I am lucky enough to see them.

We went from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Yes, this is the tourist trail, and for good reason. Siem Reap is near Angkor, which is littered with over 100 temples that were built nearly 800 years ago. Angkor Wat is absolutely breathtaking; it is encompassed by a 1.5km square moat with carvings on the walls that create the peripheral boundary, with a trail that leads you to the central temple (pictured). We would  be able to climb all the way to the top of the stairs of the temple and watch the sunset. Our collection of friends grew larger, absorbing a couple Swedish guys who were also keen to drink beer with us ;)

We traveled all the way south to Sihanoukville and then through Laos along the Mekong, staying in little bungalows that were perched over the river. We also got into Vang Vieng - that was a weird place that made me a little sick to be a tourist. Let me paint a picture for you: imagine yourself walking up these dirt roads then hearing the TV show Friends being played at mid-volumes with a packed house of tourists eating and drinking, not so much conversing, but watching the show; then looking to your right (assuming the first place was on your left) and seeing the same thing... but maybe, just maybe, a different season of the show... I'm telling you, every single restaurant/bar was set up exactly the same way, playing the same show all day, every day. Aside from that, I guess the big attraction to this place was the climbing. The topography was incredible with Karst landscape as far as the eye could see. We did however go kayaking and tubing down the river, also taking a guided tour under these mountains where there were freshwater lakes, incredible drip curtains, stalagmites and other wickedly cool geologic features. I guess I was just really off-put by the Friends atmosphere that seemed so popular at the time.

To conclude, I would say that my time backpacking wasn't as rewarding as my initial experience in South East Asia as a volunteer. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, because it absolutely was. It was a different beast. What I'm saying is that I was cognizant of my impact as a tourist. It seems that it's almost a right of passage that these countries exploit their tourism sector in this way. Sure it boosts their economy, as they are largely dependent on tourism, but the externalities associated with it equates largely to a bunch of young drunkards polluting their most pristine environments. What I learned form this experience is how to be an ethical backpacker - how to enjoy myself but make the right choices that minimize my footprint on these gorgeous areas of the world. I think if I would do it again, I would look to get involved in some volunteer work, whatever that may be, to get engaged with local issues and meet local people. I think it's totally fine to enjoy beverages and hang out with a bunch of tourist - that's a lot of fun - but I would plan it in the future with a little more zig and less zag, if you feel me.

Cheers for reading all of that - congrats!

My next blog will be about my experience in Japan a year and a half ago.



Jayden Riley