SE Asia Backpacking Series : Ko Tao, Ko Samui, Ko Phi Phi, Chiang Mai (again :P) and Bangkok

Hello everyone! Long time no post! I wanted to post this earlier but the internet here is not always great and uploading pictures can be a pain. Now I have a decent wifi in my room in Nha Trang Vietnam so I will update you on how the trip has been going. First thing we did in Ko Tao was find a good diving resort for a couple fun dives. Our friends wanted to do the PADI Open Water Course so we went diving in the meantime. We dived 6 times, in 6 different sites, all of which were very nice. I reckon it's some of the best diving I have done so far (not that I have done that much :P).

 On our last day in Ko Tao, Mathieu and I went snorkeling in Shark Bay, where you can usually spot black fin sharks. We were able to see a bunch of different species of fish including one shark!

After that, we left for Ko Samui. In Ko Phangan, we met two girls from Quebec and decided to travel along with them for a while. We decided to follow them to Ko Samui as they were going there to celebrate one of the girls' birthday. We only stayed two nights. While we were there, we went to the Green Mango, a popular night club there. It was all a lot of fun :)

We left Ko Samui and headed straight for Ko Phi Phi where we spent a couple days. There, we went for two more fun dives (this time we saw a bunch of sharks and a sea turtle!) and a snorkeling trip to the beautiful beaches of the area, including Maya Bay, the place from the movie "The Beach". I wasn't so keen on the island itself though. It felt too crowded for the ressources and there was usually quite a bit of trash lying around. There were many nice restaurants there though and we even had a poutine! Who would've thought?

From Ko Phi Phi, we caught a boat to Phuket, were we stayed the night. Our plane for the north was leaving from there so we walked around the city a little bit during the day. After a pretty uneventful plane ride to Chiang Mai we were back, once again, in the north. Our friend had never been and since I quite enjoy it there, we decided it was fine to go back. This time, we went to a tiger farm, where you can pet tigers and take pictures with them and took a day long tour to the golden triangle and the white temple. The white temple was simply breathtaking and the paintings inside were amazing (pictures inside the temples aren't allowed in Thailand so I don't have pictures). We also went to the night market in Chiang Mai for some souvenir shopping, to see a muay thai show and to get thai massages. As always, Chiang Mai was a lot of fun and I'd definitely would go back in the future.

 Our friend's trip was getting close to its end by this point so we caught a night train back to Bangkok. After she left, Mathieu and I spent some time there to relax, went to the cinema, the arcade and ate huge amounts of japanese food. There are many great japanese restaurants at the MBK Center in Bangkok, I had no idea until this time that there was so much of it there!

We have been to Cambodia briefly since then and are now in Vietnam. Cambodia hasn't been the greatest experience for us, but we didn't stay very long which means it's hard to judge. I'll update in a bit on how it's going here in Vietnam! Right now I'm kind of sick and might go to the doctor tomorrow if it doesn't get any better. Not to worry though, I doubt it's anything serious, but I might needs some antibiotics to help speed my recovery :)

  That's all for now, hope you all enjoyed this :) How's all of your summers going so far? Let me know in the comments!

Backpacking tips : how to pack for South East Asia

So I'm leaving for a 10 weeks backpacking trip to South East Asia in less than twelve hours. This means that my bag is ready to go, so I thought I would share how I fit all the stuff I need in there! :D

Backpack
First, here is my backpack. It's an Outbound 55L backpack I got from Canadian Tire. I think it was around 79$. It has a front load pocket which I can access the bottom of the pack through, ajustable straps, padded back, internal frame and side pockets, to only name a few. It's perfect for a female's size in my opinion and it is very comfortable and affordable. It fits all my stuff perfectly, even though I have a tendency to over pack in terms of clothing.

This is everything I am packing into my back. Only thing that will not go into the pack is what I'm wearing on the plane (number 8 + a pair of leggings and a cami) and number 9, which will go into my boyfriend's pack.

As you can see, I divide my clothing into large freezer bags for easy packing and to help me find what I'm looking for quickly. It's neat and efficient when packing. I also divide the clothes by type, in this case : underwear, tops and bottoms.

What I'm bringing

1) Toiletry bag, if you want to see what's in there, check out the detailed post I made about it here

2) This a clothing bag, it contains all my tops

3) Hiking shoes

4) This bag holds yarn to make friendship bracelets to keep me entertained

5) Rain jacket, there is also my hoodie to the right, but you can't really see it because it's black

6) Toilet paper in a ziplock bag. Trust me, you will need it in South East Asia :P

7) This is another clothing bag containing underwear, socks, pjs and bathing suits

8) Croc shoes; those will be worn on the plane

9) First aid kit

10) Travel towel

11) Last clothing bag containing bottoms

12) Flip Flops

13) Sunscreen

A Closer Look 

First Aid Kit

This is my first aid kit, including medication, other useful accessories and insect repellent. It's quite large, but considering the duration of the trip, I don't think it's too much. We pretty much have everything covered.

I put everything in two makeup bags for easy packing. The larger the items you put in your pack, the trickier it will be since it doesn't leave many options. This way we can pretty much jam these in any available corners of the pack. We can also put only bare necessities in one of them for treks and day trips, which means we don't carry a bulky first aid kit everywhere.

Clothes

As I mentioned, I divided all my clothes by category into freezer bags. I rolled everything up in the bags to make them as compact as possible.

I have three bathing suit tops, 2 bottoms, 1 pair of pj bottoms, two tube tops. Not pictured : I also have 18 pairs of underwear in there (perhaps overkill, but I'm leaving for 72 days and hopefully I won't need to do the laundry too many times), 7 pairs of socks and 5 bras

I'm bringing 3 pairs of shorts (two of which are jeans material), a pair of hiking capris, a pair of black leggings, a jeans skirt and a pair of jeggings.

I might be bringing too many tops here, but again, 10 weeks is a long time and it all fits :P These are all tank tops. I also have a short sleeved shirt, but I was wearing it when I took the pictures. I figured since it will be really hot in SE Asia I don't really want to wear too many times the same shirt before washing it. These are all cotton and quite light weight.

How to pack it all in a backpack

It might seem like a lot to put inside my small backpack, so I thought I'd show you all how you can achieve the same :) 

First, I fit my toiletry bag at the bottom of the bag. It's the heaviest item in my pack and I like to have quick access to it. Since my pack has a front load pocket, I can still reach it easily even though it's at the bottom of the pack.

Then, I fit my hiking shoes on top before I zip up the pocket. They are heavy and kinda dirty so I don't want them in contact with my clothes. I don't mind having them touch my toiletry bag since it's plastified.

Then, I start filling the upper part of my pack through the opening at the top. I start by placing two of the freezer bags containing the clothing standing up side by side. 

Then, I place the third freezer bag flat over the two other bags. I also add my sunscreen (which is protected by a cosmetic bag in case it explodes) on top.

Then I just keep adding lighter things over until the pack is completely filled. Here, I added the yarn and my rain jacket which I rolled up.

Lastly, before I close the pack, I added my backpacking towel on top. (I can't wait to give it a try, I brought and extra large and was really surprised of how big it is even though it packs really tiny).

Now that the main compartment is filled, I place the toilet paper in the pocket inside the hood of my pack. That way I can reach it really easily at all time. Last thing you want is to dig inside your pack every bathroom break!

As of right now, I only have one of the side pockets filled. It contains my flip flops. Again, easily accessible, which is great.

This is how the pack looks when it's finished and full. I weighs 20,4 pounds which I think is very reasonable for a 10 weeks trip. Last time I went on a backpacking trip, I stayed 1 month and my pack weighed 17 pounds (at the time I also thought it was quite light). Anyhow, 20 pounds is quite easy for me to manage and doesn't block my movements, so it's perfect.

Plane Necessities

Here is my carry-on for the 29 hour flight ahead of me! It contains all my long haul flight necessities for comfort and entertainment.

I chose this cross body shoulder bag I got in Honduras a couple years back. I love it because it's lightweight, can contain a lot and it's festive for travelling, but most of all, because it's cross body, making it safer to keep your belongings when you're on the go!

In my carry-on :
-Plaid bag : Ipod, charger, ear phones
-Pink bag :  Camera and kindle chargers
-Zebra and red holders : Passeports (this way they are protected from humidity in SE Asia)
-Fuzzy socks (I hate getting cold and I'm wearing open shoes)
-Camera in Hello Kitty case
-Pen
-Ear plugs in case things get noisy
-My glasses in their case and my sunglasses
-Pink notebook
-Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and Pseudoephedrine (oral decongestant in case I get a runny nose, it's also useful if your ears are sensitive to the quick altitude variation when landing since it's often related to your airways being congested, which I often am)
-Kindle with tons of books
-Inhaler
-Tissues
-Inflatable neck pillow with fuzzy cover (it's really soft and packs up tiny)
-Baby wipes and makeup wipes to freshen up during and after the flight
-Eye cream
-Hand Salve
-Antibacterial gel
-Toothbrush and tooth paste
-Lip balm

That's all my must haves on a long haul flight! Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything and will be able to be comfy during the flight. I also have my immunisation booklet (not a clue how it's called in english), IDs, credit cards, plane tickets and all that good stuff in there as well.

And this is all I'm bringing on my 10 weeks trip to SE Asia! Hope you enjoyed and that it helped :) I will start updating with my trip soon, since I'm leaving in 6 hours!

Big thanks to my mom for helping me make this post happen! She helped me loads with pictures since I was a little short of time :)

Summer 2012 South East Asia Bucket List

Day dreaming about being here ♥

Still not done with my summer trimester. There is still about 2 and a half weeks left and in the meantime, I'm day dreaming about all the wonderful things I will get to do once I leave. Since there has been so many ideas whirling around in my mind, I thought I would compile a list of what I look forward to and what I really want to do, a sort of bucket list I guess you could say.

I simply cannot wait to start packing and enjoy the sun, the sand, the beach and the foods there. To this day, my trip to South East Asia remains my favorite and I'm beyond excited about going back now that I have more traveling experience!

Since it's not my first time in South East Asia, some of the things on here are repeats, things I have already done in the past. I've added them on there because I enjoyed them so much that I cannot see myself not doing it again :)

By the way, sorry for the recent lack of makeup looks recently, I got eczema around the eyes again and can't wear any makeup at all (plus it looks horrid :P) Hopefully it goes away soon!

What's your bucket list for Summer 2012? Let me know in the comments below!