Best of the best

On this trip I have encountered many new and exciting things. Of the more familiar things I now want to present You the best ones… So here we go!

The best food

Hard one. Chinese food was as good as it was diverse. On the other hand, Thai food they really know how to make their fried rice or pad thai or thai curry. I would call it a draw with a slight inclination towards the Chinese chow.

Laying on the beach, by the way, one comes across with many thoughts. One of them was my “top-in-the-world cuisines”, i.e. what type of food I really like and would especially enjoy preparing and eating. I came up with this list in no particular order: Mexican (is so good I can’t believe they eat it everyday), Italian (love it all), Israelian (lot of influence from Arabic food), Indian (the vegetarian stuff is especially good), Thai, Chinese, South Korean (the best made warmed-up seafood), Japanese (sushi and e.g. Osakan omelette is soo good). I guess I would be eating this back in Finland then. And lot of green stuff, organic stuff and especially I would like to start making these delicious shakes I have enjoyed with Silja here in Indo-Chinese countries.

Winner: inconclusive

The best beer

Tsingtao (Chinese) is definitely better than Finnish lager. It’s milder and more refined (subtle). There are, however, better options. The Vietnamese Tiger beer was maybe a bit better than Tsingtao. The taste of the Tiger was matched only by Chang beer in Thailand. As Chang is stronger (still very cheap) I would say Chang beer wins this battle. I heard Chang beer’s alcoholic content can be anything between 4-10% (officially it’s 6,x %). Tastes still good and gives you a good run. The acclaimed Beer Lao did not impress me and tasted something like Finnish lager, again. This was the case with Singha from Thailand as well.

Winner: Chang beer

The best massage

Chinese massage was quite generic but good (I don’t know how a massage can be bad). It was somethinglike what we in Western countries are used to. Thai massage, on the other hand, is based on using a lot of force and by pressing muscles for longer periods of time instead of the faster western massage-style. While Thai massage was excellent, I found the combination of Lao herbal sauna and Lao massage to be unbeatable. The Lao massage was very calm but firm massage where one could just fall asleep as it was done so gently. And yet the effects were as in any massage. We nearly could stand up after this Lao treatment.

Winner: The combination of Lao herbal sauna and Lao massage

The chillest place

Lao was definitely the chillest country of the lot. So laid back everywhere. It’s kind of hard to choose between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Luang Prabang had many chill-out moments but I was having a food-poisoning there and could not enjoy all there was to chillax. In Vang Vieng we did the tubing just on perfect timing, starting before the drunk crowds and ending up having very nice and chill time with other Finnish people along the river. And the music in the Mud Bar was so good and felt so perfect at the moment… The lagoon place where we rode to with motorbikes was also very laid back and chill. It reminded me of Luang Prabang’s Kuang Si waterfalls…Kuang Si was better though. I have to say Vang Vieng surprised me positively and will feel inclined to promote it to be the chillest place on this trip.

Winner: Vang Vieng (against expectations; really it was just a matter of timing)

The best place for party

I will exclude Beijing from this - being so obvious winner because of the amount of friends with whom I had good time there. Because having good time with friends counts more than the surroundings. If it was more up to the surroundings the answer definitely would be Koh Pha Ngan. The parties were in such a beautiful place and the music was awesome, people were nice and the atmosphere still remained relaxed even though the beach was packed with loads of people dancing with their buckets in their hands. I also partied in Hong Kong, in Halong Bay (Vietnam), Hanoi (Vietnam), Vang Vieng and Koh Samui. In a way I partied also in Koh Tao and Bangkok but still, not that much. I found a lot of amazing and good people from all of these places but many times something was missing. HK was expensive (we still managed to have verry good time though), Halong Bay party was very good but the trip as a whole did not live up to my expectations, Hanoi was the place of “snake blood shots and free home-brewn whisky” but the surroundings were somehow dirty and did not have the proper atmosphere. The winner will have to be Koh Pha Ngan.

Winner: Koh Pha Ngan

The best all-rounder place

Koh Tao. Even though I did not party there properly, I saw the potential. I will want to play some music there some day for the crowds. The surroundings are great, the atmosphere laid back but when in need of a party, it is right around the corner. The food is good and cheap when you want. The diving is good all-year around there with lot of things to see underwater.. Maybe the only downside was there was too many Scandinavians and not enough people from all around the world. Or then I just was too shy. Bangkok was also impressive place. Cheap but very modern with cool stuff like Muay Thai or the grandure of the tourist attractions. A bit too hot there though. Hanoi – too busy and stuffy. HK – too expensive (ok you can get by cheaply if you want, but generally speaking). Lao – good for laying low but for me enough is enough.

I have to say South Korea was a very good place in many aspects as well. Nearly as good but Koh Tao is not really comparable – the other one is a city.

Winner: Koh Tao

The city where I had the most laughs

Hong Kong. Thank you Natalie for your weird sense of humour and putting up with me! :) Again of course excluding Beijing.

Winner: Hong Kong

The nicest people

Lao. Nobody came to offer you something you did not need. Which was rare in other countries. Thais are very nice as well, though Lao wins.

Winner: Lao

The best bar

Excluding the unchallenged Helen’s Café back in Wudaokou, the best bar must have been in Hanoi: either the bar where we drank snake’s blood (it was also a restaurant) or the bar just next to our hostel, where we could get free Vietnamese rice wine and was otherwise small enough to host an enjoyable atmosphere.

In South Korea we did a bunch of good bars and had maybe the best time excluding Beijing. 6 different places, very good food, friends and partying with lots of soju. I almost have to actually say this was the best overall run of multiple bars.

Winner of one bar in one night: Hanoi
Winner of the “bar-crawl”: Seoul

The best spa

Nearest rival being Japanese public bathhouse and Lao herbal sauna, the Korean jjimjilbang was definitely the most ****** relaxing thing I did in six months. Unbelievable…

Winner: Jjimjilbang, Seoul

The best fighting

Chinese martial arts do not come close in roughness when compared to Muay Thai. Me and Silja went yesterday to see again Muay Thai here in Koh Samui. The fights were very good and Bangkok seemed to have better fighters that Samui’s ringmasters. There was one very sleek knockout after a battle, whose winner was unclear until the critical blow.

Winner: Muay Thai, Thailand

Hmm I did not come up with anything else interesting. Maybe you have something you want to know?