Guest writer Roland is a Realtravel blogger recently spent 6 months traveling around Southeast Asia. He shares highlights of his trip below.

Asia is done for this trip and coming back on another trip some day in the future. There are so many things I haven’t seen yet. However, in the following I collected my best experiences during this half a year:

Bako National Park (Borneo, Malaysia)

Walking through the Mangroove forest it was amazing to see all the little live going on there and I was amazed with every step I took. And all this in a very spooky surrounding.

Sapa (North Vietnam)

Although advertised as a trekking area - which it probably was had it not rained all day - the other fascinating experience is the experience of buying something from the street vendors there. As soon as you seem to be interested in something suddenly 10 women gather around you all telling “buy from me”. In contrast to other places in Vietnam this happens in a very inoffensive way.

Hanoi traffic (Hanoi, Vietnam)

I already wrote in my blog about my fascination of watching the traffic in Hanoi. One step up is experiencing it yourself on a bicycle or a motorbike.

Yangshou (Yunnan, China)

What they called “the light show” was really a masterpiece of a visually attractive show with hundreds of people walking, singing, fishing - doing all sorts of stuff on and off the water . One hour of starring on the water and not a second of loosing fascination.

Manila (Manila, Philippines)

The capital of the Philippines is crazy a place as I have never seen before. Not that I liked it in particular, but walking the streets there becomes a surreal task.

Vang Vieng Organic Mulberry Farm (Vang Vieng, Laos)

I just had a great time there doing some volunteering and hanging out with a mulberry shake - or a Mojito sometimes.

Hong Kong

Many times have I crossed rivers, some small ones and some were wider, but none compares to the athmosphere traveling from one side of Hong Kong to the other on a ferry.

Mabul

Just jump into the water and have a look around. It’s just amazing what you can (still) see here below the water level.

Halsema Road (Northern Philippines)

A road from Baguio going into the mountains. Perfect views, change with insights into local life and punctures due to the bad condition of the roads. An experience.

Haw Par Villa (Singapore)

Basically a park showing stories from the Chinese mythology that one brother built for the other. The statues and figurines stretch from “normal” to fascinating and bizarre. The Hell is a must see.

Mount Kinabalu Park (Borneo, Malaysia)

I couldn’t get a permit to get to the top so I trekked around in the park at its foot with my roommates - until it was pitch dark except for the glowing things in the forest around us (a type of fungi).

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