Traveling through India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia

My apologies (yet again) for the lack of updates and photos over the past few months.  This time I have a pretty good excuse for my absence.  Mikey and I just finished a 2 month, fast-paced trip through India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Our first stop was Thailand, where we spent a few weeks tearing up Bangkok, Krabi and Phuket before taking a break to lounge on the beaches of Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi.

  Next, we moved on to India where we spent 3 weeks traveling across the country by train from Kolkata (Calcutta) to Jaisalmer.  We made stops in Jaipur, Varanasi and Pushkar.  India is a tough country to stomach, but filled with some of the most vibrant cultures and people in the world.  We camped in the desert on the Pakistani border, made some camel friends and floated down the Ganges.


From there, we moved on to Malaysia where we stayed in Kuala Lumpur.  We were impressed by the amount of amazing food here, although unimpressed with the lack of nightlife in our area.  We were staying in the Chinatown area which was wonderful for daytime activities.  We visited the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower but spent most of our time eating our way around town.

We landed last in Singapore, one of our favorite places.   This city-sized country requires their citizens and tourists to follow a long list of rules, including a "no chewing gum" rule.  Sounds silly at first, but after visiting and experiencing the pristine streets, clean food stalls and the zero-crime rate, I am totally on board with what Singapore is doing.

While we were in Thailand, we moved to an organic farm where we lived and worked for a month.  We got our jobs on the farm through WWOOF, an organization that helps organic farms around the world find workers.  In Thailand and India, we utilized the train systems and we highly recommend it!  Thai trains are great, but just keep an open mind if traveling on a train in India :)  A great website for figuring out trains in India and Thailand as well as lots of other countries is Seat 61.  We used it often on our trip.

   It's hard to sum up months of travel in a single page, and a picture says a thousand words so take a look at our photos from Thailand, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

   Have you backpacked around like us?  I'd love to hear your stories and tips for future adventures.

Happy Friday, all!
Claire