2025 Central Asia Adventure – Bangkok & Hua Hin Thailand
Today’s Huntington’s Disease report is about the future because I have to leave this series on a happy note. Researchers now know more about the HD genetic defect and its effects on the body than ever before, and continue to make huge strides in the basic science of the disease. This in turn unlatches research into possible treatments and cures. We’ve had some hiccups along the way with possibilities that didn’t pan out, but these super smart and dedicated people are working literally every day to find something, anything that will help. Please send a little happy energy into the Universe in the hope that something gets unlocked soon. I would again ask you to check out the Northern California Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence at UC Davis. This is where the wonderful team is based that took superb care of my wife Allie. I donate every year to the Joseph P. Roberson Foundation, which uses 100% of its donations to fund staff in the clinic, with over $1 Million given so far and I just put my donation in now. Judy Roberson is one of the best people on the planet and any donations would be greatly appreciated for current and future HD patients, until we get a cure. https://www.jprobersonfoundation.org/
Hello from Thailand, the twenty-third and last stop on the trip! This is a good time to wrap up the trip, nearly 3 months on the road, and what roads they were! This kind of travel was so much easier back in the olden days of about 5 years ago! :^) My body has come up with a plethora of complaints along the way which validates my view that I need to do a lot of traveling while I’m still relatively middle-aged and healthy. One bad body part or sliding down the toboggan slope of dementia and I’m stuck somewhere until the end. I do have a few things left on my bucket list: Ireland & Iceland, Sub-Saharan Africa and Antarctica and then I’ll be content I think. A life well lived. Well, a life full of experiences which means more than any shiny thing. I recommend it.
After flying from Hanoi into Bangkok, I’ve arrived in my condo in Hua Hin and have settled in for the winter. Met up with friends, hit my favourite restaurants, luxuriated with my favourite massage ladies, ordered electronic parts from China. Instead of an extensive post about every little thing I did on the last hop, I’ve been saving up some fun facts along the way to give you a summary of the issues I lived through on the trip. Hopefully it will help you if you decide to take a similar path, or any real adventure-travel in the future. Despite the glitches, I’m super glad I did it and cherish the memories I made along the way. I’ve broken them down by bullet points in categories. “+” is good, “-” is bad, plus commentary.
Communication:
+ Wifi in hotels, restaurants, cafes, shopping malls, train stations, airports
– Wifi sometimes weak, unusable or non-existent so have a backup
+ I bought a Wifi booster that helped at lot in hotels with bad signal, I should have brought the one I already own along with me
+ My Airalo global eSIM saved me from buying a physical SIM in every country and pay for a week if I’m just there for 3-4 days
– The eSIM worked everywhere except Tajikistan
– The eSIM instructions and country-partner list were mostly wrong but I was able to get it working effectively on my 5 year old Android phone
+ I used the eSIM data sparingly when Wifi was not available, mostly for Google Maps, language translation and time-critical messaging
– I bought a 20GB package for 54 Euros and ended up with 16.47GB left! I could have used it far more often but Wifi is so widespread now that it really wasn’t necessary
Money:
+ The Euro zone is fantastic for needing only one currency, it avoids pulling/exchanging currency in/out of every country. Welcome Bulgaria!
+ Widespread electronic payment terminals at shops and restaurants help to avoid the need for cash
+ ATMs are everywhere
+ Currency exchanges are everywhere
– But they give mostly terrible exchange rates
+ I used my auto-exchanging Wise debit card everywhere
+ The Wise card is easy to top up from my Spanish and US bank accounts
– The Wise card didn’t work at most places in Ulaanbaatar for some reason
– It’s always good to have a bit of local cash for places that don’t take cards or the card doesn’t work
Maps:
+ Google Maps and other mapping platforms are amazing! Long distance train & minibus rides or short-distance city walking paths are all handled well
– Different regional spellings and non-Latin characters can confuse these platforms
Tickets:
+ Easy to search online for bus, train and plane options
+ It’s possible to book for the next travel segment and hotel as I proceed
– I encountered several errors with payment systems when buying tickets
Visas:
+ My passports allow visa-free or visa-on-arrival entrance to most countries
– A visa application and approval were required for China, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Vietnam
+ The Internet has vast online knowledge of visa requirements
+ Online visa application web sites means you don’t have to go to a consulate
– I encountered un-solvable restrictions for a China visa
– I encountered errors on the applications web sites: photo does not meet requirements, site internal errors, payment issues
– I would have to skip a country entirely if my visa was not approved
Food:
+ Pizza is everywhere when you just crave some comfort food
+ Each region has its own signature dishes that are fun to explore
+ I’m not really a foodie but others would delight in these regional dishes
– Some food is just disgusting :^)
Transportation:
– Minibus. The bane of my existence. Crazy drivers, bad roads, cramped seating, breakdowns, possibility of death around every corner
+ Train. Easy to walk to the centrally-located station and get on, sleeper bunks are fantastic, toilets and dining cars, power plugs. My favourite
+ Planes. Necessary evil if other routes are difficult or impossible
Border Crossings:
+ Generally straightforward to pass from one country to the next, but check well ahead in time for any required visas
– Historic disagreements and construction can result in closed border crossings
– Geography can make getting from one place to another difficult or impossible
– You may have to exit and enter a border in the middle of the night in the dark on a sleeper train or bus
Travel Insurance:
+ Never travel without it. I cannot stress this enough. You do not want to be somewhere and have a medical or family emergency with the need for treatment or repatriation home. The costs involved could break you.
Language:
+ English is widely spoken everywhere, especially at airports, hotels, restaurants and with young people
+ Google Translate worked well for the rest of the situations
+ Where there is no common way to communicate, break out your mime skills
Luggage:
+ An overhead-bin size rollerbag is still the perfect size for airplanes, trains, minivans, taxis and rolling wherever you need to get to
– The wheels are the most important part, and they will sacrifice themselves for you over the miles. If in doubt, buy a new one
+ A stretchy cover for your rollerbag is good to discourage thieves and easy identification on the baggage carousel or other transport
+ A backpack is perfect for laptop, cables, chargers, food, pens, wet wipes and walking the city
– A fanny pack or money belt is good for securely holding your passports, money and other documents and it doesn’t leave your body. Don’t get one too thick and awkward
Shoes:
+ Bring the minimum number of shoes possible
+ Padded insoles and super comfortable shoes save you when walking long distances
Statistics:
– Distance: (thanks to Anthropic’s Claude AI)
– Europe/Balkans: Barcelona to Sofia (plane): ~1,650 km, Sofia to Plovdiv (car): ~145 km, Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo (car): ~230 km, Veliko Tarnovo to Sofia (car): ~220 km
– Balkans/Turkey: 5. Sofia to Istanbul (train): ~575 km, 6. Istanbul to Ankara (train): ~450 km, 7. Ankara to Kayseri (train): ~330 km, 8. Kayseri to Kars (train): ~725 km
– Turkey/Georgia: 9. Kars to Batumi (minivan): ~250 km, 10. Batumi to Tbilisi (train): ~380 km
– Georgia/Armenia: 11. Tbilisi to Dilijan (minivan): ~165 km, 12. Dilijan to Yerevan (minivan): ~100 km, 13. Yerevan to Tbilisi (minivan): ~280 km
– Caucasus/Central Asia: 14. Tbilisi to Baku (plane): ~480 km, 15. Baku to Aktau (plane): ~475 km, 16. Aktau to Beyneu (train): ~285 km, 17. Beyneu to Shymkent (train): ~1,300 km, 18. Shymkent to Tashkent (train): ~120 km
– Central Asia: 19. Tashkent to Samarkand (train): ~285 km, 20. Samarkand to Dushanbe (minivan): ~340 km, 21. Dushanbe to Almaty (plane): ~875 km
– East/Southeast Asia: 22. Almaty to Ulaanbaatar (plane): ~2,800 km, 23. Ulaanbaatar to Hanoi (plane): ~3,000 km, 24. Hanoi to Bangkok (plane): ~1,150 km, 25. Bangkok to Hua Hin (train): ~200 km
– GRAND TOTAL: ~16,590 km or 10,310 miles
– Duration: 69 days
– Walking Steps: 755,094 => ~379 miles!
– Places
– Locations: 23
– Countries: 11
– First-Time Countries:7
– Continents: 2
– Types of travel
– Plane: 8
– Train: 9
– Minibus: 6
– Weight
– start: 84.2 kg
– end 90.45 kg
– I tried to eat healthy but I never turned down a dessert or a snack! I’m on vacation baby!
– Cash and coins left over
– Bulgaria: 5 Lev = USD $2.85
– Turkey: 1 Lira = USD $0.03
– Georgia: 9 Lari = $3.42
– Kazakhstan: 10,000 Tenge = USD $21.00
– Uzbekistan: 3,000 Som = USD $0.24
– Mongolia: 65,100 Tugrik = $19.00
– Total: $46.54
– So I got boned on not being able to exchange Kazakh or Mongolian funds on the way out or at the following entry point. Anybody need change?
– What did I miss out on from my Grand Plan?
+ I almost missed out on Azerbaijan entirely but a sleepy immigration agent didn’t spot my Armenia passport stamps
– The border crossing in western Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan was entirely closed for construction so I had to take a 32 hour train ride and several more stops along the way before I could get to Samarkand
– Tajikistan proved to be too mountainous to do much of anything outside visiting the capital city of Dushanbe
– Nearing the end of the trip I just couldn’t handle a 24 hour bus ride from Hanoi into Laos
– Two back-to-back typhoons flooded central Vietnam so I couldn’t get anywhere south of Hanoi
– The Chinese visa process is literally impossible if you want to enter the country in the north-west, travel by train to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanning, then exit into Vietnam in the south-east. Their loss.
To wrap up, the trip was overall a success. Got to see some amazing places, take some fun transportation and test myself against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and nothing catastrophically bad happened. The local people and travelers I met along the way were generally wonderful, with a few crabby immigration officers and a few people who tried to rip me off.
Now let me get to a couple of rants. I don’t have a lawn, so I can’t yell at teenagers to stay off it, so this will have to suffice:
I am constantly frustrated by people who just don’t know how to walk! Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, scrolling head-down on TikTok, stopping suddenly, going the wrong way, taking up the entire path. Exactly what kind of mental issues lead to this behavior in adults? Here are two points that I’ve come up with that will I think help to heal the world from this scourge of humanity. The first one is very, very specific: PUT AWAY YOUR FUCKING PHONE WHEN YOU’RE WALKING. Nothing is more important than staying alive and not getting run over by a bus, and don’t be a dumb-ass slave to your screen. If you need it for directions, stop and stand aside, get your bearings, put away the phone and continue. Or let it talk to you through your earbuds. Look at the people and things around you, soak in the environment. The second point acts as a catalyst to an accepted set of rules: Pretend you’re a car. We’ve all driven or been a passenger in a car. Road vehicles have a very universal and well-defined set of rules that keep everyone safe while getting you to your destination. Let me highlight a few: 1) You get half of the sidewalk! Not all of it, not 3/4 of it. When someone is coming towards you or trying to pass from behind, don’t let you and your fat ass and your entourage block the entire way. 2) Walk on the same side that the cars drive on! This avoids the annoying zig-zag of walking through clueless people. 3) Look where you’re going! You walk out of a doorway into my path, you’re going down. You come to a screeching halt and I’m behind you, you’re going down. Be aware what’s going on around you. 4) If you managed to impregnate yourself and you’re pushing your spawn in a stroller, you don’t get the whole path! It’s easier to get pregnant than it is to order a pizza. You’re not special. You try to run me down, bam, your kid’s going into low-earth orbit. :^)
And let’s wrap up with smokers. Jesus central Asia just has a huge cloud of cigarette smoke hanging over the whole region. They smoke in the street, in hotel rooms, in restaurants, on train platforms, and I’ve seen similar behavior around most of the planet. I must have missed the part where smoking is a God-given right to be a selfish asshole. You buy a product from an industry that has lied about its health dangers for decades. The industry that has bred high-level nicotine strains to keep you addicted. The industry and governments that charge you ridiculous prices and taxes of your limited funds to fuel your addiction. You intentionally subject yourself to directly-linked diseases such as 11 kinds of cancer, heart attack, stroke, COPD, damage to your fetus, all dropping your life expectancy by 10 years. You smoke without the least care about anyone around you – we have to breathe in your carcinogenic second-hand smoke, it gets on our skin and hair and clothes and eyes. You light up next to me in a restaurant when I’m trying to eat my dinner! You flick your ashes everywhere or leave disgusting heaped ashtrays. When finished, you throw the butts on the ground, in the grass, on the road, on the beach, in the water – creating the SINGLE MOST LITTERED ITEM ON THE PLANET! 4.5-6 TRILLION cigarettes per year, which don’t decompose, contaminate water and are ingested by wildlife. Your habit results in 8 million deaths a year, which is 1-in-8 deaths worldwide. Most of those people had loved ones who were sad to see them go. I include both of my parents in those totals, which Freud would say made me have such a strong opinion on the matter. Then there’s the $1.4 TRILLION in total global economic costs. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and death. What don’t you get? And then you play the victim when someone calls you out. And vaping? Jesus. They don’t even understand how bad those chemicals are yet, but the numbers will come out and I guarantee they won’t be good. Get the young kids hooked early on this “safer” product. More lies.
OK, if you’re really old I’ll give you a pass. Back in the day, doctors were paid to say smoking was actually healthy for you! But by the mid-1960s the dangers were well known. In 1965 the first cigarette warning labels were required, by 1971 cigarette TV and radio ads were banned in the US, and by the 1990s there was widespread social stigma against it. Quitting isn’t easy, but no addiction is easy to walk away from, I get that. But for your sake, for the sake of your family and everyone you encounter, please try, there are lots of ways. Now – if you’re under 40 and smoke – what the living fuck are you doing? There’s no way you didn’t understand the ramifications. Is it cool? Does it help you get the chicks? Are you just a rebel at heart? I really want to understand why anyone would start and continue now. If I see you smoking, trust me I’m thinking up fun ways to speed up your path to the afterlife. Do us all a favour and take the express train there yourself.
Whew, I feel better getting that off my chest, it’s been brewing for years.
OK, peace and love to everyone. Except smokers, and most minivan drivers. Catch you on the next trip! Let me know what’s on your travel bucket list!
