I'm With Stupid said:The Philippines, Japan and Cambodia were the best. Mainly because of the people in all three places.
Thailand was the biggest disappointment after everyone raves about it. Constant scam attempts, rude locals and people who would only talk to you if there was something in it for them. We had people insulting us because we didn't fall for their scams. At one point we were sitting with some Thai girls in a bar, and we had the people working in the bar giving abuse to the girls for daring to socialise with foreigners. We had to sit on a bus with some guy who was hitting his girlfriend throughout. And just the constant lies and bullshit. Then I went to the Philippines, and it was everything that people claim Thailand is. Genuinely friendly locals, rather than friendly-because-they-want-to-sell-you-something locals. Just an all round more friendly and honest place in my limited experience.
Hong Kong was also disappointing because of the incredible air pollution levels there. Could barely see across the water. Although I'm lead to believe it's not always like that.
Literally all over. Most of the attempted scams were in Bangkok. Obviously we'd read about most of them in advance, but the annoying part of it was how someone would engage you in a 5 minute conversation first, and then whip out their scam, so what initially appears like a friendly local quickly descends into them trying to sell you something and then becoming insulting when you tell them you're not interested. But the incident with the girls in the bar was in Railay, which has a reputation as a chilled-out place. The worst part of it was that it was the very barman who was slagging off the girls who asked us to sit together in the first place, so they could free up a table for someone else (we'd been talking across tables until then). Obviously not every person was like that, but there were enough incidents on a 10 day holiday for me to notice (I live in South East Asia, so I'm used to being on the lookout for these sorts of things anyway). The Muslim area down in the extreme South was pretty friendly (Koh Lipe was fantastic). Don't get me wrong, I still had a good time there, but it definitely wasn't as amazing as people say, and particularly the claims of friendly locals. There were some nice people, sure, but in my experience, people who weren't trying to either sell you something or scam you had little time for you.Bilboblue said:I'm With Stupid said:The Philippines, Japan and Cambodia were the best. Mainly because of the people in all three places.
Thailand was the biggest disappointment after everyone raves about it. Constant scam attempts, rude locals and people who would only talk to you if there was something in it for them. We had people insulting us because we didn't fall for their scams. At one point we were sitting with some Thai girls in a bar, and we had the people working in the bar giving abuse to the girls for daring to socialise with foreigners. We had to sit on a bus with some guy who was hitting his girlfriend throughout. And just the constant lies and bullshit. Then I went to the Philippines, and it was everything that people claim Thailand is. Genuinely friendly locals, rather than friendly-because-they-want-to-sell-you-something locals. Just an all round more friendly and honest place in my limited experience.
Hong Kong was also disappointing because of the incredible air pollution levels there. Could barely see across the water. Although I'm lead to believe it's not always like that.
Cambodia would have been number 4 on my list for the reasons you mentioned although it is a bit of a hole.
Interesting your comments about Thailand as I have been there many, many times and never really experienced anything like what you went through, where did all that happen?
Kun Aguero said:Bulgaria as I went to sunny beach, it worked out about £1 for a shot of aftershock and a pint of local beer.
Mad Eyed Screamer said:New Zealand, Hawaii (I know it isn't a country, but to say the US is too vague!) and Malta
1961_vintage said:Kun Aguero said:Bulgaria as I went to sunny beach, it worked out about £1 for a shot of aftershock and a pint of local beer.
Complete shithole.