Moscow and other places advice...

[Go Sox]

Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, Yangon (Rangoon), Bagan, Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, Singapore, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Bali, Komodo Island.  That's our trip starting in April.  If anyone has any advice, must sees, must dos, hotels, advice on anything about any of these places, please advise!  We have only a couple of necessary places booked, so I would love any ideas from traveling Buzzers.  We're each taking a small back pack with the bare minimum. Thank god for Lush bar shampoos.  I'll be packing several of those. Any ideas would be awesome. I am so excited for this trip my head is going to pop! 

[Go Sox]

I already got Mr Man's malaria and dengue fever advice in the Bali thread, thanks!   . I'm hoping for travel advice on the other places that don't involve me sweating and shaking near death!   

[Kevy Duty]

Angkor Wat is going to be incredible!  My sister's been, I'll get tips from her as soon as I'm done being mad at her.  I believe she's been to a few others on this list as well.

[Fresca]

Red Square is a must do.  St. Basils at night is an amazing sight.  Stalin's tomb was closed when I was there.  The Moscow metro is worth checking out for some fancy  architecture on a few of the stops.  If short on time skip the KGB museum.   Izmailovsky Market outside of Moscow is good for soviet souvenirs and small trinkets.  Arabat street is touristy, but still a cool place to walk around.  If you're into museums, check out the armory for the faberge eggs and some former tsar's belongings. 

[rewinderase]

Red Square is a must do.  St. Basils at night is an amazing sight.  Stalin's tomb was closed when I was there.  The Moscow metro is worth checking out for some fancy  architecture on a few of the stops.  If short on time skip the KGB museum.   Izmailovsky Market outside of Moscow is good for soviet souvenirs and small trinkets.  Arabat street is touristy, but still a cool place to walk around.  If you're into museums, check out the armory for the faberge eggs and some former tsar's belongings.

You mean Lenin's tomb? Stalin used to be displayed there with Lenin but lost favor when they figured out how many people he actually killed and was unceremoniously taken out in the middle of the night and buried. While you're at it, you can compare Lenin's tomb to Ho Chi Minh's in Hanoi. Both bodies are taken care of and preserved by the same group of Russian scientists but Lenin has obviously been dead for a good bit longer. While in Hanoi, check out the mausoleum, which is free, and Uncle Ho's stilt house and One Pillar Pagoda, which is directly behind the mausoleum. It's really strange how reverential everyone still is to him and you will come across his picture just about everywhere you go. Pretty much like Lenin in old school, communist Russia, actually. The Temple of Literature and the Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton) are also both pretty cool. It's really interesting to see all of the displays in the prison and the propaganda that is involved form the non-US side. Basically, look at how the French horribly treated us, chained us up and beheaded us, but then look at how awesomely well we treated the US soldiers! We let them celebrate Christmas! They even have John McCain's flight suit displayed. You will end up at Hoan Kiem lake and there is a pagoda in the middle of it that is worth checking out with a giant, preserved turtle that they supposedly fished out of that lake on display. You will also end up going to a water puppet show. It's touristy but not a bad way to kill an hour or so. Crossing the street is interesting to say the least. Everyone is on a scooter and there are 15 lanes of traffic because of it. When you see a scooter heading directly towards you, stop so that they can go around you. If you try to blindly run, some other scooter with a family of 5 on it will just smack into you.
Halong Bay is awesome. It's one of the most visually striking places I've ever been with thousands of islands coming out of the water. Not much more to say about it, really, other than the fact that it is full of trash and people live in houses built on pontoons in the middle of the bay. You will go out on the bay. You will more than likely spend a night on a large boat out on the bay. You might go kayaking or swimming, be back the next day and take the bus back to Hanoi. I ended up spending an extra night or two on one of the islands, sleeping on a beach, in a shack that was just basically a platform with a roof and no walls, and went wake-boarding during the day. I highly recommend it if have the time to spare.
Bangkok is a huge, metropolitan city and I was not really in the mood for it by the time we got to it at the end of our trip through Thailand. There are more wat's (Buddhist temples) than you can shake a stick at but the major ones, including the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of The Emerald Buddha) and the Wat Pho (Temple of The Reclining Buddha) are amazing. Avoid the area around Khaosan Rd at all costs, unless you want to deal with smelly, hippie backpackers and vendors selling Bob Marley t-shirts. Everybody worships the king and his family so don't talk smack about him or they could theoretically throw you in jail.
Hope this helps and if you want to borrow the guide books I have for Vietnam and Thailand, let me know.

[Go Sox]

Wow!  That was all so awesome!  You guys rock!  Yes, we're staying on a junk on Halong Bay.  I've heard its breathtaking, so I'm excited. I'm really more excited for the little non-city places than the cities.  Bagan should be incredible, even though I'm not fully comfortable yet with Myanmar (have to learn to keep calling it Myanmar so I don't get tossed into prison....), but my husband's been to most of these countries from years ago and assures me we'll be fine.   

I hadn't realized how expensive and what a pain in the ass visas are for all these countries. I'm debating skipping the visa service centers and just doing it all myself to save money, but with less than two months and four visas, that might be a bit risky, notwithstanding the expense.  There's a reason I pack lunch and coffee every single day.   

What's the thought on immunizations?  I never do it (didn't in Africa, Middle East or anywhere in Central or South America), but SE Asia seems a bit riskier. I hate immunizations, though. Think I'll get the plague?

[Hollywood, Esq.]

Hmmm, can you give some dates, etc.?  Last time I saw you i think you said you were only in Tokyo for a couple of days?  It would really be fantastic if they fell on one of the many festivals that take place in the Spring - the one I'm thinking of is Sanja Matsuri which takes place around Asakusa Temple (a must see in any event).

Bangkok -- it's touristy, but grab a boat by one of the hotels, I stayed at the Mandarin Oriental and there were a couple of docks right on the river in front of the hotel, and take a city tour through the canals.  Most have a stop off to see some snake charming/wrangling.  It gives you a different perspective on the city (and a lot of poverty and pretty disgusting conditions).  Curious how all the flooding has impacted different areas.

Food -- so many good restaurants in Bangkok, but you can also easily find amazing street food as well in the night markets. 

Singapore -- go to Raffles, have a Singapore Sling and imagine it's the end of the Raj.

[katherine77]

Wow!  That was all so awesome!  You guys rock!  Yes, we're staying on a junk on Halong Bay.  I've heard its breathtaking, so I'm excited. I'm really more excited for the little non-city places than the cities.  Bagan should be incredible, even though I'm not fully comfortable yet with Myanmar (have to learn to keep calling it Myanmar so I don't get tossed into prison....), but my husband's been to most of these countries from years ago and assures me we'll be fine.   

I hadn't realized how expensive and what a pain in the ass visas are for all these countries. I'm debating skipping the visa service centers and just doing it all myself to save money, but with less than two months and four visas, that might be a bit risky, notwithstanding the expense.  There's a reason I pack lunch and coffee every single day.   

What's the thought on immunizations?  I never do it (didn't in Africa, Middle East or anywhere in Central or South America), but SE Asia seems a bit riskier. I hate immunizations, though. Think I'll get the plague?

I was immunized against the hepatitii, measles and a few others for a trip to Egypt several years ago, so when I went to Bali last year, I didn't get any more. I did get a prescription for an anti-malarial, but the list of potential side effects totally scared me off. Instead I covered myself with mosquito repellent at every opportunity, and it worked.

That said, you'll be in some buggy places for a good while, so it might be worth it for you.

[habalooba]

i was just in moscow a couple weeks ago and loved it! i found it VERY hard to get around and spent a lot of time kind of lost (not being able to "follow the crowds" was part of that problem, too). once you figure it out it's a great city and the metro is amazing.

i went on 3 tours with http://www.capitaltours.ru/. i hope you get natalia if you do it!! i HIGHLY recommend the metro tour with her (only offered on sundays and after riding on a weekday i can completely understand why, it's a mad house of people plus with low numbers sunday mornings it's easy to take in the whole platform). i also did the red square tour and the kremlin tour with them. natalia is great if you get her otherwise some of that you can do on your own, unless you want a lot of history lessons. might be good though if you're there at high time you probably get in faster with a guide. also the kremlin tour has to be booked in advanced because they have to prepurchase tix and register you and there's a minimum number required. their office is right by GUM (mall adjacent to red square) so is easy to find. i spent around 100 USD for all 3 tours, which is very reasonable considering the cost of the rest of the city and relative to other tours in other cities/countries. worth more than i paid!

in general, the food there was nothing to write home about. we went to cafe pushkin. very expensive and i can't say i really enjoyed anything there. also went to this georgian place genatsvale--that food was good, but we were with georgians so i never even set eyes on the menu.  find a "canteen" restaurant like the one on the 3rd floor north end of the GUM for a quick and super cheap and more homestyle/authentic meal (went to a similar place with the guide when i had a break in between tours).

the grocery store inside GUM has some neat stuff to look at and you can grab a bit there. also the grocery store Eliseevskiy on Tverskaya http://eliseevskiy.ru/e_about.htm is worth stopping in to for a look around if you're in the area.

lenin's tomb was interesting. not amazing but a must do i think since it's pretty unusual. no camera's or cell phones so make sure you first check your junk (40 rubles) at a window on the corner of the big brick building (history museum i believe) and then go thru security. i was lucky as there were not really lines when the weather was 5F so it only took me about 10 minutes in all but i imagine it's much busier other times (as indicated by the way they made me go through a roped off queue 3 times the distance to the front door with no one ahead of me.

i can't speak to a lot of other stuff there is to do there because it was so cold and i wasted a lot of time being lost, not knowing how to get a ticket, cross the street, etc!! but it's a great city and i'd definitely go back.

my #1 piece of advice is to definitely get a guide somehow to help you navigate otherwise you'll never get as much done as you'd like to there.
and make sure you apply early for your visa. i was borderline on my receiving date and they suggested i pay an extra $100 to rush it (and i actually got it way faster than the slow suggestion...but safe then sorry right?)

sounds like an amazing trip!! enjoy!

[rewinderase]

Wow!  That was all so awesome!  You guys rock!  Yes, we're staying on a junk on Halong Bay.  I've heard its breathtaking, so I'm excited. I'm really more excited for the little non-city places than the cities.  Bagan should be incredible, even though I'm not fully comfortable yet with Myanmar (have to learn to keep calling it Myanmar so I don't get tossed into prison....), but my husband's been to most of these countries from years ago and assures me we'll be fine.   

I hadn't realized how expensive and what a pain in the ass visas are for all these countries. I'm debating skipping the visa service centers and just doing it all myself to save money, but with less than two months and four visas, that might be a bit risky, notwithstanding the expense.  There's a reason I pack lunch and coffee every single day.   

What's the thought on immunizations?  I never do it (didn't in Africa, Middle East or anywhere in Central or South America), but SE Asia seems a bit riskier. I hate immunizations, though. Think I'll get the plague?

Thailand will give you a visa on arrival, I think. I used an agency for the Vietnam visa but it was really easy and inexpensive (less than $40 per person, I think). The visa was waiting for me when I got off the plane. I would highly recommend going that route with Vietnam, Myanmar and Russia.
As for immunizations, from what I was told, if you stick to the big cities, you should have any problems. However, you're going to Myanmar... I know when I was in Thailand, I was told the closer to you get to Myanmar, the more you should consider getting immunized. 

[gretagretchen]

you know they still have polio there.

[MRice]

We went to Russia from London in 2002 or 3 and the visa was a major pain and involved two trips to the Russian embassy and much waiting in line. In retrospect we would have paid extra to have it handled for us.
Once in Russia, the big tourist sites were geared much more to group tours than solos like us, although that may be different now. There were always lines and the huge tour groups were marched right to the front, regardless of how long others had been standing around. We sneaked into one place by pretending to be part of a group.
In Bangkok, I don't know if it's politically correct, but I know several people who were fascinated by the sex shows. Not sure I'd pay money to see a woman peel a banana with her vagina and then shoot said fruit into the audience, but it would certainly be a memorable experience.

[notofsunnybrook]

We stayed at this ryokan in Tokyo.  It's in Asakusa and very convenient to the train:
http://www.shigetsu.com/e/index.html

We had a normal Japanese room and it was lovely.  They didn't have a restaurant at the time or maybe we didn't notice it.  You should also be able to see the Golden Turd (Asahi Brewery) from the hotel.

We ate very well in Tokyo but I couldn't tell you where.  We had a friend who took us everywhere and it got very overwhelming after a while. 

I also spent three weeks in Vietnam a few years ago.  I didn't make it to Halong Bay.  We stayed in Hanoi, but I didn't care for it nearly as much as I did Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  We also travelled to the China Sea for a few days which was ok, but it felt a lot like Myrtle Beach.  One great thing about traveling by car in Vietnam is that their rest areas also have fabulous restaurants that serve traditional Vietnamese food.

Have fun!

[SteveD]

Have never been to any of these places, so no advice to give, but DAY-UMMM am I jealous/envious!   

[Big Larry]

I am sure this place is much more awesome and odd than can be imagined.

http://www.suoitien.com/