Southeast Asia was always on our must visit list, for two reasons. One, it is very different from Europe. Two, everyone tells us that it is awesome and inexpensive. Almost every traveler that we know has spent an extended period of time in Southeast Asia, and they absolutely rave about it. Awesome and inexpensive. That’s all we have ever heard.
On the other hand, there were two reasons not to rush here. One, we’re not really fans of Asian food. Two, we’re not particularly interested in Asian culture.
Friends from Australia prompted us to finally go on this trip, and to travel more quickly around the region than we might otherwise have done on our own.
For us a typical trip to Europe involves spending about a month each in two different cities, plus a week or so in another one or two cities. More living, less traveling. We’re slow travelers for a reason. It just suits us better.
Considering the cost of roundtrip flights from the United States to Southeast Asia (expensive) and the cost of lodging once there (very inexpensive), we realized that we would be better served seeing as much as possible on this trip. Not everything, but a lot.
With that in mind, we planned a three month trip that had us moving every week or so, starting in Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Chiang Khong) before going to Laos (Mekong River Cruise, Luang Prabang), and then Vietnam (Hanoi, Bai Tu Long Bay Tour, Ninh Binh, Huế, Da Nang, Nha Trang), before ending in Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Siem Reap).
Once in Southeast Asia, our trip involved two flights, one river cruise, one bay cruise, six bus trips, and two very long train rides. For us this is a crazy travel schedule, but it served its purpose getting us pretty much everywhere we wanted to go in three months.
We intentionally skipped several popular destinations in the region, notably Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, and the beach islands in Thailand, figuring that those would be on the list of places to go next should we return to the area.
Unfortunately it did not take us long to realize that we just don’t love, love, love Southeast Asia like a lot of travelers. It’s okay, but nothing special. I think we are in the distinct minority of travelers in this regard.
Let’s go over the pros and cons of our trip, the budget, and what the future holds for us and southeast Asia.
Pros:
Once you arrive in Southeast Asia, it is definitely inexpensive. Our accommodations averaged under $35 per night for nice hotels and apartments.
If you like Asian food, then eating in local markets or restaurants is also ridiculously inexpensive. Food and drink for two people ranges from $15 to $25 per day. That’s about $100 to $175 a week. Eating out. Beer not included.
It’s very safe. We never went anywhere day or night that seemed even remotely sketchy or unsafe.
Saying Southeast Asia is different from Europe is an understatement. It is night and day. Just walking around was a new and interesting experience. Learning to navigate around the vendors, restaurants, and parked scooters on the sidewalks – basically forcing you to walk in the street with the cars, trucks, scooters, and bikers whizzing by – was surprisingly enjoyable.
Strangely, I never got tired of crossing the street because each crossing was its own unique event. Embracing the crazy hustle and bustle of the crowded cities, and learning to enjoy it, turned out to be positive.
Thankfully the sellers on the street are very low key, applying zero sales pressure. You don’t have anyone in your face trying to sell you something. This is very important. There are so many sellers that you would go crazy in no time if they actually tried to sell you stuff.
Cultural activities, notably temples and museums, are vastly different from anything we have seen before. This makes them incredibly fascinating, at least at first.
Luckily we were able to visit all of the major attractions in Southeast Asia that we wanted to see. Elephants in Thailand. Mekong River Cruise in Laos. Bai Tu Long Bay Tour and the Imperial Citadel in Vietnam. Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Check, check, check. All done. There is literally nothing that we feel we missed.
And, perhaps most importantly, traveling fast on this trip confirmed that this style of travel is something that we do not like. We’re chalking this up as a positive learning experience.
Overall, there was a lot for us to enjoy in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, every trip has its negatives – some more than other – and this one was no different.
Cons:
Fast travel. For us, the flip side of a positive learning experience was the negative reality.
Because we traveled fast, we spent way too many nights in hotel rooms. We rarely got to unpack and settle down for any length of time. Instead of feeling like we were living in a foreign country, our trip seemed like a never-ending series of vacations. This is not a good feeling.
It did not matter that we stayed in really nice hotels. With one or two exceptions, the hotel rooms did not have chairs, or even a refrigerator. This makes it difficult to keep beer cold. Speaking of which, beer costs about the same as it does in America.
Also, the furniture in Southeast Asia is almost uniformly small and hard. It makes Ikea furniture seem luxurious. The absence of comfortable couches and chairs was a major, ongoing issue. Soft mattresses are non-existent. (On the flip side, if you like a firm mattress, sleeping here is a plus.)
After a time, a fairly short time for us, we came to dislike being in hotel rooms. Thankfully we stayed in apartment rentals (Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Da Nang, and Phnom Penh) just often enough to maintain some sanity, uncomfortable furniture and all.
Neither of us grew up eating Asian food, aside from the occasional Chinese take-out. Our greatest concern on this trip was whether we would actually like a steady diet of Asian food. We got our answer – no – just weeks into the trip.
We did pretty well eating and actually enjoying a variety of local dishes in Thailand and Laos, with the occasional Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Mexican restaurant sprinkled in.
Vietnam was a whole different story. For whatever reason we never got along with Vietnamese food, though we tried. We frequented Popeye’s, McDonald’s, a few Mexican restaurants, and some place called Texas Chicken more often than we wanted.
Through no fault of its own, Cambodia was a total food disaster. We don’t know anything about Cambodian cuisine because by this time our bodies were rebelling against anything remotely resembling Asian food. Western food became the default, the one exception being a surprisingly excellent Chinese food stall in Phnom Penh that we visited three times in ten days. We busted our food budget by a large amount eating in touristy western places in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
Struggling with accommodations and food really put a damper on the trip.
Another disappointment was how quickly we tired of the cultural activities. The initial fascination we had with temples faded quickly. I guess that is to be expected if Asian culture is not your thing. The mere fact that we listed crossing the street as a positive on this trip has to imply something negative about the alternatives. At least for us.
Did the pros outweigh the cons? Yes, thanks to the major attractions.
Budget:
As it turned out, our travel and accommodation expenses for this trip were about the same as going to Europe for three months. The inexpensive accommodations were offset by the expensive international plane tickets and the traveling costs (planes, trains, and busses) getting around the region.
Our food and entertainment expenses also ended up being about the same as what we would expect to spend over three months in Europe. This was largely a consequence of enjoying several, expensive bucket list items (Elephant Nature Park, Mekong River Cruise, Bai Tu Long Bay Cruise, and three days in Angkor Wat) and massively blowing the food budget in Cambodia.
We understand why folks think Southeast Asia is inexpensive. It is, if you live like a local for months on end. But that was not our experience. Tourist attractions plus western food eliminates a lot of the savings.
Future:
In Vietnam, less than halfway through our trip, we started questioning whether we will ever return to Southeast Asia. But for the fact that we really want to go snorkeling in Indonesia, the answer is probably no.
But, when we go snorkeling in Indonesia, we will likely spend a few weeks each in Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bangkok. If we are spending a small fortune on roundtrip plane tickets to get to Southeast Asia, we might as well spend several weeks in some of the larger cities that we skipped on this trip. That’s about it.
Notwithstanding our ambivalence towards Southeast Asia, this turned out to be a great trip for several reasons. First, we wanted something different from Europe and, in that regard, Southeast Asia delivered. Second, we checked numerous bucket list items off our list. Third, we confirmed what we long suspected, that fast travel is not our style.
All in all, a great trip. Glad it’s done. But we’re not going back anytime soon.
Garrett and Stephanie
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