Your Top Things You Did or Saw in South East Asia?
 

I'm headed to South East Asia this summer and planning to go to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and maybe Malaysia or Indonesia. Just wondering what are your favourite things you did while you were there.

Ok I'll bite...off the top of my head:

Thailand - Ko Phi Phi, Krabi, Phuket (not Patong), Bangkok

Cambodia - Angkor Wat, Kep

Vietnam - Hanoi, Halong Bay cruise, Sapa Hike, HCMC, Phu Quoc Island Easy Riders Motorcycle Tour,

Malaysia - Penang for Food

Indonesia - Borobudur, Mt. Bromo, Ubud (in Bali), Gili Islands, Lombok


If you're in that neck of the woods you should also hit up Laos and Myanmar.

There's also entire threads in this forum dedicated to Indonesia and Vietnam also.

Thailand - Haad Rin ,taking the jet ferry to the islands, chillin' out with Buddhists in Chiang Mai, Riding elephants that didn't have chains on their feet, scootering, feeding a baby elephant, scuba diving (if your place offers free accommodations, check for bed bugs before unpacking and sleeping there.), Songkran (make sure you don't get river water in your mouth or you'll end up like Bart at Duffland.), Boogie boarding in Phuket

Cambodia - Bike riding around Angkor Wat

Vietnam - Ha Long Bay 3 day tour, Hanoi night market, Me Kong Delta biking, Hoi An biking, Da Nang scootering, badminton at the touristy square with some random kids at night

Malaysia - Monkey temple, playing HoN with cousins, one of the giant tech malls, Petronas towers

Indonesia - Didn't get to go.

This took about 3.5 months

of all the things i did in thailand&vietnam my two fav things would be the night clubs, and renting motorcycles to ride around. everything else was kind of doing it just to say i did it.
depends what you're into i guess

Check out these videos for some ideas:
Bangkok, Thailand:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Saigon, Vietnam:

How much did u spend?

About 1.2k for the flight there.
About 3k for spending, accommodations, and local flights.

I stayed at hostels for the most part, if you're cool with sleeping in a room with 10 other people. Plus, it's a chance to make friends.

Google maps works for local transit, I used a lot of buses, biked, scootered (out of busy cities), or walked. Some taxi's will scam tourists by driving in circles. Essentially, the more self sufficient you are, the less likelihood you'll get hustled. From my experience.

I should mention that one of those months was pretty much free accommodation and food because I stayed with family.

My budget for most days was (in CAD):
10 per night for a place to sleep
2 per meal
So about 34 dollars a day to spend on; tours, sightseeing, rentals, and festivals.

Some days were cheaper than others because all I did was; visit museums, take transit, go to the beach, go to temples, and wander.

PADI open water is about 100 dollars cheaper in Thailand than here in Canada. The waters in Thailand are unreal too. 499 student price at a local university vs 385 at the place I went to. Accommodation included.

Koh Tao is where you want to go for your diving certification....not the greatest diving in the world but CHEAP and easy warm calm waters


the list for things i recommend in SE asia is way too long...what's been posted above is a great start

what countries and how long are you planning on? that really dictates what you have time to see

go to Myanmar...it's fucking rough but amazing to get into a country before it really explodes (even more than it already has in the last 3 years)

I was watching a documentary on Myanmar and anyone with a camera filming civil unrest gets ganked.

So don't do it, stupid. Why are you even in an area of civil unrest in the first place? Pretty sure the same thing would happen to you in China, hell photographers have been shot in Thailand too filming the Yellowshirt/Redshirt unrest.

Yeha, I meant to say that more as a cautionary tale, not so much as avoid Myanmar.