Which two countries in Asia would you choose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:English isn't a problem anywhere in SE Asia.

Thailand is the easiest to travel around. Great for beaches and BKK is a fun city to explore for a few days. Fantastic food tours in BKK, especially in the Chinatown area. Most developed infrastructure in SE Asia outside Singapore.

Vietnam has a lot to offer, culturally, and food is among the best, but there's a lot of hassles too. The cities are intense, some people will love them, others will hate them. My favorite part was Hoi Ahn and the mountains in the north.

Cambodia was eh. Angor Wat was decent but once you've seen most of the cultural offerings across SE Asia, it's just more of the same. Food is nowhere as interesting or enjoyable as in Thailand or Vietnam. Siem Reap is VERY banana pancake trail.

Just keep in mind that Japan/Korea aren't that close to SE Asia. Flights will probably be 6+ hours, so you're losing a whole day of travel plus you're even further back from the US when you need to return.

So I actually really like banana pancakes and kinda loved the ones I had in Siem Reap!. Can you explain the term "Siem Reap is VERY banana pancake trail" -- is that a bad thing?

https://www.tripsavvy.com/banana-pancake-trail-1458475

You get hordes of young, grubby backpackers from Europe and Australia, many are quite trashy and seeking cheap alcohol while pretending to be down with local cultures. And the market caters to them. We were already long term expats in another country and Siem Reap was the first place I saw the phenomena of the overweight white girl wearing too short, too tight, revealing shorts and t-shirts exposing massive flabby white calves covered with multiple tattoos. Which, when juxtaposed against the local culture, was a very odd sight to see.

Let's be clear that ANYONE being scantily clad, including the fit and beautiful, in SE Asia is offensive. Common, but rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:English isn't a problem anywhere in SE Asia.

Thailand is the easiest to travel around. Great for beaches and BKK is a fun city to explore for a few days. Fantastic food tours in BKK, especially in the Chinatown area. Most developed infrastructure in SE Asia outside Singapore.

Vietnam has a lot to offer, culturally, and food is among the best, but there's a lot of hassles too. The cities are intense, some people will love them, others will hate them. My favorite part was Hoi Ahn and the mountains in the north.

Cambodia was eh. Angor Wat was decent but once you've seen most of the cultural offerings across SE Asia, it's just more of the same. Food is nowhere as interesting or enjoyable as in Thailand or Vietnam. Siem Reap is VERY banana pancake trail.

Just keep in mind that Japan/Korea aren't that close to SE Asia. Flights will probably be 6+ hours, so you're losing a whole day of travel plus you're even further back from the US when you need to return.

So I actually really like banana pancakes and kinda loved the ones I had in Siem Reap!. Can you explain the term "Siem Reap is VERY banana pancake trail" -- is that a bad thing?

https://www.tripsavvy.com/banana-pancake-trail-1458475

You get hordes of young, grubby backpackers from Europe and Australia, many are quite trashy and seeking cheap alcohol while pretending to be down with local cultures. And the market caters to them. We were already long term expats in another country and Siem Reap was the first place I saw the phenomena of the overweight white girl wearing too short, too tight, revealing shorts and t-shirts exposing massive flabby white calves covered with multiple tattoos. Which, when juxtaposed against the local culture, was a very odd sight to see.

Let's be clear that ANYONE being scantily clad, including the fit and beautiful, in SE Asia is offensive. Common, but rude.

I was embarrassed by the overly tattooed, scantily clad, western backpackers all over SE Asia, chasing after parties and cheap bars with their dreadlocks and roll ups and drugs and crowding holy sites in wildly inappropriate clothes. It made you wonder what Asians really think of Westerners these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be afraid of getting sick in Asia due to food. I would do Europe or Australia.

Probably the best food in the world (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) and you'd skip it. DCUM, never change

to be fair, the food/water in foreign countries contain different bacteria that the native population are used to, but foreigners aren't. My sister gets sick at least once every time she goes to Korea. I think we just have a delicate stomach.

Just drink bottled water, and if you eat raw fruit/vegetable, get it from a western hotel.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you for the insights! In terms of what my kid likes, he does like off the beaten path stuff, which I’m comfortable doing in Korea and Japan since I’ve spent a lot of time there and am comfortable with the language, transpiration, etc. in Southeast Asia I would probably opt to do more touristy things since I’ve never been before. And frankly, some of the touristy places like Palawan, Cebu, Angkor Wot, etc look amazing and are probably popular for a reason. I’m glad to hear the feedback that it’s easy to get around and relatively easy to find English speakers. I figured that would be the case in the Philippines but wasn’t sure about other parts of SE Asia.

I do wish we had more like a month so that we could do a solid 2 weeks in SE Asia plus 2 weeks in Korea/Japan, but that won’t work with our budget and PTO balance.

[Anonymous]

Transportation*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just go to Australia/New Zealand.

Not everyone is afraid of non white people.

Interesting assumption...says a lot about your and your biases.

Struck a nerve?

[Anonymous]

Thailand!

[Anonymous]

I’d do Thailand or Malaysia. Malaysia used to be less overrun with tourists, but I am not sure if that is still true.

[Anonymous]

Thailand

[Anonymous]

I vote for none of the countries in SE Asia mentioned so far and think Indonesia - some great beaches, fascinating culture, very spiritual especially in Bali.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be afraid of getting sick in Asia due to food. I would do Europe or Australia.

Probably the best food in the world (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) and you'd skip it. DCUM, never change

+1000 Some of the most amazing food in the world indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be afraid of getting sick in Asia due to food. I would do Europe or Australia.

Australia is really, really boring. Like, shockingly boring. The only good part is diving at the Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is boring for a country its size but this is an idiotic sentence.

This is so true. Find another country with a kangaroo or a koala. And not sure how anyone can say Sydney is boring.