Southeast Asia Adventures 🇹🇭🇰🇭🇻🇳

There are many contributing factors to my being unapologetically “radical leftist scum” as our warmongering dictator in chief would say, but one of the big ones is undoubtedly my love of travel and exploring different cultures. I will probably never catch up with my globe-trotting sister Rachel, but I will certainly have fun trying. And I might still have her beat on National Parks!

Being able to travel is an immense privilege, and one I have only been able to afford thanks to my very generous parents. We have done some sort of family international trip every few years since my college and Rachel’s high school graduations gift trip to Italy in 2005. I am so grateful for these opportunities to expand my worldview, explore so many beautiful places, and learn about history, culture, art and how people around the world live. If I ever won the lottery, there would definitely be signs - in the form of trips and tattoos. Ok, maybe first a house and more cats.

Last year my mom mentioned that she’d been wanting to visit Southeast Asia, and apparently my dad was not all that interested in going there, so I was very lucky to be chosen as her travel buddy. Thanks for passing on this once in a lifetime opportunity so I could swoop it up, Dad!

Mom had a double knee replacement a few years back and was ready to put her new knees to the test, and being the Type A planner type (where do you think I got it?!), had quickly found a tour company, Asia Tours, to plan the entire trip. After checking with Rachel about what spots we should prioritize so we could do as much as possible in two weeks, we settled on an ambitious itinerary visiting Northern Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Angkor Wat had been on my bucket list forever, so that was what I was most excited about, but the entire trip was an amazing dream! Our adventure began by flying (for over 24 hours total travel time, my longest flights ever) into Bangkok (with a quick layover in Seoul) after meeting up in Seattle. From there we’d see Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, Hoi An, Hanoi and Halong Bay.

This part of the world feels very different from anywhere else I have traveled (Europe, Central and South America mostly). I have never been in a country that is over 90% Buddhist like Thailand and Cambodia, nor a Communist country like Vietnam. Asian cultures in general are SO much more community-focused than fiercely independent American ones, with multi-generational households and ways of life that prioritize the collective above the individual. The people are so friendly, open and generous. I FREAKING LOVE IT! It’s a culture shock in the best possible way, and I really think Americans could learn a lot from places like these with rich histories and cultures that prioritize community care and a sense of responsibility to the collective.

All that propaganda against communism and socialism that fills US history books and media is very easy to see as bullshit after spending any amount of time in a place like Vietnam. I am endlessly embarrassed and ashamed of my government seeing the horrific impact we’ve had on Cambodia and Vietnam from the war, like bomb craters at the 1,600 year old ruins of Hindu temples we visited at My Son sanctuary outside of Hoi An, and the band of amputees (victims of land mines) playing beautiful music as we walked into Ta Prohm in Cambodia.

Speaking of Ta Prohm - OMG. What an amazing temple complex being slowly taken over by tree roots that have become a part of the architecture as they crumble the ancient stone walls. We have visited a ton of beautiful temples, but it’s the ruins that are by far my favorite. Thailand’s shiny gold stupas are very pretty, but there is just something epic about the gritty and weathered ruins of temples like Wat Maha That and Wat Phrasrisanphet near the former Thai capital of Ayutthaya, Ta Prohm in Cambodia, and My Son in Vietnam. They make anything in the US seem so modern and immature.

Between 20+ hour travel days to and from, five short flights between countries, experiencing food tours by tuk tuk in Siem Reap and by foot in the most chaotic traffic ever in Hanoi’s Old Town, cyclo and car rides, 1 night on a small cruise boat in Halong Bay, and only 2-3 days in each of five different cities across three countries, we did A LOT of moving around.

Of course I made a doc with all the links we’d need and a shared Google map with all our tour stops, stays and recommendations in each city as we were planning, so between that and a very professional tour company booking everything, things flowed as smoothly as the traffic somehow managed to. SO many motorbikes and tuk tuks and cars squeezing through narrow streets and yet somehow we saw zero accidents. We had only one minor flight delay (and Delta reporting our first flight home as delayed even though it wasn’t, making for an anxious ride to the Hanoi airport).

I’m so grateful to have shared this amazing journey with my mom. Especially being there on International Women’s Day with her. Our tour guide in Hanoi explained women were spoiled and celebrated on Women’s Day there, often getting flowers and the day off. We also saw several examples of typical houses from minority ethnic groups in Vietnam at the Ethnology Museum that were matriarchal, it reminded me that we need the matriarchy to come set things right in the world!

The food everywhere we went was DELICIOUS and fresh, with varied breakfast buffets at each of the hotels and some massive meals where we sampled bites of various local dishes. We booked food tours in Siem Reap and Hanoi that were a great way to experience things like all kinds of spring rolls (even learned how to make some in Hoi An and on the boat in Halong Bay). I got to help plant water spinach with an adorable farmer lady in the vegetable village outside of Hoi An, and feed bananas to elephants at a sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai. Food is a great unifier across cultures (and species!) so I’m with Anthony Bourdain on this one, you can’t fully experience a place or its culture without sampling as much local food as possible!

My only complaint of the trip was how hard all the beds were. I’m a side sleeper in perimenopause, ok, I need a little squish for my poor hips! I guess they just like really firm mattresses over there, and it’s probably better for you. So I learned about myself that I am a bougie bitch when it comes to beds.

As we traveled I was constantly on the lookout with my camera ready to meet cats. I met many adorable cats in Thailand at the elephant sanctuary and a temple and several that came to beg for a bite of our seafood at restaurants in Cambodia. We saw a whole pile of floofy kitties on leashes sprawled on a sidewalk in Siem Reap, and the last night in Hanoi there were two mama cats with two kittens each at a tiny cafe on Train Street. I shared photos of all the kitties I met on LinkedIn if you need to see the evidence of all the cute cat encounters.

Below I’ll share the highlights that we saw in each city and my reflections on the culture, experiences, and of course the delicious food we sampled in our whirlwind two week trip. I hope this inspires you to visit beautiful Southeast Asia and beyond, and for lots more photos and videos of the trip, check out my Instagram posts and even more in my story highlights. And gratitude goes to my mama and to Asia Tours for taking care of all the details so we could focus on soaking it all up and making memories.

🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand: What a bustling city full of motorbikes zipping everywhere and sooooo many Buddhist temples. We saw the Emerald Buddha at the huge Royal Grand Palace and our guide made sure to point out the monkeys smoking weed in a mural - he must’ve caught my stoner vibes? 😶‍🌫️ We rode a long tail boat on the canals and visited the huge Reclining Buddha and Golden Buddha, and Wat Arun covered in pieces of broken pottery from a shipwreck. It was SO HOT and humid so we needed an AC and smoothie break.

🇹🇭 Ayutthaya, Thailand: Just outside of Bangkok we visited the ancient former capital of Ayutthaya, the beautiful Summer Palace grounds, and a few gorgeous temples and ruins like Wat Chai Wattanaram and the Khmer style Wat Chaiwatthanaram. Visiting most temples requires covering your knees and shoulders, so I brought a shawl but short sleeves and loose light pants would have been a bit better. We were glad to have umbrellas for shade and hand fans, and both brought small day packs for toting water and sunscreen (and a battery pack cuz I used my camera constantly). Drinking the fresh young coconut water saved me in Thailand and Cambodia!

🇹🇭 Chiang Mai, Thailand: I loved this small but lively city where we started our tour by visiting Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, its golden pagoda up on the hill that shines high over the city. We visited several temples in the city and an arts and cultural museum, then rode on cyclos to the bustling Wororos Market. We wandered the night market in the evening and on day two we headed out to the mountains to an ethical elephant sanctuary. We met Heng Heng, a defiant 7-year-old, and her adopted mama and fed them bananas and sugar cane, played in the creek, and made them a “cake” out of fruit and rice. 🐘

🇰🇭 Siem Reap, Cambodia: We flew on short local flights between countries, but had to go back to Bangkok for a night to fly to Cambodia the next morning. We enjoyed the hotel’s pool and swim up bar, and found a cheap laundromat near our hotel. We did a fun food tour that took us all over the city by tuk tuk our first evening in Siem Reap (thank you Jared of Siem Reap Food Tours). The next day was one I was most excited about…

🇰🇭 Angkor Wat, Cambodia: We visited Angkor Wat, one of the Wonders of the World and the largest religious structure, an ancient Khmer temple near Siem Reap in the morning. The temple was left unfinished, but still had many intricate carvings and extensive grounds. Nearby was my favorite, Ta Prohm. The roots of trees in the jungle have taken over the temple, crumbling limestone walls and becoming part of the scenery. We also saw the four-faced Bayon temple in Angkor Thom. All of these ancient structures are unreal and amazing to learn about. We had a lovely massage at the spa down the street from our hotel before heading to Vietnam.

🇻🇳 Hoi An, Vietnam: Perhaps our favorite city of the trip, Hoi An is a river town where there was a busy Night Market and boats filling the canal. We visited My Son Sanctuary, a collection of Champa ruins outside the city, and then took a tour of Old Town, had a huge lunch and learned how to make pretty silk lanterns that we took home. The next day we braved the rain on bikes through rice fields out to a Vegetable Village, where I helped a local farmer plant water spinach. Then we visited the Coconut Forest where we rode bamboo basket boats, learned how to make Vietnamese omelet and spring rolls (and then ate them), and got an herbal foot bath and massage before heading home. The weather was much cooler near the coast, and we got some rain, but it was welcome after all that heat!

🇻🇳 Hanoi, Vietnam: From pastoral Hoi An, we flew north to Hanoi, city of ten million people (and almost that many motorbikes). The Old Town felt like it moved pretty fast for its age, narrow streets were tightly woven with pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes and cars in a chaotic flow that somehow worked. We took a city tour and saw Ho Chi Min’s Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, an interesting Ethnology Museum, the Temple of Literature, and had another amazing sampler platter lunch. We rode another cyclo and saw a water puppet theater show, and on our last night, took a walking food tour and experienced the chaos of Train Street.

🇻🇳 Halong Bay, Vietnam: Our only group tour experience of the trip was one night on a small cruise boat on Halong and La Han Bays, full of gorgeous limestone cliffs covered with lush greenery. And very full of boats! We got to eat well, explore Dark and Bright Caves, kayak, do tai chi on the deck, take another spring roll class, and enjoy the view. It was gorgeous and I just wish we could have stayed there a bit longer!

What a whirlwind journey filled with culture, amazing memories, impressive temples, delicious food, and fun experiences that I’m so grateful to have shared with my mom. Thank you Asia Tours, thanks mom, and thank you to all the kind people we met in all three countries we visited. If you’re ever planning a trip, please feel free to hit me up with your questions and I can share my map of recommendations!

Now it’s back to the harsh reality of my embarrassment of a country starting WWIII and hoping we get those Epstein Trials soon, along with business as usual. Traveling always gives me a boost of energy and a dose of inspiration, so I hope to put it to good use now that I’m back home.

Thanks for reading that whole adventure, and don’t forget to check Instagram for more photos in my recent posts and Story Highlights. ✈️

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