Review & Tips: South East Asia

Please be aware that these posts don't provide comprehensive, guide book level information. We're not claiming a lack of bias either ;) These overviews are simply a record of our experience which we post in the hope that they may occasionally provide more up to date, specific or detailed information than you've been able to find elsewhere...

It's tough to choose winners, but somebody has gotta do it. Best and worst of our travels in South-East Asia...

Best Beach: Small Beach, Shark Point, Phi Phi Don, Thailand. You have to be staying at the resort we stayed in (Hillview) to enjoy it, but the good news is, it's cheap!

Runner Up: Teluk Puah (Turtle Bay), Perhentian Besar, Malaysia. I loved these little islands. They are gorgeous (if you haven't been to Phi Phi you'd think they were the loveliest place in the world) and there's no hassle, just relaxation.

Best City: Luang Prabang, Northern Laos. So small and quiet you might not even think it counts as a city, but huge on culture, history, good food and gifts. Lots of nice places to stay, tons to do. Only downside is the number of tourists who already know how great it is.

Runner Up: Penang, Malaysia. The most Asian city we have visited, fantastically multicultural with wonderful architecture. If you want to visit a city where Asia really shines through the colonialism, go Penang.

Best Trekking: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Cool enough to excite your body, diverse enough to excite the mind. There's a good reason why biologists and herpetologists from all over the world visit the forests here.

Runner Up: Tioman, Malaysia. At the time of the year when there are a few clouds to cool it down, this island has an undeveloped tropical interior great for trekking – there are volcanoes to climb, tons of critters (see Best Wildlife) and it lacks the oppressive atmosphere of Taman Negara.

Best Activities Hub: Krabi, Thailand. If you are keen to get active, in or out of the water, this is the place to do it.

Runner Up: Vang Vieng, Laos. Climbing, caving, kayaking, tubing anyone? Join the hordes or get out on your own, it's all there and the region is so pretty.

Best Shopping: Luang Prabang, Laos. Most side streets become a market at night. The textiles are beautiful of course, but so are the homewares, jewellery and basketry. If you want something unique that people will comment on back home, this is where you should look first.

Runner Up: Penang, Malaysia. Runner up because they have the greatest variety of pirated movies – especially anime. You could buy a whole collection of dvds here for the price of a couple back home and they are pretty good quality. Original anime sets at Hong Kong Video are the best value ever.

Best Hotel: Hanoi Street Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam. We are staying here now. Try somewhere cheaper for short stays, but for longer term and business travellers it doesn't come better value than this.

Runner Up: Hillview Inn, Cameron Highlands. What it lacks in facilities it makes up in atmosphere and location. The furnishings are charming, the ambience is cozy. Close to food and the trails.

Best Guesthouse: Chan Cha Lay, Krabi, Thailand. This place wins for it's cleanliness, airiness, attention to detail, helpful staff and beautiful garden.

Runner Up: Hillview "Resort", Phi Phi Don, Thailand. The price is more in-line with a hotel (it cost the same as what we are paying here in Hanoi) and the facilities more with a nice guesthouse, but holy wow, the view is worth the price if you sleep in a tent. Nice chalets with clean bathrooms and a good restaurant looking across the bay to Phi Phi Leh. Magic.

Most Memorable Experience: Drawing simple cartoons for fascinated children who snatched them up like hot cakes, unnamed I-Kor village, border of Phongsali, Laos and Yunnan, China. I will never forget their faces – children with no pens or paper other than what we took with us. I would draw a picture of a cat and make a cat noise, and the paper would be gone before I could see who took it. They started off being too scared to even approach me. An hour later I was still drawing, and 20 of them crowded so close I could barely move my elbows.

Runner up: Abandoned village lost in mist, unnamed mountain peak, border of Phongsali, Laos and Yunnan, China. We spent all day climbing to this point and when we got there, the fog was so thick we could barely see a metre in front of us. It blew over the emptiness and made this the loneliest, wildest place I have ever set foot. It reminded me of the ghosts of ancestors surely buried here where the paths are weeded over and few tread. Incredible feeling.

Best Place to Bike: Nong Khai, Thailand. If you like to ride you could spend days exploring the countryside around Nong Khai - graded super easy for lazybones like me ;)

Runner Up: Vang Vieng, Laos. It's bumpy as hell on the roads outside town but there are so many places to go it makes your head spin. Scenery is all purple mountain ranges, rushing rivers and vast padis.

Best Place to Veg Out (Vegetarian Eating): Banana Leaf Meals, Bunga Suria, Tanah Rata, Malaysia. When we stayed here we ate more than at any other point in our journey. We never paid more than 21 ringgit (7AUD) for both of us and we stuffed ourselves, couldn't fit another bite.

Runner Up: Jaya, Penang, Malaysia. More Indian food – this place beats out many other marvelous restaurants because it's open 24 hours and meals start from 70 cents. So cheap it hurts, so good you can't fault it. Both Bunga Suria and Jaya are packed with locals every day.

Other Great Eats: I can't help it, kudos to great restaurateurs: Echo Cafe Penang (pizza and pasta in a gorgeous shophouse) and Lao Lao Garden in Luang Prabang (more "expensive" but worth it)

Best Place to Celebrate: Gazebo, Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand. Rooftop bar with band, shisha (love it), dj in attached club, snooker and anything else you care to name. Not as hectic as the roadside bars, atmosphere points for no TV and open plan lounge seating. We were there till close.

Runner Up: Riverside bars, Vang Vieng, Laos. Atmosphere – Apocalypse Now. Insane cocktails, water-based shenanigans (swing into the river from 50 ft up). Dangerous but fun (provided you either are young, or feel it).

Best Wildlife: Tioman Island, Malaysia. Taman Negara and strangely, northern Laos are touted as wildlife spotting hubs in SEA, but Tioman has more critter action than you can poke a stick (or a camera) at. I nearly stepped on a rare snake, I learned of the existence of enormous squirrels and that dinosaurs still roam the earth. I also had the daylights scared out of me by excitable monkeys (who tried to kill us with green mangoes). You don't even have to get off the beaten track here to see loads of beasties.

Runner Up: Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. Get off the beach and onto the trails and you'll see the whole circle of life.

Friendliest Locals: Indian community, Ipoh, Malaysia. They'll adopt you in a second. Before you know it you'll have 20 new friends with their hearts in the right place.

Runner Up: Everyone in Laos. Hospitality has no real meaning until you've been offered a meal, tea and rice whiskey in the home of someone who has nothing for themselves, with no expectation of anything in return.

We've sacrificed the rest of our SEA loop in order to travel the silk road, so here's...

Things I'm sorry we missed: Angkor Wat Cambodia, Hue Vietnam, Malaysian Borneo, Java & Bali, Indonesia.

Maybe next time!

But based on our experience, for potential travelers, a great highlights of SEA route on limited time and cash would be:

Tioman (wildlife), Cameron Highlands (trekking/fresh air), Penang (food/culture), Krabi and the southern islands of Thailand (beach life), straight up through northern Laos and most especially – Phongsali (people/unforgettable).

And now – even the best of places has its bad side.

Worst Environmental Policy: Cherating, Malaysia. Turning a whole region into a garbage dump. We were appalled at the amount of garbage here – turning beautiful bays and rivers into sludge.

Worst Cruelty: The most shocking image of the whole trip – a live ocelot (or native cat) wrapped tightly in chicken wire and laid out on it's side on a hot market street in Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. I have never seen anything so horrible. It was terrified out of its mind, couldn't move, lying in the heat with no water in a place filled with people. What had been a free creature, living in the mountain forests, dying slowly in pain and terror. How people who are so lovely and kind in general can ignore suffering like that I will never understand. I cannot forgive them for it, though I understand that they often live in poverty and suffer too. Seeing this made me sad for days.

Most disgusting toilet: Laos immigration exit post, Tay Trang on the Vietnamese border. I had been on the bus for 8 hours and I HAD to use it. Filthiest thing I have ever laid eyes on. I tried to go to a happy place in my mind.

And finally...

Things I Miss Most from Home: Family (love you guys), Mitten kitten, FOOD (toasted sandwiches, feta on seaweed crackers, hard tofu as opposed to silken, Duk's special dahl mix, I dream about them every night), being able to do things that require having a home (you might be surprised just how much that matters).

I really would like to see more of SEA, but we have to stay in Hanoi now until we leave for the next part of our big trip. No regrets though, the silk road awaits and who knows, maybe we'll get another chance.