This time last year, Nathan and I were starting our Southeast Asia trip for my Christmas break. I first traveled to Cambodia for work in 2012, knowing little but falling in love quickly. Nathan was intimidated by the idea of East Asia but I knew he would be blown away. As usual, I was right.
I know this trip was a year ago, but it’s worth sharing, even now. Every few months, we need to get out of Dar es Salaam to calm down and recharge. It might seem strange that we would choose to go to other developing countries for our holiday, but I’ll explain some of the major surface differences that make travel in SE Asia SO, SO, SO much easier and perhaps more comfortable than Sub-Saharan Africa.
We started our trip in Thailand as a way to ease Nathan in. Thailand is considered a middle-income country, with the 26th highest GDP, whereas Tanzania is number 84 and with ~70% of the population earning less than $2 per day. Thailand receives over 30 MILLION tourists annually so the tourist infrastructure was shocking for us, compared to sub-Saharan Africa. It is an extremely easy country to travel within, and very affordable. From the second we stepped off the plane, everything went so smoothly, buses were on time, taxis had meters, hotels were lovely, food was seriously the best in the world (and cheap!), and we had a wonderful week.
I have to give a shout out to the cutest and hippest ‘homestay’ in Bangkok, Loog Choob – we cannot recommend this place highly enough!
The next stop was for Christmas in Cambodia, one of my favorite places on Earth. Kind people (despite their heartbreaking modern history), delicious food, beautiful temples, and just enough adventure. Cambodia is a low-income country and you notice so many differences from Thailand right away (much more poverty for example, less infrastructure). I had visited Cambodia several times related to my trip-leading days and felt comfortable right away, mostly thanks to our amazing partners/guides. Nathan has heard so much about them and it was important for him to become connected to them.
Our trip was easy-peasy, something that Nathan still talks about, in awe. In Tanzania, you can expect ‘bumps’ along the way almost daily as a tourist (no matter how much money you spend) and you have to be very open-minded and flexible. In Cambodia, they have trained their guides SO well and the tourist infrastructure is simple in places but great value. An example: Nathan booked a bus ticket ONLINE (what?) using a credit card (what?) for the wrong day. We did not notice at all until we arrived at the station and the company was so forgiving and still managed to get us on the trip we wanted. In East Africa, the story would have gone this way: we bought a ticket (using cash only) from the bus office and the person wrote the wrong date on the ticket and when we arrived at the bus we were told we should have noticed and now we will have to pay for a new ticket and go tomorrow. Pole (sorry).
Cambodia is developing quickly and I hardly recognized several spots, so if you want to go before more of the old charm is gone, GO NOW.
Our final week was spent in Myanmar (Burma). Wow – this place is so difficult to explain and, with the current news, it becomes even more challenging. It is eerily modern and clean and organized in some places, such as Yangon, but there is this slight tension and quietness in the air. There are more rules to follow in this conservative country compared to neighboring countries and I’m sure it will take years, decades even, for the effects of military rule to fade away and allow the people to really govern themselves.
That said, we had an amazing trip because of the lovely people and actually enjoyed the surprises. We intentionally did little research before coming and asked my Cambodian friend in tourism to book everything for us. Nathan and I are planners so this was a HUGE step out of our comfort zones – just what we needed. We even made a major mistake and realized on Christmas Day that we needed Visas for Myanmar before even leaving Cambodia. My amazing friend had a contact that was able to go to the immigration office and get us a rushed Visa on a holiday. WHAT? That would never, ever happen in Tanzania. Ever.
If you have thought of visiting Myanmar, GO NOW. It feels very unexplored and authentic at the moment. It feels special. Different. I am hesitant to say too much because you just need to experience it in-person. This might change quickly though as the government is prioritizing tourism development. The guides are still young and inexperienced, trains might not arrive at all, flights might be massively delayed, but it’s all part of the experience of traveling in Myanmar.
When Nathan and I plan trips now, we often ask ‘Can we go there when we retire?’ and if the answer is ‘yes’ then we put that trip on the back-burner. We are so fortunate to have had the time and money to go on this Southeast Asia trip as the area is changing each year, in many good ways, but I wanted Nathan to see some of the reasons I fell in love with these places – especially the quiet spots you have almost to yourself, for now.
NERD ALERT:
- There are more than 10,000 7-Eleven stores in Thailand!
- Over 60% of Cambodians are under the age of 30. This is largely due to the Khmer Rouge Genocide.
- Myanmar, Liberia, and the US are the only countries in the world that have not adopted the metric system. Myanmar also uses right-hand drive cars on the RIGHT side of the road. I never got used to it.
Karibuni Vietnam, Y'all 