First Time in South East Asia Itinerary



*First post squealing*

Planning where to go during your first trip in South East Asia (or Thailand & Vietnam specifically) is daunting. Especially if it's your first time in Asia. It feels like there's so much to see and everyone recommends something different. That's what I found anyway. Despite being someone that majorly plans ahead, I was with a group of people who didn't. On our second night in Ho Chi Minh, we sat on the roof, eating pizza, deciding on where we wanted to go and when. Talk about go with the flow?! So this is not a be all and end all of where to go. This is where we went during our 6 week adventure in Vietnam and Thailand. There are still so many places I'd love to visit, but we found this gave us a good variety of beaches, city, jungle and water. I hope you enjoy and this sparks some inspiration for your next trip!


1.       Ho Chi Minh

We started in Ho Chi Minh city as it is where one of friends was working. We met a lot of backpackers heading the opposite direction throughout Vietnam and ending in Ho Chi Minh but personally, I thought it was the best place to start. It is the city that is most similar to the cities I’m used to, with a banking quarter and lots of high-rise buildings. But that doesn’t mean its not worth going to. HCM traffic was one of the craziest things I've ever experienced! There were people driving the wrong way up the road, people sleeping on their bikes in the middle of a roundabout and bikes with what looked like 4 children, all under the age of 12, driving it.  It was a brilliant way to start an  adventure in South East Asia! We visited Dam Sen Water Park which was definitely not regulated in the same ways ours are but still brilliant. We had our first experience of street food and markets and went to the Vietnam War Museum.  Bui Vien Street is the Vietnamese version of Koa San road and worth visiting one night! We cut our stay in HCM short by one night, we agreed as a group that it was worth the visit but we wanted longer in Hanoi later in our trip so hopped on a night bus to…


2.       Dalat 

When we first got to Dalat, I thought we'd made a mistake. It was much less tropical than HCM as it’s higher up and at first it seemed like a small town with not much to do. Although that might have been something to do with the fact we arrived at 5 am. Dalat was cool! We spent our time canyoning, pedolloing and taking a cable cart up to visit the temple, which overlooked the rice fields and the town bellow. It felt a lot less touristy, but boy did Dalat change at night. The night market in the centre of town made Dalat feel like a crowded city rather than a sleepy town. I would recommend the Jungle Bar, if spending the night trying to find the rest of your group in a bar designed like a cave sounds like something you would like. Next, we got possibly the worst 12 hour overnight bus to…


3.       Hoi An

Hoi An was beautiful. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we knew we were somewhere completely different. Compared to Dalat’s ‘dampness’, Hoi An was tropically hot. It's a very romantic old town, famous for its brightly coloured streets and its tailored suits. I have done a more detailed post on Hoi An, which you can check out here. From there, we had a day on mopeds, driving along the Hai Van Pass, up to Hue. Hue seemed cool but we only spent a total of two hours there so it would be harsh to review it. From Hue, we took an overnight train (which felt like the optiomy of luxury compared to the bus), to…


4.       Hanoi

You can’t visit Vietnam without going to Hanoi. The capital was the best combination of everything we had done so far. It’s markets and street food were amazing, shockingly, this was the first place we had a Bhan Mi. The nightlife was so much fun but, in the day, Hanoi was a bustling city with places of tranquil and beauty. If you want museums and culture, this is a good place for you. It’s also a good place for you if you have loads of Vietnamese dong left and want to spend it (which is exactly how we spent our last day in Vietnam.) From Hanoi, we had a big ol’ day of travelling. We flew to Bangkok, then got a short flight down to South Thailand, a coach and ferry ride later and we arrived in…

5.       Koh Phangan

(exhausted and sweaty.) So the reason we made such an effort to get to Koh Phangan in a day was so we could make it to a famous Full Moon Party. Being a group of 19 year olds, in Thailand for the first time, we weren’t going to miss out on that! Where we stayed in Koh Phangan was nice, just imagine a Thai version of a Spanish beach resort with more beautiful beaches. We had our first Pad Thai and started to become reliant on Mango smoothies. The party itself was definitely an experience and I’m glad I did it. I wouldn’t go all the way back to Thailand for it though. Just imagine clubbing on a beach, with lots of fire and a designated sleep area for those who can’t hack it. I think it’s worth visiting Koh Phangan if you’re down that way to go to the party of you fancy it, but in terms of things to do on the island, I much preferred…


6.       Koh Tao

Koa Tao was different to Koh Phangan. It was an easy ferry ride across but straight away the little boats and tiny harbour gave the impression of a much more relaxed, chilled island. Koh Tao is famous for its diving and snorkelling, so of course we spent a day out at sea. I didn’t do a scuba diving course but some of my friends did and I know that if you’re interested in doing one, Koa Tao is famous for them (and cheaper than most other places.) The night life is slightly less BIG than in Koh Phangan but still lots of fun and still lots of fire. On our second full day, we did a coastal walk of the island (possible as its so small) which led to some amazing views, overlooking the rock formations and relatively untouched beaches. Out of the islands we visited, this was our favourite. Next, we went to…

7.       Koh Samui

The biggest and the most touristy island, this is the place people go for a family holiday so it's less 'backpackery'. We had loads of fun jet skiing, zip lining and drinking cocktails on the beach, it definitely felt like the most typical ‘holiday’ place we went. It was still Thailand though, so the beaches were stunning and the jet skiing didn’t create a massive dent in our budget. If you’re short on time, it’s probably not worth going to Samui for a very short visit, it’s just too big. But with a week, you could have a lot of fun. Our next journey was a long one. We traveled right down to the ‘wettest’ place in Thailand…


8.       Koh Sok National Park 
       
      My main memory about Koh Sok was, unfortunately, the rain. We stayed in a tiny town just outside the national park which mostly consisted of Thai restaurants and hostels, but we booked to stay overnight in the national park in floating wooden huts on the water. It was certainly an adventure, I would recommend it to everyone as long as you have a substantial raincoat. It was a minivan ride and an hour long boat ride to the 2 man huts. We spent our time kayaking, jumping in the water and playing cards. We did attempt a guided jungle hike, but the fear of leeches took over and the hike was cut short. We got back to the hostel on land and headed to the airport, flying back up Thailand to...

9. Bangkok 

We finally made it to the capital of Thailand, in the last week and a half of our trip. Bangkok was awesome and we could have easily spent the rest of our time here. We stayed in a hostel called Nitan which was very close to Khao San Road but not actually on it. Khao San road was an attraction in itself, I really enjoyed walking up it, taking in all the flashing lights and the pumping music. During the days in Bangkok we visited the Reclining Buddha, took a boat down the city, went to Chatuchak Weekend Market (which is huuuuugggeee) and enjoyed plenty of street food and beer. It's hard to talk about such a busy city in such a small paragraph but I plan on doing a bigger post all about Bangkok soon! From Bangkok, we took an overnight bus and a quick 2 hour mini bus ride up to...


10. Pai

I would describe Pai as a 'backpackers paradise.' The town is full of cute local cafe's, young bars and themed hostels. The night market combines food, locals, backpackers and little souvenirs in a perfect way and everyone seems to ride mopeds. Although the town is a little hippy, don't be put of if that's not your vibe because the surroundings has so much to offer. In just a short moped ride, we visited waterfalls, a canyon and tranquil little springs. Sitting in front of the White Buddha at sunset is up there with my favourite moments in Thailand. Just like Bangkok, although Pai is small, there's so much to do and it doesn't get too much attention so I thought I'd do a more detailed post on things to do in Pai. Next was the 3 hour minivan ride back down to...


11. Chiang Mai

I was very excited to get to Chiang Mai, by this time our group had split so I had already seen all the elephant sanctuary pictures flood the group chat, and I wanted a go! It is important to visit a genuine sanctuary, anywhere that lets you ride the elephants or has them tied up at all was a big NO. We visited the Dumbo Sanctuary outside Chiang Mai for a morning. We fed the elephants bananas and helped wash them, but the whole time the elephants were free to do whatever they wanted. It was clear from the behaviour of the staff that it was a nice place for the elephants to be, which was really important. We spent the rest of the time in Chiang Mai exploring the old town and the markets. There was a lot of walking though, Chiang Mai's a big ol city. We then had a short flight back down to..

12. Bangkok 

Which is where we ended our journey. We ended on a high, visiting China Town at night  was absolutely brilliant and such a fun thing to do. We had a drink in a roof top bar to celebrate our last night and said goodbye to Khoa San Road.

And that was it, 6 weeks in Thailand and Vietnam. 

We didn't do much pre-planning, we went to most of the big places. But for our first time in Asia, in a group of 8, I think we nailed it (if I do say so myself.) If we were to do it again, we wanted to get to Sapa, north of Hanoi. We also wanted to visit the islands on the other side of Thailand but were worried of running out of time! There's always next time though, ay. 

    

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