The 15 Best (and Most Forgettable) Moments in Southeast Asia

Kayaking Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (Best, #4)

Cycling at night through the Hoi An streets, Vietnam (Best, #8)

Motorbiking the Mae Hong Son loop, Thailand (Best, #3, Worst, #1)

Life jackets. Asian boat ride requirement.

The Reunification Express, Vietnam (Best, #11)

The bus ride to Da Lat

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Night walks, Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia (Best, #9, Worst, #10)

The puke-filled ferry ride, Thailand (Worst, #4)

Charming Homestay, Hoi An, Vietnam

Eating Vietnamese noodles, Hoi An, Vietnam

Bicycling through Angkor Archeological Park, Cambodia (Best, #1)

Paths through the Ubud rice fields, Indonesia (Best, #12)

Thoughtful at Pho Xua, Hoi An, Vietnam (Best, #2)

Motorbikes in Vietnam!

Feeling at home at Charming Homestay, Vietnam (Best, #6)

Kuta, Bali, Indonesia (Worst, #12)

"Swank" hotel in Da Lat, Vietnam (Worst, #2)

Smoothies in Siem Reap, Cambodia (Best, #13)

Long Beach, Koh Lanta, Thailand (Worst, #3)

After nearly three months of traveling across Southeast Asia, it’s time to wrap things up. We’ve traveled through 4 countries, 23 cities, slept in an endless number of hotel/guesthouse/homestay beds (26 to be exact) and have taken 10 flights, 8 bus rides, 6 ferries, 1 train ride, and a seemingly endless motorbike ride. We’ve covered a lot of miles and had some awesome and not-so-awesome moments along the way. Here’s a list of the best, and most forgettable, moments from our 79 days in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand (in no particular order).

The best moments in Southeast Asia

1. Riding beat up bicycles to Angkor Wat for sunrise, then cycling another 26 miles through the entire Archaeological Park in 100+ degree heat 
2. Drinking big bottles of Tiger beer and eating pho on the front porch of Pho Xua in Hoi An Ancient Town, watching the night pass by
3. Feeling the sun push through the clouds after riding motorbikes through the pouring rain in the jungles and mountains of northeast Thailand on the Mae Hong Son loop
4. Listening to the gentle splash of our paddles disrupt the sound of pure silence while kayaking Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
5. Eating Thai Curry at Bamboo Bee Restaurant after the long, bloody motorbike ride from Pai to Chiang Mai on the Mae Hong Son loop
6. Feeling at home in the red brick and garden setting at Charming Homestay in Hoi An, Vietnam
7. Jumping in the pool of our hotel (Landing Gold Villa) then running back to our room to avoid mosquitoes on a 95-degree night in Siem Reap, Cambodia
8. Cycling through the desolate, lantern illuminated streets at midnight in Hoi An’s Ancient Town 
9. Enjoying a Paddle Pop popsicle after our final, treacherous night walk from Jungutbatu village back to our homestay on Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia
10. Scarfing down our first “western” style salad in Asia, at Kismet Cafe in Ubud
11. Drinking Vietnamese whisky on the 14-hour, “aroma” filled train ride on the Reunification Express from Hue to Hanoi
12. Walking back to our homestay in the rain, across the elevated stone paths that traverse the rice fields in Ubud, Indonesia 
13. Plowing through four $1 fresh fruit smoothies in the Siem Reap heat, after the long bicycle ride to Angkor Wat
14. Scrubbing and spraying Boonmee (a rescued 57-year-old Asian elephant) during our visit Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
15. Enjoying handfuls of popcorn and air conditioning while watching Jurassic World at the movie theater in Chiang Mai, Thailand - our first movie in months

The most forgettable moments in Southeast Asia

1. Getting up just a few feet away from a 6+ foot long monocled cobra after the motorbike crash, which said cobra caused, on the Mae Hong Son Loop
2. Arriving in Da Lat after a 7-hour bus ride, only to be moved to a different, less “swank” (terrible!) hotel, Vietnam
   
3. The disappointment of running to Long Beach in Koh Lanta, Thailand only to find trash, trash and more trash
   
4. The death-defying, puke-filled ferry ride from Phi Phi to Phuket, Thailand
   
5. Phuket, Thailand. Enough said.
   
6. Arriving in Krabi after a long day, only to check into a hotel across the street from a nightclub with beds covered in terry cloth, towel-style bed sheets (what the...?!?!?)
   
7. The 14-hour bus ride from Nha Trang to Da Nang with only one bathroom stop, and Megan’s near Dramamine overdose (4 is two too many)
   
8. Accidentally purchasing “salt” flavored toothpaste in Thailand. It’s not good.
   
9. Any AirAsia flight (bumpy would be an understatement)
   
10. Night walks home through surprise cemeteries in Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia
    
11. The ever-present smell of sewage in our fancy “outside bathroom” in Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia
    
12. Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. If you’re curious why it’s on the list, try visiting Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
    
13. Trying a “Mexican” restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam. Cool Ranch Doritos covered with yogurt is possibly the worst version of nachos known to man.
    
14. 14 days of “Tuk Tuk” offers in Cambodia. No, we don’t need a tuk tuk.
    
15. Instant coffee paired with non dairy creamer (we’re talking to you Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand)
    

So, obviously there are quite a few things about Southeast Asia we won’t miss. Some examples, you ask? Well, we definitely won’t miss constantly smelling like 100% Deet bug spray in a desperate attempt to avoid malaria and dengue fever. We won’t miss all-in-one bathroom/showers. We won’t miss the (pardon our French) shitty roads and ridiculously long bus rides, or having to buy bottled water everywhere. We also won’t miss the bland, monotonous Asian lagers and pilsners, the presence of very large rats and poisonous SNAKES, and least of all, super sketchy ferry rides.

But there’s plenty more parts of Asia that we will truly miss. First and foremost, the food! It’s delicious, accessible, and super cheap. The way these countries balance flavors, especially hot and cold, spicy and sweet, is unbelievable. It’s difficult to find authentic food of this quality in the United States. Southeast Asia is also a really, really beautiful part of the world where natural wonders seem to pop up out of nowhere. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, the mountains of Northeast Thailand, Koh Phi Phi, and Ubud, Indonesia are just a few of the truly amazing places we will never forget. We’ll also miss the people, who so often were incredibly gracious, humble, and welcoming to us. We made some great friends along the way that we’ll stay in touch with for a very long time.

We’ll miss our favorite snacks, like green tea Cornetto ice cream cones, Paddle Pop popsicles, Milka Crackers and banana chips. We’ll miss the motorbikes that are EVERYWHERE in SE Asia, sometimes with entire families (up to 5 or 6 people) all riding together. We’ll miss Buddhism, Hinduism, and the beautiful temples that dot the tropical landscapes across these countries. We’ll miss 50 cent bottles of beer, Vietnamese coffee, Indonesian Arak, one dollar smoothies, and fresh fruit (mangoes, coconuts, passion fruit and apple bananas) everywhere. We stayed in some very beautiful hotels and homestays for very little money, which we’ll definitely miss. But most of all, we’ll miss the feeling of freedom; of being unattached to the pressures and stress of the western world. Life exists in a different way there, with a stronger connection to the very simple, but very important, parts of life. There’s such beauty in this simplicity, which is found everywhere in Southeast Asia. This way of living, unattached to the western version of “success” and grounded in family and tradition, is something we won’t only miss, we’ll do our best to take home with us.