Southeast Asia forum

This is a frequently recurring theme on travelfish. It comes down to what you want to do while you are in the region. What kind of tourist are you? Predominantly I see four basic themes:

1. The Sex Tourist. He (and occassionally she) is coming here to find sex (the women seem to be looking more for some kind of boyfriend experience). You can do that by just going to places like Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket, but throughout Thailand, anyway, you can find companionship from the opposite sex in any provincial capital city. The language barrier is more pronounced in the sticks, which is why most stick to the obvious konwn locations.

2. The beach tourist. They are coming here to chill on the beach, sometimes enjoy some nightlife. They will often like to experience multiple beaches, but are interested in coastal areas (for obvious reasons) He (or she) also often wants to chill and will seek solitude at times.

3. The cultural tourist. There are two types of these:

a. The one who is coming to "see" culture. He was to see old khmer ruins, temples, that sort of thing.
b. The one who is coming to "experience" culture. He is interested in homestays, seeing village life, and trying to communicate with local peoples, often in rural environements.

Some of these kinds of tourists are mixed and mashed, so someone doesn't always fit neatly into a box. The first thing to determine an itinerary, though, is to determine what you are coming to do. What's the purpose of your trip? For example, if you are of type 1, then why waste your money transiting from place to place? You want to save as much cash as possible to spend on booze and women. If you are type 3.b., then you will want to stick to one country. Language is culture, and learning just one of these languages would be a huge challenge in 5 months. It's hard to give intelligent advice if we dont' start with purpose.

Where? Now there's the question of the year! Laos and NE Thailand? Or Sulawesi, Sumatra and Borneo? Or... or.... crap, so many places to see!! I won't be doing it all in one trip though - unless I chuck the job in. The pull gets strong and stronger, so anything is possible.

Not sure when either.... but most likely Sep-Nov-ish, give or take.

Would love to catch up for a beer or 6. Who knows, I might actually be drinking beer by then! I never did acquire a taste this last trip in spite of best intentions!

thanks everyone for the replies. Madmac & Lizzy I know my itinerary was super general, I wasn't quite looking for suggestions on where to go but more wondering if that was enough time to get a feel for the countries I'd be in. With your suggestions, I've decided to slow it down some and just focus on a couple of countries instead of all of them. I'd rather stay longer in one place instead of bounce around.

Thanks again.