Southeast Asia forum

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
A traveller's gotta do what that traveller is inspired to do.
You have nothing but good options. Only YOU can decide!

PS. I hope the Aust $ is still strong then and you earn and save heaps of them!

"agree with madmac, but a lot of backpackers don't like that area."

Yep. Basically most tourists want to see exotic sites and get pictures of them. Well, all of the exotic sites have now well and truly been documented. So they are going where everyone goes who's pretending to do the "alternative" vacation. In fact, going to all the normal stops, there's nothing alternative about it at all. Just look at travelfish posts and the questions asked most often (by far) are Angkor Wat, VV, Laung Prabang, Sukhothai, Ayudaya and so forth. Nobody asks about Wat That Phanom, or Nakhon Phanom or Khemerat or Roi Et or Yasothon ... That's because they want to get the photos of these eye catching things AND want to make sure they are where at least basic english gets them by. The idea of being the only foreigner for miles around sounds good to them in theory, but not in practice - so they stick to the "travellers" trail. I have been to Saimun in Yasothon many, many times, since my in laws live there, and I have never seen a single backpacker or tourist of any other description. Not once.

The Philippines is part of South-East Asia and a lot of people speak English.

We've met a few people who have raved about Indonesia being really nice, it's made us want to go anyway.

Orrrr come say hello to us?? we're living in Chiang Mai for three months [img]smileys/smile.gif[/img] (I know you've already been but maybe a second visit?)

P.s central highlands of Vietnam were amazing!

The North East of Thailand still has quite a few backpackers in certain places, particularly Nong Khai. It's a nice area to visit.

I would also recommend Indonesia, but only if you can change your flight so you fly out of Bali to Australia rather than from Bangkok to Australia. It is a big detour to go there and then back track to Bangkok.

You've got a couple of options if you do Indonesia. You could go to Penang in Malaysia, cross over to Medan in Northern Sumatra and then travel down Sumatra, cross to Java and then go to through Java to Bali. There's a well trodden back tracker trail and some good places to visit.

If you don't want to visit Sumatra, you could go through Malaysia to Singapore, cross over to Jakarta and then travel through Java to Bali.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you could carry on from Bali to Kupang in Timor, passing through places like Komodo and Flores on the way. It's then a short flight over to Darwin in Northern Australia. You may not have enough time to do that and you would again need to change your flight from Bangkok.

If you do go to Indonesia, you might want to check with people who have been there recently whether it's ok travelling as a single female.

And there's more in Cambodia than Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville... come on back...

'sheeed

I always pitch a northeastern trip through Kratie and Ratanakiri.

Kratie's a rad little riverside town with good people, beautiful countryside, and dolphins. Ratanakiri has waterfalls, trekking, a national park, and a beautiful volcanic lake I'm going to go swim in... right now.

'sheeed

Mac,

Nightlife in Kratie rocks hard until, about, sunset...

But on my list, Mac. But then, I don't have in-laws in rural Thailand.
More's the pity ........

Kratie might just been on my list now too, have looked into it and it definitely seems worth a visit, also like the look of Ratanakiri hadn't heard of either of these places bofore you mentioned them so thanks Rasheed!

Michael
Well, it has its plusses and minuses. At times it can be a financial strain. On the other hand, when I want to spend some down time away from the city and away from white people (and there are some times when I like to do that), or to just plain work on the farm, it's great. I also like my in laws, which helps.

Rasheed
I'm a night guy. I like nightlife, I love to dance, I'll even do the occassional Karaoke. So travelling to a place with no nightlife doesn't work for me. Even in Yaso, there's a little nightlife (although not in the village). I'm also not much of a nature guy, so I don't like to travel to see "natural beauty." I do enjoy interacting with people, so on that front it might be interesting, but I don't speak Khmer - that's a problem.

I will saxib, I will.