Asia: One Year Later (Part I of II)

A whole new world! Do we love it??

Southeast Asia: the Pros and Cons of Bali, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand

On November 5, 2024, just recently, Kat and I celebrated (but not in a party type way…) our one year anniversary since we arrived in Southeast Asia last year. There was no real cause to celebrate—and we still have a few months left before we leave…but it was a milestone, since I had no idea we would stay this long.

But she did…

Our first experience in Asia four years ago was not a good one, and after landing in Singapore on Jan 1, 2020, and having such high hopes for the New Year, and the new decade, my enthusiasm level dropped pretty quickly. I was not “ready” for Bangkok, and since we had only been on the road for less than a year, the town overwhelmed me. Too much noise; too much traffic; too much smog. Too much everything!! On top of that, Kat got COVID two weeks in, one of the first instances from what we learned, and then the Gates of COVID opened and made travel a nuisance at first, a nightmare not long after.

No sense in rehashing that whole experience, but before we got to Bali in November of last year, I thought, “Maybe six months in Asia; possibly nine,” but Kat was enthused, and I learned to love it, too. There, I said it:

I DO Love Asia

Bali was a great place to start, and unless things change, we’ll finish there in February (or possibly April, still in the works…). Here’s our past year:

• Bali, Indonesia (4 mo, two visits)

• Philippines (1 mo)

• Vietnam (4+ mo, two visits)

• Malaysia (5 mo, two visits)

• Thailand (2 mo)

Stop #1:

Low tide on Nusa Lembongan

The spiritual nature of Bali, along with the truly beautiful and gracious (mostly Hindu) people, was a great stay. Our room in Ubud was lovely, literally tucked within a plumeria garden, with the best host(ess), who is now a true friend. We had one large room, a tiny barely usable kitchen, but breakfast was brought up to our balcony each morning by Yani, and the food was delicious! Fruit, coffee, fresh mango juice, eggs/ pancakes, cinnamon roll, well, let’s just say it spoiled us for the next year.

During our almost two months there, we visited and stayed in Amed, Sanur, Nusa Lembongan, and hit much of the southern coast. The temples and food were delightful, and we knew we’d be back, which will happen around Christmas.

But, there is a dark side to Bali: the traffic, and the trash.

The roads are not great, and there are too many cars and bikes, and even as a bike rider for decades, I said, “no.” It’s a Drive on the Left Side country, and the scooter count is off the charts. Our original plan was to get one, but, “nope,” not doing that. Our Grab driver, Eddy, said it well: “Save your life, not your money,” meaning, spend the money on a driver, and don’t ride/ drive yourself. Bali is just one of 18,000 islands (yup, not a typo) in the country of Indonesia, which is the fourth largest population in the world. But Bali is unique in that the major religion here is Hinduism, rather than Islam, like the rest of the country. The Balinese people pride themselves on being a bit different than other Indonesians, and of other Hindus, and we tend to agree. Their religion honors “the souls in all things,” and that includes many animals.

And trash? Well, no need to show pictures, but you can imagine what it might look like if you’ve been to other parts of Asia…

One of the biggest things that really impressed us was the food. During our first month we had about three meals that were “sub-par,” and the rest were terrific—and cheap. A dinner of two orders of pork ribs, plus a beer was less than $10 USD, so there was no need to cook at all. Between that and our provided for breakfasts, we never starved and enjoyed just two meals a day.

There were TWO things that concerned us before we got to Asia: bugs, specifically mosquitos, and humidity. Both of them were unfounded and dealt with. We had a handful of irritating nights with mosquitoes, but never saw anything “scary,” like 6” spiders, footlong millipedes, nor any dangerous snakes, scorpions or anything that might cause nightmares. And humidity? Sure, it IS humid-- sometimes, some places worse than others-- but overall, manageable. Florida and Texas and much of the east coast has been much worse in my memory.

Indonesia/ Bali tip:

As American passport holders, there are many countries where we do not need a visa to enter, but much of Asia are exceptions. At the airport you can obtain the traditional, “Visa on Arrival,” which is what we did. That allows 30 days entry—period. To stay longer requires an extension visa OR you must obtain a different visa when you arrive. We also were required to show immigration when we were leaving, and to where we were going (Onward travel). We knew this in advance and pre-booked a flight to Manila, Philippines, so that meant our overall stay was going to be about seven weeks. Later we found out we did this whole process THE WRONG WAY, and there were easier ways to do it. Long story short, it took three trips to immigration and another $35, but we were granted our extension, so next time we will get an evisa from the get-go.

Stop #2:

a very rare picture of the underwater Norm!

The Philippines was a country that we were not quite sold on even before we got there, and even though we stayed only on Palawan island for 30 days, we both said that it was a One and Done. The vibe, the energy (for us), was just different, and because you almost have to fly to go anywhere, it’s inconvenient to travel if you carry all your stuff with you. Like we do. We never really found food we loved, or even liked, and because the history is more Spanish than most of Asia, and because the islands ARE so far out there, we probably will not return. They did have great beaches and nice water, and our two day trips to the local islands were spectacular and unique, so I give them that.

Stop #3:

yes, really… a reproduction of the Roman Colosseum (Phu Quoc)

Our second visit to Vietnam started in Ho Chih Minh city (Saigon), where we stayed for less than a week, but we liked it! It was walkable, we found good food, nice people, and although we didn’t stray too far from town, it was a good place to start. It was also not a town to ride our own scooters, and I have seen other videos that make light of Vietnamese bike riders and how they NEVER look backwards; only forward. They watch out for each other, and are assertive, but stay relatively safe. HCM was only a gateway to the island of Phu Quoc, our intended destination for a month, but we had a great opportunity to stay, for free, at two awesome resorts in Can Tho, about a 2.5 hour bus ride (which was effortless) south. Aside from our terrific rooms, we really like the town and plan to return. It’s waterfront, had good energy, and we were able to take a river cruise along the Mekong delta, which was trippy. First off, as a young man who only missed the Vietnam War (called “the American War” over there) by one year, hearing the names of places I saw on the news was freaky.

The island of Phu Quoc was a mixed blessing, and we went there because of all the stories and videos we checked out. It IS a trippy island, with faux cities made to look like the Amalfi Coast, Rome, and Venice, in Italy (I kid you not!), and we felt very safe riding our scooter, since it was not as crazy or hectic as bigger Vietnamese cities. I got a bad cough which took a few weeks to go away, but as we were ready to leave Vietnam, we looked forward to our next stop: Malaysia, which is where we are now, for the second time, and I’ll pick that up with our next letter.

But first, a quick question. My goal is to send out these updates about every 10 days, but I’d love your thoughts on how many is too MUCH, and how many is too FEW. It’ll take less than 52 seconds to hit the one you like, so, thank you in advance!

Part II will cover our two Malaysia experiences, our second (and best) return trip to Vietnam, and Thailand.

For my American friends, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving; enjoy whoever you spend it with, and appreciate with gratitude, all the things in your life that you may take for granted. Like I did turkey and the fixins’…I DO miss the food!

For those that responded to my last poll, asking about WHO you are (nomad? still working on it, etc)… here’s the results)

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For our Travel Younger Founding members, I have a treat coming up!

The second tallest building in the world is called Merdeka 118, and it is right here in Kuala Lumpur. It won’t be open until next year (at the earliest), and Kat and I were able to get a promo tour—with lots of pictures! I’ll be putting together a special newsletter on that about the beginning of December and give you all a tour, too.

the view from the top