|
Okay if your dates aren't set in stone, then I think that's still pretty salvageable. Cut out all the time in Jakarta, there's honestly very little to see there and when you have a country with the size and diversity of Indonesia, Jakarta is one of the least interesting places to spend it. I'd probably add one extra day to Jogja if you can - don't miss Borobudur (the world's largest Buddhist structure) or Prambanan, but they're different directions so can't really be done in the same day. In town, there's also the former Sultan's Palace that's fairly interesting, but try and do that in the morning as it gets baking loving hot. Be sure to hit up Jalan Malioboro (Malioboro Street) as that's where all the market stuff is - mostly locals but tourists go there too. It's also a fantastic spot for just grabbing whatever food you want from a hawker or street vendor. If you're not used to eating from street vendors, just look for the busiest people and make sure you see your food get cooked. I haven't been to Sukuh so I can't offer any input there. If you're not feeling the temple focus, maybe ask if you can switch it for a trip up Mount Merapi? It's the nearby active volcano and has some pretty unreal views. Avoid Denpasar if you can, as it's where all the drunken Australian bogans go for cheap package holidays. Think Cancun for rednecks, or Brits in Mallorca etc. Nearby Seminyak is nicer, with more upscale shops and restaurants, though it's still just a tourist spot really. Note that you can't really swim at any of the beaches here because of plastic pollution (Java is the world's most populous island, and all of their garbage gets dumped into the ocean and drifts across to nearby Bali). There's some better (and lower-key) beachy spots on the eastern side, like around Nusa Lembongan and the other islands there. Another option is heading further inland, up to Ubud. It's more of a hippie tourist hangout, so there's a lot of yoga retreats, vegan cafes, coworking spaces and that sort of thing. There's a cool monkey park though, and if you like walking you can just walk a couple of blocks off the main drag and you're immediately surrounded by rice paddies. A couple of other things to do in Bali: locals all love to visit Ulun Danu Beratan Temple, which is pretty beautiful though a couple of hours drive north of Ubud. It's on one of the Indonesian banknotes so it's pretty well known. Oh and just north of Ubud is Tegallalang Rice Terraces, those are super pretty as well. Everyone in Denpasar will try and sell you a sunset tour to Tanah Lot temple, though we found it fairly underwhelming to be honest. Note that getting around Bali can be kind of a pain, there's no Uber or anything like that (at least last time I visited anyway) so you're basically stuck with public buses or the taxi mafia - make sure you negotiate since they will start at 3x the fare. Or find yourself a private driver and just hire him and his car for a few days, your hotel (or your friend's friend) might be able to recommend someone, but otherwise guys will approach you on the street. So yeah, overall I'd say take out 2-3 days out of Jakarta, and split the difference between Bali and Jogja. Bali is/was heavily touristed (I don't know how it's rebounded post-pandemic) but is probably the better choice if you want a relaxing stay. Otherwise Jogja gives you better cultural experiences and more authentic local interactions too.
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2022 21:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 02:56 |
|
|
That's all excellent advice in regards to Indonesia. Small updates on Bali - grab and gojeck are widely used there now (uber alternatives) and it's incredibly busy again post pandemic. For better or for worse.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2022 06:25
|
|
|
Mt. Bromo and Ijen Crater are really spectacular if you're going over to eastern Java. We did a sunrise hike near Bromo that was amazing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2022 07:27
|
|
|
As someone that lived in both Yogyakarta and Jakarta for years webmeister's advice is good. I'm assuming Sukuh is just Candi Sukuh in Solo? I've been there and it's really not essential, it's a fairly standard temple structure that's interesting because the drawings have huge dicks, but it's pretty small and I think I spent about an hour there at most? Solo/Surakarta itself is a nice enough city but an extra day in Jogja or Bali would be better. In Jogja I would highly recommend Museum Ullen Sentalu in Kaliurang village, it's a nice museum at the base of Mount Merapi and they have english speaking guides, the musem itself is probably more about stories and history than interesting things to look at, but it's also just a nice reason to visit somewhere closer to Merapi out of the city itself. Hamzah Batik on Jalan Malioboro is an essential shopping place, it's very crowded but the first floor has some great Batik clothes, second floor has every possible souvenir a person could want. ViaVia is a nice restuarant in the south of Jogja and they actually legitimately offer a lot of good tours around various places so it's worth checking them out. If staying in Jakarta for a few days is unavoidable then I guess you could go look at the national monument, it's not interesting but it's a thing to do. You can also go to Istiqlal Mosque, it's the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and tourists can walk around the non-praying areas. Kota Tua (Old Town) has buildings from the Dutch Colonial period, which sounds nice, but the museums are terrible, the restaurants are over-priced and it's hot as hell with zero shade, also the only place someone has tried to pickpocket me. If you like looking at big ships you can go to Sunda Kelapa port, it's not very interesting but people there will offer to take you out on a little boat to then get on one of the big boats. The single best thing to do in Jakarta is probably leave Jakarta, drive a couple of hours or take the commuter train to Bogor and visit the Botanic Gardens there, they're quite nice and you get a good view of the presidential palace there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2022 09:47
|
|
|
I maintain that the most fun you can have in Jakarta is standing in line to buy a plane ticket to Bali.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2022 06:36
|
|
|
Centusin posted:Kota Tua (Old Town) has buildings from the Dutch Colonial period, which sounds nice, but the museums are terrible, the restaurants are over-priced and it's hot as hell with zero shade, also the only place someone has tried to pickpocket me. This was basically our experience with the old town as well, though minus the pickpocketing. It also took forever for us to get anywhere or do anything, because we were constantly getting hassled for selfies by locals (my wife is quite tall and often attracts a lot of attention in SE Asia for this reason). Not quite as bad as Myanmar, but close!
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2022 11:25
|
|
|
webmeister posted:This was basically our experience with the old town as well, though minus the pickpocketing. Ha, I got hassled for a LOT of selfies in Myanmar. I would have these girls, families, whatever approach with a camera and I think "oh hey they want me to take a picture of them with the temple/park as the background" I reach to grab the camera, they wont give it to me and pull back "uh?, well fine I misunderstood. You don't want me to take a photo, you were just saying hi". They keep saying photo and eventually we worked out that they want a selfie with me in it so my GF (from Malaysia and thus not worth having a selfie with evidently) would take the photo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2022 11:51
|
|
|
Must be a white people thing, I'm Burmese-American and I have never heard of or witnessed this.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2022 20:34
|
|
|
Boola posted:Small updates on Bali - grab and gojeck are widely used there now (uber alternatives) and it's incredibly busy again post pandemic. In Ubud now too, or still only in not-Ubud? When I was there just pre-pandemic, the Ubud taxi mafia was still beating the poo poo out of Grab drivers and GoJek accordingly had pickups blocked. Molten Llama fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Aug 4, 2022 |
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2022 20:35
|
|
|
I saw signs up in Ubud saying to not support grab/gojek. But I met people who lived there and got around via gojek every day. So it's available and not blocked for sure. I had a motorbike - didn't deal with that while there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 10:05
|
|
|
Mandalay posted:Must be a white people thing, I'm Burmese-American and I have never heard of or witnessed this. My brother is blond and in regional Vietnam about 20 years ago he visited the family of a uni mate. People consistently wanted to touch his hair when he was there. Complete strangers, family of his mate. Being different attracts attention, a lot (most?) of it curiosity.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 14:30
|
|
|
My partner is Indonesian and when I was at her familys house her 4 y.o niece started screaming and crying because she was scared of the big white person, it was pretty funny ngl
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2022 06:50
|
|
|
Late but no less heartfelt — thanks, folks. Very helpful advice which has made me feel much better about a trip I was getting very anxious would suck tourist-trap rear end. It's our first opportunity to travel in years and realistically the last one for even longer, so the stakes are high! Special shoutouts to webmeister and Centusin for the on-the-ground knowledge. Y'all are champs. Yeah, everything in this thread tracks with what I'd heard about Jakarta. We're locked into the three days there mostly just to hang out with our buddy. But hey, beers on the couch with an old friend are more than enough of a tourist attraction IMO (and I have a fondness for big grimy seedy cities anyway). As long as I've got y'all on the line... any GWS nerds in here got Singapore fine dining and/or sushi recs? We're flying there first to spend a couple days with another friend at NUS. Pretty sure that buddy will have us covered for hawker markets, but given that it's technically my honeymoon I'm down to splurge a little.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2022 09:30
|
|
|
Hecuba posted:
If you like omakase, try to get a reservation at Ryo Sushi
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2022 09:35
|
|
|
Anyone have experience going from Chiang Mai to Laos and know the best plane/bus/train route? Might need to make the trip soon in order to extend my visa. Also hoping to maximize my time there. Being a history nerd I'm interested to see all the horrible poo poo that America did there up close or at least go to a cool museum or two. I heard somebody complain once that Vientiane was boring and that Luang Prabang was much better. True? I guess a trip to Myanmar would be a lot quicker if I go to a part of the country that isn't extremely unstable
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2022 11:22
|
|
|
Yossarian-22 posted:Anyone have experience going from Chiang Mai to Laos and know the best plane/bus/train route? Might need to make the trip soon in order to extend my visa. Also hoping to maximize my time there. Being a history nerd I'm interested to see all the horrible poo poo that America did there up close or at least go to a cool museum or two. I flew when I went between Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang, where I taught English for a couple months a long time ago. LP is a small but adorable town full of old architecture and nice people. There's a Canadian cafe in the middle of town where you can get nanaimo bars (this was a big perk to me!) but lots of opportunities to enjoy Lao culture. The most popular things people in my group did was a tour where you learn how rice is farmed (https://www.livinglandlao.org/rice-experience/), a cooking class where you start off by shopping the local market for ingredients (https://www.tamarindlaos.com/), and a weaving class (https://www.ockpoptok.com/). You can also volunteer to help out at English classes in a local school (https://www.mec-laos.org/volunteering.htm) where your job is to read out loud and correct pronunciation. The students love it. Pixelante fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Aug 24, 2022 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2022 18:00
|
|
|
Yossarian-22 posted:Anyone have experience going from Chiang Mai to Laos and know the best plane/bus/train route? Might need to make the trip soon in order to extend my visa. Also hoping to maximize my time there. Being a history nerd I'm interested to see all the horrible poo poo that America did there up close or at least go to a cool museum or two. We did a long trip from Luang Prabang, two nights up the Mekong to the Thai border at Huay Xai, then a couple of (slow) days worth of buses down to Chiang Rai and eventually Chiang Mai. This was in 2016 so I don't know if the option is still available. Yes, Luang Prabang is more interesting than Vientiane. It's a nice little riverfront town with some cool old temples and that sort of thing. Very different style to Thailand, despite the proximity. The country is also super chilled out, more than Thailand - the joke is that the formal country name of Laos PDR stands for Laos, Please Don't Rush. Don't go to Myanmar. It's a great country and I loved the month we spent there, but travelling there now means directly supporting the military junta and their active genocide. Also note that if you're doing a visa run from Thailand, be very careful when checking what you can and can't get. From memory, there's a difference between land borders vs airports (eg land borders only give 30 days, whereas airports can do 90 days, that sort of thing). I can't remember the precise details now, but I know people who've been caught out by that before.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2022 19:59
|
|
|
Hey guys, my partner and I are doing a short south east Asia run in October - five nights in Singapore and 8 nights in Thailand. I've got a handful of inquiries: Firstly, recommendations on areas to stay in Singapore and Bangkok. Mainly our goals are, in order, eating, shopping, sightseeing and relaxing. We'd like to stay centrally somewhere with lots of food options and preferably able to walk to a lot of stuff. Night life not really a concern. I'd rather stay somewhere low/medium price and spend the savings on nicer food and booze. Secondly, I'll be having my birthday in Singapore, I've heard there are some great cocktail bars so I'd love recommendations for a couple. I really love stuff in big old buildings with cool architecture but anything you guys have enjoyed would be great. Lastly, while I can't imagine running out of cool stuff to do, especially factoring in day trips, is a week too long in Bangkok? I've always regretted trying to jam too much in on short trips but I'd like to figure this out before booking accommodation. We live next to arguably the best beaches in Australia so seeing beaches and stuff is not a massive draw. Thanks all!
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2022 21:50
|
|
|
field balm posted:Hey guys, my partner and I are doing a short south east Asia run in October - five nights in Singapore and 8 nights in Thailand. I've got a handful of inquiries: I would say it also depends on your age? In my 20s I really enjoyed the Overstay hostel but, like, if you are older and with a partner I can't help there sorry. I would say Bangkok also rules if you like or could like live music/gigs. It's full of it!
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2022 02:27
|
|
|
I mean, if you want fancy cocktails in a big old building with great architecture - it's hard to go past Raffles. And of course, it's not a big "old" building, but the cocktail bar atop Marina Bay Sands is pretty spectacular as well, particularly in the late afternoon. A week sounds like a pretty good amount of time in Bangkok, though I'd probably spend at least one of those on a day trip outside the city. It's hard to recommend particular areas to stay since there's so many and they're so varied. Most tourist stuff is concentrated around the Khao San Road area, so if you just want cheap digs for a week that's probably your best bet. There are nice hotels in a bunch of areas of the city though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2022 03:59
|
|
|
At least for Singapore if you're staying close to City Hall/Chinatown you could take public transportation to most places around the city. When I was there in 2019 we could walk to several of the touristy spots (Merlion, Flyer) from our hotel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2022 04:01
|
|
|
field balm posted:Hey guys, my partner and I are doing a short south east Asia run in October - five nights in Singapore and 8 nights in Thailand. I've got a handful of inquiries: Regarding Singapore: Atlas bar in Parkview square might be just what you want, just make sure to get a reservation as soon as you can. You can stay a few MRT stops outside of the central downtown area as long as you are close to a MRT stop. Public transport is clean convenient and cheap. For food visit telok ayer, and local hawker markets. A personal recommendation is Tendon Ginza Itsuki https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z3cgi8oscGqQosxn8 It's walk in only so go during off peak hours to avoid queues (Singaporeans love queuing up for food)
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2022 05:23
|
|
|
Electric Wrigglies posted:Ha, I got hassled for a LOT of selfies in Myanmar. I would have these girls, families, whatever approach with a camera and I think "oh hey they want me to take a picture of them with the temple/park as the background" I reach to grab the camera, they wont give it to me and pull back "uh?, well fine I misunderstood. You don't want me to take a photo, you were just saying hi". They keep saying photo and eventually we worked out that they want a selfie with me in it so my GF (from Malaysia and thus not worth having a selfie with evidently) would take the photo. I've had this happen in a number of other countries as well, even in places that get a lot of foreign tourists, like outside the Giza pyramids. It's almost always been from kids with cell phones who want selfies, except back in 2000 when I went to China and had a billion adults who wanted to take photos with me, but presumably that's less common now. For the bolded part, we sometimes had it happen in Arab countries that kids wanted selfies with us, only to have my wife talk to them in unaccented Arabic, and then they would often lose interest in having a photo with her, lol (she is Arab, but looks like any average European). I also had it happen recently that a Turkish family wanted a photo with me, which was weird because blond Turks are not exactly rare... like the rapper Şanışer would blend in better in Tromsø than would 99% of French people. This was in Konya, but still. Probably there's some fine balance between "kids are wealthy enough to have camera phones" and "them having smartphones is new enough to still be a novelty" and "there are enough visually distinct tourists who pass by here that it's not super rare, but also not overwhelmingly common either" to determine when and where that happens. We drove through rural Ethiopia a couple years ago and kids would always run up to the car when we stopped -- not exactly a lot of traffic in rural Ethiopia -- and when we pulled out a polaroid the kids would want a photo of just them, not with us in it. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Sep 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2022 10:01
|
|
|
Yossarian-22 posted:Anyone have experience going from Chiang Mai to Laos and know the best plane/bus/train route? Might need to make the trip soon in order to extend my visa. Also hoping to maximize my time there. Being a history nerd I'm interested to see all the horrible poo poo that America did there up close or at least go to a cool museum or two. If you're going to do that, just fly from Chiang Mai to Vientiane. Go to the COPE Laos visitor's center in Vientiane where you'll likely see plenty of the hosed up poo poo (they made a donor out of me quickly), and then get the gently caress out of that city because it kinda sucks and is boring as hell. Then, either north to Luang Prabang and go ride motorcycles on the dirt roads on the other side of the river and visit the waterfalls and be kind of fancy banana pancake trailing. OR, go down to Pakse in the south, and start the Bolaven Plateau route (also a bit banana pancakey but waaaaaaaaaay less resources) on your motorcycle which should take +/- 10 days. Good coffee, good jungle, good waterfalls, good riding. Bonus: come for the history of US destruction, but stay for the modern Chinese economic exploitation!
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2022 20:42
|
|
|
1 USD = 37.5 baht. Don't think I've seen it that high before and apparently it's gonna go up even higher. I'm used to it being 32/33 or so.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 09:45
|
|
|
Same applies to almost every currency in the world compared to the usd right now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 15:33
|
|
|
So jealous, the euro keeps on losing value 
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 18:41
|
|
|
Apparently, for the first time the euro and usd are equal. Not really sure why USD is so valuable now,
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 18:48
|
|
|
Crosspost - Is anyone in Vietnam? I've been tasked with finding a Vietnamese-English interpreter, based in Vietnam, for a week in November. Hopefully someone with living experience and active ties to the US/Australia. I know the normal routes like checking agencies or posting a job on Proz.com but want to check goons or their partners first.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2022 09:02
|
|
|
Imasalmon posted:A few years ago, the wife and I went to Thailand, and had a great time. In the big touristy market in Chiang Mai, we stumbled across a stand selling wooden carved, cat like penis beasts. It was a penis, but with legs and a tail like a cat. After debate, we realized that we didn't have space in our bags for one, and have regretted it ever since. So, following up on this weird rear end post of mine again, I've still not been able to find these for sale anywhere. The thread very helpfully informed me that in Roman culture they are called fascinus, but I still can't find something like them for sale. I've seen a few goons post about living in Chiang Mai, so if anyone is in the Chiang Mai area, and wants to be really cool to a random goon, I'd happily pay for one and to try to get it of shipped. I'm willing to pay a finder's fee on top of covering the costs involved. Send me a PM, or post here if you're willing to see if this random stand is still in the tourist night market. We're expecting our first child soon, so this would be an amazing gift to arrange for my wife, or even a good Christmas gift for her! Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Oct 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 04:19
|
|
|
So I just booked a trip to Koh Tao for a couple of weeks over Christmas. If I don't write in this thread again I have probably been murdered on MURDER ISLAND! Here's hoping I won't be.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 20:31
|
|
|
Anyone visiting Bangkok this winter? Now that’s it’s super easy to get in with no visa I’m all for it but plane tickets are $1.5k+.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2022 01:42
|
|
|
Crosby B. Alfred posted:Anyone visiting Bangkok this winter? Now that’s it’s super easy to get in with no visa I’m all for it but plane tickets are $1.5k+. The wife and I were thinking about taking our son over for the first time in December, but yeah tickets are close to double what they've been in recent years. Going in April instead, which we had been planning in do in 2020.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2022 14:12
|
|
|
I have a weird question. Now that I'm living in SE Asia I was wondering how people do their grocery shopping around here, like what's an ideal easy to make Thai breakfast? I keep buying Mama Noodles and pancake mix and I figure I should probably do something a little bit healthier Any recommended ingredients, meals, or snacks - healthy or unhealthy - are welcome
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2022 03:32
|
|
|
bananas
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2022 23:41
|
|
|
peanut posted:Crosspost - Is anyone in Vietnam? I've been tasked with finding a Vietnamese-English interpreter, based in Vietnam, for a week in November. Hopefully someone with living experience and active ties to the US/Australia. Vietnam is a big place, bro. You looking for someone in the educated north, greedy south or chilled out but weird sounding centre?
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 08:02
|
|
|
We got some great translators lined up, everything is cool and good
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 14:22
|
|
|
Has anyone recent experience with booking a flight from Laos to Hanoi? Should we book that as early as possible to get the cheapest flights? Any airlines to recommend? We are travelling Southeast Asia this winter and we are not looking forward to a 24+ hour bus trip, even though we try to fly as little as possible.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2022 14:37
|
|
|
HamsonBunce posted:Has anyone recent experience with booking a flight from Laos to Hanoi? Should we book that as early as possible to get the cheapest flights? Any airlines to recommend? Not exactly recently, but I flew Lao Airlines right before Covid started from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, just after the Tet Holidays which was the cheapest flight. It was fine. I mean, the plane had propellers and about 20 seats in it but it gave the whole trip an Indiana Jones vibe that was kind of cool. Buying a couple weeks in advance and being flexible with the day you fly will give you the best chance of getting the cheapest price, but I don't think buying earlier than that will make a huge difference. A quick look online shows they don't do Luang Prabang->Hanoi direct any more, but Vientiane to Hanoi seems like a regular flight still. There's also Vietnam Airlines, but I've just heard a lot of stories about huge delays and surprise baggage charges with them, so most people told me to avoid them. JasonV fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Nov 8, 2022 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2022 13:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 02:56 |
|
|
Hi thread, I will be in Thailand/Cambodia between Dec 3/Dec 20. I eventually plan on crossing the border via Poipet My plan is to stay a night in Poipet and play some cards before leaving the following afternoon for Siam Reap. But I've read people get scammed a lot in Poipet or that the cops shake down the taxis for money. Should I just skip the stay in Poipet altogether? Seems like regardless if you're just passing through or not people will try to scam you. Maybe its better to fly direct to Siam Reap or take the Thailand Government Bus? (I will probably be in Pattaya before I leave for Cambodia).
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2022 08:46
|
|
