hostels/guesthouses: southeast asia

I had a request to list the places I stayed while on my trip.  I know that hearing about places from other people is way more helpful than trying to find one on your own, so I thought it was a good idea.  Keep in mind I was looking for places that were easy to meet other people in, so they weren’t necessarily the cheapest.  I always tried to stay in dorm rooms when possible, and I know this isn’t everyone’s style.

If you’re into booking stuff ahead of time, I recommend hostelbookers.com because they don’t charge a booking fee.  And some of these places aren’t listed online, but every single place I went to (minus Myanmar) had backpacker areas that were packed with guesthouses, so you can easily show up to any major place in SE Asia and find a cheap place to stay.

Here are the places I loved and would stay in again if I were traveling alone or wanted to be social:

Hanoi: Hanoi Backpackers’ Hostel One of the nicest dorm rooms I’ve ever stayed in, met a ton of people, and is a great place to book a Halong Bay tour.  It’s more pricey than other’s, but if you want to get drunk with fun people, it’s a good way to go.  Ha.

Hoi An: I stayed at a really nice place here, but don’t remember the name.. it was listed in the newest Rough Guides for Vietnam I believe, and if anyone wanted to know I could find out once I got back to Korea and could look through my stuff.

Ho Chi Minh City: I stayed at Luan Vu Guesthouse, and it was nice, pretty average.  There are a ton of places in the backpacker area of Pham Ngu Lao, so it’s really easy to find somewhere to stay.

Phnom Penh: Where I stayed was “meh”, but I guess the area to stay is near the lake.  I dunno.

Siem Reap: There are cheaper places, but I had a lot of fun at the Siem Reap Hostel.

Vientiane: This city is hardly worth staying in for more than a day, so it really doesn’t even matter where you stay, ha.

Vang Vieng: One of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed—Spicy Laos.  Def, def, def recommend it.  I stayed at their sister Spicy Laos in Luang Prabang, which I also recommend.  It’s not as nice, but a good place to meet people.

Chiang Mai: I tried to stay at Julie Guesthouse, but it was full.  It had been highly recommended.  I ended up staying in a $3/night very basic dorm at the Same Same Guesthouse down the street.  By that point, I was incredibly low-maintenance so anything with a bed and shower was fine.

Bagan: May Kha Lar.  The owner is so, so, so helpful and friendly.

Yangon: This is also one of the better places I stayed.  It’s called Motherland Inn 2.  It’s not in the best location, but the staff was amazing, and I met a ton of awesome people.  It was almost full when I came, so if you go in high season, it might be best to try to book ahead if possible.

Bangkok: I stayed in two places.  The first was called the River Line, and it was near Khao San Road.  It was a quieter place, though, being a few minutes’ walk away from the madness.  It was kinda “meh” because I really just wanted to go out and party, and it wasn’t the best place to meet people.  The second place, though, lub d, was awesome.  The nicest hostel I’ve ever been to in my life, and lots of cool people.

Koh Phi Phi: Golden Hill Bungalows (also known as Bungalow Dave’s).  It had pretty bad reviews online, but I had to book something ahead because everything fills up.  There are probably better places—the whole island is just restaurants, bars, and accommodation—but it was fine for me.  They have dorm rooms, and I met some good people.  It is the farthest possible place from the pier, though, so carrying all my shit back and forth in 90 degree heat was probably the worst thing ever.

Sooo, I hope that is helpful for someone! :)

bagan, day 3

My last day in Bagan was great.  I met Kaka’s family and his mom put danaka on me.  The last sunset was also incredible, and Kaka and I drank my favorite beer on the trip (Mandalay beer) while hanging out at a temple.  I was a little sad to leave.

bagan, day 2

Sunrise

Traffic jam

Textile-making village

Lacquerware workshop

We went and sat at a temple, and a ton of little girls came and were crawling all over me.  I saw one had an Lee Minho bag, so we talked about our favorite Korean actors.  So cute.

Massive spider webs

Sunset number two.

bagan, day 1

I have so many pictures from my three days in Bagan because it was so incredible.  My first day, I walked around for a bit then rented a bike and saw some temples.  That was when I met Kaka, my guide/friend for the rest of my time there.  Read all about it here.

The market where I was assaulted by a ton of women trying to get my to buy stuff, putting the danaka makeup on me, grabbing me, etc.

These is what the residential areas looked like.

Scared after being attacked in the market.

The little boy of Lala, a lady who guilted me into buying stuff.

All the little kids and women wear the danaka.

My sweet ride.  I don’t know how my legs held up riding that for three days on miles of sand roads.

“HELLOOO!!!”

Sunset

Kaka, who looks about 15 but is 21.  Burmese people are tiny.

favorites

Now that my trip is officially over, I can look back and figure out what I liked best.  Everyone asks what my favorite place was, but I liked each one for different reasons:

Vietnam—My least favorite country overall, but Hoi An had the best beach for sure.  Really clean, pretty, not crowded, and cheap.  Halong Bay was also one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  Vietnamese food might have been some of my favorite, too, now that I think about it.

Cambodia—I really loved Cambodia for the four days I was there, and I can’t really describe why.  The kids were the cutest, ha, and I guess it was just very exotic feeling.  The newer temples were amazing, Angkor was pretty cool, but there really isn’t much else to see there.  Just the vibe and the people made it great.

Laos—The three days in Vang Vieng were some of my favorites.  It was also another really beautiful place, and combining that with lots of drinking and tubing made it easily one of the best times I’ve had.  Vientiane sucks, but Luang Prabang was a great city.  The LP night market is one of the best markets in Asia for sure.

Myanmar—Bagan was another one of my favorite places, and I think I would go back there.  Burmese people were by far the friendliest and most helpful people I’ve ever encountered, I really can’t say that enough.  Burmese temples and pagodas were also my favorite.  They were just soo tacky, haha.  Everything was sparkly and gold and there were flashing lights everywhere to symbolize Buddha’s power.  But somehow they were also amazingly beautiful.

Thailand—I think it was my favorite country overall.  I felt at home there, everything was very easy to do, the people were also very nice, and I love the culture.  Thai iced coffees were also so so so good.  Thai nightlife was also my favorite, and I didn’t even go to any of the massive full moon shindigs.  Next time…

Sooo, I can’t even begin to say how much I will miss all these places and the people I met.  I remember sitting in Hoi An, weeks ago, watching K-pop videos on TV and wishing I were back in Korea.  But yesterday, I was so sad to leave Thailand.  Ahh!  I will have to adjust to cold weather and staying in one place for more than three days.  But I have already started planning my next trips, heh heh.

last sunset in bagan

My last day here was so amazing, I really can’t believe how incredibly lucky I was here.

I met up with Kaka around 1 and we rode towards his house, which is at least a 45 minute bike ride away.  About halfway, we stopped and he bought me sugar cane juice.  Yummm.

When we got to his little house, his mom had set out curry chicken and pork, rice, vegetables, and a peanut sauce.  Sooo good.  I met a little seven year old boy that Kaka had met on the street in Yangon, where he goes to university, and because the boy was orphaned, he brought him up to Bagan to stay with his family.  Oh, thanks Kaka for making me feel like a terrible person, haha.

So we ate, then his mom put the danaka makeup on my face and gave me a couple of pieces to take home and put on my family, heh.

Then we rode off and sat at another temple and I taught him some Korean in exchange for his teaching me some “Myanmar language”.  I also played him some K-pop on my ipod.  Then we went back to the same pagoda from last night to see my last sunset here, and then saw his mom at a big temple where she was selling lacquer ware bracelets.  She put a bunch on my arm to find ones small enough then gave me five!  She was so nice, like everyone is here.

THEN the sun was still slowly setting, making everything an amazing pink color, and we decided to get beer.  We stopped and he ran to buy a bottle of Mandalay beer and some snacks, then we rode to an empty pagoda and sat and he sang more.  Who gets to drink beer at a pagoda during sunset in Bagan?!  So cool.

Then we said goodbye, and he kept telling me to come back next year.  I gave him my email address and said if he EVER comes to America, I will give him a tour.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Mandalay.  Doubt it will top these three days.