BANGKOK

therealericchoi:

Touched down in Bangkok about three hours ago, got to Khao San Road, found a nice guest house and ate some linner. Now, for some heavy drinking.

Eat a few banana + Nutella street pancakes for me.  So jealous!

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! :)

phi phi

The last part!  Here are my pics from beautiful Koh Phi Phi, and here is what I wrote.

Lots of boats.

Since there were so many beaches, none were really that crowded.

I climbed up to the viewpoint, a hellish trek that caused me to pour sweat like I never have before.  But it was pretty beautiful.

Monkey Beach

I went on a boat ride, and the water was so pretty.

Maya Beach, where they filmed The Beach.  I don’t remember that movie being very popular, but they advertised the shit out of it.  It was a nice beach, but the only people who go there really are on boat trips so it was crowded and kind of lame.

Then this happened.  SO MANY BUG BITES ahhh!  I think they were from the sand -_- I was itching like crazy for the 23.5 hours it took me to get to Seoul.  Miserable.

My last night :(

Thai toilets.  Pee, try to find something to use as toilet paper, pour water in the toilet because there’s no flush.

The fire jump rope.

Party party party.

He painted my face.

He painted a sun on my arm then asked for a kiss.  Haha.

So many South Africans.

railay/tonsai

An amazing, relaxing two days.  Read more here!

On the first boat.

To the left is Tonsai, to the right is Railay West.

Where I stayed.

Tonsai was just the beach in the front, then this road that went around in a loop and was lined with bungalows, bars, and restaurants.

Hehe

More fireshows at the jungle party.

Dressed up for the contest.

My 19 year old Thai friend.  Ha.

bangkok, part 2

Sawadee-ka, Ronald!

Sky Train

The night market.  So nice!

bangkok, part 1

More of my Bangkok pictures.  I love this city!

So much street food.  Heaven.

Khao San Road, the place for all the foreigners.

Ellen and Marlene.  Marlene’s got a banana and chocolate pancake, one of my favorite foods, mmm!

Try to find all the white cats.  There were about five at my guesthouse, maybe more.

The night before the king’s birthday.

Muesli and yogurt breakfast with Marlene.

It’s the king’s birthday!  People were lining up all over, even though he wasn’t supposed to come until the evening.  This was about 10am, ha.

Outside the Grand Palace.

Wat Pho, and I think this is the biggest reclining Buddha in the world.

This is me in Bangkok.

Happy birthday!

Free food for the birthday.

At Wat Arun

Wat Arun from the ferry.

All the pretty colored taxis.

Bangkok weekend market.  So awesome!

The night of the king’s birthday.

So many people in pink.

Ohhh, Khao San.

ayutthaya

I only spent about half a day here, and the only thing to see is temples.  By then, I was just ready to never see another old building again and lay on the beach, so I only visited on.  Read about it here!

I love the intercity buses in Thailand, haha.

lopburi

My dad used to live in Lopburi during the Vietnam War, so it was really cool to visit.  Here is what I wrote about it.

The train from Ayutthaya to Lopburi.

So many nasty monkeys!

At a palace there.

This is me in Thailand.

Four on a motorbike!

Yum.