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! :)

ho chi minh city (saigon)

I only spent one day here, but was very ready to leave Vietnam by that point.  Here are my posts about HCMC.

Market

Even more motorbikes than Hanoi, somehow.

There was a really nice park.

Lots of people dancing and exercising.

Brainzzz

War Remnants Museum.  Very anti-American.

Snake wine.

hoi an

Hoi An was so beautiful.  Link to what I wrote about it.

The town is full of tailors, and most people who go get stuff made.  I didn’t.

Yellow town

The beach.  Soooo nice.

Ever wonder what they watch on TV in Vietnam?  Movies with Shaq!

The night I went out with the Canadian guys and ran into girls I went on the Halong Bay trip with.

A few hours before I had to leave town, ha.

A terrible picture, but this was the minivan they used to take people from town to the beach party.  On the way back, they crammed about twenty of us in there.  It was a miserable ride, but the Canadians made it fun by convincing a drunk British girl that Canada had just recently gotten Fresh Prince of Belair and the internet.

train from hanoi to hoi an

I was scared.  Haha.  The berth was dark and full of bugs and I shared it with a bunch of old people who invited me to go drink with them.  Fun times.

halong bay

Read about it here.

We stayed on a boat like this for the first night.

Floating convenience store.

It got pretty ridiculous at night.

Floating villages.

The little beach we stayed at for the second night.

We slept in little huts with no blankets or pillows.  It was freeeezing!

My friend Tasha doing cartwheels on the beach.

Fire show.

hanoi

Read about it here.

All the motorbikes.

I just realized now that Vietnam was the only country I visited that has a large Christian population.  I kept trying to remember what the temples were like there then remembered there weren’t any.. weird.

American, Brazilian, Australian

Lake

Anything and everything can be transported using a bicycle or motorbike.

So many awesome old trees.

Everywhere you went, “Madame!  Madame!  Motorbike?”

Opera house.

Yum.

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.