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Thailand is not a Democracy yet I feel more free in the Kingdom than in California.
Another day another thread or comment is posted on reddit about a FARANG talk crap about Thailand. Yet THAILAND has 3 of their cities in "Most Traveled to Cities in the World" Visa did a stats on this and many other sources corroborated. Why is that? Racists? Xenophobe? Rude culture? Then why do people come?
Allow me to play Devil's advocate:
1) FARANG can't buy land not because of racism but because of CAPITALISM. THAILAND PROTECT KING'S LAND for ITS PEOPLE to purchase at affordable price per Rai.
Examples:
Look at California coastal cities to Oregon to Washington to Vancouver BC. Most of THE LANDS ARE OWNED BY MULTI NATIONAL CORPORATIONS BANKERS. It baffles me when citizen of its own country who parents live in the area cannot afford rent where they grew up. Some old ass landlord dude bottleneck the whole zip code innovation from young people by purchasing up all land and making rent more than 50% of young people's income. People work to pay rent rather than live their life doing passion or other services. So many people are now doing "VaN LiFe, LiveLovePrayTraveltoThailand90daysVisaHopsElepahantPants" Young people suffers from: No private property, no care, no sense of belonging at all. So much pressure for young men, so high suicide rates and divorce due to RENT. It's always comes down to roof over your head.
Look at Facebook owner Zuckerberg. He owns half the island in Hawaii.
Look at Jamaica and other islands around it. All resorts own by few rich dudes. People can't access most beaches only one public beach.
Look at Manila. Homeless Citizens everywhere eating PAG PAG aka throw away KFC in trash while landlords gets fat. Same constitution as USA. Facsimile.
Look at Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Rich military men has multiple wives Helicopters for medivac. Regular citizen get snake bit in the field. No BTS. NO SPEED TRAIN. Good luck fighting cobra bite on motor bike for 45 minutes to "Hospital".
10 Families own half Florida land mass.
Al Jazeera UK usually anti Thailand just released in Youtube video praising Thailand Swiztzerland has program sending their elder to Thailand to lives rest of their lives with nuero disease. It's great news but it's kinda funny how they outsource their elder to other country and Switz and Sweden supposed to be best country in the world LOL. Thailand last resort https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yeiO-UZoM Read the comments how many Switz praise Thai ways of respecting elder.
Look at California. City of Irvine. 4th safest city in United States. 90% own by Irvine Company. It's a big slum lord company with crazy HOA with high tax. You can never own especially with student loan.
Look with San Francisco. You can make 100k per year and live in a shack 3k per month.
You think an average Thai can afford that life style? Western born people even can't afford land in country like the United States land of the FREE so how can Thai? Unless you wanna live in Tornado alley where your life saving can be wiped in 1 shot. Then yes you cann buy a Mcmansion for a 100k.
You yourself will likely pay way more once Thailand becomes democracy. Lands are not gonna be affordable like you think. With outside money, China will swiped right the whole coasts and turn it into Casino like in LAOS, Cambodia and Vancouver Africa. Those videos that FARANG JOE posts on youtube for $200/month BEACH FRONT RENTAL PROPERTY IN PRACHUAP KIRIKHAN etc will be all GONE. It will be like $200 a night bungalo cut out from street with all kind of HOA laws and everything will costs 3 times more due to permit. 30 BAHT street food bowl of BAH MEE MOO DANG from mom and pops shops? Low rent means cheap food. LMAO now 90 BAHT with RENT MARK UP TO GO TO IPO COMPANY WHO JUST ENTERED SP500. Look at USA LANDSCAPE nothing but malls, starbucks, and amazon warehouses. It takes 16 licenses to open a lemonade stand in California. Costs ramification is a lot to an average person. It's not racism at all. Thailand wants Thai to be self reliant and proud business owner. Capitalism kills small businesses Ask Jeff Bayso who during COVID 19 Earnings in first three months equivalent to $33m an hour.
If you want to own property buy condo or buy land but do it the right way and marry a good woman or man. You gonna pass it on to your sons and daughters anyway so who cares. Make babies, plant flag and hold down your land with your wife. If you marry a bar girl and she leaves you, you cannot blame Thailand. You lost your virginity and felt in love with your first warm cherries pie and then it's on you. Bar girls slept with 10,000 dudes by the time she retires at ripe age of 30. I get some people don't care about body count as long as no STD but generally they are harder to bond with. Think about it, would you hire someone to manage your business who leaves his job every week for a new job on his resume? No loyalty. They will run and find another sucker. Don't blame anyone but yourself.
2) Thailand has CONSCRIPTION aka ALL MEN MUST SERVE.
United States has VETERAN DISCOUNTS almost everywhere and has PX for active duty services and VET only electronic stores and booze and cigarettes no tax. Memorial days discounts and perks. Wear a dress Blue??? Free meals all day.
A group of Marine got on the same boat with me and my buddies from Long Beach to Catalina island fishing for scorpion fish. We paid $100 each for 4 hours fishing. Marines all paid 25% less than us due to military discount. I AM PERFECTLY FINE WITH THAT. They served, gave up few years of their youth for service. GOOD FOR THEM HOORAH.
Many average male in Thailand including your sons has to serve unless u hide him from Thailand until he is 30 years old. Many of them also has to be a monk one season for "GrAnDPaRenTz GoeS To HeavEn FamILy HappY" My point is they don't just get the perks. They have to serve 2 years guarding Cambodian, Laos, Burma, and Malaysia boarder and has to be a monk too. I AM ABSOLUTELY OKAY WITH PAYING 100 BAHT AKA 3 BUCKS to enter National Parks and Somchai can pay 30 BAHT aka 1 DOLLARS. I did not serve. My GDP is higher. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH PAYING FARANG PRICE.
The Thais are not racists but are weeding out unorganized grab-asstic Cheap Charlies and sociopath takers who pack the attitude to be confrontational in their beloved Thailand. If you can't save up 800k BAHT aka 27k USD, you have no business leaching and retiring in other countries that you didn't put into the system.
People who qualify to retired in Thailand TODAY has a lot higher quality of life than the former Thailand of 20 years ago.
Seems like many Farang with Asian wife in particular ran from Neo-Liberalism-Bigbrother-nopersonalfreedom politics with high tax high rental costs and high divorce rate in the west. So why try to make Thailand Democracy like your home you ran from? Which eventually becomes high propety tax like California. Stay out of politics. Everytime USA bring Democracy, someone gets bombed. You're a guest go fix your home.
Old people can't even afford medicare copays and rent off SSA. What kind of society just let their elder dies in massive body count during COVID19 in USA hospice. Thais cares way more about old people and even bow to them and answer KRUP OR KRA after every sentence.
CHUCKIE AND PAIGE from NOTIME2BESAD just paid 1k PER YEAR for PPO INSURANCE in THAILAND. Thai doctors can make a dude turn to hot ladyboy. Your tumor or nose job is nothing. Them surgeons working in King's hospital are mostly Farang and or Western Medical Educated Thais and only cost a fraction of the US pricing. Retired at 50 years old no need to work hard all your life to 70 years old and break health to make money, then the spent the made money to save health.

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Global Development Initiative: Thailand

As agreed, the Russian Federation has worked on a sweeping economic development package for Thailand that will focus on the development of a highly-modern and attractive tourist center that will focus on Phuket. In addition the Russian Federation will be assisting Thailand in developing two major southern trade-ports and the linkage between them using HSR with cargo-support. Although the Kra Canal Project was cancelled, this plan will ultimately bring even more money to Thailand, and force it to dock and cross Thailand proper at a faster rate than having to go through the Malacca Straits, while also bringing the money and resources inland- through Thailand. This ambitious proposal will only increase the amount of money and trade navigating through Thailand's center, boost tourism, and burgeon foreign investments in Thailand. On a geopolitical scale, this will prove to the world that Thailand does care about its image within ASEAN through cancelling the Kra Canal, as well as the environmental impact it would cause, but offer a more attractive plan that will provide more direct impact as an alternative to the Thai economy.

The Satun and Songkhla Economic Trade Hubs

After the Russian Federation agreed to the Global Development Initiative moving into Thailand, the Ministry of Economic development was keen to work with PM Shinawatra to develop an alternative to the Kra Canal that would bring in more revenues for Thailand. To do so, the Russian Federation set a course and a series of goals that would make such an option a more attractive alternative for Thailand. To do so, Satun, in the West, and Songkhla in the East, just the opposite side of Thailand's thinnest narrow- would be eligible for two massive port constructions. The Satun and Songkhla ports, although would be separate, were part of a larger scheme to circumvent the need for a Kra canal that would drive in more funds, foreign investment, but promise faster travel as the Kra Canal once did. What that would mean is, that each end port would have to be quite large, and able to accommodate a large flow trade. A preference would be set on speed and efficiency for loading and unloading ships to make it so equipment could transfer between ports faster. However this would have to include automation of the unloading from the boat, loading onto the transportation, and loading on the other vessel. Ultimately, the goal will be to still make it faster and attractive enough of an alternative than traversing the Malacca Straits for shipping dependent companies.
To do so, both ports constructed will have to be large deep-water ports with massive twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity. Both Satun and the Songkhla ports will be constructed completely identical for streamlining sake. Thailand will be directed by the Russian Federation to set up a company to manage both ports as a state-owned enterprise, called Thai Shipping Corp. Ltd, which will make the process smoother as both will be managed by the same unit. Then Russian National Construction Engineering Corporation will construct the two large port authorities on each side, and all the supplies and resources for said construction will be purchased from Siam Cement Group (which does more than just cement). This will allow Thailand to receive economic benefits during the ports construction that will also include, the contracting of local unemployed Thai to build the ports. It would cost an insurmountable amount of money for the RNCEC to move Russian laborers there to construct, however it would be much more economically beneficial for the Thai people for them to be hired then get paid a Russian laborers wage. Both ports will be constructed to support 45 million TEUs annually. Each port will include a total of 54 berths, quay length of 15,600 m, an area of 600 hectares, max draft of 18 m, 190 quay cranes. Additionally, both will have warehouse facilities that cover 180,000 m² , and a depth of 20 m.
The Russian Federation aims to have this true megaport to be as automated as possible, in an attempt to make it the one of the largest, if not the largest series of interconnected fully automated port terminals on Earth. To do so, the Russian Federation will be providing thousands of driver-less vehicles and robotic equipment produced through the Golden Russia Plan and provide it specifically to the Satun and Songkhla Trade Hubs. To fund the port and the interconnectivity services, a tax fee will be paid to Thai Shipping Corp. Ltd, that will be used as Thailand's increase of revenue for having the trade hub, in addition to docking fees and ship fuel. Ultimately this will also create approximately 10,000 permanent jobs between both locations for managing controls, inspections, security and other longshoreman services. The construction of these two ports will cost $8 Bn in total, making each port a $4 Bn construction. These should be completed by 2031. Russia will be providing the project to Thailand, however will retain a holding of 25% of each port.

The Trans-Satun-Songkhla Economic Transportation Corridor

The second piece to tag onto the Trade Hub will be the necessary transportation corridor that will exist between Satun and Songkhla. A High Speed Rail service for both passengers and cargo will be serviced in a side-by-side line set called the Trans-Satun-Songkhla Economic Transportation Corridor. The railway will be operated by the State Railway of Thailand on 1,435 mm track gauge. The HSR will move of speeds around 300+ km/h between the two points. As the distance is approximately 125 km, it will take approximately 25 minutes to use the Russian Siemens HSR Cargo Cars to transport between transportation ends, which is considerably faster than going around the Malacca Straits. At which point, the cargo can quickly be loaded onto next-level transport in the logistics chain and be on the way to its end station. The high speed rail transportation corridor will likely be the most expensive undertaking of this project and is expected to cost $15 Bn to construct. This piece of the project should be completed in 2030.

The Phuket Special Economic Zone

As Thailand already operates several special economic zones that receive a large amount of investment from the central government, the Russian Federation has proposed to open Phuket as the next special economic zone for the purposes of tourism. This will make it much easier for the Russian Federation to invest in Thailand's southern provinces. Phuket already has a great airport and has connections travel connections to Thailand proper, however what it really needs is major investment in one of it's most forefront markets- tourism. Already one of the peak destinations for tourism in Thailand, the Russian Federation has a plan to make it more attractive by significantly extending its current white sand beaches, adding nightclubs/bars, and casinos. To do so, however, under the special economic zone, Thailand will have to allow gambling within the Phuket economic zone. While gambling is illegal in China and much of Asia, this will allow Phuket to dip into the honeymoon, Asian gambling, and Western gambling markets in a similar, yet cheaper way than Macau. Phuket will receive assistance from the RNCEC to extend a white sand beach along the entirety of Mu Ban Chao Le. This will turn a large formerly mudflat beach into usable white sand beach for tourism right neat the city center of Phuket proper. This will provide just over 3 kilometers of area for Phuket to build resorts and casinos along the beachfront. The RNCEC will assist Thailand and interested hotel and casino chains from other countries in filling up the new strip, however at least one spot must be reserved for Russia's Azimut Resort Chain which will be building a casino. Just behind the major resort strip at Mu Ban Chao Le, the RNCEC will also assist in major bar and nightclub construction to feed these hotels and the rest of Phuket's tourist industry. The Russian Federation will invest $15 Bn into this project, and expects that it will return a considerable amount for Thailand, especially off of the gambling and tourism boom it will cause, dragging tourists from China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Western nations. Russia will not seek a holding on the Phuket investment as it will purely serve for Thailand's benefit as a token of Russian goodwill.

Stability, Security, and CSTO Cooperation

The Russian Federation understands that Thailand has been experiencing issues with its military force after the junta was ousted from power. As discussed prior, Thailand has been admitted to the CSTO as an observer, and will be receiving Russian training, assistance, and armament during this time because of its commitment to the organization. The Russian Federation has formerly discussed with Thailand sending a security and training force that will help prevent a counter-coup and begin preparing Thailand's new officer corps. The Russian Ministry of Defense has agreed to send a 2,000 soldier training and security force to Bangkok, Thailand that will focus on educating its new officer corps and retraining Thailand's military force in CSTO doctrine and tactics. The FSB and the State Security Service will each send an attache to work alongside the National Intelligence Agency by training their forces and conducting joint operations. The Russian Spetsnaz GRU will send 100 soldiers to teach the Royal Thai Army Special Warfare Command at their Special Warfare School. In reciprocation, Russian forces will gain an understanding in fighting in the harsh jungles of South East Asia.
After three years of continued commitment to the CSTO, CSTO-Thai relations have increased exponentially, and have only been cemented through the recent economic developments. The Russian Federation has extended an invitation for Thailand to join as a full-member of the CSTO that will entitle them to all the protection benefits, economic benefits, and cross-cultural training. The CSTO is ready to make new commitments to Thailand after Russia has shown Thailand that it can fulfill its original promises. If Thailand agrees to this commitment, Thailand will receive a CSTO package of the latest equipment, and discounts on all proceeding equipment, in addition to admission to the current joint-training rotations, and full participant status in exercises that will include Aerial, Ground, Naval, and Special Forces. A special joint training will be opening in Thailand due to its uniqueness that will include other full-members.
The Russian Federation is interested in executing a lease for a naval-air base in Thailand at Trat. The Russian Federation plans to base the 2,000 troops there mentioned earlier in the discussions. The Russian Federation would like to take a lease for 20 years on Trat at $500 Mn a year, at 4.6% interest. Russia will pay the rent annually including interest to the Thai Government for the lease, to be renegotiated at the end of the 20 year period. Thailand will be able to cancel the lease at their choosing at any point in time, however if it is cancelled in the first 10 years of the lease, they will be required to backpay all the rent and the interest for a lack of fulfilling the agreed lease. Russian forces will leave uncontested if requested under these terms. From years 11 to 20, the Russian Federation can have the lease cancelled by Thailand without requiring backpay. Russia will not be required to pay the rest of the interest or payment for the lease, and will receive the rent and interest payment back only for the current year. Russia will be allowed to dismantle the base and destroy any equipment not brought with them when departing. The land the base sits in will not belong to the Russian Federation at any point in time, they will be granted usage rights.

Mammoth post incoming..... I read a lot of posts in this thread and others to help me prepare for my first time backpacking in South East Asia, used mostly reddit and youtube to collect information and in return to all the helpful people who advised me, I want to add a bit to the info out there. This was our first time backpacking in Asia but we have both travelled a decent amount, apologies to those seasoned backpackers who might eye roll at the obvious things I point out! And how long this post is! few linked included where possible.
I travelled with my boyfriend (both in our mid 20s) for 7 weeks from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020 covering 4 countries; Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We travelled as a couple, not really looking for the typical hostel/partying experience. I had spots/cities we wanted to stop in picked out more so I could check that our return flight back gave us enough time (bf had job to come back for). For those interest I travelled with 40l backpack (Osprey ladies size I recommend for small gals). and 15l day back and boyfriend had 65l backpack. I really reccommend getting up to date on vaccines and/or visiting somewhere like Nomad travel (UK major cities only) for additional shots. We also bought a medical kit from them which came in very handy and I would buy THIS one (works out cheaper than making your own).
Our original plan was to buy a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh and then use that as our main mode of transport to bike across Cambodia and then finally go to Bangkok, so there's a section about bikes at the end.
I am plant based / have a pretty strong dairy intolerance, so I'll add a section about travelling as a 'vegan' as I found it more difficult to get concrete advice on that before I left.
We are from UK so our budget/prices we evaluated against £ GBP
Hong Kong - this was the most built up and relatively similar experience to our lives at home and eased us pretty gently into travel. I would compare Hong Kong to a metropolitan place like London. We stayed in the Wan Chai district and would recommend the are for first timers. Not as expensive as the Central District and gives more local flavour with the street markets which you are likely to explore or pass through on the way to the MTR. Stay on Hong Kong Island over the peninsula as a lot of activities are there and though it is more compact you get a good sense of what HK is really like.
Prices - cost of restaurants was about the same as home - £8-10+ for a meal. Transport - incredibly cheap, routes often less than £1 or 50p Lots of 7/11 and Circle K with reasonable prices for snacks or eating in
Things we did: - Victoria Peak - there are some views more 'within' the city if you take the giant escalator up and walk a bit further as opposed to going straight to the top - Mong Kok area and surrounding markets - Hong Kong museum - quite dated and nothing on history of recent years but it is free - Hong Kong Peninsula night time view of HK island (symphony of lights show) - Temple Street night market - Dragon's Back - this was easy to get to via bus and a nice welcome break from the city. An easy hike. - Ching Chung Koon, Tao temple - really beautiful temple with turtles, easy trip by bus to visit
Shenzhen - We went to Shenzhen as we wanted to see what China was like and had some intrigue about it being a Special Economic Zone. My advice to absolutely everyone, unless you know of something on the other side you want to see, is do not go.
We read that it was free to enter but you would have to get a short stay visa stamp. We ended up stuck in immigration after getting off the MTR for about 2 hours, first you must go and get a photo and a visa put in your passport which includes filling our a form and being asked a few questions about your stay, then you go downstairs and fill our a landing card, get fingerprinted and then pass through to Shenzhen. There isn't a clear explanation as to where these different rooms are to get the whole process done and you're at the mercy of how busy the waiting rooms are for how quick you get out, no visas would be ready and then they would surge in 10 being ready for collection at once.
Shenzhen was a very homogenous city, we couldn't find any historical sites or areas designed for non Chinese to engage with the local fare, though bare in mind Shenzhen is absolutely huge and we were short on time after arriving later. Tube system is cheap and in English and we used cash to pay. When we tried to use bank cards to take out more money I had no luck with Mastercard, Visa and Visa credit card at more than one ATM. The best part of the trip was a small antique shop in the train terminal with genuine trinkets, pottery etc. The guy was quite fair with our haggling too.
Macau - Again we visited this as another special zone outside of HK. Again unfortunately I don't recommend going. To us, Macau was missing all the parts of the Vegas strip that would make a high concentration of casinos together worthwhile; no smoking indoors, no open carry on alcohol on the streets, no street vendors or anything to create an interesting people-watching street, not helped by how spread out all the casinos were from one another. We visited the Venetian which brought us away from the casinos on the ferry side of Macau, so that might have made a difference. The Venetian at Macau had the same feeling as The Trafford Centre if UK readers are familiar with it. If you have been there you'll have your own opinion about it and use that to inform going to Macau.
Hong Kong Protests - Before leaving for HK I'd been keeping up with the protest news. Though by November the 'peak' of protests seemed to have passed a lot in UK news there were still plenty of reports of violent clashes daily. From digging around online I felt that it was still safe to go but just to be mindful of large groups of people collecting or the university area. Whilst we were in HK we didn't see anything that alarmed us or made us feel unsafe. While I don't think the media outlets were incorrectly reporting protest clashes, the actual volume of them appears to be exaggerated (but that's how news makes money, right..). We saw graffiti at most MTR stations and some bus stations that had english text posters and print outs explaining the situation that were even updated overnight to new developments like Trump's treaty. One mall we tried to go to adjacent to some university buildings was closed and the MTR next to it was all smashed up but other than graffiti we felt very safe when wandering round the city both day and night. I would say the university area probably needs the most caution, but if the MTR is stopping there again then there has probably been improvement.
Vietnam - We flew into Ho Chi Minh city, stayed for about 3 days. I'm curious to return to Vietnam in the North of the country, while the South was very interesting to see I was more than ready to move on after about 8 days. Didn't really get a good feeling out of HCMC; extremely loud, sticky, busy place. The best thing we did was go to the War Remnants Museum, things like the old post office were interesting but they don't really take up much of your day. A phone sim for 2 weeks with unlimited data was easy to get and cost less than £10 I think.
HCMC is a good place to take advantage of cheap taxis and cheap food. We could get a good meal and a soft drink/smoothie for £2.50/£3, grab taxi was about £1 anywhere and £1.50 in a grab car, Circle K essentials like a sewing kit were about £2.
Would recommend the Grab app for getting around - though it wasn't my favourite place we visited, I was really able to appreciate the pace and culture of the city zipping through little side streets on the back of the bike from District 1 down to other places in Chinatown area.
There are plenty of markets to visit, but when you've seen the stuff at one the others aren't really much different and people didn't really want to haggle with us.
We did a Mekong Delta day trip, though I'm not always a big fan of a guided tour this was fun and worth going on. Have a look on a site like Klook and pick something that sounds interesting and in budget - we visited temples, honey farm, coconut farm, held some snakes, traditional boat on Mekong and lunch for about £18 each for everything.
Nha Trang - we visited here as somewhere in South Vietnam by the sea before heading westways for the rest of the trip. It was a much calmer and quieter city than HCMC but I'm not sure I would visit again, very windy in November. An unbelievable amount of Russians here, more built up and developed than I was anticipating too. Long Son Pagoda and Ba Ho waterfalls were good to visit, though Ba Ho seemed to be having a very big touristy development built on it which was a weird contrast to the very difficult to climb and almost untouched waterfalls. We biked to Bai Dai beach - just make sure to take the first turn down to the beach before you hit the strip of resorts being built because it goes on forever and they won't let you through for access to the sand. Beautiful views on the way down but can see the whole area and Vietnam in general being swallowed up by package resort tourism which is a shame.
Cambodia - This ended up being my favourite country of the visit. Though there's not really pavements or waste management or sewage and you can't drink the water etc, but there was little rampant tourism, people were kind, the weather was great and we saw some beautiful places. Phone sim will cost you about $5 and you can only top up limited data about $5 for 8GB.
Prices - Cambodia has 2 currency system with USD and riel though most of the time you're using USD (4,000 r = $1). I felt like because of USD prices were rounded up a bit more so it was still cheap, but more expensive than Vietnam. Eating out probably about $5-7 or more if you're not holding back. There aren't many chain stores in Cambodia so you're at the mercy of individual places for a good selection of snacks and then hopefully not grossly inflated prices especially on Western imports ($2.50+ for pringles?). I did find that pharmacies were cheap. Make sure you haggle with tuk tuks or use PassApp, but that app needs some work so it's often easier to take one that's in the street. In PP/SKampot getting around we paid no more than $3. In SR to go to the airport $7.
We took a bus to Phnom Penh from HCMC which made the border crossing quite easy. We had e-visa already printed out etc but it didn't seem to make our waiting time any shorter but saved us having to fill out any forms at border control.
Phnom Penh - felt a lot nicer than HCMC as soon as we got there really. Still hot and dirty and hassled like hell for tuk tuks but I felt more kindness from Cambodians. Compared to HCMC this was a whole lot quieter and more relaxed. Not every building has a formal address so if you're not staying at a hotel (airbnb) bear in mind you might need more visual instructions to find your stay.
We stayed near the Royal Palace and the area round there, though more for expats was chilled out and there were local markets, not far to walk to temples and sites etc. There are a few hotels in this area with pools if you need to cool off. The one we tried we just took the lift up to the roof no problem, but I had messaged another nearby that said it was for residents only.
Siem Reap - though this city is pretty much here for Angkor Wat tourism I enjoyed being here not just to see the temples. We stayed at THIS airbnb which was very reasonable and probably one of our favourite stays. No pool but there were a few places nearby that were happy to let us use theirs, we just bought drinks and food. There are a few temples in the city near the city where you can see fruit bats all in the trees. The river here is nice, big market, lots of cats.
Angkor Wat: we bought a 3 day pass and went on a sunrise tour one morning and then did our own thing on the other days. Doing the tour means you get up and in for sunrise at the right time and it's good to get some history about the places you're seeing. Angkor Wat temple itself wasn't the most interesting to me and there are hundreds if not thousands of people there in the morning that makes it a lot less enjoyable. We also visited:
Ta Phrom - temple from Tomb Raider Angkor Thom city gates Bayon Temple - this was a cool 2 storey temple that is merged with depictions of Hinduism and Buddhism Preah Khan
You can hire a tuk tuk driver for a day around $15 mark or you can hire electric bikes in SR centre and take those around (tourists not allowed to ride motorbikes in temple complex) $5 for 24hrs. Just make sure to give your electric bike a good charge beforehand as the battery doesn't always read right. There is a restaurant in the complex you can swap your battery at - the whole temple area is an extremely large place, you can be 15mins drive in between spots so plan carefully.
Koh Rong Island - we took a flight from SR down to Sihanoukville to then get the ferry across to Koh Rong. Our flight ended up being delayed by 12 hours (welcome to Cambodia) so we had to stay a night in Sihanoukville and go across the following day. Travelling from Sihanouk airport to Sihanouk we had to wear bandanas over our faces to stop breathing in the dust, even though only one window in the car was cracked, it's hella dirty. If you are travelling from the airport to town I highly discourage taking a tuk tuk or rickshaw; the roads are not well surfaced in a more extreme manner than what I saw in PP and SR, there are a lot of freight trucks which will need to be over or undertaken in order for the journey to not take hours. Taxis are unfortunately the most expensive here and the journey cost $20.
Sihanoukville - I'm told recent infiltration and development of Sihanouk by the Chinese has completely transformed the city in the last 2/3 years at an incredible rate with no care for the local Khmer population. It was possibly the worst place I've ever visited. Dusty and dirty on another level, open building sites and construction absolutely everywhere. Very young looking boy in a digger pulling up the pavement less than 5ft from a busy restaurant. I had to climb up a 3ft pile of loose rubble to get to an ATM because the whole side of the road had been obliterated.
If you are waiting for the ferry on Beach Road and you need an ATM but they're all broken like they were when I was there in December, there is an ATM on the actual pier. I was stressing about taking money out for Koh Rong as I heard there was no way to get cash on the island but when I was there I saw a few places that offered cash out (but I didn't try them).
I reccommend reading THIS reddit thread and the LINKED article by a Chinese blogger about Sihanouk.
I read THIS travelfish article about Koh Rong which was very helpful too. I had an impression from the article that the island is quite under developed, which in some ways was definitely true, however it was easy to do what we wanted and we didn't struggle for places to eat etc. We stayed on the main pier (though really this is still a small strip of restaurants and shops, no resorts) and spent most of our time on White Sand Beach. Koh Rong could not be any more different than Sihanouk and it was a great place to spend Christmas and unwind. We didn't do much other than swim and lie on the beach and it was great! There were boat tours to take but a lot seemed to end with 'free drink and party' and we weren't interested in that. Prices on the island were the same as PP/SR. The only things that were a lot more expensive were activities - someone had a jetski you could rent for $100.. and there was some tree top zip line you could do for about $20.
We visited 4k beach next door which was a lot more remote, beautiful as well but only one option to eat. We came past Coconut Beach when we left on the speedboat and that looked to a bit less than the main pier but still stocked with a good few options. Overall the food we had on Koh Rong was some of the best!
Kampot - A small town/city on the river. Very chilled with a nice central part of town with good places to eat. There are hardly any big hotels or buildings over 3 stories - it felt like a more real Khmer place than somewhere like Siem Reap. From Kampot you can visit Bokor Mountain, Kep, salt fields, a lot of natural escapes. Unfortunately we both got very sudden aggressive gastro-bug or food poisoning so we spent 5 days pretty much inside doing nothing (was going to happen at some point). Kampot was a quiet place and we were able to recover well here though.
Kampot to Koh Chang - From Kampot we travelled to Koh Chang, Thailand. I'd seen some speculation online that it wasn't possible to do this trip in one day, but having done it I can say yes it is but it is a long day. Almost every bus trip we took on our adventure meant that we lost all of the day (no motorways in Viet/Cambodia) however the quality of transport means it can take even longer. Vietnam was good with sleeper or semi sleeper buses, however in Cambodia our 6.5 hour trip from Kampot to the Thai border at Trat was 16 people in a 12 seater minibus plus a baby.. so bear in mind long distance trips in Cambodia can be testing! From Trat border we got a minibus to the bus station, then a songalew/thai taxi to the ferry and then a minibus took us to our hotel on the other side [12 hour trip].
Thailand - Much more infastructure and felt more modern than Cambodia and Vietnam, but I couldn't really get a vibe for the place and felt like a lot had been lost to the prevalent tourism. I would maybe visit again but staying away from coastal areas - if felt like the Spain of South East Asia.
Prices could be a little more on top of Cambodian prices but you could find cheap places to eat. About £5 for a meal. Taxis cost about £3 through Grab. 7/11 and Family Mart very cheap snacks for pennies.
Bangkok - as this was our last stop we didn't travel to many temples or big spots outside the city because money haha... we stayed away from the expat areas, the Museum of Art & Culture had a cool free exhibition, the malls Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon are worth visiting for the food halls and just to see. Where we stayed had a pool so we took it pretty easy. Went to Chatachuk but too much tourist and sweat..
Bikes:
We bought a bike in HCMC via facebook marketplace - I would suggest if you know anyone Viet to get them to help you get the true price because as a tourist you're probably seeing an inflated price tag. If not that it might be possible to get one from another backpacker, but then you may be at the mercy of any damages or issues with the bike they're not aware of as they aren't familiar with bikes.
We took our bike (Honda Cub c 50) to Nha Trang with us stowed in our sleeper bus - we visited a few bus trip/tourist places and one was happy to do it for us. I think for 2 people and the bike was about £23 one way, so not bad at all. You'll have to empty the fuel before it goes in the bus so just remember that at the other end you might have to give your bike a min to run the fuel through it again. We sold it in Nha Trang because it wasn't quite powerful enough to get us around with any bags (i was not in charge of buying bike haha...). Bikes are more than easy to rent in every country we went to for probably £5 a day max. We had a bike in Koh Chang but I know in Thailand there are more rules about tourist rental so I would swerve riding on the mainland. The most hectic place we rode was HCMC so I would just suggest avoiding that if you can, even if you ride in your home country.
We sold our bike in Nha Trang via facebook marketplace. We took a loss but it was more about cutting our dead weight before the rest of our trip so to speak. If you really want to ride a lot in SEAsia, Cambodia has no restrictions on tourists having bikes up to 125cc if you want to play the legal legal route (not that I saw any police in Cambodia over 3 weeks!). A bike is also a responsibility and if you're wanting to feel completely free while travelling it might not be right to buy one. Do thorough research! I travelled with a full face helmet and I was grateful for it on windy rides and hectic places likes HCMC. If you're not planning on riding a lot then this is definitely not essential but finding a full face helmet, that fits, that isn't too bootleg to break on you might be some things to consider (bare in mind I was planning on doing long rides when planning this trip initially).
Veganism / plant based / special diets: As mentioned I have strong intolerance to all dairy products and am generally vegan; I still eat eggs maybe once a week and might have fish and chips a few times a year.
With the exception to intolerances and allergies I think the best approach to eating in South East Asia or travelling in general is be willing to be flexible. I only like to eat plant based, but I'm happy to eat eggs and at a push will eat fish or chicken. This is obviously not what I want to do for every meal but consider that you might be getting places late at night, options that are clearly described in English as not containing your allergens may only have meat in them etc.
When I travelled to Japan and also for all these countries, I wrote 'I cannot eat dairy etc' in English on Google translate and then screenshotted the response in the desired language if I needed to show someone to confirm ingredients. For Japan I looked up pre made examples as I know the kanji can sometimes not translate directly, but here I just had the google translate page as a back up.
Hong Kong - a lot of English spoken here and a lot of specifically vegan places however they are more expensive. At 7/11 they sell the 'Kind' granola bars which are vegan and yummy! and I also ate the ready made egg and rice sushi balls. Some ingredients were listed in English but I don't remember finding any other easy go-to's. At bakeries, of which there are a lot, almost everything appears to be cream filled, buttered, flaky pastry. I found I could eat walnut and raisin breads without any noticeable issues, but I didn't have an ingredients list to check.
Vietnam - in HCMC I was very lucky to be staying down the road from a fully vegan restaurant that had ice cream, vegan banh mi, smoothies etc (Healthy World in District 1, there is another somewhere else in the city). Tofu was on menus and on an English menu in a Viet place I could safely pick something veggie. Asking for a dish to be 'chay' means veggie and that works too. Because everything is so cheap, it seemed to be easy enough to eat here. Desserts were limited with the exception of a vegan shop.
They do have Oreos, in general for all these countries, I hope you like Oreos because they're the only dessert option most place !
Cambodia - Sometimes easy and sometimes not. Tofu did appear on menus, I would recommend trying Tofu Lok Lak as a veggie Khmer dish (it will probably come with a fried egg) and I was able to ask for curries just veggie or with tofu. I ate mostly eggs and toast of some kind for breakfast because that was a filling option. Every city I was in there was at least one vegan cafe or restaurant that was not too much more ££ than a normal meal so I knew at least I could get myself something nice and safely vegan every other day while keeping a budget. I was concerned about Koh Rong being a remote island that I would struggle to eat but this was one of the best places! There is a purely veggie/vegan restaurant on the main pier, as well as other restaurants offering vegan pizza, veggie pad thai, tofu curries etc. I also found a second kind of chocolate biscuit that wasn't an Oreo here!
Koh Chang/Thailand - though we were back to having access to 7/11 the options seemed more limited and Thailand was my least favourite place to eat. In 7/11 I did find a few different kinds of Almond milk (& oreos!) but ingredients were rarely in English. Some options at the food halls were inari sushi, Subway (hash browns) and a few other (but more pricey) dedicated vegan restaurants in the central district.
You deserve a medal if you made it this far - any questions please ask me, thanks :-)