Asia Trip 2024

During my 3-month sabbatical in 2024, I planned a trip to Asia with some friends. We started in South Korea, then went to Vietnam and Cambodia, and ended the trip in Malaysia. I was really curious about Vietnam and Malaysia because I have heard a lot of Americans slow travel there. The US dollar goes far in those countries. You can rent a high rise furnished apartment with views and a/c for $300/month. 

South Korea was probably my least favorite from the Asia trip. Seoul felt like being in NYC where it took 1 hour to get anywhere whether by metro, car, or foot. I expected it to be more futuristic like Japan but they wouldn’t even accept credit cards at the metro station. It just felt like being in a big city. It was my first time eating Korean food and I was impressed by the Korean barbeque and the Korean fried chicken (I normally don’t even like fried chicken). 

Vietnam ended up being my favorite place on the trip. We started in Hanoi which introduced us to the chaos of Vietnamese scooters and mopeds. There weren’t many traffic lights and we just had to cross the street and hope for the best. The humidity hit us really hard coming from Seoul. One of my favorite parts was taking a day cruise along the Halong Bay. It was absolutely beautiful! I especially enjoyed being able to kayak and swim there. Hourly massages in Vietnam only cost $7-8 so we got one daily which was a nice perk. 

We also visited Danang, Vietnam which I preferred over Hanoi. It’s on the beach (which is always a plus for me) so you had the breeze from the ocean that made it cooler. The city is more modern and it seems like they are doing a lot of construction there to build it for tourists. The water at the beach was cool which was perfect for a warm day. We spent one day in Ba Na Hills. This is where they have the famous bridge with the hands. It ended up being an amusement park similar to Epcot at the top of a mountain which was pretty cool. 

We went to Cambodia to visit Angor Wat. I had seen a similar temple in Thailand before, that I believe is almost a copy of Angor Wat in better shape. So, I mostly went to Cambodia to appease one of my friends. I didn’t look forward to spending an entire day of sweating to death. We did a sunrise tour which was worth it because by the time the sun came out and made it feel unbearably hot, we were done. It was extremely humid in the morning and everything in my purse got soaked form the humidity. I did enjoy the food in Cambodia and the people were really nice. 

We ended the trip in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was really cool. I liked the city vibe because the architecture of the buildings is so unique. My favorite part of Malaysia were the night markets. I have heard from a lot of people that the food in Malaysia is amazing. Now I know why. The food in Malaysia is a mixture of Chinese food, Thai food, and other Asian foods. The night markets had so many options of cool things I have never seen before. It may even be hard to describe. 

Some things we tried were grilled calamari on a stick, huge bobba balls in ice cream, spicy soy sauce chicken, mango sticky rice, tempura potato sticks with sauce, iced coffee in a bag, layered mango crepe etc. We also went to the Batu Caves which is a Hindu Temple. It was an interesting experience and yes we climbed all of these stairs.

Overall, I had a great time in Asia. I saw so many incredible things and the people were so friendly. I am open to spending a month in Vietnam and Malaysia whenever I decide to slow travel. It was worth the 24 hours of flying to and from, and the week it took to recover from jet lag.