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Damn, @Crash... Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan!? I'm jealous!

I've been to Siem Reap, but sadly still hadn't had the chance to go to Japan and Vietnam (although both are in my travel wish list).

How do you rate the experience?

Crash · Aug 18, 2018

35mm
Damn, @Crash... Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan!? I'm jealous!

I've been to Siem Reap, but sadly still hadn't had the chance to go to Japan and Vietnam (although both are in my travel wish list).

How do you rate the experience?

I spent roughly 1.5 weeks in each country. Really enjoyed Japan and absolutely loved Vietnam. Really big contrast between the two. Japan felt more rigid and felt more like operating on clockwork, with Tokyo being particularly hectic. Vietnam, especially once out of the large cities, felt more relaxed and flowing, where time moved a bit slower. Both have their own histories and their own styles of food. Visually very different aesthetics between the two countries as well. Vietnam, once outside of cities, can very quickly turn into that stunningly picturesque image of Southeast Asia/Indochina that you see.

For the people, I thought that the Japanese was reserved, respectful but still helpful. The people in Vietnam were generally very friendly and welcome.

I'm extremely glad I got to visit both Vietnam and Japan. It was nice to do them pretty much back-to-back to experience their differences as well. For me, if I was already traveling all the way over to Asia, then I might as well hop around.

I definitely want to visit both countries again and I highly recommend going to both!

35mm · Aug 18, 2018

Crash
I spent roughly 1.5 weeks in each country. Really enjoyed Japan and absolutely loved Vietnam. Really big contrast between the two. Japan felt more rigid and felt more like operating on clockwork, with Tokyo being particularly hectic. Vietnam, especially once out of the large cities, felt more relaxed and flowing, where time moved a bit slower. Both have their own histories and their own styles of food. Visually very different aesthetics between the two countries as well. Vietnam, once outside of cities, can very quickly turn into that stunningly picturesque image of Southeast Asia/Indochina that you see.

For the people, I thought that the Japanese was reserved, respectful but still helpful. The people in Vietnam were generally very friendly and welcome.

I'm extremely glad I got to visit both Vietnam and Japan. It was nice to do them pretty much back-to-back to experience their differences as well. For me, if I was already traveling all the way over to Asia, then I might as well hop around.

I definitely want to visit both countries again and I highly recommend going to both!

That was definitely a dream trip.
Also, it must be nice to be able to stay that long at each location. Over here, taking more than two weeks (10 working days) off of work is frown upon...

Anyway, one last question, if you don't mind: between Vietnam and Cambodia, which one would you visit again, if you could only pick one?
Seriously, Siem Reap was probably the best (and most exotic) experience I've had in my life. It's something I'll never forget, the town itself and also the ruins of Angkor.

Crash · Aug 20, 2018

Feel free to ask as many questions as you want, happy to answer them.

35mm
That was definitely a dream trip.
Also, it must be nice to be able to stay that long at each location. Over here, taking more than two weeks (10 working days) off of work is frown upon...

I generally save up my vacation hours and take one big one at a time. Also helps that I work my butt off the rest of the year, so no one gets too upset if I take 3 weeks off (which is actually probably the max length at for my job before people will start grumbling about it).

35mm
Anyway, one last question, if you don't mind: between Vietnam and Cambodia, which one would you visit again, if you could only pick one?
Seriously, Siem Reap was probably the best (and most exotic) experience I've had in my life. It's something I'll never forget, the town itself and also the ruins of Angkor.

Hands down, I would pick visiting Vietnam again. I felt like there was more to see, more to do, and more to eat in Vietnam. I visited Siem Reap for a couple of days, and even though it was really cool to see all the temples, and just to see how a culture lives, I just wasn't enamored with the country. Maybe it was because I was really just running around all day looking at temples, which by the 6th one of the day, starts blending together. One huge part of travel for me is food, and to me, Cambodian food just didn't have the breadth and of interestingness as Vietnamese food.

It's hard to describe, but IMO, as far as "exoticness" goes, I would guess Cambodia is probably going to be a bigger contrast to Europe, and part of it is that it really is still a third world country. Saigon itself feels a lot like other major city in the developing world, being surrounded by buildings, people, traffic, pollution, etc. That itself shouldn't detract from Vietnam, because really, Vietnam is a fabulous country.

I rode a small motorcycle around town in one of the cities I was visiting in Vietnam, going to shops and restaurants, as well as going out to the spectacular countryside. I think that was a huge part in me falling in love with that country. I don't have plans to go back to Cambodia again, but spending more time in Vietnam, and riding through the country, is now one of my bucket list travel items.

Crash · Aug 21, 2018

Winter Wonderland by C Ng

35mm · Aug 22, 2018

Crash
I rode a small motorcycle around town in one of the cities I was visiting in Vietnam, going to shops and restaurants, as well as going out to the spectacular countryside.

Now that's how one should enjoy Vietnam! Takes a bit of courage I guess, but it must be fantastic.

I totally understand why you fell in love with it and it's definitely in line with the reasons why it's on our priority list as well (right down to the food).

Enjoyed reading your comments. Thanks. 👍

Crash · Aug 23, 2018

35mm
Now that's how one should enjoy Vietnam! Takes a bit of courage I guess, but it must be fantastic.

If you do go to Vietnam, you should seriously consider riding as well. Everyone local rides, and it's a bit of a "when in Rome" kind of thing. The AirBnB I stayed at included the motorcycle rental as part of the $13 USD nightly fee to stay there.

When I was riding out to the historical sites in Hue, a lot of those sites form somewhat of a ring in the countryside around the city. Rather than riding in and out of the city from one to another, I decided to just follow Google Maps and ride in a loop outside of the city, not really knowing what the roads or geography looks like.

I moseyed my way onto QL1 (their main national north-south highway) and rode on it for a bit. It's this paved 2 lane highway where the road is shared between animals, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, buses, light trucks, and fully loaded semi-trucks. Even in the midst of riding, I knew it was a little bit sketchy because I would ride on the shoulder, and fully loaded trucks would blast right by, or you see them pass each other just up ahead with barely any room to spare. Mind you, I was wearing a flimsy helmet, t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Only later did I found out how dangerous it actually is to ride on QL1 because of all the accidents and deaths that happen on there.

It was a blast.

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I have a couple pictures of riding in and around Hue on my Instagram. I'll slowly get through my Vietnam pictures and will post some of that on here later.