My college friend Tim and his girlfriend Chelsea were doing a 2 week SE Asia trip, so I figured I’d meet them for a part of it. Decided on Bangkok due to convenience of their dates, and from there I also wanted to add on Siem Reap to go back and see some of the Angkor ruins since that was probably my single favorite vacation, back when I took vacations. Going from that, it literally cost an extra ~$70 to adjust this trip to fly into Singapore and out of Kuala Lumpur, so I did that, especially since I had relatives in both places whom I could see and stay with.
To be honest, the Angkor complex is still easily my all-time favorite tourist spot that I have been to, so the entire trip was worth it if only for that. Not at all an apples to apples comparison, but the only place I have been to that I enjoy more than the Preah Khan temple within Angkor is probably Black Rock City. Just cannot stress enough how awesome Siem Reap and Angkor are.
Singapore
Was in Singapore for a couple of days first, and stayed with my uncle and aunt (this would be my paternal grandfather’s sister’s son).These were actually my cousin Vishnu’s parents (who I saw and stayed with after my flight delay in Delhi). So the reason I picked Asia first for my retirement was because I could use my grandma’s place in Chennai as a base, and it’s actually been super helpful with all the connections…grandma and countless relatives and family friends in Chennai, went to Ladakh with my uncle and aunt (this is my paternal great grandfather’s brother’s grandson…Indian families, or at least Tamil Brahmin families, extend waaaay beyond what a typical western family does), went to Sri Lanka with my dad, stayed with relatives in Delhi, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur, going to Myanmar with my mom, sister, and grandma, going to Bangalore to see some other relatives and family friends prior to Hampi next week, and doing a few trips within India in Jan/Feb with my mom. Not to mention that another uncle (mom’s brother) lives in Tokyo so that will probably be a base for East Asia next spring…this is basically backpacking on easy mode, and is a great way for me to ease into this lifestyle and learn how to solo travel for extended periods. Also in general it’s just very nice of all of these family members to accommodate a retired person like myself into their lives for a few days as I bounce around the continent.
Anyways, Singapore definitely struck me as an amazing place to live in, but a decent tourist spot. After 2 days I felt that I had pretty much exhausted all the touristy things to do…that said, since I’m a huge history nerd for me tourism is about seeing things related to that. A lot of Singapore tourism is similar to what I feel US city tourism is like (having never really done this to be fair), with murals and “activities” and stuff like that. Regardless, it’s a gorgeous city with NYC prices due to the super high standard of living. The riverwalk area actually sort of reminded me of Chicago, and there were a ton of upscale bars, restaurants, and clubs that were lined up along there.
The single best part about Singapore for me were the hawker stalls. This is sort of similar to a food court, where you enter an enclosed area with 50-100+ food stalls that are set up, pick a spot and then sit down in a table and eat. The food is actually cheap (even though Singapore is $$$, meals here were under 5 USD), and holy shit it was delicious. The chinese food in the Chinatown hawker stalls were legitimately just as good as the Chinese food I had in China, which makes sense considering Singapore is almost 75% ethnic Chinese. The hawker stall area in Little India was also more or less just as good as some of the street food I’ve had in India.
The coolest tourist thing I did in Singapore was probably the Parkview Museum, which had this eclectic modern art exhibit when I visited. A lot of the stuff there was actually very Burning Man-esque with regards to the sculptures and the messages and meanings behind these sculptures (critical look at society, very pro-leftist causes, etc.). My cousin Nitya and her husband Sid took me out to what might be the nicest rooftop bar I have been to, called The Stork, which had incredible views of the entire Singapore skyline. The actual rooftop itself felt almost like a park, and they had these teepees (cultural appropriation smh) set up for couples as well. The cocktails were delicious but at 15 USD+ they better have been.
Overall, Singapore seems like one of the best places to live that I have been to. They do have a repressive government but I guess that’s the tradeoff the citizens there have made…prosperity for fewer rights. It’s an incredibly wealthy nation, probably the “nicest” city I have been to (it is a bit sterile to be fair…), and there are a wealth of options to go out and enjoy which makes it a great place to live in. It’s also probably one of the most diverse places I have been to – ton of Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, plus all sorts of white people who live there as well.
Bangkok
Bangkok is an interesting city. There’s enough Buddhist temples to last for a couple of days of fun sightseeing, and the nightlife around Khao San Road is incredibly fun. But the food is also relatively mediocre by the incredible standards of Asia (I’m not a huge Thai food fan to begin with), the touts are the most aggressive I have seen outside of Egypt, and get to the point of being detrimental to enjoying the place, and there’s just a super sleazy feel to the whole area that is enough where I literally have zero interest in seeing the rest of Thailand (which is sacrilege for backpackers since this is probably the biggest tourist destination for white people in Asia).
That said, the weekend I spent here was definitely fun, though it was just long enough where I enjoyed the trip but also couldn’t wait to get out of the country. I stayed in the same hostel I did when I came to Bangkok for a weekend 5 years ago from India in the summer of 2014. Got in late night on Friday, and went out for a bit in Khao San Road with Tim and Chelsea.
I’m not complaining here and it probably sounds like the ultimate first world problem, but both one of best parts and one of the “not-as-amazing” parts of backpacking is that you consistently meet new people. It does get a bit old going through the same rehashed conversations every night when going out however, so it was definitely a welcome change of pace to go out with friends who I knew well in Bangkok.
Saw a bunch of the main tourist sites with Tim and Chelsea – the biggest takeaway for me was that I don’t remember liking the Grand Palace this much at all 5 years ago. This definitely blew my expectations out of the water…it was a super gaudy and extravagant complex, and just so incredibly ornate. The temples as a whole were pretty cool, but I definitely prefer the “mountain buddhism” that I saw in Ladakh to the style (architecture, culture, etc.) of SE Asia in Thailand.
Our 2nd night in Khao San Road was crazy fun, but definitely a lot. The street is basically a giant backpacker haven lined up with bars that turn into clubs at night. It’s almost like a 1km long nightclub after midnight. It’s also probably the best place in the world for people watching…you get all sorts of people, from 20 year old gap year Brits and Aussies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU) to the sort of older hippie types that you see at Burning Man to frat bros and basic girls from the US. It’s a nice eclectic mix of people and it’s fun to just make new friends for the night. It’s also a bit much for me at my advanced age and stage in life, and I was definitely pooped out of this after 3 nights in Bangkok, though it was definitely fun for the few nights I was there. Tim and Chelsea also just closed on purchasing a Chicago apartment, which further validated my decision to retire as I am now old enough where I have homeowner friends.
Siem Reap
Much like how revisiting Russia this past June validated the fact that it is my favorite European country I have been to, revisiting Siem Reap more than validated the fact that Angkor is my favorite tourist destination. In terms of sightseeing, I honestly don’t think there’s even a close 2nd place to Angkor (even places as incredible as Delhi, the Taj Mahal, and Pompeii just aren’t even close for me). The only tourist things that are even comparable are more like “experiences”, like my trips to Kenya and Ladakh (I really really enjoyed the Ladakh trip, especially now that I’ve had a few weeks to digest).
I only spent one day after going for a week 2 years ago, and definitely think this is a place that I will return to every few years. Started the day off with a sunrise at Angkor Wat (the main temple in the Angkor complex and the only one a layperson probably knows about). To be honest this temple is at best the 3rd coolest one there for me, but is still super nice. A neat little thing was that my phone’s shuffle put on The Beatles’ Across the Universe while I was walking down the main entrance causeway during the sunrise, which is especially apt since Angkor Wat is supposed to be modeled off of what the ancient Hindus thought was the design of the Universe. Sunrise here is definitely one of the cooler things I have seen.
After this I went to the Bayon temple, which is amazing. It’s filled with these massive towers that are topped with 4 smiling (and to be honest, creepy) faces, 1 on each side. The combination of these faces plus the more ruined state of the temple gave off a really cool vibe – these giant faces actually reminded me of the trippy Samskara video I saw at Burning Man, which was effectively based off Hindu mythology. Probably spent a few hours just wandering around Bayon alone. It’s definitely one of the more eerie sites that I have ever been to.
After this was my all-time favorite site, Preah Khan. Preah Khan is basically maintained in a state of restored unrestoration…they have restored it and made it safe (so no collapsing, etc.), but it is intentionally left in a ruined state. Unlike the more celebrated Ta Prohm (which is the main ruined temple tourists go to…they have walkways here so it feels more like a forced zoo interaction), you can actually walk in the temple here and not on wooden planks. Because it’s for some strange reason not as well known as Ta Prohm, and because it is a bit of a larger temple, I would go long stretches here without seeing any other tourists (Angkor Wat itself is infested with tourists, Bayon and Ta Prohm have a ton, but almost every other temple in the Angkor complex is largely empty due to the sheer size of the complex and the number of temples). There are also a ton of piles of rubble that you can climb on (or at least, I never got caught…). This specific temple complex is quite literally straight out of Indiana Jones, the Uncharted video games, Tomb Raider, Legends of the Hidden Temple, etc. etc. Ruins and rubble everywhere, trees and vines growing around and on the buildings, intricate and ornate stonework that is present everywhere, uneven stone floors, partially collapsed hallways with light filtering in, caved in doorways, shimmying through narrow gaps between two buildings within the temple, climbing through and on top of the rubble, lush vegetation in and around the temple…it’s just the coolest thing imaginable. Almost half the pictures I took for this SE Asia album are from here alone and even the pictures do not do this experience justice. I can’t stress enough just how amazing and cool this temple is. Much to the chagrin of my hired tuk tuk driver, I spent over 4 hours just walking around all the different hallways and yards and exploring every nook and cranny. It lived up to the hype of my memory from 2 years ago and then some.
I went to a few other temples afterwards (Ta Som, which was really cool and like a much much smaller version of Preah Khan, Ta Prohm, and a few others whose names I can’t recall off the top of my head). The Angkor complex has something like 50+ temples, and you can easily spend a full week there (like I did 2 years ago). Since I most likely will be returning to India at least once every few years after my retirement, I can definitely see myself making quick trips to Siem Reap just to come back for a day and see some of the highlights each time. I do wish that I had taken an extra day here to do a day trip to Koh Ker like the last time I was in Cambodia. This is the one other abandoned temple (complete with a pyramid that wouldn’t look out of place in South America!) that is most similar to Preah Khan for me. Beng Melea is probably the most ruined temple, but this one is a bit like Ta Prohm where there are wooden walkways everywhere which take away from the atmosphere.
One weird note about Cambodia is that everyone uses USD. The Cambodian Riel is pegged to 4000-1, so the only time you see their currency is 1000 notes instead of quarters.
Another really nice surprise of Siem Reap was (and this is going to sound mundane) a conversation I had with this kid from my hostel who was from Denver. It was just refreshing to have a legit conversation with a stranger for a few hours, especially since most interactions with backpackers are largely the same (even though they are fun!). It was probably the most thought provoking/unique conversation I’ve had since the countless ones of those I had in Burning Man to be honest.
After Siem Reap, I am even more excited than before for more abandoned temples (especially Hampi in a few weeks, but also the numerous temples in Tamil Nadu, the Ajanta and Ellora caves in Maharashtra, and some of the larger abandoned complexes in Indonesia). Obviously will temper my expectations as I don’t think anything will be quite as jungle-exploration and just plain cool as Preah Khan and the other Angkor temples are like, but should still be really nice.
Kuala Lumpur
My final stop was in Kuala Lumpur, where I stayed with my uncle (technically my 55 year old cousin, but since he is my paternal great grandfather’s sister’s great grandson, there was enough generations for the age differences to widen). Kuala Lumpur reminded me a lot of both Shanghai (it’s a super modern city) and Singapore (also strikes me as a very livable city). It definitely had a bit more of an “Asia” feel and wasn’t quite as sterile as Singapore, while also wasn’t quite as futuristic and ultra-modern as Shanghai.
The Petronas Towers were surprisingly pretty cool. I liked the style they were built in (sort of a metallic sheen to them), and that entire downtown business area was quite nice. To be honest the megacities of Asia really put American cities (even New York!) to shame (but this makes sense since these are all newer cities and the governments in general are less democratic so they can just bulldoze ahead with their plans). The Batu Caves were also a nice little half day trip I took – it’s these vividly colorful Tamil-style temples that is in a giant limestone cave. It definitely looks cooler in the pictures than it is in person though.
Like Singapore, it’s definitely a place worth spending a few days in. And also like Singapore, the food here is fantastic. Especially after the eh food in Bangkok and Siem Reap (though at least Cambodia isn’t really known for its’ food), it was nice to have some flavorful and delicious Malay and Chinese-Malay cuisine. I’ll most likely return here (maybe Singapore instead but more airlines go through KL from India) when I leave for Vietnam/Indonesia in a few months – also an excuse to see my uncle, aunt, and cousin again as well.
One unrelated note on this SE Asia trip – ever since I used “Tangled Up in Blue” as my insta caption for my Ladakh post there, I’ve been in a Bob Dylan frenzy, and probably listened to the Blood on the Tracks album at least 10x during this 10 day SE Asia trip. At the moment it’s my favorite Dylan album, but I usually rotate between this, Blonde on Blonde, and Highway 61 revisited. Though for the past few years, I’ve been consistent in having Tangled Up in Blue and Desolation Row as my favorite songs of his.
Overall, this was a pretty nice quick and easy SE Asia trip. I don’t have too much interest in this region (especially compared to most backpackers), but will be back in Myanmar for a week with my mom, sister, and grandma around New Year’s, and probably will spend some time in Vietnam before going to Indonesia to meet my college friend Arjun for diving down there next spring. Next up is my scuba certification in Pondicherry, and then I’m going to Bangalore for a few days to see some more relatives and family friends before going to the Hampi ruins for the holidays.