End of the Road: An A to Z
- R
- Feb 19
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 19
Well, our extended trip in South-east Asia is over - sad indeed. But to help offset the post-holiday blues of mine, I would like to pay things forward to you, my thousands of loyal readers, and do one final blog in this series.
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Over the last three months of travelling, we have learned a lot – had fun, made mistakes, and made great discoveries so I would like to share a collection of my travel tips, from A to Z.
A for Attire
This was a wee bit annoying as early on with our travels we started to appreciate we over packed. Removing the stuff I wore once or didn’t wear dropped my one-bagging weight by 43%...
“Oh, Hanoi is northern and it's cold”, they said – Not for Scots it’s not – that’s our typical summer “Taps aff” weather. If necessary, put on the jacket that you wore to your home airport, and that will do. No need for warm jumpers, etc.
“Linen is perfect for hot climates”, they said. Yeah, well linen sucks when it comes to it needing to be ironed (unless you want to look like an unmade bed when your apartment doesn’t have an iron). Linen and cotton shirts and Tees can also be uncomfortable with sweat. Probably my Number 1 Top tip – check out Under Armour Men's UA Tech 2.0 Short-sleeved T-shirts. Very light, very breathable and comfortable sports material, easy to wash, quick to dry and no ironing. I took one, and if you look through most of L’s pictures of me in her blogs, you will see me wearing it instead of my cotton and linen stuff. I wish I had brought more (Tip No. 2 - don’t try to buy them in Thailand as you will pay over the odds in the Under Armour shops there – get them on Amazon when they get discounted (and don’t even waste your time with the knock-offs in MBK Centre)).
B for Bakeries
Japanese Bakeries to be precise. As a westerner in Thailand and Vietnam, you will miss the sweet pastry stuff we crave and like to pig out on. Forget about Dunkin’ Donuts or Swenson’s (overpriced). Find yourself a Japanese bakery like Custard Nakamura and Little C. A fair bit of our food budget was spent in shops like these…
B is also for Booze
In Thailand, the sale of alcohol is restricted to the hours of 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm to Midnight - so watch the times when you are grocery shopping and don’t think you can just drop in a bottle or some cans… Beer in Vietnam is crazy cheap.
C for Cybersecurity
Disappointingly, the WiFi provided by a number of the hotels we stayed in was unsecured. To reduce the possible security risks to us, we took a travel router with us (Gl-iNet Beryl AX). Instead of our devices connecting directly to the hotel's WiFi, the compact little (11.5 x 8 x 3 cm; 196 g) travel router can act as a repeater and create its own secure, private network for us, providing extra levels of security and encryption (including our VPN).
C is also for Chocolate Crushed Croissants
OMG… (40 baht (£0.94) at Big C). There was supposed to be a photo of this, but someone ate half of it before I could take a pic…
C is also for Chao Phraya
When you want to try something different than hopping between different BTS and MTR lines when exploring Bangkok, try the Chao Phraya express boats. Save some money and avoid the hustle and bustle of tourists by not using the hop-on hop-off tourist boat and using one of the flag boats (e.g. Yellow flag – (Nonthaburi – Sathorn (Central Pier) – Ratburana) for only 21 baht. Great views and a great experience without paying over the odds.
C is also for Cat
In a dress. Wearing pearls. Cos why not?
D for (Soi) Dogs
Despite the reputation for the number of street dogs (Soi is Thai for street), we didn’t see that many in the areas we covered in Thailand and Vietnam. I don’t regret getting the rabies jabs, though…
D is also for Don’t Be Boring
Don’t stick with outlets like Starbucks, that you are used to – be adventurous and try some local venues that offer a different experience and options at a fraction of the price. There are so many cooler coffee shops out there that you should try.
E for L
Though not a tip, how can I not sneak her in and say how awesome she is?
E is also for eSIM
Apps like Grab need a local number, so if your phone is compatible, an eSIM can take some of the hassles out of connectivity when arriving at foreign destinations (In Thailand and Vietnam, it means you can avoid the screaming SIM vendors at the arrival gates…). We used Airalo in Thailand and Gigago in Vietnam without any hassles.
F for Food
There are so many great places to eat. Here are just a few of my memorable ones:
Bangkok - Sri Trat Restaurant
Bangkok – Tee Talat Phlu in the Empire Tower Food Court – a very nice lady there.
Chiang Mai – VT Namnueng
Chiang Mai – Por Pong Restaurant
Hanoi – Bun Cha Ta Hanoi
For other food recommendations, as well as the history on some of them, I highly recommend you check out the OTR Food and History Youtube channel - full of great insights into food from Bangkok and SEA.
F is also for Food Courts
Rather than going to the expensive, big-name restaurant chains, check out the food courts in malls. They can often be found on the basement or upper levels. Very popular with local workers at lunchtime or after work.
They have a great range of food on offer at good prices (from 50 baht upwards).
They will require you to purchase a payment card as the majority of the vendors won’t accept cash or any other payment system. Don’t worry, any money left on the card can be reclaimed in full at the card desk where you bought the card.
Some say they open till late (e.g. 8 pm), but with some food courts, a lot of the vendors have either packed up before then or have run out of most of the items.
G for Grab
The Grab app makes it so easy and cheap to use a taxi.
A 1-hour rush hour drive in packed traffic from The Maya Mall to our home in Chiang Mai was 287 baht (£6.75).
A 6km drive across town to the One Bangkok mall? – 106 baht (£2.49). How much would the same cost you in your city?
Works 9 times out of 10 with no hassles (occasionally you will get a driver cancel on you or not find any at all (try Bolt instead)). Toll roads are extra.
At destination airports, check out online before you fly where the Grab Taxi pickup point is as it likely won't be beside the regular taxis (for reasons...).
H for Hidden Alleys
Instead of sticking to the busy and noisy main thoroughfares, try taking side roads on your wanders around town. While in some Western cities, this would set your internal alarm bells ringing, in Thailand, you can often be rewarded with some cool sights and discoveries that you would have missed.
I for I am so glad
We experienced Thailand!
J for Japanese Bakeries
So good they appear twice! See under “B for Bakeries”.
K for Klongs.
Beat the road traffic and check out the Khlong Saen Saep boat service that operates in the north of Siam and other regions of Bangkok.
Cool boat rides and experience for only 8 to 20 baht a trip (£0.19-£0.47)
L for Language
Do try and learn some phrases. However, Thai is a tonal language meaning the pitch (of which there are 5!) changes the meaning so it will be a learning curve!
But a little can go a long way so at least try and learn how to say “Hello” (“Sawadee krap” if you are male and “Sawadee ka” if you are female) and “Thank you” at a bare minimum for courtesy (“khaawp khun khrap”, if you are a male and “khawp khun kha”, if you are female).
M for Malls
So abundant and amazing in Bangkok. Great air-conditioned refuges from the heat of the city. The malls in Vietnam are smaller in number and a lot, lot smaller in size…
M is also for Makro
Check it out if there is one near you – You don’t need a card. A huge range, good prices, and some sections are quite eye-opening…
M is also for “Mai”
Which you will find very useful to add to your vocabulary.
For example:
Mai phet = “Not spicy” - you will use this a lot...
Mai waan = “Not sweet” – they love their coffee to be sweet…
N for Night Markets
Maybe it’s just me, but some are overrated. They are busy, and the same things appear at every other stall. And no, just because I am a tourist doesn’t mean I want a scorpion on a stick as a snack…
O for OMG/OMFG
Which you will say a lot.
For example,
“OMG, this Bun Cha is delicious”
“OMG, this temple is amazing”
“OMFG, I am going to die of heat stroke if I don’t dive into this 7-11” - L (a.k.a. Sweaty Betty) said this particular one an awful lot...
O is also for Olight
We took a couple of Olight Oclip rechargeable EDC torches. They are tiny but can produce up to 300 lumens of light which can be very useful when navigating badly lit dodgy pavements at night. They also have red light/strobe feature which can be handy to use to stop drivers running you over at night when there are no dodgy pavements available to walk on.
P for Public Transport
It’s great, cheap, and clean, so make full use of it.
P is also for Pavements
They are not great, so be careful with your steps. In Bangkok, you can avoid some by using the BTS Skywalks. Using the Skywalks also means you can avoid some pedestrian crossings.
R for Rabbit Card
Don’t forget this contactless payment system card isn’t just for the Thai BTS Skytrain, you can also use the Rabbit card in a lot of other places including Starbucks, McDonald's, some food courts, etc.
S for Seven-Eleven
They say you can get almost anything you need from the very abundant 7-11s in Thailand. That is true, but you will get bored with the limited range. Just like their bigger brothers, the supermarkets and malls, 7-11s are great places to pop into to escape the heat. In Vietnam, the closest equivalent would be Circle K or Winmart.
T for Tourist Essentials Tips
1% (w/w) Hydrocortisone for bites – if you are from the UK, buy this at home for half the price. You will need it…
Carry-on Travel-sized toothpaste – you may struggle to find these in the supermarkets as they only appear to sell large tubes. Some 7-11s stock small-sized ones (with some weird flavours...)
Device charging – Instead of multiple charges, get a gallium nitride (GaN) charging station with decent wattage, multi-ports and a detachable figure-8 power cable. That one device can charge your laptops, phones, tablets, etc, with a minimum of space, weight, and fuss. The figure-8 power cable means you can cheaply buy a few mains cables with different plugs for the different socket requirements for your travels, without using wobbly travel adapters.
For other general traveller needs when in Thailand, check out walk-in stores like Muji and Decathalon.
U for Ugh!
Ah, the heat and humidity… Don’t forget your antiperspirant (which will last 5 mins outdoors…)
V for Vehicles
So many bikes, cars, and Tuk-tuks. At least in Thailand, they don’t use their horn every 5 seconds. Keep an eye on them, even when walking on pavement…
W for Would you come back?
Yes. Absolutely!
X for No
The sign/gesture convention for “No”, as in “No coriander”, is arms crossed in an X shape.
Y for Why Not!
Go and check out Thailand for yourself!
Z for Zebra Crossings
Although appearing similar, in practice they are quite a bit different from what you are used to in the West…
Keep your head on a swivel and eyes always on the traffic. Look for gaps and set a steady walking pace. See my earlier blog post for more tips with these.
In Vietnam, where pedestrian crossings can be challenging, raising a hand to the traffic can (occasionally) help slow them down.
Good luck!
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