The Top Three
After three months traveling on the Banana Pancake Trail, these are a few of my favorite things
This past weekend marked exactly three months since I left my home in San Francisco to travel around the world. It also so happens to be my last day traveling on the Banana Pancake Trail of South East Asia’s most popular backpacker destinations. I figured I’d close out this chapter by reflecting on a few of my favorite things. The opinions in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views of the various tourism boards that paid me to write this article.
Big cities
1. Hanoi, Vietnam Hanoi is not unlike a Banh Mi sandwhich: a French framework filled with vibrant colors, tropical flavors, and an Asian kick. The city’s boutique cafė culture is any writers’ dream.
2. Yangon, Myanmar Yangon is urgent. With modernity, foreign investment, and curious tourists flooding in, Myanmar is changing by the second. But a stroll down any side street, and each passerby becomes a dear relative, meeting your gaze with a jovial smile.
3. Luang Prabang, Laos This quaint French-colonial town set in the mountains of Northern Laos boasts enough croissants, waterfalls, and serenity to tempt any wandering traveler into planting roots.
Small Cities
1. Koh Rong, Cambodia Koh Rong has all the fixings of island paradise — intermittent electricity, cheap beach bungalows, and natural beauty untainted by human footprints.
2. Don Det, Laos A 500 meter stroll from the sunrise side to the sunset side of Don Det is a sign of a productive day on this hammock-filled island in the Mekong. The island had me wanting to breathe slower and stay longer.
3. Pai, Thailand There’s magic in the water here. I’m still unsure whether it was the laidback people, quirky night market, or finger-licking food in this musical mountain town, but I know I’m not the only one who instantly fell in love upon setting foot in Pai.
Accommodations
1 Dreamtime, Vientiane, Laos This electricity-free Eco-Retreat set in the jungle outside of Laos’ capital is without a doubt my favorite place I’ve ever paid to stay. The Dreamtime mantra says it all: “Sit down. Shut up. Look at the trees.”
2 The Cozee Monkey, Manila, Philippines Coziness is hard to find within the chaos of Metro Manila, but a communal kitchen, musical jam room, and bean-bags galore made this converted mansion feel like home.
3. The Last Resort, Don Det, Laos In the space between the teepees that make up The Last Resort, family is formed. Highlights included organic dinners in the multi-funktion room (part cafė, part dancefloor) and nightly sing-a-longs around the campfire.
Bars
1. La Republica, El Nido, Philippines Every night a sunset over turquoise water slices this Spanish tapas bar symmetrically in half. Throw in a bucket of San Miguel lager and some papas bravas and you’ve got my kind of heaven.
2. Amsterdam Bar, Koh Phangam, Thailand The infamous Full Moon Party gets more attention than the natural beauty on this southern Thai island, but this reggae bar on top of a hill provides a peaceful oasis amidst all the neon and electronic music.
3. Utopia, Luang Prabang, Laos Zen by day, groovy by night. Overlooking the riverbank, this bar could satisfy me from sunrise to sunset. Daily yoga classes, a beach volleyball court, and circles of mattresses on the floor are just few of the features helps Utopia live up to its name.
Street Food
1. Vietnamese The best food in Vietnam is full of flavors, considerably spicy, and most likely made in a little metal cart of wheels. Bum cha, banh mi, pho…man, I could eat Vietnamese every day for the rest of my life.
2. Thai Thai food can be found in restaurants around the globe, but there’s something comforting about knowing that whatever dish I point to at the local night market will surprise and delight my taste buds.
3. Chinese Chinese food in China is different from most Chinese food in America (shocker). The main differences I saw were more vegetables, less grease, and different types of meat. The streets of Hong Kong will forever smell like grilled octopus, fried fish balls, and golden egg tarts in my mind.
Cultural Sites
1. Angkor Wat, Siam Reap, Cambodia I wanted to call this the Cowboys Stadium of temple complexes, but Cowboys Stadium is definitely the Angkor Wat of football stadiums. The way nature has started to take over this 12th century temple city, makes the ruins feel even more sacred.
2. Bagan Architectural Zone, Myanmar Over 10,000 Buddhist temples were constructed on the plains of Bagan in the 9th–13th centuries. With temples as far as the eye can see and hot air balloons floating up with the sun in the morning, this place is ripe to be the next set for a Pixar movie.
3. Wat Umong, Chiang Mai, Thailand Nature has always been closely tied to spirituality in my mind. This forest temple was a prime example of how something man-made can respect the nature in which it lives.
Natural Sites
1. Mt. Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia A volcano inside a lake inside a volcano — it’s volception! Trek up to the crater rim for sunrise and the view will surely steal your attention away from your sore legs.
2. Tad Champee, Paksong, Laos The Bolaven Plateau is filled with so many gorgeous waterfalls that it’s hard to say one is better than the others, but the ability to swim behind this triple cascade is certainly hard to top.
3. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam Despite the overcrowdedness and Disneyland-feel of Ha Long city, this natural wonder of the world is worthy of its reputation. Rent a boat, find a private island, and take a journey to a land before time.
Public Transportation
1. MTR, Hong Kong Efficient, clean, and accessible, the Hong Kong subway system should be the prototype for quality public transportation everywhere.
2. Jeepney, The Philippines These open-air jeeps are much more like burning-man art cars than New York City yellow cabs. Throw in some oldies love songs, and it almost makes the Manila traffic bearable.
3. Tuk Tuk, Bangkok It’s just fun to have the wind blow in your face as you zip through the chaos of this bustling metropolis. Don’t expect things like lanes or red lights to stop these deft drivers from working their magic.
Superlatively,
Simo
