Wrapping up SE Asia

With this throwback of my whirlwind trip through Thailand and Malaysia complete. I’ll try to wrap up this trip unique one given its short duration and number of legs to travel. If you’ve spent the time to read through the whole trip, I appreciate it! If not and you want to you can find the whole trip here. Here we go!

Top 3 Highlights

Highlight #1: Monkey Beach

Even though, I didn’t spend as much time in Thailand as I would want to. I did get a chance to go on a pretty fun excursion with Gimpy and Cactoose when we visted Phi Phi Island. Not only did we get a chance to meet up with our friend Rich. We also get to visit Monkey Beach which is a really pretty beach that is home to some cool Monkeys too! Its places like this that gives me a desire to now return to Thailand and REALLY explore the country.

Highlight #2: Food!

When the idea of visiting Thailand and Malaysia first popped into my mind, one of the things I am most excited for is the food. Here at home in Canada one of my favorite cuisines is Thai food and wanting to try it from the source. The food doesn’t disappoint. Not only did I enjoy the meals in Thailand, I also am pleasantly surprised by the food in Malaysia too. Overall, even though I didn’t spend much time in these countries, I really liked indulging in their food!

Highlight #3: Going on a Mileage Run to gain Airline Status

As I mentioned at the start of this trip. One of the purposes is to take a “flight challenge” in order to achieve Singapore Airlines Gold Status. I’ve never held any airline status before and when I learned of this opportunity, I figure its worth a shot! It didn’t cost me that much to do the short round trip between Singapore and Malaysia. And the one way flight from Thailand to Singapore is just as affordable. As this is a bit of a throwback post, I can now say that the achieved status has been fun to have in future travels. It has resulted in things like preferred seat choices, priority boarding and lines, and airline lounge access as well!

In addition to achieving the status, I also really enjoyed hopping around so much. Admittedly, it is taxing on the body but being a bit of an aviation geek, I really liked checking out different airports and flying different planes and routes! So while I didn’t get a chance to explore the destinations as much as I normally do, I did enjoy this different type of trip.

Favorite Meal

While all the food is delicious, I think one of the more memorable meals for me is the first Pad Thai in Thailand from Kodam Kitchen in Krabi. I’m not sure if it’s the “best” Pad Thai I’ve ever had, but it really satisfies a craving since starting this trip. Not only is it really tasty, but it comes with this crispy outer layer which gives it a unique texture as well!

All in all though, I think all the food on this trip has been stellar so it really did make choosing one meal very difficult.

If I could change the itinerary…

Obviously, I would like to spend more time at the different destinations that I hit on this trip. I really didn’t get much time in any of the cities I ended up in, so the change would be more time. Unfortunately due to scheduling and availability this was an impossibility. However, I do now have a great taste of what these countries have to offer and am eager to visit them again and allot an appropriate amount of time for each.

What surprised me?

How much I enjoyed Kuala Lumpur! I didn’t have many expectations prior to visiting. Because I only have a day in the city, I did some research but didn’t do too much. I relied on suggestions from friends and their visits. Sufficed to say, when all is said and done, I really liked the time I spent in this city. It is both modern and historic. There is great food, lots of shopping and amenities and its easy to get around! I think it far surpassed my expectations and I’m really glad to have visted. I do hope to get back at some point and see what else this awesome country has to offer.

One memorable story from this trip

After watching the fountain show by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. I made my way to Jalan Alor which is a famous street food spot in the city. I wanted to get wings from Wong Ah Wah because of a recommendation from a friend. After ordering a beverage and wings I mentally calculated how much the bill would come out to. When I went to my wallet to check my funds, I realized that I had JUST enough to cover the meal. Normally, I would have enough cash for the evening. But with the way the whole day went, I must have forgotten to put more cash in my wallet before venturing out. The vendor doesn’t take card and so while the wings were good, I did end up being a bit of a nerve wracking meal hoping my mental math was correct!

Did I pack appropriately?

Yes I think so. Because I’m only away for a week, packing is a bit easier since I don’t need to plan for doing laundry. However, the region is HOT and fairly humid, so making sure that I have enough clothes to wear when I’m sweaty is important. On a similar note, I know I couldn’t have avoided it, but I really didn’t enjoy being in long pants during our visit to Bangkok’s Grand Palace. It felt especially hot that day, and with the extra clothing and crowds I do think it was starting to get to me. While it’s not a packing mistake, maybe finding looser long pants for these specific situations might be something to consider.

Regrets?

This is a very minor regret. When I had to overnight in Changi’s Terminal 4, I had a lot of time to kill. Reading more about the actual terminal now, I do regret not exploring it more. There looks to be a lot of cool things within the terminal itself. And unless I’m going to be flying from an airline that departs from that terminal, I’m not going to be able to check it out as easily. There’s only a handful of airlines flying out of it these days (Cathay being one of them) and so I would need to put in extra effort in order to do this. Given how much time I had in the actual terminal, I feel like I could have overcome my fatigue a little more just to have a look around when I had the chance.

Advice for people considering similar trips/destinations?

Unless you’re doing the same airline status challenge that I’m doing, I don’t think I would recommend this itinerary. However, I think Thailand and Malaysia are both worthwhile destinations! For Thailand, I would maybe not prioritize Bangkok as much and head into less metropolitan places. In talking with Gimpy and Cactoose, they both enjoyed Chang Mai much more than Bangkok.

I would also say that in my brief glimpse of Kuala Lumpur, its also well worth a visit. I think Malaysia also has a great deal to offer and is worthy of its own visit.

I’m a bit hesitant to provide much advice in this case because I don’t think either of my visits really does either destination justice, so I don’t necessarily feel equipped to offer advice other than “go”.

Final thoughts?

While this trip is very different than other trips I’ve been on. I found it fairly enjoyable for its own reasons. While I love travel and exploring new destinations. I also love “travelling” and the different modes of transportation that I can take to get to places. This includes flying in and out of different airports. This trip allowed me to do both and for that I enjoyed it immensely! I always knew that this trip would be a “sampler” for Thailand and Malaysia. So my hope now is that I will get to go back and really explore those places.

As always, I am always thankful to have the ability and means to travel. All this does is further my desire to keep going and see what else this awesome world has to offer!