I've always seen South East Asia as a place for insufferable

>>1262354
How about you go kill yourself you insufferable faggot.

Just rent a motorbike, leave the guidebook at home and do your own thing.
Kayak down the Mekong. Get your diving license. Learn a local language (Indonesian is piss-easy).

Can we turn this into a full moon thread?

Anyone stayed at any of the party hostels on Koh Phangnan?

Not sure if I want to stay in Haad Rin or Ban Tai beach, I like being somewhere near lots of shops and places to eat, I've had a look at those places on Bantai beach and they just seem to be on the shitty main road and far away from any big group of shops or a good beach.

Still want those good party vibes and drinking games though.

>>1262381

no you fucking retard

>>1262381
Wish I could help, I stayed in some incredible hostel that was converted from some tourist's villa but I never found out the name. Just joined a couple of Danes I met on the flight.

Make sure you go to Koh Tao afterwards, it's a great place to chill out and recover

>>1262354
short answer, no

the whole region is heavily touristed by n00b travelers, who spend a relatively long time doing the exct same thign in differnt regions of SEA

long answer:
SEA is a huge and diverse region, but farang on motorcycles seem to get in just about everywhere

it's possible to get away from that in northern Laos, relatively easy on Burma outside of the four places people tend to visit (overstay your visa to reach more)

thailand is basically a write off, it's barely worth visiting anymore if you're not into whores

cambodia has some nice spots, it's really noy all bade, Kep was nice, it's fantastic to see some temples indipendantly, one northe of sisophon Ithin
many aroud siew reap wth in a day ot two
angkor wat is OK, but very expensive now
also they manicure the whole thing but still don't trash pick up

in the off season a lot of places that are "touristy" are almost totally deserted, and if you don't wan to talk to the one other tourist in town then don't

>>1262366
this, I'm kicking myself daily I didn't do this
yesterday I almost made a bamboo raft and go for three days down river

>>1262354
>>1262408
oh fuck off with this realtraveler™, my profound experience is better than your profound experience bullshit. SEA is an incredibly huge and diverse region that anyone can get a lot out of. Just because hippies and mouth breathing partybois shit up some specific parts of some specific cities does not ruin the entire country of Thailand.

You can still enjoy the local culture and all it's trappings even if, good forbid, some lads from Birmingham zip by on scooters every now and then. Want to get away from white tourists? Then fuck off to the Congo or somewhere. Goddamn.

>>1262354
Why are you so keen on going there, if you think it seems dull and cliche? There's plenty of other destinations in the world.

But since you're looking for a "profound experience", SEA is probably for you

>>1262416
>mouth breathing partybois shit up some specific parts of some specific cities does not ruin the entire country of Thailand.
actually it does
the sheer number of them, and the thai predjudice against tourists as a resul makes in my opinion at least the whole place a write off

I would recomend only soppong west of pai, and that kutomong town N-W of chiang Mai

you honestly won't find "thai culture" in a lot of places, it's been heavily modernised, blended and straight up pimped out

I found the east more traditional if that 's worth anythign

>>1262432
>the sheer number of them, and the thai predjudice against tourists as a resul makes in my opinion at least the whole place a write off
Sounds like you just stayed in Thailand too long.

>you honestly won't find "thai culture" in a lot of places, it's been heavily modernised, blended and straight up pimped out
Do you speak any Thai? If not, how did you expect to experience any Thai culture? If you don't care enough about their culture to learn even a basic amount of the language why the fuck would you be entitled to 'experience it' on an organic level lol?

I spent about 6 months learning Vietnamese online for shits and giggles before I went to SEA and people (in a country not known for being super friendly to outsiders) opened up to me everywhere I went. I got invited to family dinners and even went to a traditional wedding. Why? Because I took a little time (like 20-30 minutes a day) to learn a little of their language and in doing so showed that I was actually interested in their culture. I did the same thing before I went to India with Hindi and unsurprisingly had a better experience than 90% of the backpacker trash that runs through there.

You get out what you put in.

>>1262445
what resources did you use for learning Vietnamese? I saw Duolingo has a Vietnamese course, but in my experience Duolingo doesn't do a great job teaching conversation.

>>1262450
>what resources did you use for learning Vietnamese?
Youtube and dubbed-captioned media mostly. Also torrented a phrase book/dictionary (can't remember name) that was nice, because it explained a lot of the mechanics of the grammar (which is very different than English). And then after 2 months or so of that (memorized basic greetings/etc), I just started going to this local pho place a couple times a week for lunch and practicing with the waiters when it was slow (asian people in general fucking love it when white people learn their languages)

>I saw Duolingo has a Vietnamese course, but in my experience Duolingo doesn't do a great job teaching conversation.
I haven't tried their Vietnamese program but I fuck around with their Spanish one when I'm bored sometimes and from what I can see even if it doesn't help much with speaking, it will teach you a decent amount of vocab which you need for any language anyway.

>>1262354
Depends where you go. Southern Thailand is filled with the worst types of people who just go to booze and act like idiots. I spent 3 weeks there at the end of my 6 month travels simply for the beach and to relax after an arduous journey through Myanmar for 30 days. It wasn't terrible for me, but I had some sour moments there that didn't really end my trip on a high note. But overall my trip was amazing.

I didn't go travelling to "find myself." I went because I wanted to see different parts of the world and go on adventures. My perspective on things changed naturally through experiences and meeting different people while on my travels. I woke up everyday, despite a brief stint of depression in Hanoi, excited, happy and ready for a new experience. I met tons of cool people and did cool shit everyday. I still drank and partied when I had the chance too, but it was not objective of my trip.

To not travel based on what others might think is fucking stupid.

>>1262381
Dancing elephant lodging best place

>>1263614

Thanks lad

I actually had that place as #1 on my list, the only things that were making me worried were the tiny space between beds in some of the photos, the cost and the fact that doors got locked on full moon night so that even people staying there couldn't get in...

>>1263619
Never had a problem with that but get there a few days before party and theyll have jungle rave parties on random islands before full moon. Im attending this new years full moon party

So I guess this is the current SEA degeneracy thread?

Everyone knows where the best hookers are in SEA (Pattaya) and the easiest local girls (Phils/Jakarta) but what about the white girls?

Asian girls get old after a while. Where do backpacker chicks get the sluttiest?

Is Pattaya nice? I've only been to Soi Cowboy and I've had a blast there. Is Pattaya that much better? Going in September