a nice, detailed e-mail from a friend who has spent a good chunk of time living in/travelling around se asia:

Allo allo!

So as promised, here are some suggestions/tips/ramblings about SE Asia. I don’t know too much about Vietnam since I didn’t go. However, I’m going to email my friend in HCMC for tips. But from what I heard, Vietnam is amazing. Of course, as with all countries in the region, you’re going to have to watch your back at all times; you’ll probably get cheated/scammed out a few dollars more than a couple times; you WILL be harassed by pretty much everyone. That’s the downside of travelling in the region. However, if you can be patient and wonderful (which I know you are), you will find it enjoyable. Of course, since you’ve been through Latin America, I’m sure you know all this and you’ll think it’s amazingly patronizing, but I’m just trying to give you the whole picture!

I’ve heard that taking the train up from HCMC to Hanoi (the Reunification Express route, if you will) is worth doing. A good site for train travel information is http://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm . This site really helped me through explaining routes all over Asia. As you can see, it hits most of the highlights, including Hue, Hoi An, and Nha Trang. I would also recommend going to Dalat - an old French colonial town up in the mountains about a 4-5 hour bus ride from HCMC. I will also point you to Wikitravel, which has also been an invaluable source of information. http://wikitravel.org/en/Vietnam .While we’re on the topic of helpful sources of information, I would also recommend Lonely Planet’s “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring”. Yes, I know it’s the backpacker’s cliche and that every granola-crunching, Birkenstock-wearing, ponytail-sporting hippie world traveller that wants to “discover themselves” totes one around, but the fact remains that it’s a great for maps, places to eat, lodging, language, etc… especially when you don’t know that much about the area you’re travelling in and aren’t with someone who does. Plus, I love their photography.

As for food - I can only recommend the usual:  spring rolls, banh xeo, pho, and Vietnamese iced coffee. Get used to lots of noodle soups in the mornings. My one friend didn’t and it was tough on him…

But I will move onto the next country:  Cambodia

There are frequent buses from HCMC to Phnom Penh. However, if you’re taking the train up to Hanoi, you’ll either have to take the train back to HCMC, fly to PP from Hanoi, or cross into Laos, then enter Cambodia through Southern Laos (not recommended). In any case, Cambodia is a pretty … unique place. Not quite as bustling or commercialized as Vietnam’s big cities, Phnom Penh has retained is charm, but the ills of being a developing country are still apparent - apart from widespread poverty, there’s drug use, prostitution, corruption, gangs, etc…

Hmmm. Where to begin? Well, you’ll probably want to see the Royal Palace, the National Museum is also next door (interesting, but not worth going out of your way to see), also take a walk along the Sisowath Quay. This is kind of where all the foreigners hang out, as evidenced by the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club). The FCC is a great place to sit, enjoy a meal, have a few drinks, and soak in the atmosphere. It has a lovely view of the river (well, as lovely as a dirty river can be), and is just a nice shelter from the hustle and bustle below. Wat Phnom is also another attraction you’d want to hit — as that is where the city of Phnom Penh got started! I’m not sure if you’re into markets, but there are many markets in PP - Psar Thmei (which means “New Market”), the Russian Market (my favorite!), the Olympic Market, etc… I definitely recommend the Russian Market (also called Psar Tuol Tompoung) for souvenirs, counterfeit DVDs, knick knacks, heavy machinery, xeroxed books — pretty much everything!

Oh, and how could I forget! There’s also the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. You know about those, so I’m not going to go into much detail. Although I will say that it is pretty chilling to actually walk along the grounds where millions of Cambodians (AKA people of my parents’ generation) were murdered. I think they have tours in English, but I kind of trailed behind some Cambodian woman giving a tour and it was pretty powerful, needless to say.

As for eating, I would encourage you to exercise a little bit of caution. While I’m all for eating at roadside places and street vendors, I didn’t in Cambodia. You’ll find freshly-cut fruits for sale (most likely by 8 year old girls) — and I’ve eaten my fair share of fruit and haven’t gotten sick. I highly recommend the unripe mango with spicy salt dip. Also, the pineapple is always nice and sweet. Also, fried planatains are good and cheap. There are also grilled bananas sold in sticks of three. Oh, and these bamboo sticks filled with rice that are steamed. Those are also good and plentiful on long bus rides. These foods I’ve never had a problem with. However, I would be hesitant to eat something with meat in it that was cooked on the side of the road. If you go to the butcher section of the Central Market, you’ll know what I mean. I’ll put it this way. Yes, you CAN eat something for 50 cents from that dingy roadside stall, but would you WANT to?

Also, if you see a woman with a mortar and pestle with shredded vegetables, try it! It’s bok la’hong, which is a type of salad made with unripe mango, some other vegetables, dried shrimp, chili and crab claws (I tell them to take that part out). It’s fresh and delicious! Need I say more? You will also find cuong, which are Vietnamese spring rolls, but be careful because the quality varies, and I’ve definitely had some that used pork fat instead of pork or shrimp as the filling. You shoudl also try noum banchok, which is a sort of noodle dish served in a puree of lemongrass. It also comes in curry and “red” varieties, although I think the red variety has pig’s blood in it.

Moving on to real restaurants, I would recommend places called “Friends” and “Romdeng”. These are run by charities that help street kids get off the streets and into gainful employment in the restaurant business. Ok, so I know that kind of encourages them to be dependent on rich foreigners coming into the restaurant that they work at, but it’s still a good cause and they do lots of other outreach programs. Also, I would recommend a place called K’nay, which is the only vegan restaurant in PP. Interesting, no? There’s also a restaurant called “Amok” named after the signature dish of Cambodia, which is fish cooked in coconut milk and served in a banana leaf. It is amazing, to say the very least. Another Cambodian dish to try is pork with ginger (saik chrook chaa k’nay), or perhaps somlar machoo (kind of like a milder, more tomatoey version of Thailand’s tom yum soup).

All roads lead to Phnom Penh. And no, I’m not just stealing a saying from the Roman times, they really do lead to PP! That being said, you can head south to the beaches of Sihanoukville, Kep, and Kompong Som, head NE to the jungle, or do what most people (including myself) do and head to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat.

Hopping on a bus to Siem Reap isn’t hard — you just go down to the bus station near the central market and snag a ticket (if you can navigate the huge crowd of people and touts). Or, you can hop into a shared taxi with other Cambodians (and sometimes other foreign travellers). And by taxi, I mean private individuals with cars. This is by no means a centralized and orderly system. They won’t leave until the car is jam-packed, but it’s a good way to travel with local people and sometimes is faster than the bus b/c they can navigate the roads better than a giant, unwieldy bus. Oh, and it’s usually cheaper, if you can negotiate a good price.

When I went to SR, I stayed in a place called Sala Bai (which literally means Restaurant School), which is another NGO dedicated to training young at-risk Cambodians to work in the hotel/hospitality industry. You’d probably need to book a reservation ahead of time, and I hear the suite is wonderful. In any case, for $15 a night, it’s comfy enough and you’re helping with the students’  training.

Ok, onto Angkor Wat. I’m not sure how long you’d want to stay for (or even if you’d want to go), but passes are available for 1, 3, or 7 days. Unless you’re an art historian, I would not advise going to Angkor Wat for seven days. One day is also rushing it a bit. When I went, I think I was there for two-and-a-half days. If you buy your ticket in the afternoon sometime before sunset for the next day, they let you in for free that evening. So in a sense, you get a free sunset to wander around a little. You can hire a motorbike or if you’re travelling with your friend - a remorque moto (AKA tuk-tuk) by the day to take you around teh complex. The farther out sites will cost more money, but it’s still pretty reasonable. I’m sure you will research this on your own, but I would recommend Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Ta Prohm, and banteay Srei. you’ll also pass lots of other smaller ruins along the way, so you should also stop off and check out the interesting ones. My personal favorite of the lesser-known ones is Prasat Kravan.

It is at this point that I remembered the “Stay Another Day” travel guides.http://www.stayanotherday.org/ . they’re free (and online in digital form) and they feature different NGOs, restaurants, shops that are promoting sustainable tourism. I highy recommend checking this out and perhaps incorporating a visit to some of the places mentioned. They’re all really worthwhile organizations.