My Top #1 Experience In Each Southeast Asia Country
I hope you all had a chance to check out all the different articles I made covering my recent southeast Asia tour which went through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. For this post, I’m going to recap the top #1 experience I had in each of these countries. Although I had many awesome experiences throughout my tour, some were absolutely mind blowing. Some of these experiences actually surprised me as I didn’t think they would end up taking the #1 spot for certain countries before my arrival there. Of course, other #1 winners were quite predictable but nevertheless, all of these experiences including the ones that came close but didn’t make it to top choice still made my southeast Asia tour so memorable for me. So join me in this recap and I’ll provide the video for each #1 experience again for your viewing pleasure.
My Top Experience In Vietnam
After a gruelling two days of flights and waiting in airports, Vietnam was the first country of my southeast Asia tour and I had only two nights there. I really didn’t know what to expect in Ho Chi Minh City but the crazy traffic actually was kind of entertaining and the food was great. Both of these elements were a part of my top experience which was the scooter food tour, one of the unexpected top winners from my tour. Spending a few hours with the local Vietnamese guides and experience both their cuisine as well as the way they get around the city was a very enjoyable experience.
My Top Experience In Cambodia
My next stop after Vietnam was Cambodia where I visited two different cities, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. My top experience here was one of the predictable ones as Angkor Wat was just magical. Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the main tourist attraction in Cambodia so it’s no wonder why I was just spellbound at the many temples there, especially the sunrise visit. My video has both practical touring tips as well as scenes from the magnificent temples there.
My Top Experience In Thailand
After Cambodia, I went to Thailand expecting more awesome cuisine and temples but as another surprise, my top overall experience here was my visit to the elephant sanctuary. Interacting with the elephants there in an ethical way was so rewarding that I will want to do this again next time I’m in Thailand.
My Top Experience In Indonesia
The scuba diving liveaboard trip at Raja Ampat in Indonesia was another one of the predictable top experiences from my Asia tour. This part was actually the main reason why I travelled to southeast Asia in the first place which was to finally dive Raja Ampat which is considered to be one of the most pristine and top dive destinations in the world. In the scuba world, the general guideline is that the more remote a dive destination which involves difficult travel is, the more rewarding the scuba diving will be. Raja Ampat much like the Galapagos Islands, can be considered one of those ‘bucket list’ destinations for scuba divers. In fact, most divers will never even get to dive at such destinations since they are so remote and therefore expensive to dive at. But I finally made it there and plan to return to Indonesia again in 2026 to dive Komodo (of Komodo dragons fame) which is the area beside Raja Ampat.
I now have two options for you to see the incredible marine life creatures again – the first option is the original video below which has both marine life footage as well as my travel commentary. The new option is the second shorter video which is just the best video footage of the marine life with no commentary. Watch either video (or both) to marvel at the beautiful sea creatures underwater again.
So there you have it, my top #1 experiences in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. I’m actually booked to return to southeast Asia this June to stay for an entire month. This next trip will cover Vietnam and Thailand again visiting some cities and sites that I missed on the recent tour plus Malaysia which I’ve never been to before. Once again, there will be a scuba diving component which will be in Malaysia this time staying at a former oil rig at sea that has been converted to a dive base.
On the way back to Canada, I’ll have one day layover stops in Singapore and Japan so even though these are brief visits, I hope to still get the most out of these rather than be stuck waiting at airports for connecting flights. These were booked on purpose since choosing a longer layover is a great way to scout out new countries.
Before I return to Asia in June, I do have a week in Switzerland and Germany in March so even though it’s a shorter duration trip, I hope to have some decent travel content to share with you all. Thanks for spending some time here at my website to check out my travels.
