At the end of my maternity leave and the start of Alex’s paternity leave, we decided to take an epic trip to Southeast Asia. Our 5-week adventure is captured in a separate blog, but here’s a recap of where we went.
After a 15 1/2 hour direct flight, we landed in Hong Kong. We saw many of the main sights and mostly just enjoyed being in the city. Our days were spent mostly jet lagged (although Adam adjusted without issue), but it was a great start to our epic trip.
We then made our way down to Vietnam and spent our time in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. We absolutely loved Hanoi; it was everything we expected it to be and the people were some of the most welcoming we encountered in Southeast Asia. And the food! So. Much. Delicious. Phở.
We will definitely be heading back and can hopefully explore more of the country next time.
After our stay in Vietnam, we headed further south to Cambodia. Cambodia was another incredibly welcoming country (although you wouldn’t know it based on the experience at the border). We focused our tourist efforts on Siem Reap to see the ruins of Ankor. It was another incredible stop on our trip and worth the sweltering heat.
We then made our way north to sleepy (and boring) Luang Prabang in Laos. Almost all the advice we got about Southeast Asia involved a stay in Laos. I see how some people could find it appealing: it’s a lazy town with lots of coffee shops and restaurants. Perfect if you’re 60 and retired. We made the best of it, spending time along the Mekong river and visiting a remote village and elephant sanctuary.
We then made our way into Thailand and made several stops: first a few days in Bangkok (which was a great and welcomed contrast to Luang Prabang), then south to a beach resort in Ko Lanta and finally a few days in Chiang Mai. Thailand was amazing and another place we’ll be visiting again.
We then made our way in China for our final leg of the trip. First, a stop in Hangzhou, followed by our final stop in Shanghai before flying home.
The trip was truly amazing and we’re so glad we did it. A lot of people were shocked that we would bring a 7/8 month old to Southeast Asia, but it was the perfect time. Adam was young enough to easily carry around but old enough to enjoy the sights.
[…] hadn’t really travelled in 3 or 4 years. Our last major trip was our parental leave trip to South East Asia when Adam was only 8 months old. Although it was an epic trip, we were starved for a change of […]