Looking for some inspiration please

I’m fortunate to able to meet my partner in the Far East in late march, early April for a week and we’re looking to spend a week somewhere off the beaten track, near the coast, near the mountains as we’re hoping to do some relaxing, climbing, diving and to see some local culture

Ideally, the less tourists and Brits the better

Can anyone share their experiences and recommendation?

Thank

Just registering an interest here. 🙂

What, you want to come to Grum? 😀

Where in the Far East?

SE Asia? Mainland China? Japan?

Cambodia. Spent 3 weeks there last year. Lovely people, not very developed yet, tons of culture, nice weather. Job done.

I’m fortunate to able to meet my partner in the Far East

Get him all lah de dah and soft furnishings 😉

ti_pin_man – Member
Cambodia. Spent 3 weeks there last year. Lovely people, not very developed yet, tons of culture, nice weather. Job done.

Cambodia is one of my favourite countries and the people are indeed some of the friendliest, you can’t help but love the country and the people, especially given their recent past.

It’s probably a good bet if you’ve only got a week. You can pack in a load of culture and there’s beaches too in places such as Sihanoukville. The food is unbelievable too! However, a week might not be long enough to visit the killing fields + S21 and recover from that experience to truly relax.

Vietnam is like a less remote version of Cambodia, but probably more picturesque, especially Halong bay, Mekong Delta and the jungle in the north near Sapa, but you’d struggle in a week.

I would have said China if you had more time.

Myanmar would be near the top of my list of places I’ve not been in that area. Japan too, but I gather it’s a tad expensive!

Don’t forget mosquito repellant. And 1 week is just not enough.

I absolutely adored Cambodia and would go back in a flash. Fantastic people. Total culture shock for me. We drove in from Thailand, paid some guy $20 to give us a lift from the border … 100 miles on a dirt track. I felt like I’d gone back in time. And in many ways, we did. It’s not a country that has quite caught up with the rest of the world yet.

In contrast I found in Vietnam they preyed on tourists a lot. Great place, but if just one more person asked me if I wanted a lift on their bike, or a bag of weed, I think I’d have murdered them. Was almost 10 years ago I was there though.

boltonjon – Member
What, you want to come to Grum?

I assumed I was the partner you were referring to. Why, is there someone else?

Sabah in Malaysia.

I think you’re probably out of luck when it comes to no Brits/tourists. Asia is backpacker Nirvana nowadays. Japan is probably your best bet if you want total immersion away from Western ways, but as mentioned above it can be expensive.

Ticking as many boxes as I could from your requirement, I’d probably say Ko Samui. Sounds counter-intuitive, and there are LOTS of places riddled with sun-seeking louts, but the wife & I spent a week there and eventually “discovered” the south-west corner of the island. Totally deserted, beaches to ourselves, locals inviting us to go out fishing with them and then having food cooked at their homes, mountains everywhere, stunning scenery. We ended up staying in Chaweng Beach, which is a bit of a Blackpool/Ibiza/Tenerife clone, but it’s about £2/day to hire scooters, and a beautiful hour up and over the mountains in the centre of the island takes you down to the southwest. Round about here was where we spent most of our week, doing the fishing and eating. There was a deserted beach here, and a superb Thai/Dutch restaurant/bar here. The papaya salad there is the hottest thing we’ve ever eaten.

I’m in Malaysia at the moment for
CNY as I’ve got loads of family here. Where you looking to go?

Cheers guys – some great ideas here!

Ideally, it’ll be SE Asia

Cambodia does look wonderful – i’ll dig around tonight = thanks all 🙂