Your recomandation and experience from Asia

[Adularena]

Hello All, it is Adu.
Thing is, I have to leave Japan for renewing my Visum.
Thus I want to go to somewhere I havent been before.
Do anyone of you have some recomended places in the pacific or south eastern/mid Asia?
 
I have been to Thailand, and I think Korea is a bit too close to Japan.
 
Also, I cannot go to Guam, because I dont have the new PAssport typer required for entering the US of A.
 
Any recomandation from personal experience or from your places is highly appreciated!
 

"soooo many places, so little time...before I become a fugitive for overstaying my tourist visum, lol"

[Tanales]

A friend of mine have been over there recently and he reccomends Bali, lots of sun and nice waves to surf if you are up for that

[Padding]

Thailand definately no go atm since they government just been taken over by a coup

[Nefertem]

Well I hear that Singapore is a great place to go.. Very clean city with some strict rules about garbage, but its warm and sunny and should be fun..

[Adularena]

Yes, Bali. I thought of that. It is said to be a nice place.
 
Thailand: I studied there 5 months, I know my way around in some parts of BKK, but since the coup`d`etat is ongoing, I dont know -tbh, Thailand is the place I most want to go.
 
I`m going with a female friend, so Atleast I want to go somewhere safe.
 
Alot of militant factions, terrorist activities etc on the isles in some areas of the island/archipelagios around South east Asia too.
 
Safe and beautiful.

[sheepy]

my dad's GF is from Thailand, dont be put off by the coup that is happening at the moment, aparently it is calmer than ever now as the president that no one liked is gone

[saori]

Well, Adu, dont be afraid of going Thailand. Thai king has aproved the coup and given power to the general in charge. Bangkok is pretty calm and everything is running smoothly since this isnt a "blood coup".
 
Thailand is a great country, with lots of nice places to stay. I will recomend you to visit Phuket. Truth is that it isnt as nice as 2 years before the seaquake, but is a nice place to stay with a female friend and with lots of nice places to see like the national park where Phi Phi island is located (Leonardo Di Caprio, The Island). There you can book some nice bungalows in the same pretty island that look cool.
 
And as alternatives you can allways go to Pattaya, for example, mucho more closer to Bangkok than Phuket (for phuket need a plane). You can travel by taxi from bangkok to phuket, only about 2 or 3 hours long, will cost you about 200 bahts if i can remember well.
 
Nice country, really. And as alternatives, did you thought of China?? Specially Shanghai city? or hong Kong? Well, those are really nice places too.
 
And of course, you the clasisc islands!!! Hawai (Specially Maui and Waikiki) and Polynessian Isles (Bora Bora, Fidji, etc...)
 
Have a nice trip and enjoy mate!!!
 
Sao

[Adularena]

Saori: nice places indeed. Remember I used to study in Thailand, so I know my share of nice places that isnt completely run down with pesky tourists.
 
And yes, I thought about many of the Polynesian isles, but as I`m going with a friend, I just wanna go safe to make it her first "ordinary" foreign country experience.
 
If I could go myself, I`d go backpack style! dirty and adventorous.

[TeaLeaf]

Goa in India - very peaceful and full and caring people.  You can even find a hippy or two out there still.  The food's great and the weather awesome.  Except right now of course as it's still in the latter stages of its monsoon season, try going from December onwards though.

[Tinilgawiel]

Adu: U nitwit. Why didnt you apply for a student visa?

[Padding]

Oh i forget.... Asian twins is fantastic, go for it big boi :norty:

[Nefrion]

Oh i forget.... Asian twins is fantastic, go for it big boi :norty:

Been there done that(them)! :flirty:

[Adularena]

TEAELLE: Thanks for the tip. As for myself, I seek for places that arent fully overrun by tourists and full of garbage. Off the beaten track sounds nice.
But since I`m bringing a childhood friend, I dont want to have the responsibility of her also if I ever desided to go adventuring in India. NOT because I wouldnt like company, but because it is her first visit to a foreign country, I think India would frighten her as much as it would amaze her. It takes a readied personality or a certain hardyness to go to India and "similar" countries I think.
Point is, she only have high healed shoes
 
TINILIGAWIEL: I applied for a family visum/visa (which is it?) so I could stay here after I finished school, AND to be able to work part time etc while I live here. My family applied a month before me, and their applications was handled in a month and half...in My case, I was told, (After waiting 3, nearly 4 months which at that time I was already in Japan) that it might be half a year since it was at the peek season for visa(um, hum?) applications atm. There you go.
 
I have decided to go to Bankok, take a bus to Ko Sameth (not too many tourists, although increasing the last few years) and also spend some time in the capital. yes, I have been to Thailand before, so why do I go back? Because when I was a student there there were so many things I wanted to see but never got around to...stundents, sigh...the same everywhere. And before I knew it, my time in Thailand was up. Also because of my company, I can show her around to quite alot of places during the short 4 day trip.
Next time I plan on visiting more of the smaler isles in the many archipelagios in the south east/ southern asia. Maybe in the january onwards 2007. Should be a fairly desent climate then. If anyone is planning to travel around, lets meet up, and get our packpacks on and walk in the direction the wind blows. For me, it is kind of now or never.
 
Thank you all for posting, and please keep posting eventhough my destination is desided. For me most destinations (tours atleast) are about 300£ from Tokyo with the duration of 4-5 days, so I`m hoping to get around abit, even though I dont like tours, but most tours gives you the choice of spending the days as you like yourself.

[Sheperdbook]

Been quite a while since I've been to the East.

Thailand, India and Bali, I'd back. Don't be phased by the recent coup!

Singapore is great for food, but I'd say after a couple of days gets as a place it gets a little boring. Sentosa is worth visiting though (part of Singapore).

How about New Zealand?


Shep

[Knabbel]

Same as TL.... Goa India......
 
What I always do buy a guide from www.lonelyplanet.com