I spent months building a scattered plan for the first two and a half weeks of this trip, with the rest left to be determined as I went. Within two days of landing in Hanoi, the plan was toast. What follows is a day-by-day account of how it actually went — one adventure at a time, from a 2pm flight out of O'Hare to a sweltering afternoon in Singapore's Botanical Gardens.
- Day 1
Wake up, grab the backpack, head to O'Hare Intl. Airport for a 2:00pm flight.
- Day 2
Fly. All day. Land in Hong Kong in the evening. Spend the night in an airport hotel.
- Day 3
Take an early morning flight to Hanoi. Meet a 19-year-old British lad within minutes of stepping off the plane. Walk around the city with him, drink beer, try not to get run over by motorbikes.
- Day 4
Pho for breakfast. See some lakes, sit and have a beer 8 inches from a passing train, eat approximately fifty thousand calories on a food tour.
- Day 5
Wake up and wander. Have egg coffee — it's good, trust me. Visit the "American War" museum, see remnants, find a wrecked B-29 in a lake. Have a $1 street-side Banh Mi. Go on a pub crawl, dance with strangers, wander home at 3am with friends. Spend an hour trying to find a missing bar-crawler.
- Day 6
Bar-crawler was safe. Spend the day solo. Visit the POW museum at Maison Centrale. Shed a tear. Eat, then walk. Admire it all. Find a huge lake, annoy a scammer, and have a final meal with 3-day-old friends. Sleep hard.
- Day 7
Find out what a Vietnam bus is. Be pleasantly surprised. Take in the country through the window. End up in the mountains. Get on another bus and miss your stop. Find a way back. Eat a great meal in a great complex with a great host. Sleep, per usual, hard.
- Day 8
Have waffles with a Polish woman. Get on the back of a motorbike. Ride through the mountains with a lovely group of people. Killer lunch. Remain constantly dumbstruck, visit the Chinese border, take lots of pictures. Play Cao with the tour guides, have hot pot, get drunk on rice wine, sing karaoke.
- Day 9
Wake up with (no) hangover, depending on age. Get on the motorbike, continue viewing with splendor. Stop regularly, enjoy a sight, snack, and beer. Killer lunch. Witness a motorbike accident (not recommended). See sunset in a national park. Dinner, rice wine, karaoke, cards, and conversation to end the day.
- Day 10
Pancakes. Motorbike. Clear skies. Great views. Killer lunch. Reflecting. Formulate the next move. Journal if desired. Take the 7:30pm bus with friends to a new place. Get violently ill on the bus (again, not recommended).
- Day 11
Arrive violently ill at 3:30am. Find somewhere to sleep with a comrade, try to sleep. Give up, go to the hospital, use Google Translate to be treated in the ER of a Vietnamese hospital. Get discharged, get to a homestay, sleep, journal, watch movies. Repeat as desired.
- Day 12
Journal. Sleep. Watch movies. Repeat as desired. Eat one quarter bowl of rice, drink electrolytes.
- Day 13
See day 12. Don't forget to say hey to the local 12-year-old giving you your bowl of rice.
- Day 14
Wake up and realize you are no longer ill. Rejoice. Immediately rent a bicycle, ride through the national park, take a canoe boat tour through mountain lakes and caves. Eat a solid meal next to a lake. Climb a mountain for sunset. Smile a lot.
- Day 15
Get on the bike. Ride through the national park to Hoa Lu, capital city of Vietnam in the 10th century. Explore. Have beers with friends, play pool and darts.
- Day 16
Diabolically gross weather day. Get one final meal from a local establishment, tip the 12-year-old. Stay as warm as possible, journal. Catch your bus in the evening, walk the market first. Sleep for the duration of the ride.
- Day 17
Wake up in Hoi An. Get amped to see friends, meet them for a much-needed lunch. Explore the city, barter with the shopkeepers, relax during happy hour, get a meal, stay up late playing cards.
- Day 18
Lunar New Year Eve. Rent a bike, have some pastries, journal a lot, eat at the top restaurant in town — French and Italian cuisine. Admire the lights, decor, and camaraderie as you stroll through town. Watch the fireworks with the townsfolk and friends. Party till the sun comes up.
- Day 19
Wake up with a hangover and a chuckle. Have breakfast at noon. Go shopping — belts, bags, tchotchkes, shirts. Lounge around with friends. Get a cheap but delicious dinner. Wander some more.
- Day 20
Another day enjoying life in Hoi An. Journal on the river. Head to the beach. Drink beer, of course. More shopping, one last meal, card playing till 2am. Some hard goodbyes with friends.
- Day 21
It's your birthday! Grab the gear, position your 50-pound pack precariously on a motorbike, head to meet the British lad. He thinks he may have rabies. Take a car to Da Nang instead. He goes to the hospital, you go to the beach. Reconvene, grab lunch, meander, then dinner, then drinks at a beach club with several friends met along the way. Ring in a good birthday with a call home.
- Day 22
Say a hard goodbye to the British lad met on day 2. Time for a bus — a long one. An 18-hour bus to Saigon. Decompress. Admire the scenery.
- Day 23
Wake up at 4:30am in Saigon. Find your hostel and its rooftop. Watch the sunrise. Go to church. Send some postcards. Get lunch in a tiny apartment. Walk through the markets. See the war museum, shed a tear. Realize you must leave the country the next day to avoid overstaying your visa. Meet up with friends from 2 days ago. Drinks and cards on the party street. Say goodbye for real.
- Day 24
Catch the bus booked yesterday, headed for Cambodia. Get to Phnom Penh, walk 45 minutes in the wrong direction, call a TukTuk back to where you started. Now in a van headed for the coast. In a decrepit coastal town at 11pm, get a ride from a TukTuk driver, fully expecting to be kidnapped. Arrive at a luxurious hostel, relieved.
- Day 25
Where to today? An island off the coast of Cambodia. Hop onto the ferry with some new friends, get there and realize you're in paradise. Walk the beach, explore the village, make more friends. Eat, drink, gaze at the stars, check out the bioluminescent plankton.
- Day 26
Wake up to a gadrillion mosquito bites, the bug net only does so much. You're on island time now, so go get the best cheese toasty ever. Sit on the beach, have some beers, get a good meal, journal. See the sunset on the ocean. Back to the plankton, then play pool with friends and locals.
- Day 27
Last day in paradise. Make the most of it — again — drinking beer on the beach and exploring. Get a Khmer sandwich with your Aussie pal, realize it's better than Banh Mi. See the sunset. Close it out playing Uno with your island friends.
- Day 28
One ferry option, leaving at sunrise. But it's a good day — a close family member has arrived on the continent. Find your way back to Phnom Penh and walk into the nicest hotel you've seen all trip, give your Mom a big hug. Explore the city, eat delicious food, and catch up on everything.
- Day 29
First travel day with the Mother. Explore monuments, markets, temples, parks, and royal palaces. Ride in TukTuks, find that they're your Mom's favorite thing. End the day with a food tour — a necessity in every new city. Try about 20 different things, including tarantula, if you dare.
- Day 30
When in Phnom Penh, you must allot one day of your trip to learning about and paying your respects to the victims of the Cambodian Genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. It will be one of the most difficult days of your life. What a blessing it is to be able to say that.
- Day 31
With limited time to hit all the spots Mom is keen on visiting, catch a flight out to Siem Reap, home of the 9th-century Khmer empire's crown jewel, Angkor Wat. Street food, market exploration, and a sunset hike to one of the temples was a great way to get adjusted to the forthcoming adventure.
- Day 32
When in Siem Reap, spend your time taking in the unbridled beauty of the ancient temples. With over 300 monuments in the complex, do not expect to see them all. Get a knowledgeable tour guide to showcase the most stunning and historical sites. Have a stellar meal to cap off your exploration day.
- Day 33
With a lay of the land now under the belt, get a TukTuk and visit the other sites on your list. Consider a poolside recovery, then check out the Phare Circus — a world-record performance. Literally.
- Day 34
If you're not up before the crack of dawn, you've missed it. With a flight departing in the afternoon, try to capture a perfect sunrise over Angkor Wat. Prepare for crowds, and the potential to see little of anything — it was worth it. Now you're in Bangkok for dinner. Explore, meet some guys, hit the dopest rooftop in the city, enjoy.
- Day 35
When in Bangkok, explore the malls — expect 7 to 10 floors of capitalism. Venture into the summer inferno, visit Wat Phra, get a Thai massage, stop at a market for dinner, then take Mom to the world-class rooftop. She needs to experience it.
- Day 36
Navigate yourself to the largest outdoor goods market in Thailand, shop hard. Venture a little more, find a good dinner spot, grab a few drinks, and journal. Remember how lucky you are.
- Day 37
Last Thailand stop: Chiang Mai. A little mountain town — arrive in the evening and continue the market frenzy by perusing the Sunday Night Market in the heart of town. Eat good street food, then call it a day because your feet may or may not hurt.
- Day 38
Up in the morning for a breakfast buffet at your swanky hotel. See Wat Chedi Luang, an old ruined temple complex turned Buddhist university — breathtaking stuff. Let a TukTuk driver take you to the Silver Temple. It's cool, but underwhelming, and no women are allowed. End the day with a traditional Thai cooking class — it makes Mom happy.
- Day 39
Breakfast and a pool day, then go see the elephants in the afternoon! A great experience through and through, though the humaneness of the sanctuary (or all others, for that matter) will remain a focal point in your mind. Regardless, very cool. Introduce your Mom to the British lad from Vietnam you thought you'd never see again. Small continent.
- Day 40
Mom says it's a pool day. You say otherwise. Assemble your buddy and make for the mountains in the smallest, crappiest little car known to man. See the highest point in Thailand, take a breathtaking hike, and get the most beautiful mountain temple complex to yourselves as you watch the sunset (with a good little dog that likes to eat the flowers). Meet Mom for dinner, say goodbyes until the lads meet again.
- Day 41
The final spot looms: Singapore. Get food recommendations from a local on the flight — very insightful. Dope airport. Admire the city. Go get food at a recommended location — it ends up being one of the best meals of the trip. See the light, water, and music show at Marina Bay Sands. Walk home happy.
- Day 42
Prepare for the plants — today is Botanical Gardens day, and it's really hot.
The notes for days 43 through 50 — the final stretch before that March 3rd flight out of Singapore — haven't been written up yet. Check back soon.