Asia Travel Q&A | Our Experience + Essential Tips for First-Time Travelers
Hi YouTube. Welcome back to our channel and welcome to This December with us where we are posting every single day of the month of December. Today’s video we are going to be doing something very similar to yesterday. We are going to be doing a Q&A about our time in Asia and our travels. So let’s get straight into it. We’re going to start off like with general questions I think about Asia as a whole. Yes. Okay. So the first one is what’s the first country in Asia you would visit if you just had one week you know I think Singapore I really enjoyed Singapore um I think Soul is also insane it’s it’s really cool and then Thailand is like cool as well Thailand’s easy to do quite a lot in one week yeah and it’s like beachy and it’s Yeah in one place for I think Singapore is my favorite to be honest. You could do a lot in Singapore. And there is big beachy areas. We just didn’t go to those areas. So I think Singapore for me. Same for you. Yeah, definitely. Uh what’s the biggest culture shop travelers experience in Asia? I want to say the food. Yeah. Like the food is so different and it’s not like Asian food that you get here. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. It doesn’t taste the same. No. Um but it’s good. There’s lots yummy. There’s loads of good food. Yeah. Um I would say that’s probably the biggest thing. And then I suppose if you’re not used to like people not being able to talk to you and like communicate with you, that’s probably a big thing. There’s other little things like we went to the Maldes and you have to take your shoes off before you walk into every shop. um things like that that like are just like local customs that you kind of just what I will say for us it’s not really I don’t know if it’s a culture shock but um in Soul and Tokyo more so Tokyo people walking into you right like people just walking they just go where they want to go and if you’re in their way they will push you out the way go through which is so different to London like I feel like you walk around London you’re kind of going like this and this to go past People just walk. They don’t like. So, just be mindful of that. Get out of people’s way. The thing is, most of the time they’re probably like you’re you’re a tourist. You’re in their space. They’re probably like going to work or like trying to get about their daily life. So, I I always think you should be respectful for people, especially if you’re like on local transport, even whether that be like New York, Tokyo, wherever. People have a life and they’re trying to get and they don’t want you in their way. So, I I do get that. Okay. Next question is what is one must try local dish from each country we visited? Okay. I feel like the molds is hard. Should we go through all the molds? That’s hard because it’s very Indian the food. So I guess like a curry. We we had curry while we were there. It was delicious. Um, we did like we went to an all-inclusive meal thing where they had a lot of like local dishes, but I can’t actually pinpoint Rotty, but I actually think Rotty is I thought Rotty was Thai. Maybe there’s lots. But the curries, the curries are really, really tasty. Thailand, you have to try pad thai at least once. uh chicken sauté, which I’m not really sure is Thai, but that was we had quite a lot of that. That was really tasty. But yeah, definitely have to try pad thai. Um and and the 7-Eleven toasties, that’s if you’ve been, you know, but yeah, the 7-Eleven toasties. Uh, Malaysia. We can’t again it feel like it was very similar to Thai, which is probably like awful for us to say, but it it’s just like that. Very similar. Yeah. Yeah, it was difficult. Um, Singapore. Oh, that’s not in the order. Oh, no, it is. That would have been our next one. Singapore. The peeking duck. Really tasty. Um, Singapore I really found that like you could really get any dish really anywhere you could get any dish, but Singapore especially was very westernized. Um, Soul, uh, no, Philippines. Uh, we we were on a resort island, so again, it’s really hard to get like local delicacy. We mostly ate like smoothie bowls and like buffet dinners to be honest, which it sounds awful for us being like tourists, but it was our one like break um of like proper traveling. Um so we stayed in like a resort and yeah um so we had a lot of steak which was very tasty. Um the coconuts were good and like you can’t argue that those aren’t Filipino cuz I saw them getting off the tree. Um um yeah. Uh what’s next? Then it was Soul. Obviously, the Soul barbecue, Korean barbecue. The Korean barbecue. Insane. Like, we didn’t really know what to expect, but it was delicious. And they give you like lots of pots of different things to try. We did try all of them. Don’t know if they’re our favorites. We mostly just ate the plain rice and the meat and a couple of the spices. Wasabi’s fine. Yeah. But they had things like crab and stuff. We didn’t really eat that, but we tried some of the other like veggies and stuff that were really tasty. Definitely one of the highlights of our like food experiences was the Korean barbecue. It’s delicious. Um, Tokyo, we had katsu curry. That was insane. But I will say ramen is the top of my list. We had ramen. We thought we weren’t going to like it cuz we’re not really we don’t we’re not big lovers of food like that. Um, I still wouldn’t chose it. I over over Katsu curry. I would probably have kazuki every day. I don’t know. I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change. I didn’t like the meat in it. I will say it was nicer than we thought it was going to be cuz it was miso soup and then like noodles and like a couple veg. It was very plain and just delicious in this like tiny little restaurant. I really like I if we had been there a couple more days, I would have definitely had that a couple more times. It was really tasty. I think it’s everywhere in Asia. Oh, we’ve been to Vietnam as well. Um, so I guess we could do Vietnam. Um, the faux is really good. Um, and the spring rolls. Yeah, the spring rolls are really tasty. Um, and the sauce is really good as well that you dip it in. Unfortunately, now that I know that there’s fish in that, I can’t bring myself to eat it, but it was really tasty before I knew that there was fish in there. Okay, on to the next question. What’s the most beautiful natural landscape you’ve seen or want to see in Asia? Um, let’s do what we’ve seen. I The Fifi Islands. Yeah, very absolutely stunning. Um, I I It’s not really like a natural place, but like um I really loved in Tokyo in the temple area that we went to. That was stunning. All the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms were out. That was really, really pretty. Um, but definitely the Fifi Islands I think tops it. Um, what I want to see Oh, all Hilon Bay. Hilon Bay. Hilon Bay is stunning as well. Um, I think what I want to see, I really want to see the Avatar um area of China, like the the national park that looks like the what inspired the Avatar movies. I think that looks really stunning. There’s a couple places in China, to be honest, that I’m really interested in seeing. I think if we go back to Japan, then we should try and see Mount Fuji. Yes. Yeah. I’d like to get to Osaka as well. Yeah. Um yeah, that’s probably uh what’s one item every traveler should pack before going to Asia? Um can’t remember what it’s called. Oh, not the nausea. Not the nausea thing. The stuff that stops you feeling sick. Um what’s it called? Basically, you can’t like people talk about Barley Belly, but that’s not the only place that you can get like a bad stomach situation happening. Now, luckily, I don’t think it happened to us during the trip. We were pretty much fine, but I have been to Asia a couple times without like other members of my family and they have gotten ill. Um, so just like hydration tablets is one thing that you absolutely should pack. and can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s to like stop you I know what you mean, but uh stop you going to the toilet too much basically. Um yeah, I can’t remember what it’s called. Um we did have some, but we didn’t didn’t use it. We also took anti-nauseous tablets, but we didn’t use those either. I would say that’s probably it. Um Oh, it’s left my mind. Can’t remember the name. Yeah, but if you look it up, it will come straight to you. Okay. So, what’s the most scenic place in South Korea we went to? So, what I’ll say is the the castle, the palace. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was quite scenic. It was very scenic. The cherry blossoms were just about to sprout. Sprout shoot. Um, and we dressed up. We did the whole um We do the whole experience. It’s great. I’m so awful. What’s it called? Handbook. Handbox. We did Handbox. Alex dressed up and I dressed up and they were beautiful and it wasn’t too expensive. It was about10 pounds each, wasn’t it? Maybe a little bit more. Um, but you get it for like two hours and then you get free entry into the palace if you’re wearing the handbooks. Um, and we were a little bit nervous going into it cuz we were like, we’re going to be the only two people walking around in these handbooks. But when I tell you nearly every person there, except for the ones on like big tours, most people were dressed in the handbox, which was really, really nice to see. um and really made it feel like more inclusive. Not inclusive, but like traditional and like you’re walking around it and people all dressed in the way that they would have dressed at the palace, which is really really beautiful. So, what’s your first stop in Thailand? So, we flew straight from the Maldes to Bangkok. Yeah. Which was awesome. I’d never been to Bangkok. I’d been to Phuket, which was our second stop before, but um it was really interesting Bangkok. Like I feel like it really I don’t know all the Asian cities feel so different. Yeah. And it’s it was supposed to be really really busy. Um well it was but yeah in comparison to Tokyo there was places that we went to which was quite touristy. Well even I thought we went to the Lion Buddha and that didn’t feel very busy I thought. No. Um but yeah and then we did Phuket and we did a day trip to the Fifth Islands when we were in Phuket. Um there’s also other places. Krabby, loads of places. Changai. Is it Chiang Mai? Changi. Changi. No, it’s Changai. Yeah, Changai. Um there’s loads loads of places in Thailand, but we just chose those two just based on my rout. Well, I my family have been to Phuket quite a few times, so I wanted Alex to get to experience. Um which was really cool. Um Okay. Okay. And then what what temple in Thailand were you most excited to see? For me, it was definitely the lime Buddha. Yeah. Um, which was really interesting, really fun. Uh, you do pay to go in. You just need to make sure that you’re properly covered, which totally fine. Um, and then one thing is that you do have to take your shoes off before going into the temple, which totally makes sense. Um, you have to do it a couple times. You just leave your shoes outside, but to go into the line Buddha one, you get given a bag. You have to put your shoes into that bag, hold the bag all the way around and then after you get out, you can get your bag. Yeah. Take the shoes out the bag. Um, which I just like didn’t didn’t clock with me, but totally makes sense and was really easy, so can’t complain. Um, I think that’s it for Thailand. There’s not really many other questions. Um, feel like Thailand is so well traveled now that like most people know what to expect. There’s lots of information out Okay, we’re going to do one last place. If you want to know questions for some of the other places we’ve been to in Asia, let us know in the comments. But we’re going to finish off with Singapore. So, what is the first place you visited when you landed in Singapore? It was the Gardens by the Bay for sure. The Marina Bay Sands. The Gardens by the Bay. Incredible. And like exactly what we Well, we did. I think we spent our entire trip there. Um, so beautiful. And you can like the walking is insane though. Like if Okay, so the last question, how would you recommend someone plan their trip to Singapore? Okay. Or would you you need one day to just walk around? Yeah, I think you need to have like a flexible schedule, but you also you do need to get the bookings in for like if you want to do the Marina Bay Sands, if you want to do the Cloud Forest, the Sky Dome. I don’t know. There’s all the things you can do in one day. Yeah. If you if you need if you’re happy to walk. Yeah. Um there’s not much walking. Yeah. It’s not loads. as long as you It’s just cuz we didn’t know where we were going, so we just kept walking back and forth, back and forth. Um, but you need to be able to see the Marina Bay Sands in the day, but also go back for the evening. Mhm. Like three light shows you can see. Um, yeah. So, there’s a fountain show at Marina Bay Sands and then there’s a light show at the um Sky Trees, which if you’re very quick like we were, we watched the show and then we ran all the way back to Sky Tree and we saw both. Um but yeah, so different in the life at night. So, definitely need to see it at night, too. I think like as much as you need to have a plan for what you want to do in Singapore, you also need to just sort of go with the flow because there is so much to do, so much to see. all the little streets you can walk down, walking through the shops, like it’s so interesting and you need to allow for like that flexibility. Like even on the first day that we arrived, we sort of just wandered along the river by our hotel cuz there’s like a river that runs through the whole of Singapore and our hotel was like right on it. So we wandered around the river and this whole pod of like is I don’t know if it’s called pod but whole group of like seven otterters rocked up and they were huge. They were like this big. Um, and they were just like playing in the dirt and like we stood there and just watched them from the other side of the river for ages and it was incredible. And they’re known to locals. Yeah, they’re known to locals. They’re a bit mischievous apparently. Um, but yeah, so so much fun. You need to allow for that like flexibility. Anyway, that is the end of the video. If you would like to see what we get up to in the next video, like, comment, and subscribe, and we will see you there. Bye bye.
Welcome to our Asia Travel Q&A! In this video we’re answering your questions about our time exploring Asia — covering highlights, challenges, budgeting, transportation, safety, planning tips, and everything we wish we knew before going. Whether you’re backpacking through Southeast Asia, visiting major cities, or planning a short holiday, these insights will help you get the most out of your trip.