Southeast Asia trip - Thanksgiving 2025

Having written all the posts about almost every stop we did over the Thanksgiving break, here is the itinerary and links to the individual posts that you can actually read in chronological order.

When I blog about the trip, we go start to finish which ends up confusing for folks who have to navigate through posts in reverse order. The latest blogs show up first! The videos have day1 part 1 etc.. which starts off on the first day of seeing places. The first photo below is a cover photo for this post.. If you click on the rest of the images you will get to the detailed blog posts about that stop!

Day 0 : Afternoon Flight SFO-> Seoul (literally run gate to gate) -> Ho Chih Minh city in VIetnam

Day 1: Close to midnight Day 0 (go to airport hotel, 4 hour break) come back to airport for 6AM flight to Hanoi (We could not get a direct to Hanoi.. that would have been better.. see if you can do that).

Reached Hanoi, put bags in car and start driving to Old Hanoi to sightsee.

1. The lake area and the temple with turtles in the middle of the lake in the old quarter

2. Temple of literature built for Confusious

3. drive by Ho Chi Minh memorial

4. One pillar Pagoda

5. drive by the railroad street

A quick lunch and drive over to Halong Bay and back (it is a 2 hour drive each way). Came back from Halong bay close to 7PM, checked into hotel, walked around old Quarter in Hanoi and have dinner..

Day 2: Check out of hotel, drive to Ninh Binh, See the Trang An caves and do the 3 hour boat ride, drive back almost 3 hours to Hanoi airport. Fly from Hanoi to Siem Reap in Cambodia to a birthday fruit cake!

Day 3: 10 stops .. non stop sight seeing from 7AM to 7PM, then dinner and back to hotel.

Boeng Mealea Temple, Reclining Buddha temple (Wat Preah Ang Thom), Thousand Linga River, Thousand Linga Waterfall, private lunch at Banteay Srea cliff, Banteay Srei temple, Ta Som Temple, Neak Poen Temple, watch sunset at Pre Rup temple, time at SiemReap river park and dinner..

Day 4: Start at 4:30 AM to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm (tomb raider) temple, Banteay Kdei temple, Kravan temple, back to Angkor Wat to see the temple, a nap in the hotel and spend the evening along the Siem Reap river and city temples followed by dinner and a walk back to the hotel..

Day 5: start again at 4:30 AM to see sunrise from the hill facing Angkor Wat at the Phnom Bakeng temple, come back to the hotel, have a late breakfast , see two more temples(Bakong and Preah Ko temples) and go to airport.. fly from Siem Reap to Bangkok and Bangkok to Chiang Mai (3 hour layover in Bangkok!), reach Chiang Mai hotel at 8PM

Day 6: 7AM to 7PM sight seeing with a 2 hour drive each way. 6 stops.. The long neck tribe, Dailom elephant rescue sanctuary, Land of Angels park, Doi Suthep temple, Wat Phra Singh and end the day with dinner, massage at Cloud massage and a tuk tuk ride back to hotel

Day 7: 7AM to 7PM sight seeing with another 2 hour drive in a different direction each way from Chiang Mai. 6 stops with a lot of hiking. Wachiratan falls, Do Inthanon national park Pha Dok Seio trail, Ang Ka trail to highest point in Thailand, King and Queen pagodas and end the day with massage at Peak Spa and dinner and back to hotel

Day 8: Late breakfast and fly from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Reach hotel just in time for wedding celebration start..

Day 9 : Trip to James Bond Island in the morning and Wedding celebration in afternoon and evening

Day 10: Actual wedding in the morning, some time at the beach in afternoon, reception in the evening and fly to airport late evening.

Day 11: Phuket -> Seoul -> SFO

We were off for 11 days …

We went to attend a wedding and saw all these by taking off early, given the wedding was the week after thanksgiving. If you are going to this area, take two full weeks off.. try to visit Bangkok as well as a few other places in Vietnam which are worth visiting.. Take two days in Phuket to see other islands in the area.

We do hectic traveling when it is just me and San. As a team we have shared goals when it comes to sight seeing.. over the years we have settled for certain things we value while sightseeing.. waking up every day at 4AM and sightseeing till 8PM to come back to the hotel only to crash may not be for everyone..

A compilation of slow motion clips of San walking and spinning.. She does not know that I made this video. Hope it is a pleasant surprise for her..

Bon voyage!

Saying bye to Cambodia after two more temple visits

The previous post in this series is here..

We saw an amazing sunrise and came back to the hotel. It was almost 7 AM when we got back. It was time to go pack, check out, have breakfast (eat it like brunch given we have been up since ~4) and load the luggage into the car . Then it was two more must see temples en route to the airport.

The hotel staff bid us adieu as though they were sending a newly married bride off after an Indian wedding. They were all nice kids. We thanked them for their hospitality. Seriously, Cambodia folks redefine hospitality. The best in this trip. Amazing kind hearted genuinely sweet people!

We visited two more temples.

The Bakong temple which was one of the first temples to be built here in the late 9th century. The domes looked like Angkor Wat.. we thought they practiced here before building the big temple. This one was a monster. We had to climb a few hundred stairs to get to the top. We told our driver that given our cold the fact that the sun was up and beating down on our heads, we had no plans to climb up. We were going to walk around the base and take pictures and that was it. So we were 30 minutes early on our plan.

The second one , Preah Ko temple, we walked around. It was relatively flat..This area on the way to the airport used to be an earlier capital of the kings. There were many nandi’s that were stil intact in this temple.

After this, we drove to the airport. On the way a 7 foot cobra crossed the road. Saruk barely managed to avoid it and had to brake real hard. We were happy he did not run over the snake but a couple of ladies driving a moped on the other side of the street were not lucky. They freaked out and may have it the snake. Did manage to catch it on camera even if it is a grainy video..

We took selfies with our driver who was just fantastic and said goodbye! We would recommend him to anyone trying to do a compressed schedule.

A video highlights reel..

The Siem Reap airport is brand new (Chinese are taking over Cambodian infrastructure building). The airport was empty when we went there. There was a lounge which had flat seats. I took a two hour nap. When I got up was still feeling slightly feverish.. but it was time to board our flight to Bangkok and and then on to Chiang Mai. Funny thing is that this plane was a small propeller plane. So all luggage had to be checked in and directly to Chiang Mai. We were told that the passport stamping will be in Bangkok but we will be diverted in Chiang Mai to the international baggage claim by airport reps to collect our suitcases. We were praying they reach.. We had carefully distributed clothes so that there will always be something to wear at the wedding. The thought of having all our bags checked was worrying. Luckily they all made it to Chiang Mai.

We had a three plus hour layover in Bangkok airport and went to another lounge where they had 15 minute complimentary massages. Majority of this day went just in traveling from Siem Reap to Chiang Mai. The massage lady told San “your husband is definitely having a fever. Give him medicine”. Given all the adventures, I had brushed aside any feeling of heat. So went and grabbed some tylenol. By the time we landed in Chiang Mai, was feeling better already!

Our guide and driver came with his wife to pick us up from the airport. They are a really nice couple Joy and Goy. Joy spoke English but Goy only understood and needed an occasional translation from her husband. They dropped us off and said we start at 7AM. Be ready! Our hotel room had a decorated bed with mosquito nets. We were not sure if that was for mosquitos or for decoration! We had arrived at 8PM and the restaurants were all a drive away. Our hotel was off from the busy area and we did not have the “Grab” app which doubles up for Uber, Doordash and everything else in Thailand. . We walked to the local 7-11 to get some bananas and yoghurt but they would not accept USD! They also had a minimum charge for credit cards which we did not meet. If they tell you folks in Thailand accept USD everywhere, it is not true. In Cambodia everyone took USD and spoke English. In Thailand it was not the same experience.

The hotel manager, was a nice guy and understood our plight. He loaned us 350 local currency, got on the phone with a local Indian restaurant and got us some Nan, daal, rice and yoghurt., paid them and got it delivered to our room. It was not what we expected but some food was better than no food and we ate what we could. The rice and yoghurt was at least a safe bet. We were also told that the hotel resaurant was closed for renovation the entire month of December and there will be no breakfast but if we pick from a menu they will have it delivered to our door at 6:30AM. The options were not what we were used to. This was going to be tricky the next few days.

We ordered a breakfast list hoping at least some items would be okay for me to eat and went to bed.

An evening to remember in Siem Reap City

The previous post in this series is here..

It had been a long day. We had woken up at 3:45AM to leave the hotel at 4AM and had made 6 stops by noon. Had eaten parts of the packed breakfast (San could eat a lot more than me given the allergies) and some energy bars and kept going. By 1PM when we came back to the hotel we were exhausted. After a 3 hour nap and some Wagh Bakri chai, we decided to go enjoy golden hour along the river.

The plan was to walk along the river, cross over to the night market restaurant area, eat dinner and walk back to the hotel. It was just a 20-25 minute walk. The river walk was beautiful. Then we walked to the same area where we had found dinner and decided to go to a different restaurant. I thought the writing was in Telugu from a distance.. turns it out was in the local language. The food was decent. We both were developing a sore throat. So we stuck to simple safe items. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was still early.

Enjoyed the food and walked back.. Saw a cat restaurant on the way back and was missing the little one. She loves cats. I am told that one day I will be a Crampa (cat grandpa).. and that is all the pa I will get.. but given I am allergic to most cats, that privilege will be lost on me.

A video highlights reel..

We got back to the hotel by 7 and it was lights out. Our driver had promised one more sunrise, this time we would actually get to see the sun come out over the forests atop another temple on the hill. We were to leave the hotel by 4:30AM.. again. San was in two minds and said she will decide at 4AM, but I begged her to join me in the morning and we dozed off.