We Love South and Southeast Asia!

Jump now to our 2019 India accommodations, activities and reviews by region — Northeast — East — North — or read the excursion summary below…

India. Incredible India! When we embarked on our first six month-long visit to India in 2017 it was, admittedly, with some trepidation. Based on lots of feedback and reading we were doing “the hard global travel one” now while we were still ‘teen elders’ — at the time Paul was age 58; Rich was age 65. With 1.3 billion blessed citizens (going on 1.5) in an area generally about a third the size of continental North America we were prepared to be jostled around a bit. In our experience, relatively fewer North Americans seem to venture to India. The feedback we heard was mixed.

But the draw we felt to India was life-long and unstoppable. Gandhi, Buddha, E.M Forester, Ganesh, Shiva — it’s an ancient, superlative and complex culture. And the modern, 21st century descriptives are just as engaging. For example…As a foreigner, using my smartphone, I can book a train ticket to anywhere in the country up to four months in advance using my credit card with great ease. Just show the conductor the digital boarding pass.

And you are just as likely to meet a young Indian man just back from an elite university in Boston, or one who commutes many kilometers to his call-center job in a nearby city or one embarking on a better job in Dubai as you are someone in a fourth-generation run shop who has never left his home State. Much to our delight we discovered “wows!” around every corner.

Yes, we were jostled a bit on our 2017 visit but were far more often royally welcomed, warmly embraced, downright pampered and — again — wowed like no place we’ve ever been! Ever. Six months wasn’t nearly enough. (We travel slowly.) More please.

So the Fall of 2019 brings us back to India. We gave ourselves three more months exploring destinations we missed the first time. (See our 2019 India travel map.) Starting in northeast India, we spent the month of September in Darjeeling, West Bengal. The beloved UNESCO heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway ran several times a day directly in front of our house. The video below was taken from our house.

See our Northeast India page for more adventures, including information about our accommodations, in North Bengal and the “seven sister” States of Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya.

We continued to Kolkata and the Sundarbans. See our East India page for our accommodations and an awesome national park experience.

On our 2017 visit, we missed some treasured tourist stops in north India including Varanasi, Khajuraho, Orchha, Agra and several spots in Rajasthan. See our North India 2019 page for our accommodations and more.

See our 2019 India Travel Map.

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Back to Thailand

Following our three months in India we are planning to enjoy Thailand for two months — again. Our only previous visit was in 2016. As with India, it will be some new destinations — (just north of) Phuket island in the south and the youthful, but still age-approptiate for us 😉, party capital of northern Thailand – Pai. And some old destinations — Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya.

We enjoy clothing optional resorts and beaches. We’ve stayed in a few “naturist” resorts in the US, Mexico and Thailand. Among our most watched hotel review videos on our YouTube channel is the Chan Resort in Pattaya. We know of at least three other clothing optional locations in Thailand we have never visited. We are talking about doing a “clothing optional” tour of these other properties while in Thailand. Check out the Chan Resort video below. (No worries. It's Safe For Work.)

We will spend the 2019-2020 Christmas/New Year’s holiday month at the brand new, swanky Oriental Beach Resort on Koh Kho Khao (2 hours north of Phuket airport) — rack rate is $2,800/month including breakfast. We rang in the new year 2020 with few encumbrances — and few items of clothing. We needed some stripped-down time to regroup not only from our three months in India but also from Paul's contracting the wretched dengue fever near the end of the excursion. News flash: he survived (podcast forthcoming).

A few years ago we spent the year-end holidays in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We stayed at the clothing-optional sister resort, Oriental Village Chiang Mai. Check out videos #4 and 4.1 on our YouTube channel for our review and commentary of that property.

Following our New Year 2020 visit in the south we plan to stay 12 nights in a standard double at Gordnuea Boutique House (property link, we paid $73 per night including tax and breakfast) in central Chiang Mai.

And then a week following in nearby Pai staying at Pai Village Boutique Resort & Farm ($122/night including taxes)..

We’re then planning to meet friends passing through Bangkok but don’t want to spend more than four nights there. We’ll get a chance to see some of the city sights we missed on our Keeping It Fresh Tour in 2016-17.

So will fly down to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport but make the easy drive (1.5 hr.) to Pattaya from there. And stay four nights at the Baan Souy Resort ($67/night including taxes).

Then we’ll transport over to Bangkok and stay four nights in the central Silom neighborhood at the Trinity Silom Hotel ($61/night including taxes).

At the conclusion of our visit to Bangkok, we fly to Myanmar for an 11 night visit to the capital area of Yangon (including Bago, Hpa-An and Mawlamyine) — areas of interest we missed on our first visit to Myanmar in 2016.

But we return from there back to Thailand again, arriving in Phuket. We’ll stay one week at a new clothing-optional resort, Peace Blue Naiharn Phuket ($152/night including taxes and breakfast).

Following, we return to the spectacular oceanfront, clothing optional Oriental Beach Resort on Koh Kho Khao 2 hours north of Phuket airport (rack rate $132/night including taxes and breakfast). This is the same place we stayed a month for the holidays. We liked it so much we are returning for two weeks before leaving SE Asia.

We then leave SE Asia by way of a budget red-eye flight to Japan (from Phuket through Bangkok to Narita for just $317 each first on VietJet Air to Bangkok then Thai Lion Air to Tokyo). This is half way home and breaks up what would otherwise easily be 30 hours of travel to North America. We’ll see friends and spend a few nights in Japan.

Then onward travel continues on Delta Airlines’ direct flight from Narita to PDX (Portland, Oregon USA).

See our Thailand 2019-2020 page for more adventures, including information about our accommodations, in Phuket, Koh Kho Khao, Chiang Mai, Pai, Pattaya and Bangkok.

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Back to Myanmar

From Bangkok it’s just an easy one hour flight to Myanmar’s capital city of Yangon. On our first visit to Myanmar we flew in and out of Mandalay in the north and didn’t include this area in the south. We decided to take advantage of the close proximity to Bangkok and make a quick 11 day visit to what we thought were the top areas.

We’ll stay five nights at the Pullman Yangon Centerpoint hotel in downtown Yangon ($108 including taxes). We plan to use this to also explore nearby Bago.

Then we’ll stay five nights at Mawlamyine, Myanmar’s fourth largest city with many noteworthy tourist sites. Our choice is the Cinderella Hotel ($60/night including taxes). We’ll use this as a base to explore nearby Hpa-An.

Then back to Yangon and one night near the airport at the Wyne Hotel ($108 including taxes).

Then back to Thailand.

See our Myanmar 2020 page for more adventures, including information about our accommodations, in Yangon, Bago, Mawlamyine and Hpa-An.

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Getting to India from the USA — The Logistics

Before we left for six months on our “Good Life” tour to Central America in the fall of 2018, we bought one-way tickets to return to India late summer 2019. We couldn’t help it! Honestly, neither one of us has stopped talking about our first six-month trip to India — the “Real” Tour. We got home from that journey in May 2018…changed. And began reading and dreaming — day and night — about India since. We left our Portland, Oregon USA home base on August 27, 2019.

We got one-way economy class tickets on Singapore Airlines to Bangalore (PDX-SFO-SIN-BLR) for US$592 each. We then immediately purchased the exit row seat assignments, for more legroom, on all flights segments except our quick initial flight to San Francisco. That cost an additional $342 total for both of us. Each one-way economy ticket to Bangalore from Portland, OR USA cost US$763. Off to a good start!

“Each one-way economy ticket to Bangalore from Portland, OR USA cost US$763. Off to a good start!”

We stayed again near the Bangalore airport at Clarks’ Exotica Convention Resort and Spa (we paid $95/night including tax and breakfast) and recovered from some of our jet lag for three nights. It’s got a great pool and areas for morning and sunset walks.

Then, we flew to Darjeeling (airport: Bagdogra IXB) on the northern border of West Bengal near Sikkim. We paid $125 each one way. We had an adventure getting there…

We will be in India until early December 2019 also visiting Kolkata, Varanasi, Jhansi, Orchha, Khajuraho, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and more.

See our Northeast India page for more adventures in the “seven sister” States of Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Travel Map for India 2019 here.

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