One Week Boys Trip to Asia

[noTAGlove]

Last November I hit 47, and with the kids becoming teenagers it was time to do something for me.

So, with a one week pass from SWMBO I headed off to tour Bali for a with an old uni mate. A long way to go for a week, but up there with the best thing I've done.

Given the success of this trip I'm organising another similar for this November, and there's now 3 of us on the trip.

We enjoyed Bali so much, but the rule is we go somewhere new. I don't know Asia very well (except a family trip to Phuket and Koh Samui), but we are mildly adventurous and looking for somewhere that offers great scenery, culture, good hikes, on the coast and offers adventurous stuff like mountain biking etc. In fact if it was similar to Bali, that'd be great.

We have to fit the trip into one week, so we need to be within 50-100 miles of any airport.

For those who know Asia well, I'd really be interested in your suggestions.

Ta in advance.

[seadog1408]

Vung tau in Vietnam is cool, say hi to the girls in the red parrot for me.

[julian2002]

The obvious choice is Thailand, yes it has a bit of a reputation but avoid the obvious tourist traps like bangkok, pattaya and phuket and there are some beautiful places where you can have some fun without running into the seedy underbelly (although this is easy to find if that's your thing).
I'd suggest flying into bangkok then immediately getting a connecting flight to krabi and basing yourself in ao nang or there abouts. From here there are things like 'the beach', 'james bond island', 'princess cave', to go and see, often on package trips or you can DIY it if you are a bit more freeform. Food is amazing and nightlife is robust without being 'aya nappa'.
If you fancy something a bit less 'touristy' head further south, internal flights are dirt cheap, koh lanta was amazing last time i went but i suspect it's been commercialized now. I'm not up on the real 'traveler destinations' any longer but last time I went all we took was hand luggage and a credit card and had a month of awesomeness.

[noTAGlove]

The obvious choice is Thailand, yes it has a bit of a reputation but avoid the obvious tourist traps like bangkok, pattaya and phuket and there are some beautiful places where you can have some fun without running into the seedy underbelly (although this is easy to find if that's your thing).
I'd suggest flying into bangkok then immediately getting a connecting flight to krabi and basing yourself in ao nang or there abouts. From here there are things like 'the beach', 'james bond island', 'princess cave', to go and see, often on package trips or you can DIY it if you are a bit more freeform. Food is amazing and nightlife is robust without being 'aya nappa'.
If you fancy something a bit less 'touristy' head further south, internal flights are dirt cheap, koh lanta was amazing last time i went but i suspect it's been commercialized now. I'm not up on the real 'traveler destinations' any longer but last time I went all we took was hand luggage and a credit card and had a month of awesomeness.

Bumping this to say we took your advice and have booked a week split between Krabi and Phi Phi Islands for late November.

A lot to pack in for effectively 6 nights away running on adrenaline.

Any recommendations for ‘must dos’ would be appreciated.