We are now safely back in Toronto, getting reacclimated to the brisk temperatures and snowstorms. I’m still trying to rework my circadian rhythm to get over this terrible jet lag, so am forcing myself to stay awake by writing this blog post, with a few more random thoughts on my recent journey through Cambodia and Vietnam.
Iโm glad we went ahead with our travel plans despite coronavirus news.
As you may know from my previous posts, the days and weeks leading up our trip were unfortunately racked with anxiety about the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our travels. At the time of our departure, the vast majority of cases were in mainland China and I determined that our risk of being affected was very low. Now, in retrospect, I still stand by our decision to go ahead with the trip.
Over our two weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam, we met several other travellers in the same position as us. A few of them also had travel companions decide to cancel, and similar to us, were facing pressure from friends and family imploring them to cut their trips short as well. Nevertheless, everyone we met agreed that they were glad they had proceeded with their plans, and I actually felt increasingly reassured as we progressed with our trip. Vietnam in particular has a fairly good record of managing infectious disease outbreaks (it was in fact the first country cleared of SARS during the 2003 pandemic), so I felt pretty good about travelling there. In addition, because of the marked reduction in tourist numbers, we indeed felt better protected by the lack of crowds everywhere we visited. Our hotel and service staff were also all seemingly vigilant with practicing universal precautions, consistently wearing personal protective equipment and ensuring we had ready access to hand cleaning facilities. Weโve made it home healthy and without any logistical problems, so everything worked out just fine. Now I am just back to dealing with the doomsday hysteria here in Canada.

Planning our own itinerary worked out really well.
Opting out of a prepackaged tour was the right choice for this trip. I am really happy with how my travel planning acumen has expanded, thanks to lots of reading on TripAdvisor and of course all these great travel blogs! Although it did require significantly more effort, planning our own trip allowed us to stay in higher quality accommodations (4+ stars) and participate in lots of activities, while spending over $1000 CAD less per person than we did last year when we went with Intrepid Travel to Thailand and Laos.
Iโll add a little plug here for Urban Adventures, who we went with for all our food tours and several day trips. This company is a subsidiary of Intrepid, based in Australia but offering tours in hundreds of destinations around the world, facilitated by local guides. They are on the pricier end but occasionally have sales; for instance, I was able to get a 25% discount with their Black Friday deal. Their tours are otherwise really well organized. We had a wonderful time with Urban Adventures, and I would use them again on future travels.

We felt very safe and never got (overtly) scammed.
Both Cambodia and Vietnam are relatively safe travel destinations. The violent crime rates in the places we visited are low, so if we were concerned about anything, it would be petty crime. Being aware of our surroundings and practicing basic street smarts was perfectly adequate for staying safe. We were forewarned about many common scams targeting tourists in Southeast Asia and I think we managed to avoid them with some general awareness and planning ahead. In particular, we pre-booked most of our tours and made a point to use the rideshare app Grab, rather than deal with potential taxi scams. If we did get ripped off, it would have been in a more insidious manner, like getting presented the more expensive ‘tourist menu’ at restaurants. We have simply accepted this as a small cost associated with being a foreigner and choose not to get too worked up about this kind of thing.
I should note that my experience may have been different if I was travelling as a solo female. After all, we do unfortunately live in a world where travel advisories still warrant a special section dedicated to safety tips for women. Mr. Chuckles was certainly a shield of sorts for me. We did notice that traditional beliefs about gender roles are pervasive here, apparent even in the casual interactions we had with locals. Throughout the trip, guides and service staff would nearly always address only Mr. Chuckles directly, despite all the bookings being under my name. Even our domestic flight tickets had his name shifted to be listed ahead of mine rather than in alphabetical order. Now that we are back in Canada, I am ready to resume my role as Boss of the Household. ๐

Upgrading to Premium Economy on our flight home was the best decision.
After a rough flight experience on the way to Phnom Penh and with Mr. Chuckles’ back pain acting up, we decided to bite the bullet and upgrade our return flight to Premium Economy seats. On EVA Air, about $400 USD each bought us the one way upgrade, and it was totally worth it. The increase in leg room was considerable, and it’s a wonder how much difference a simple foot rest can make. I also appreciated the extra small touches like the amenities bag, cold towels, and slippers. Both of us actually managed to get about 5 to 6 hours of continuous sleep and the flight felt like it passed by really quickly. It will be challenging to go back to taking long haul flights cramped in economy class.

We will probably never be able to enjoy Vietnamese cuisine at home again.
The thing we will miss most about this trip is definitely the food, especially the stuff from Vietnam (Cambodian cuisine was not as appealing to our palates). Given that we went on four food tours and two cooking classes in two weeks, we obviously spent the vast majority of our time eating or thinking about food. There are quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in Toronto, but it will be very difficult to go back to those limited menus now that we have tried everything from the original source. Someone needs to popularize more Vietnamese cuisine in North America; it is a lot more than pho! Otherwise, I guess this means that we will just have to plan another trip back there one day.

Overall, I would say that this trip was a success. We had lots of fun and new experiences, with only a couple mild emotional meltdowns between us. I hope Mr. Chuckles rates me 5 stars on TripAdvisor for my work as travel planner! โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

Enjoyed reading your blog. We decided to reschedule our trip to Oct The Travel Agent we went through and Amawater has been great They are recreating the same trip we were to leave on Monday. Due to Coronavirus and flight going thru S. Korea (now level 3) then switching to different flights and losing our premium seats the best decision was to reschedule. If it had been 2 weeks earlier we would have been fine and the sites less crowded. This bucket list trip is one to be enjoyed not stress of schedule changes, checking temps crossing borders and delays. I am enjoying reading your blog and looking forward to my trip
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The situation certainly has evolved over the past couple weeks and I can understand your decision to change plans, especially with the transit through S Korea. I would predict that everything should be back to normal by October! Have fun and looking forward to reading about your trip in a few months!
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Pretty dangerous times to be in Asia. Great post! Vietnam would definitely be an interesting place to visit.
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I suppose you can say that about Europe now, too. Vietnam is beautiful, worth a visit when this whole virus scare settles down.
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Glad the whole self-planning thing went well. I’ll have to try that one of these days, too (for Asia). And regarding your comment to Chris, above, yes, Europe is coming under scrutiny as well. We are heading to Spain, Andorra, and France in the summer and I’m dearly hoping this virus will be just an unhappy memory by then. From what I’ve heard, they still don’t know whether it will take a downturn in the hot summer months the way other flus tend to. I sure hope so, and not just because of my own travel needs. Welcome back to winter!
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I think the mass hysteria is also a major issue with this outbreak, which we have never experienced prior to these days of peak social media. Iโve been speaking to people who are hoarding months worth of supplies including litres of hand sanitizer and hundreds of face masks – which should be reserved for healthcare workers who have real increased risk of exposure! ๐คฆ๐ปโโ๏ธ
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Quite right.
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I felt very safe in Vietnam as well. Definitely feel the same about having Vietnamese food back in Toronto… it will never be the same!
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Vietnam is one of my favorite destinations…glad you escaped the Virus. Welcome back to Canada.๐จ๐ฆ
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Thanks for reading! Enjoying your blog too ๐
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Hii
I have nominated you for the Mystery Blogger Award .I hope you will accept it.
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Thank you!
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You are welcome dear
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Great post, and I’m really glad you decided to go, too! Back then, the threat of coronavirus wasn’t so huge, so I’d say you got there just in time. And planning your own stuff is sooo much better – I don’t like to be stuck with the hotels they give you, it’s better to have a choice, and the same with the places you go. I also haven’t been able to go to any Vietnamese restaurants since I went there, haha! Not just because of the menu options – but the price too! How can I pay like ยฃ10 for a meal that’s less than ยฃ1 in Vietnam? I am ruineddd! Haha. Like you, I don’t think we got scammed, apart from perhaps tuk tuk prices. I had to walk away a couple of times and they still stuck to their price, so once or twice I think we paid more. But really it’s peanuts so it didn’t bother me too much. So glad you had a great time!
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A lot has changed in a month and Iโm glad we went at just the right time. No crowds but still a low risk environment, and we came back right when things were ramping up with the virus!
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Thoroughly enjoyed following your trip. I’m glad you were able to enjoy it before things began getting crazy and places started restricting travel. Hopefully when things are back up and running you’ll be able to find some good places for Vietnamese food, although it’s unlikely it’ll ever compare ๐ฆ
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Thanks for reading! ๐
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I definitely feel the pain about not being able to have as much access to Vietnamese food. There’s a Vietnamese restaurant near me that I’d like to visit but it’s hard as I worry it won’t live up to my expectations and it’s also hard to bring myself to spend that much money on meals that are literally ten times more expensive than they were in Vietnam!
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I hear you on that! The Vietnamese places around here are still considered cheap eats by Canadian standards but everything tasted better in Vietnam.
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Hi my next trip will be Vietnam and Cambodia only. Very nicely written. I will comeback to this page once my trip is finalised. Thanks
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