Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia: What's the scoop?

[Rocky Top]

From what I've gathered from most of you here, Malaysia isn't desirable because it is more expensive than Thailand and the women are not as approachable. I don't get much information about anything regarding Laos or Cambodia other than having to go there for Thai visa runs.

What is the story on these places?

[anamericaninbangkok]

From what I've gathered from most of you here, Malaysia isn't desirable because it is more expensive than Thailand and the women are not as approachable. I don't get much information about anything regarding Laos or Cambodia other than having to go there for Thai visa runs.

What is the story on these places?

Women are always approachable if you can handle rejection.

Malaysia - I don't know much about the women there other than there is a P4P scene.

Cambodia - IMO, the best of the three places. There is a P4P scene there but if you want to hook up with non P4P women, be prepared to put in the time.

Laos - quite a bit of desperation and it's been years since I've been there. Lots of karaoke places and as with Cambodia, there are restaurants with beer girls who for a price may go with you. Usually it's up to the woman and price. If she wants to go, she'll go, otherwise, forget it. I find Laos depressing, much more so than Malaysia and Cambodia.

[bkk_bro]

From what I've gathered from most of you here, Malaysia isn't desirable because it is more expensive than Thailand and the women are not as approachable. I don't get much information about anything regarding Laos or Cambodia other than having to go there for Thai visa runs.

What is the story on these places?

Women are always approachable if you can handle rejection.

Malaysia - I don't know much about the women there other than there is a P4P scene.

Cambodia - IMO, the best of the three places. There is a P4P scene there but if you want to hook up with non P4P women, be prepared to put in the time.

Laos - quite a bit of desperation and it's been years since I've been there. Lots of karaoke places and as with Cambodia, there are restaurants with beer girls who for a price may go with you. Usually it's up to the woman and price. If she wants to go, she'll go, otherwise, forget it. I find Laos depressing, much more so than Malaysia and Cambodia.

I've been to Laos a few times for visa runs. Laos has French influence as it was colonized by frogs back in the day. No offense to French people :p Anyway, some of the people speak French (which I find annoying) and you can order a loaf of bread as long as a hockey stick.
The pub scene consists of people who you already recognize from the immigration office (if you're doing a border run in Vientienne), and you will see them again the next day picking up your passport/visa. The best pub is called rooftop pub, and that's where most people end up until around 12 or so, where everyone heads to this hotel, which has a nightclub on the roof, and an outside bar which you can chill at when you get tired of have Laos women clawing at you inside the dark club. Most of the women there are probably p4p, but you can find something for free there too. There are other dinkier clubs open late late but I didn't visit them.
That's as far as I went. Many young people like to go to Vang Vieng tubing, but for me, that's in the same category as a full moon party. No thanks.
Cambodia is awesome. Siem Reap, and Phnom Penh both. I went to Cambodia twice and loved it for a getaway. After getting bored at Ankor What?, Piano Bar, Temple bar etc, and seeing mostly tourists, I got the tuk tuk to take us to a Khmer only club in Siem Reap and found the cutest girl on my whole 6 month holiday first time I went. She was stunning, about 22. Her friend went with my friend. Both girls came to see us off to the bus for Phnom Penh the next day. They were just girls out clubbing, and didn't expect anything. Well, not true exactly, they did try to get on the bus with us to Pnom Penh. So I guess they wanted a paid hoilday.
In Phnom Penh it was even better. Tons of clubs, many working girls. I didn't go to any Khmer only clubs in Pnom Penh because there were so many tourist clubs, we didn't get bored. Even in the tourist bars, girls can be found willing to play for free. I prefer Thailand to Cambodia personally, but it's a great place to visit.

[anamericaninbangkok]

From what I've gathered from most of you here, Malaysia isn't desirable because it is more expensive than Thailand and the women are not as approachable. I don't get much information about anything regarding Laos or Cambodia other than having to go there for Thai visa runs.

What is the story on these places?

Women are always approachable if you can handle rejection.

Malaysia - I don't know much about the women there other than there is a P4P scene.

Cambodia - IMO, the best of the three places. There is a P4P scene there but if you want to hook up with non P4P women, be prepared to put in the time.

Laos - quite a bit of desperation and it's been years since I've been there. Lots of karaoke places and as with Cambodia, there are restaurants with beer girls who for a price may go with you. Usually it's up to the woman and price. If she wants to go, she'll go, otherwise, forget it. I find Laos depressing, much more so than Malaysia and Cambodia.

I've been to Laos a few times for visa runs. Laos has French influence as it was colonized by frogs back in the day. No offense to French people :p Anyway, some of the people speak French (which I find annoying) and you can order a loaf of bread as long as a hockey stick.
The pub scene consists of people who you already recognize from the immigration office (if you're doing a border run in Vientienne), and you will see them again the next day picking up your passport/visa. The best pub is called rooftop pub, and that's where most people end up until around 12 or so, where everyone heads to this hotel, which has a nightclub on the roof, and an outside bar which you can chill at when you get tired of have Laos women clawing at you inside the dark club. Most of the women there are probably p4p, but you can find something for free there too. There are other dinkier clubs open late late but I didn't visit them.
That's as far as I went. Many young people like to go to Vang Vieng tubing, but for me, that's in the same category as a full moon party. No thanks.
Cambodia is awesome. Siem Reap, and Phnom Penh both. I went to Cambodia twice and loved it for a getaway. After getting bored at Ankor What?, Piano Bar, Temple bar etc, and seeing mostly tourists, I got the tuk tuk to take us to a Khmer only club in Siem Reap and found the cutest girl on my whole 6 month holiday first time I went. She was stunning, about 22. Her friend went with my friend. Both girls came to see us off to the bus for Phnom Penh the next day. They were just girls out clubbing, and didn't expect anything. Well, not true exactly, they did try to get on the bus with us to Pnom Penh. So I guess they wanted a paid hoilday.
In Phnom Penh it was even better. Tons of clubs, many working girls. I didn't go to any Khmer only clubs in Pnom Penh because there were so many tourist clubs, we didn't get bored. Even in the tourist bars, girls can be found willing to play for free. I prefer Thailand to Cambodia personally, but it's a great place to visit.

Laos is a shithole that reeks of desperation. It's sad but you get over it. I took a girl there many years ago — from the Laos Laos Club or Karaoke — she didn't want money, she wanted me to bring her back to Thailand. After I made it clear that while I feel for her, I couldn't do it. I brought her back to her house, a tin shack laid on top of a muddy mess. Forget Vang Vieng, it's changed in the last year or so and is a shell of it's past.

Cambodia is a great place to go for a couple of days. I just got back from a two day stint there. After you've been there 50-plus times it loses some of it's appeal. Good place to visit and get laid, but anything more than a week there and you might end up pulling your hair out.

[Voice of Reason]

From what I've gathered from most of you here, Malaysia isn't desirable because it is more expensive than Thailand and the women are not as approachable. I don't get much information about anything regarding Laos or Cambodia other than having to go there for Thai visa runs.

What is the story on these places?

Malaysia - It would be an okay country to live, but it is mostly Muslim women which makes it hard.

Cambodia - Women are very extremely feminine and approachable, but I wouldn't want to live there.

[xiongmao]

I went to Malaysia on my visa run. Kuala Lumpur was pretty good. Not too big, not too crowded, and with a good transport infrastructure. Definitely a good place to find a Chinese wife, without the hassles of the mainland and all that entails. Also probably a good place to find an expat job.

Costs wise it was pretty much identical to Thailand.

Hats off to them for making it easy to visit, and get a long duration tourist visa.

P4P was more underground except in ChinaTown where it was pretty obvious. No idea on costs, I kind of went to KL to have a rest from the Bkk nightlife.

The major downside was the price of alcohol - this might or might not be a problem for you. The place being a Muslim state didn't really worry me. The Chinese there pretty much do their own thing.

Pengang is worth a visit, never heard anything bad about it.

[Cornfed]

When I was in Cambodia they had a permissive attitude towards drugs, so for example some of the guest houses would let you smoke cannabis in public. Does anyone know if it is still like that?

[Voice of Reason]

The major downside was the price of alcohol - this might or might not be a problem for you.

It does have an upside though...they import all their beer from other countries, which means they have such a wide range. You could get beers from many different countries, and there are all sorts of brands that you wouldn't have heard of. I found beers there that were 14.2% alcohol. This is all irrelevant to me of course because I don't drink beer...but it may be so for others.

[Rocky Top]

I went to Malaysia on my visa run. Kuala Lumpur was pretty good. Not too big, not too crowded, and with a good transport infrastructure. Definitely a good place to find a Chinese wife, without the hassles of the mainland and all that entails. Also probably a good place to find an expat job.

Costs wise it was pretty much identical to Thailand.

Hats off to them for making it easy to visit, and get a long duration tourist visa.

P4P was more underground except in ChinaTown where it was pretty obvious. No idea on costs, I kind of went to KL to have a rest from the Bkk nightlife.

The major downside was the price of alcohol - this might or might not be a problem for you.

The place being a Muslim state didn't really worry me. The Chinese there pretty much do their own thing.

Pengang is worth a visit, never heard anything bad about it.

I've read mainly the complaints about the prices for alcohol, but that doesn't really bother me too much. I'm probably still going to drink my fair share regardless, but I don't want that to be a reason to mark it off the list.

[xiongmao]

Yeah, it's still worth a look, very much an overlooked country.

Some of Malaysia really impressed. My highlight was the 1RM train journey to see the Batu Caves. They were really bonkers - aggressive monkeys, incredibly steep, slippery steps, spooky Hindu carvings and a huge natural cave that took your breath away (and not just because of the stench from the bird/bat droppings!!!). One of the many highlights there was seeing an elaborate Hindu shrine washing ceremony accompanied by those Indian bagpipe-like instruments. Truly a spectacle.

The other advantage is that the Malay language is "vaguely" like English. A bus is a "bas" for example. I got a bus to the Kanching Waterfalls and managed to ask the driver if it was the right bus because I told him about half a dozen synonyms of waterfall and he managed to recognise one because it must have been the same word in Malay!

[momopi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Malay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_En ... lay_origin


I'll be in Malaysia in Nov, though the itinerary is still fuzzy since someone else is making the arrangements from SG.

...businessmen in SG have a reputation of keeping mistresses in MY, so when they go to MY for business the wife will often accompany the husband to keep an eye on him. ;p

[RichieBoy]

Here is the Laos hotel with the nightclub on the roof? I think this is the main hotel for Visa runs, if you go with 1st Class Visa Runs anyway

They really have a wild time there, don't expect any sleep until around 3am if there is a disco on, I remember one time they had one but I was tired from the minibus ride.

[Rocky Top]

Yeah, it's still worth a look, very much an overlooked country.

Some of Malaysia really impressed. My highlight was the 1RM train journey to see the Batu Caves. They were really bonkers - aggressive monkeys, incredibly steep, slippery steps, spooky Hindu carvings and a huge natural cave that took your breath away (and not just because of the stench from the bird/bat droppings!!!). One of the many highlights there was seeing an elaborate Hindu shrine washing ceremony accompanied by those Indian bagpipe-like instruments. Truly a spectacle.

The other advantage is that the Malay language is "vaguely" like English. A bus is a "bas" for example. I got a bus to the Kanching Waterfalls and managed to ask the driver if it was the right bus because I told him about half a dozen synonyms of waterfall and he managed to recognise one because it must have been the same word in Malay!

I would assume that there are pretty cheap/reasonable flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kanching/Penang/Singapore?

[xiongmao]

Yeah just take Air Asia. There is also (I think) a train from KL to Penang. There's definitely one to Singapore, and also a bus.

[anamericaninbangkok]

Yeah just take Air Asia. There is also (I think) a train from KL to Penang. There's definitely one to Singapore, and also a bus.

I took the train from Bangkok all the way to Singapore - not for a visa but to take the Jungle Line. Cost a whopping 670 baht plus 400 baht for the taxi from the Thai border to the Malaysian train station.

If I go to Laos again, the last place I want to go is where all the border runners are going.