On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Auntie Anne
My travel buddy and I had originally planned to take a Southeast Asia trip in 2017. We got sidetracked by life but were finally able to make the trip in January 2025.
I have had a lifelong fascination with Southeast Asia. I was born in 1961, and remember listening to radio correspondents reporting on Vietnam late at night. The Vietnam War was a big part of the background of my early childhood.
The trip turned out to be everything I could have wanted, and more. We took a tour and visited four countries in 16 days. There’s much more we could have seen, and done, but I am really happy with everything we did.
This was my introduction to the custom of having noodle soup for breakfast.
The largest market in Phnom Penh.
Our Air Cambodia flight to Siem Reap.
Baud
I’ve only been to Vietnam and Thailand. It was winter and it was HOT. Nice trip though.
J.
Sounds like a great trip! I look forward to seeing more photos.
raven
@Baud: Oh yea.
YY_Sima Qian
Did you go see the Laotian Arc de Triomphe? Was Phnom Penh just a stopover? Did you get to Luang Prabang?
Soup noodle is the best breakfast, right alongside wonton soup & soup dumplings!
Auntie Anne
@YY_Sima Qian: I did not get to see the Laotian Arc. Phnom Penh was just the starting point of our tour – and we missed the first day, thanks to Delta delays.
I adored Laos, and yes, we got to Luang Prabang. I am going to thoroughly bore everyone because I ended up with a total of 16 posts. Apologies in advance, but this trip was incredible!
@YY_Sima Qian:
Asparagus Aspersions
Looking forward to more pictures! I did a similar trip about 15 years ago but had the luxury of having about a month to travel, so went to Tokyo, Bangkok, Luang Prabang, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Phuket. Angkor Wat and the other temples remain one of the most astonishing sites I’ve ever visited.
Auntie Anne
@Asparagus Aspersions: I agree on the temples. Posts to come . . .
Trivia Man
@Auntie Anne: bring it on ! 16 sounds like a satisfying deep dive
Citizen Dave
I was lucky enough to have short visits to Phnom Penh and Hanoi (separate trips) several years ago. Would love to go back, especially to see the temples. Thanks for sharing–looking forward to all 16 posts.
Born in late 1960 so I always have had the same fascination with that corner of the world as it was omnipresent when we grew up.
UncleEbeneezer
Great pics! Look forward to seeing more.
Before visiting Vietnam/Cambodia, the idea of soup for breakfast was so weird to me. Then I had a bowl of delicious pho, with a cafe sua da (Vietnamese iced-coffee) while watching the Saigon river roll past, and I was hooked. Unfortunately, even in Los Angeles (where we had tons of Vietnamese restaurants) it was hard to find any that were open early enough to really have pho for breakfast. Most didn’t open until 10 am. One place we did though, was on my Birthday we went down to Little Saigon (Westminster) and found a place that had some KILLER pho ga (chicken pho). One of the things we are really missing here in Taos is the sparsity of good Asian restaurants. There are a couple Vietnamese restaurants in Santa Fe (we may try one tomorrow when we are down there couch-shopping) but finding something less popular like Khmer/Cambodian food here would be pretty much impossible. Oh well, I guess we will have to make lok lak (delicious Khmer beef dish) at home using online recipes.
We never got to Phnom Penh on our trip (we flew direct to Siem Reap) but someday we really want to go to PP mainly as a jumping off point for Kampot (home of the famous pepper) which looks like a gorgeous river-side community and the island off the southern coast, Koh Rong Samloem. We also REALLY want to visit Hanoi someday. Saigon was cool but Hanoi looks much more our style.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
I loved my time in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – my trip started in Hanoi and ended in Luang Prabang.
YY_Sima Qian
@Auntie Anne: What are you talking about? Luang Prabang & Siem Reap are worth 16 posts by themselves!
Auntie Anne
@UncleEbeneezer: The pepper there was incredible, and I believe it was kampot. The food was just to die for – I came home and told everyone I’d eaten my way through Southeast Asia.
I’ve been trying to cook some of the great meals I had, with cooperation from my local Asian market.
Ruckus
Auntie Anne
I’m a few years older than you and was of the age (and gender) that going to Vietnam was not high on my list of places to visit. War was still going strong and so effectively I would not have been going there for the traveling. And to avoid that as much as possible I joined the USN. I did end up traveling a lot, 3 crossings of the Atlantic by ship, both ways of course, so 6 crossings, once west bound with 50 ft waves that lengthened our crossing from 5-6 days to 12. Good times. Fun-not so much (that’s the vast majority of the 3 1/2 yrs of my serving) It did end up getting me free healthcare at the VA, so not all bad.