First trip to Asia: Bangkok vs Tokyo vs Hong Kong (best, country)
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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I've never been to Asia, though I ponder the idea. Which city would you prefer to visit? This is coming from somebody whom has travelled all over North America, and been to London & Paris. Asia intrigues me the most as it seems such a contrast and vastly different from anywhere I've ever been in terms of culture. These three cities are what I've narrowed my choices down to. Here some criteria.....
Most intriguing culture:
Best food:
Best architecture:
Best side excursions to other parts of the country:
Best people to connect with:
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to:
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind:
Most intriguing culture: Tokyo
Best food: Bangkok
Best architecture: Tokyo
Best side excursions to other parts of the country: Bangkok
Best people to connect with: Bangkok
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to: Bangkok
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind: Tokyo
Tokyo is unlike any city I've ever visited. It's like being inside a gigantic pinball machine, but with these beautiful pockets of peaceful quiet. My preconception was that it was going to be similar to New York City...it is not.
Why Hong Kong? Well, I just think it's awesome. Incredible food, pretty good beaches, a lot of outdoorsy things to do (hiking, ...) and the language barrier isn't as bad as in Tokyo. There are parts that feel like the Time Square area in New York (LKF), some parts that feel like an underdeveloped mainland Chinese province (parts of New Territories), beaches with white sand (Shek O) and jungles with wild monkeys (Kowloon Reservoir). Then there is always the possibility to do some day trips to Macao, which is an incredible city even besides those ****ty casinos, and Shenzhen (to experience the mainland madness).
BUT I probably wouldn't take a plane to Asia just to see one of those cities for a couple of days. I would want to tour the whole country or at least the extended periphery of the city. And this fact would change my rating to:
1. Japan tied with Thailand
2. Hong Kong and Southern China
While Hong Kong is my favourite city, Japan is one of my favourite countries. I wouldn't go there just for Tokyo, though. Same goes for Thailand and Bangkok.
Anyway, here are my answers to this little survey:
Most intriguing culture:
For me it's Japanese culture.
Best food:
Cantonese, Japanese and Thai are all pretty awesome cuisines.
Best architecture:
Hong Kong has a pretty good mix going on. Lots of modern architecture, but also traditional stuff, mainly in Kowloon and the New Territories. But I don't think that it could beat Tokyo or even Bangkok when it comes to temples and palaces.
Best side excursions to other parts of the country:
Hong Kong has Macao (awesome, very underrated), Shenzhen and maybe Guangzhou. Then there are lots of small islands around Hong Kong Island.
Tokyo has Kamakura, Nikko and Hakone.
I'm no Thailand expert, but I guess in Bangkok you'd have to travel a bit further for a side trip
Best people to connect with:
Probably the expats in Hong Kong. Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai for that matter. Hong Kong Chinese are also somewhat approachable, but you can forget about the Mainland immigrants.
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to:
I don't even know why this matters.
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind:
Every single city on that list will blow your mind.
Most intriguing culture: Tokyo
Best food: Tokyo
Best architecture: Hong Kong if you like skyscrapers, Bangkok if you like temples
Best side excursions to other parts of the country: Bangkok/Tokyo tie
Best people to connect with: Can you speak of the languages there? Bangkok has a louder, more visible expat community and backpackers community so you do chat up people pretty easily
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to: Depends on where you're coming from; Bangkok is quite a bit more libertine than the others and much more chaotic, on the other end of the spectrum is Tokyo to some extent with Hong Kong in between but definitely closer towards Tokyo.
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind: Hard to tell, really.
All three are fantastic, but wildly different choices. Keep in mind that Bangkok is part of the "developing world" so that in itself is eye-opening. You should probably also try to figure out any particulars that you're interested in. Also, do you know anyone whose already in one of these places? It definitely helps to have someone show you around.
Bangkok, because it is by far the cheapest, and you'll have plenty of money left over to go to other interesting places. (Disregard this if you have an infinite amount of money.)
Most intriguing culture: Tokyo
Best food: Tokyo
Best architecture: Tokyo
Best side excursions to other parts of the country: Hong Kong
Best people to connect with: Bangkok
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to: Hong Kong (English is spoken more here)
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind: Tokyo
Tokyo is probably the best, but one of the toughest to get around (everything is written in Japanese and many locals do not speak English) and is the cleanest and safest. Hong Kong is a great city and has more English speakers than Tokyo or Bangkok. The shopping is great in Hong Kong and HK is easy to get around (MTR is great and many signs in English and Chinese).
Bangkok has nice people, but is very congested and hot and humid. Bangkok is the best value.
Most intriguing culture: Tokyo
Best food: Tokyo
Best architecture: Tokyo
Best side excursions to other parts of the country: Hong Kong
Best people to connect with: Bangkok
Best city for a North American tourist to adapt to: Hong Kong (English is spoken more here)
Wow/Surprise factor - what city would blow my mind: Tokyo
Tokyo is probably the best, but one of the toughest to get around (everything is written in Japanese and many locals do not speak English) and is the cleanest and safest. Hong Kong is a great city and has more English speakers than Tokyo or Bangkok. The shopping is great in Hong Kong and HK is easy to get around (MTR is great and many signs in English and Chinese).
Bangkok has nice people, but is very congested and hot and humid. Bangkok is the best value.
What do you mean by that? Virtually all signs in Tokyo in and around train stations are bilingual or trilingual, and the quality of signage in general is superb. I have, in fact, found it easier to get around in Japan than in many English speaking cities (especially in the US where signage is often p*s poor).
Last edited by Fitzrovian; 11-09-2013 at 04:45 PM..
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