Tips Travelling Southeast Asia

Tips Travelling Southeast Asia? If you are vegan these 5 tips for travelling in Southeast Asia will be especially helpful. Even if you are not a vegan I think they will be of value too!

Learn how to say vegetables in the local language – If you only learn one word, make it “vegetables”. That way you can point to a menu, a map, a dish, a server and say the magic word….add in the hand gesture of putting food in your mouth for best results. Works like a charm!

Here are three helpful links…common Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian phrases. If you learn a few simple phrases it can go a long ways…nice thing to speak their language too!

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Travel-g293921-s604/Vietnam:Important.Phrases.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g293939-s604/Cambodia:Important.Phrases.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g293915-s604/Thailand:Important.Phrases.html

Around Me App – If you have a mobile phone, download the Around Me App and search for Vegan, Vegetarian and it will locate some restaurants that might be at least vegan friendly. Once you find them on the app, search for them in Google and see if you can find a menu, reviews etc. This app is awesome! Link to the app site http://www.aroundmeapp.com/

Travel with some Protein – whenever, wherever I travel I always take some protein with me. You can almost always get fruit or salad, it’s the protein that might be challenging. I usually take my favourite protein powder (Vega) with me and a bag full of nuts, seeds, raisins etc. You will not believe how many times that little bag has come in handy. Hey you can sprinkle it on your salad for too!

Ask other tourists – Talk to other people, particularly other tourists that may speak your language. On our first day in Nha Trang in Vietnam we met 2 vegans at a fruit stand. They winter in Nha Trang and graciously showed us (actually walked us) to 3 vegan friendly restaurants.

Be flexible – If you want to eat bread and you go to a restaurant that is not totally vegan, they are not likely to know if it has an egg in it or milk. Many breads do not. If I want bread I eat it. You will have to decide how hard core you are going to be. One thing you will want to be sure to say though is no fish sauce…sometimes they put this in veggie dishes. You also have to be careful of broth…it could be made from anything….see tip number One!