If you’ve followed along for this entire trip report, thanks for reading. It’s been a long journey through three countries, nine flights (counting our flight to San Diego), six hotels, three food tours and lots of sweating in the heat.

I wanted to end with some additional information for each of the countries we visited that didn’t really fit into any of the trip report segments. I’ll run through what to expect in each country in terms of weather, currency/cash, and some overall thoughts in the order we visited.

Singapore

Singapore is just about on the equator, and the weather is tropical. Expect similar weather all year round with heat, humidity and afternoon storms. We were lucky on our first day with no rain, but the second day, the heavens opened as we were shopping on Orchard Road. Try and visit outdoor attractions in the morning as it will be a little cooler and less likely to be raining. Save the indoor or covered attractions for the afternoon. It does cool off a bit in the evening, but don’t expect the temperature to drop below 75.

You won’t need much cash in Singapore, but you will probably need a little bit for some of the food centers and perhaps some of the market stalls (although many have credit card machines). The food centers mostly take some sort of phone app for payment, but it looked like it would require a Singapore bank account. I did not see too many that took Apple, Samsung or Google Pay for example. The best way to get some cash is via an ATM with a debit card that does not charge any fees (such as Schwab if you don’t forget it at home!) In the end, I had to try and get rid of my Singapore dollars on our last day by taking a couple of taxis and paying for Marina Bay Sands observation deck with cash. You could probably manage with a cash budget around SGD$50 per day for food and markets assuming you have breakfast at your hotel and you use the Grab app to get around.

Singapore is worth visiting for a couple of days. It’s a very modern, clean place with low crime and incredible architecture. The city-state has done a good job maintaining some of its old charm in specific areas like Chinatown and Little India. For us, two days was enough to get a feel for the place, enjoy the food and see some of the sights. While we just found our own places to eat at the food centers, sometimes it was a bit overwhelming with all the choices so perhaps a guided tour with a taste of several different places would have been a better choice.

Cambodia

When we visited in early April, Cambodia was very hot. It’s never cool, but our original dates in February would have been 5-10 degrees cooler. It was towards the end of dry season which runs from around November to April. During wet season, the roads and towns can get flooded with the daily torrential downpours. In Siem Reap, it was over 100 degrees both afternoons and Phnom Penh was in the mid-90s with high humidity. We found the best thing to do was get out and about in the morning and rest and recuperate at the hotel (and the pool) in the afternoon before heading out again in the evening when the sun went down.

In Cambodia, you’ll need more cash than Singapore, but the US Dollar is widely accepted, especially in tourist-frequented locations like Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We brought some smaller bills as if you pay for a $5 meal or trinket with a $20 bill, you will get change in Cambodian Riels which you will then have to get rid of as most countries won’t exchange those for their own currency. I changed $100 at our hotel in California into crisp $5s and $10s so we had some of these bills ready to go for museums, temples, markets and food stalls. Grab is a great way to get around in Cambodia so you won’t need to haggle with taxi or tuk-tuk drivers over cash prices. I did end up paying cash in USD for our Angkor Wat guide and for our driver from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. We pre-purchased our Angkor Wat tickets before we traveled for the specific day we were visiting.

Most people who come to Cambodia just fly over to Siem Reap from Thailand or Vietnam for a day or two to see Angkor Wat and skip Phnom Penh. I encourage you to visit the capital if you can make time on your trip. The museums and memorials about the Khmer Rouge are worth seeing and the city itself is an interesting mix of tradition and new skyscrapers. We also had our favorite food tour of the trip in Phnom Penh. Luxury hotels are relatively cheap in both cities so it’s a good place to finally splurge on that fancy suite. Although there is petty crime, especially in Phnom Penh, it’s still a very safe country to visit and more people speak some English than you would expect.

Vietnam

This was our second visit to Vietnam. Last time we visited Northern Vietnam in the middle of July in rainy season where it rained a lot, especially in the afternoon in Hanoi, and also during the a day while we were on our Ha Long Bay cruise. This time, it didn’t rain once, but it was quite hot, especially in the concrete jungle of Ho Chi Minh City. We did find there was more of a breeze in Vietnam which cooled us off, especially at night. The weather at the resort in Da Nang was perfect for the beach.

You will need some cash in Vietnam and while you could get it from an ATM machine, you’ll get the best value at a gold shop in Ho Chi Minh City. If you want to just get that done at the airport, you can change your USD to Vietnamese Dong there at a decent rate as well. Make sure you have crisp, new bills. I ended up getting lucky as our airport greeter (booked via the Klook app) had a friend who was willing to change my cash at a very favorable rate. I changed $200 for six days and that was more than enough for us. We put all tours, all Grabs, large purchases and most restaurant charges on credit cards. I prepaid for some of the more expensive tours before we left to avoid having to bring large amounts of cash. We used cash for tips, smaller market stalls, and for admission to some tourist attractions. Vietnam has a more advanced tourist infrastructure than Cambodia, so they are mostly ready to take your credit cards in the tourist areas. Remember, if you have cash left over when you check out from your hotel, you can use it towards your hotel bill (unless of course you booked it using points and didn’t charge anything to your room).

We’ve now been to Vietnam twice and loved it both times. We love the food, the people, the history (both good and bad) and the culture there. I’m not sure if we’ll go back again, only because we have many more places on our list to see. Both major cities are interesting and very different from each other. We found the people in Hanoi very conservative and towing the Vietnamese government party line. Ho Chi Minh City retains some of it’s independent spirit from the Saigon days. It’s much bigger and more cosmopolitan with a lot more ex-pats and foreign investment. Da Nang/Hoi An was more laid back and geared towards tourists from all over the world. Hue was interesting for history buffs. Air travel within Vietnam is fairly cheap and easy with several airlines competing along most of the internal routes. Both times, we found Vietnam very safe and friendly to tourists. You’ll will quickly get the hang of crossing the streets with motorcycles flying by on all sides.

I hope you enjoyed this very long trip report and you’re now interested in visiting these places. Up next for the empty nesters, we have our youngest’s graduation this month and an action-packed trip to New York City next month which I’ll definitely write about. I’ll also have a preview of our next big overseas trip which I booked last week. Since we took the Asia trip, I’ve already been to San Antonio and we just got back from Brooklyn. I’ll have a couple of posts about those trips as well.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.