To be so stressed out by daughter's plans for travel in South East Asia

[MrsKeats]

Daughter (23) and her boyfriend are due to go travelling in September.
She is going to Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
They are both sensible but I'm freaking out about Cambodia especially seeing it described as the 'Wild West of the region' on some traveller sites.
They are going for eight weeks.
Anyone been through this?

I did a similar trip at a similar age with my now husband. It was incredible! We had the best time. I was definitely a lot more streetwise than my husband at the outset but he soon caught up.

I lived in Malaysia at 23 and travelled solo through Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia. I travelled with DH through Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It’s perfectly safe, especially compared to the travel I’ve done in Central/South América. There are huge numbers of Western backpackers. I’d agree with PP about not hiring scooters but this is largely because most insurance companies don’t cover them so, if she had an accident, she could be left with a huge medical bill even for a minor injury.

I’d imagine that the vast majority of 23 year old couples are more than capable of safely navigating those countries given the level of English spoken, high levels of tourism and protections out there. Accidents and incidents do happen but they also happen in England or France or Spain. Try not to worry.

Anyone been through this?

This implies some sort of trauma or ordeal - it's your adult daughter going on holiday! She'll have a fabulous time, Vietnam is incredible.

Cambodia is fine. I lived there a few years ago and always felt very safe!

Hi OP I am a Malaysian Indian by origin. I and my family have travelled extensively through the region including Cambodia. I would not be overly worried, these are generally safe countries which host thousands of back packers every year safely. Compared to Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore Cambodia and Vietnam are less developed and more rough and ready, but that is part of the attraction. To me Singapore does not feel Asian at all these days. I would strongly recommend that you purchase good high quality travel insurance (remembering it needs to be specific to backpacking a number of policies will have a 28 day limit). You could always arrange to meet half way through and treat them to a fabulous hotel?

I travelled alone (well, with a Canadian traveller I met in Thailand) in Cambodia and it was fine. Cambodia was my favourite of all the places i stayed. Like PP have said, there's a well worn travellers path and lots of other travellers. I found the predominantly Buddhist countries very easy to travel in. the only "bad" thing I heard of happening was one traveller complaining that he had given a motorbike taxi $5 for a $1 journey and was waiting for change and the guy just said "I need this more than you" and drove off without giving change. Which to be fair was kind of true! I tried to make sure I had change and would use bigger notes to pay for accommodation and food. there were motorbike taxi guys who would hang around the hostel waiting for people to pick up and you could ask them to collect you again so that was handy as they were really reliable as they liked having the steady stream of work from the hostel.

Thanks everyone-feel a bit better now.
I think I was worried as they have changed their itinerary as Japan and South Korea have not fully opened up yet. They seemed safer options to me.
I missed out Malaysia where they are also going.
I've lived abroad (Europe though) and am just an anxious person by nature!

They are getting their insurance this week work so will check they have a comprehensive policy. Thanks.

They'll have a fabulous time. That's nice they're going together - they'll look after each other.

We live in SE Asia - Singapore is pretty boring really, certainly would recommend dropping it off the list to spend more time in the other 3 places as they are fab to visit and travel around. I would replace Singapore with somewhere like Japan or S. Korea if possible.

I've been to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos alone. All are just wonderful. I thought Siem Reap was a really lovely town.

Japan and South Korea aren't fully open to tourists yet since covid.
They were on the original plan.

I did a tour of Cambodia 5 years ago as a single female. I always felt safe, even when wondering alone away from the group. You need to be sensible - keep an eye on your bag, don't be silly with clothes (tiny shorts and strappy tops with belly showing aren't appropriate), but I always felt safe. (You don't need to dress like a monk either - I was mostly in knee or just above knee dresses with short sleeves and not a silly amount of cleavage, because that's what I wear anyway).

Cambodia unsafe? I was there just before Covid hit, travelling independently (I've been to the other countries they're visiting too) and it wasn't remotely unsafe or difficult to travel in.

SEA is the perfect place for young people to travel in. That area has well worn routes that late teens and early twenties have been travelling through since the 1960s (okay, a bit later for Vietnam and Cambodia)

Make sure the travel insurance covers repatriation, i.e. if injured/taken ill and need to be transferred from hospital overseas to UK hospital, etc.

That's the big thing that you end up seeing people crowdfunding for when something goes wrong because it costs tens of thousands of pounds.

Thanks will do tick