One of the most daunting challenges a vegan faces is travel, especially international travel.  Some parts of the world are certainly easier than others, but what does a vegan with serious wanderlust do?  Veganunderground.com travelled through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, with a brief stopover in Hong Kong, to find out just how difficult, or easy, it was to travel in Southeast Asia. 

Before our trip, we did as much research as we could, but there really isn’t very much information on travelling as a vegan out there.  We learned after we got home about Veg News’ back issue that covered Cambodia, but we relied mainly on first person accounts in travel blogs and forums, and the observations of our friends, many of whom are standard diet eaters.  The consensus was that it wasn’t going to be too difficult, but we’d have to make an effort to find the veg restaurants.  These are predominantly Buddhist countries, how hard can it be?  We packed a few dozen Vega bars just in case. 

 

 

We spent the bulk of our limited time in Thailand in Bangkok.  If you’re staying in the Bangrak area (Oriental Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel, Bossotel) you have a few restaurant options.  You won’t see the word ‘vegan’ very often in asia.  You will see ‘vegetarian’ on menus and signs.  You have to check the menu carefully, but vegetarian Thai food is vegan from our experiences.  You never know absolutely for sure that the chef didn’t use some fish sauce, or in the case of soup, chicken stock so use your judgment, and if you’ve practiced your Thai phrases, ask.  Indian is generally vegan, but watch for dishes with yoghurt or paneer cheese.  Menus are usually printed in Thai and English, so these things are easy to spot.  Western food?  Forget about it.  You can’t find vegan western food in North America outside of actual veg establishments, so why would you find it in Thailand? 

For breakfast, hotels will almost certainly have a selection of fruit and juices, as well as rice, although there may be nothing vegan to put on the rice.  There is also bread with jam if you’re desparate, but again, you don’t know what’s in the bread (which will be white).  We opted to buy fruit from the street vendors near the Saphan Taksin BTS Station and peel them ourselves.  We found a fantastic assortment of mini bananas, mangos, mandarins and rambutans.  We had no idea if any of it was organic, but not likely.  It did make for a cheap and tasty breakfast however. 

For meals, try Little India across the street from the Shangi-La Hotel.  It was quiet, with pleasant decor and very attentive wait staff.  The channa masala was excellent, as was the aloo mutter.  A good starter might be the vegetable samosas.  It’s not particularily cheap, especially for Bangkok, but if you’re staying in this area, you probably don’t mind. 

Another option is a restaurant called ‘Maria’ on Silom Rd.  It’s billed as Italian on its marquee, but the menu is extensive.  Look for veg entrees under Indian and Thai selections.  The food is not spectacular, but it’s fairly priced and certainly not bad.  They have internet as a bonus (although it’s quite expensive compared to many internet cafes).

If it’s a good coffee you’re after, avoid Starbuck’s and try another chain called Ricky’s.  They’re scattered about Bangkok and are nice places to sit and read the paper with a cuppa in the morning.  For the best coffee in Bangrak, go to Koffee Link on Chareonkrung Rd., across the street from the Bossotel, down the street from the Shangri-La.  They may or may not have soy milk in stock, but their coffee’s so good why dilute it?  While you’re there you can write your comments on a piece of paper and post it on the wall next to dozens of others by folks from around the world.  You may even see one from your home town and get that warm, fuzzy homesick feeling in the pit of your stomach.  During one visit, we were sitting in the window enjoying rather stiff Americanos when a line of monks streamed by.  Magic, only in Bangkok. 

In the Patpong district, try the restaurant in the Siam Heritage Suites.  They have vegetarian options (Thai) on their menu. 

If, like many travellers to this city, you’re staying in the Khaosan Road ‘backpacker slum’, you’re in luck!  Nearby is the best vegan restaurant in Southeast Asia.  The famous May Kaidee’s is a reason to stay in this district if you had no other.  It’s an actual vegan and vegetarian restaurant.  It’s a little tricky to find, so print the map from their website, www.maykaidee.com.  Basically it’s in an alley behind the Burger King.  They have an extensive vegan menu, and two restaurants about 30 feet apart (the kitchen is one and the food is brought over).  It’s a bargain and it’s really, really tasty.  Expect to pay less than $10 for a dinner for two, including their signature Banana Mango Black Sticky Rice for dessert.  They also have vegan Thai cooking classes every morning and their own cookbook for sale.  If you’re in Bangkok, you have to have a meal here.  I would stay in Khaosan Road again, just to be close to May Kaidee’s (hint: the Viengtai Hotel on Rambuttri Rd, one street over from Khaosan Rd., isn’t too backpacker if you’re looking for a little more sophistication). 

Believe it or not, there is a second vegan restaurant in the same alley, a few ‘doors’ down from May Kaidee’s.  Ethos is a less celebrated, lower-key (especially the service!) joint with a new-age-ish atmosphere and wifi internet.  They’re maybe a better place for breakfast, or coffee and dessert.  They make their own vegan bread and have excellent smoothies.  The menu is at least 80% vegan, and it is clearly marked (vegan items are printed in red ink, vegetarian in green).  Their entrees are quite good for the meager price and they have some excellent desserts on offer.  Their service is a solid interpretation of relaxed, so go there with that in mind.  It’s the kind of place you kick off your flip-flops at the door and pull up a cushsion at one of the floor-level tables and hang out for a while. 

You will find many other restaurants in this area advertising vegetarian food, but your success will be hit and miss. 

 

Our experiences outside Bangkok were limited to a couple of days in the town of Ayutthaya, a popular day trip.  We don’t recommend overnighting here, as you can see all the tourist stuff in one day, and the veg options are extremely limited.  The town is not set up to serve tourists very well or laid out to be pedestrian friendly.  We managed to ask one restaurant, Baan Joom Zap, to make us Pad Thai with no shrimp, egg or fish sauce and they not only understood, but happily obliged.  Generally, outside major tourist centres, Thai’s don’t speak English and won’t understand the concept of vegan.  Even Buddhist vegetarian is a loose interpretation at best. 

 

 

Cambodia is a country in the middle of a rebirth.  It’s trying to claw its way out of poverty and violent ruin in bursts of wild economic abandon.  It is a country where they eat anything and everything because not so long ago in their sad history, they had to.  One third of the country starved to death under the iron fist (that being the butt of an AK-47) of the Khmer Rouge.  It appears today that tradition and cuisine have survived the attempted cultural cleansing, but they are seriously challenged by the prevalence of Western influence.  Tourism is the mainstay of the economy in Cambodia, so you will find it an easy country to tour around in. 

Phnom Penh

 

Most visitors stay near the Sisowath Quay area on the riverfront.  The riverside drag is replete with a motley collection of open-air restaurants and bars.  There is a smattering of finer French restaurants as well, but these are best avoided by vegans.  Nearly every restaurant posts their menu out front, so finding dinner is a matter of strolling a few laps of the strip and perusing menus.  We found a few places with decent veg options on their menus.  A place called El Mundo seemed to have the best vegetarian food on Sisowath Quay, albeit limited to a couple of dishes.  The Khmer curry was good though, and cheap, and didn’t taste like there were any animal derivatives in it. 

The best (and only?) vegetarian restaurant is the Bodhi Tree located ironically, or not, across the street from Tuolsleng Genocide Museum, a.k.a S-21.  When you’re finished touring one of the most infamous torture/execution facilities in the world (and one of the most frighteningly intact) you can contemplate the horrors and enjoy a vegan pita-sandwich and a smoothie at the delightful Bodhi Tree.  It’s usually quite crowded, but service is prompt and the food is great.  Ask your tuk-tuk driver to wait while you grab a bite to eat (they’re used to it; ours even suggested it). 

Coffee...  Espresso is fairly easy to find on Sisowath.  Get up early and watch Phnom Penh wake up while you sip one on a patio in the warming sun.  For a good afternoon slump remedy, head to Cafe 151, located at 151 Sisowath Quay.  It’s a non-profit coffee shop, 100% of whose proceeds go to the education of street-working children (the ones always pestering you to buy their books or postcards).  It’s run by The Global Child www.theglobalchild.org and is well worth your support. 

Siem Reap

 

If you’re in Cambodia, chances are you’re going to see the temples of Angkor and you’ll stay in the town of Siem Reap.  The temples of Angkor bring millions of tourists to Cambodia every year, but Siem Reap province is the poorest in Cambodia.  It is evident when you visit the suburban villages or drive around in rural areas.  Because the temples themselves are managed by a Thai hotel company, and because most tourists book all-inclusive tour packages that keep them in foreign-owned hotels, whisk them back and forth to the temples in air-conditioned buses (you will actually see them sleeping, their faces mashed up against the windows between stops!) and parade them out to fine-dining restaurants, the local economy benefits very little.  Very little.  Have some respect for the country you are visiting and stay in a smaller hotel, eat at local establishments that, at the very least, hire local help and use local guides and tuk-tuk drivers to tour the temples. 

In Siem Reap, most of the post-temple-exploration action is on Pub St. or in the restaurant alley behind it.  As far as vegans go, there aren’t too many options, but the ones that exist aren’t bad at all.  The best of them is Kama Sutra, an Indian restaurant owned by Indians but staffed by locals.  The food’s excellent and very reasonable.  Several other restaurants offer vegetarian Khmer cuisine and even vegetarian Mexican!  Fruit can be bought in the Psar Chas market, or at a road-side vendor for very little money. 

For coffee, go to Joe-To-Go in the old market.  It is another ‘coffee for education’ non-profit under the wing of The Global Child. 

When touring the temples, guides will usually suggest a local restaurant for a lunch break.  The restaurants can be hit-and-miss.  We missed on one, but had a really nice Khmer meal with fresh coconuts to drink at another.  This is the part that you’ll have to wing! 

 

 

 

 

Many organized tours take tourists up or down the Mekong Delta.  The two major stops along the way are the town of Chau Doc and the small city of Can Tho.  Rural Vietnam is a study in contrasts.  In some ways, it is easy for vegans to find fresh fruit and an abundance of vegetables.  Many restuarants cater to vegetarians, Buddhist and otherwise.  In other ways, it is a vegan’s nightmare.  Meat of all kinds is proudly displayed at open-air butcher shops.  Some of that meat is dog. 

I feel a responsibility to share an anecdote from our brief stay in Can Tho.  We were walking past a store front with an empty tile counter on our way back to a hotel.  We both heard numerous dogs barking from within (going by the sound alone).  We thought it a bit strange, but continued on to our hotel.  About twenty minutes later, neither of us able to shake the barking dogs from our minds, we walked back towards the shop front.  As we approached, there was silence and dread crept over us.  We arrived at the front and were beset by horror.  Many types and cuts of meat were piled onto the tile counter, and several fresh, dog-sized carcasses were hung from steel hooks on display.  We moved on with sunken hearts, our thoughts on our own dog back home. 

Animal rights is a foreign invader in this part of the world.  It has no business interfering with the subsistence economy that drives these countries and it would find no friends among common folk or large enterprise.  In a place where humans barely have any rights, animals are low on the list.  This is true for much, if not all of the developing world, and Asia for that matter.  Vietnam presents a uniquely visible paradox.  Everyone, it seemed, has a pet dog.  The streets are full of them: not strays, but pets.  On leashes, asleep in their masters’ shop fronts.  Dogs are widely employed (I use that word satirically) as store guard dogs – night watchmen.  Dogs are also a common dinner choice.  Butcher shops and cafes alike advertise dog meat.  Of course, many animals wind up on dinner plates in Southeast Asia, including snakes, fruit bats and monkeys, just not so commonly. 

In a place where these practices are so culturally ingrained, so economically driven, believed so essential to the daily struggle, I wouldn’t know where to begin to protest.  Nor would I dare to protest.  I would likely be locked up for life in an existence of dank jail cells and diplomatic avoidance.  Moreover, I’d have to ask myself a difficult question.  Indeed I did ask myself when a tour bus driver played his favourite cock fighting dvd on the bus entertainment system for its captive audience.  The question is:  What right do I, coming from the West, coming from North America, that is north of America, which in this part of the world, might as well be from America, what right do I have to heap criticism on a way of life that my own governments and people drove them to?  If I had mistaken my own conceit for credibility, I might take offence at what I saw around me. 

Vietnam, more than anywhere else I’ve been, stripped my morals bare and tested them.  It also steeled my resolve to live a better life, to appreciate my good fortunes and to keep fighting the corporate tryanny of the food industry.  Seeing countless Agent Orange victims and land mine amputees drove it all home for me.  There are over a million people in Vietnam living with significant physical deformities wrought by the continuing effects of Agent Orange residue.  They are not hidden away from tourist eyes, but on every street corner begging for a living.  Vietnam is getting its revenge, however quietly and slowly, on Monsanto, its employees, its employees’ families and the rest of the Western world.  It’s in all the supermarkets, it’s on restaurant plates, it’s on dinner plates in American homes.  It’s called Bassa fish. 

 

 

If you survive crossing the street and don’t succumb to the noxious air pollution, you may want to eat.  Saigon is the anti-vegan.  It is overrun by the ugly side of consumerism.  When there, it’s easy to get caught up in the lust for designer labels, phony or real.  If you stick to the markets, at least when you come to your senses you’ll realize you only spent a few dollars. 

The only vegetarian restaurants we could find were in the backpacker-centric Pham Ngu Lao area.  We couldn’t locate the vegetarian restaurants listed in our guide, but we found a couple of others. 

The Spiritual Buddha is in the easternmost mini-hotel alley between Pham Ngu Lao and Tran Hung Dao streets.  It is Buddhist vegetarian and had many dishes on offer, most including faux veggie meats.  It is very inexpensive and the food is on par with the price in Vietnam. 

Next door is Cafe Saigon 2 which has a better selection of vegetarian food, a sign out front advertising vegetarian and is arguably better value.  The food here was better than its  more aptly named neighbour and similar in price.  Two can dine heartily at either establishment for well under seven bucks.  The service at Cafe Saigon 2 is odd, and a little confusing if you pay attention to the wait staff criss-crossing the alley to another restaurant, but if you relax, think nothing of it and enjoy your food, it will all be good. 

If you’re in the Dong Khoi area and feeling a little runover, you can find solace in Java on Dong Du St.  Have an espresso, or one of their vegan smoothies made with silken tofu.  Read the smoothie menu carefully though, as many have milk in them.  The atmosphere is modern and chic and the a/c is always cranked.  Most importantly, it’s quiet. 

Veg options can be found in a couple of other places, though not easily.  Dong Khoi is virtually impossible apart from street vendors.  Hotels usually have fruit in their included breakfasts, but Western cuisine surprisingly dominates this part of the city. 

Coffee.  If there’s one thing they do well in Vietnam, it’s coffee.  But why wouldn’t they, they were taught by the French!  Hope you like it strong!  Saigon is full of cafes.  Coffee, hot or iced, is a way of life for the Vietnamese, not unlike here at home.  It is a catalyst for good conversation, an excuse to sit and read the paper, or just something to seriously enjoy.  At real Vietnamese cafes, the coffee is served old-school French-style, that is with a little brewer on top of your cup and a pot of hot water to liquify it into something you don’t have to chew.  It is often preceded by a complementary pot of tea, you know, in case the caffeine in the coffee isn’t enough for you.  You won’t find a Starbuck’s anywhere in Vietnam, so don’t waste your time looking.  Vietnam has rejected all American fastfood chains except KFC (I suspect only because Colonel Sanders bears a striking resemblance to Ho Chi Minh).  Most of the cafes seemed to be in the Dong Khoi area. 

For the Vietnamese version of Starbuck’s, try Trung Nguyen – it’s a chain and fairly authentically Vietnamese.  You can choose your  bean and they bring you a coffee in the aforementioned French style.  A word of caution:  one of their signature coffees uses beans that have passed through the intestinal tract of weasels, likely captive weasels kept in abysmal conditions, so don’t have this one.  Another word of caution:  smoking is allowed in these cafes and the air is usually blue. 

A more antiseptic choice might be the other prevalent chain, Gloria Jean’s.  These cafes are non-smoking and bear more than a passing resemblance to the Seattle-born world-dominating coffee purveyor we’re all used to whether we like it or not. 

Or, you could try any of the numerous independent cafes.  Just make sure you don’t accidentally order ‘white’ coffee.  That would be a coffee full of the white death, condensed milk.  Don’t expect to find soy milk at any cafes – we didn’t.  It seems strange for the soy latte to not have caught on in Asia.  This brings to mind another cautionary observation:  beware the soy milk for sale in stores.  Every type we saw throughout Southeast Asia was frustratingly fortified with milk protein. 

 

 

Finding food in the gleaming, rebelliously free-market city-state of Hong Kong is not as difficult as one might think.  Our stay was too short to conduct a thorough exploration of life for Hong Kong vegans, however, we did stop over for a couple of days, as many travellers do enroute to other parts of Asia.  Our dining experience is limited to Kowloon.  Buddhist vegetarian restaurants seem to be reasonably numerous and well dispersed.  One need only to look for the giant neon signs. 

We found one such sign that read, ‘The Light Vegetarian Restaurant’ on Jordan Road, just off Nathan Road.  Feeling a little heavy from a month away from the gym, we decided to give the two-storey, crowded restaurant a try.  There were two choices, buffet or a la carte, so naturally we tried the restaurant twice (we couldn’t locate the other vegetarian restaurant on our list of three and the other one we did find had closed down a month earlier).  The menu consisted of a dizzying array of mock meat dishes, in Chinese and Western Iterations.  Most of the same items are available for sampling from the buffet (which is the better deal by far).  Portions are generous and they give you a neverending pot of green tea.  If you opt for the buffet, don’t eat too many plates of food from the table.  After about half an hour of dining, the waitress will drop a single burner stove off at your table, which is followed by a pot of water and a huge basket of fresh vegetables and dumplings to boil.  It’s DIY – you make your own soup!  Fun, but if you have a small apetite, this is probably not the best option. 

While seated at the Light Vegetarian, some Indian patrons at the table next to us struck up a conversation with us (apparently young, white vegetarians were a rare sight amidst the usual Asian and Indian clientele).  They recommended a South Indian vegetarian restaurant called Branto at the corner of Peking and Lock Streets in Kowloon.  We’ll be sure to try it on our next visit to Hong Kong.  While we did hop the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island, we didn’t eat there, so that is beyond the scope of this report.  One other thing worth mentioning is that soy lattes can be had at many of the city’s plentiful cafes, Starbuck’s and otherwise.  They appeared to use Silk brand, which is thankfully cow-free. 

Raw

 

If you’re a dedicated raw vegan, and don’t want to eat any cooked food, you will face a few more challenges, especially in Saigon, where good fruit was a little harder to find.  You will have to subsist on fruit like bananas and mangos, which are fantastic, but may become monotonous after a while.  Cut raw veggies and salads are said to be a no-no for Westerners travelling in Asia, but this is a case of using your judgment.  In some places, the cut fruit and veggies will be safe, not in others.  We ate the cut fruit in hotels from the get-go and started eating salads in restaurants about two weeks into our trip.  We had not so much as a quiver in our stomachs the whole trip. 

In rural Vietnam, everything is washed in the Mekong River, so if it’s not cooked, well, you can imagine the possibities.  What you won’t find are organic raw nuts, or seeds or raw restaurants.  If you’re happy eating fruits and veggies from stalls in the markets, and sitting in your hotel room or picnicking with them, you’ll be fine most of the time.  It would be a good idea to pack along a supply of your favourite raw energy bars to fill the gaps.  Just remember to pack them in your carry-on as security authorities may mistake them for bombs on their x-rays of your checked luggage, or so I’m told.  We brought a stash of Vega bars for those times we just couldn’t find something good to eat, which wasn’t that often.  We were glad to have the peace of mind. 

Other Considerations

 

As I wrote above, you will see things that offend your sensibilities in terms of animal rights – many things.  There is no point getting worked up about it and losing face.  Being an example is the best path to take on this.  That said, there are animal welfare initiatives and wildlife refuges that are worth researching and visiting.  Also, be careful approaching the dogs that are everywhere, on the streets, in the temples etc.  They look placid enough, but you never know.  Rabies is rampant in Southeast Asia.  I sufficed with taking photos. 

Inocculations are a necessary evil if you are travelling to Southeast Asia.  Vaccines are usually cultivated in eggs.  I don’t know of a viable or accessible alternative to this.  Unless you are travelling to very rural areas, you won’t need many shots – just the usual ones like Tetanus and Hep B. 

In-flight meals are not a worry if you fly Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines.  Other Asian airlines will have ‘strict vegetarian’ meal options as well.  I can’t comment on North American or European airlines that fly to Southeast Asia, but my experience on other routes is that they generally lack the ability to accomodate vegans very well at all.  Cathay and Singapore offer strict Western, Asian or Indian vegetarian meal options, all of which are suitably palatable.  The other plus is that you will be the first fed on the plane.  Just remember to choose your meal option when you purchase your ticket, or at least forty-eight hours before the flight.  Your travel agent can help you with this. 

That’s a Wrap

For vegans with the travel bug, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam should be high on the priority list.  With a little bit of planning, some careful menu-reading and intercultural communication (read stilted, awkward pronunciations and crude sign language) you should get more than enough good, authentic food to eat and at extremely fair prices.  There are so many good reasons to travel to this part of the world, and one less reason not to. 

For more info about traveling and eating in South East Asia as a vegan check out verdant reports.