ASEAN Workation Guide — Part 1
ASEAN Workation Guide — Part 1
In the post-pandemic era, here is a workation guide to the ten ASEAN countries for travelers who work on the road. In this first of two installments, we introduce leading workation destinations in Viet Nam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Myanmar, along with useful travel information for each.
Materials provided by ASEAN-Korea Centre
The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization that promotes economic, social and cultural cooperation between Korea and the ten ASEAN member states. Its travel website features a wide range of articles on traveling in ASEAN.
For the Energy of a Big City, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Hanoi is the capital of Viet Nam and its center of education and culture. Home to about 7.7 million people leading busy, bustling lives, the city offers an excellent environment for a workation. According to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism’s representative office in Korea, Hanoi is a “great city to work in,” a place where “a culture woven from many ethnic minorities, beautiful regional landscapes, friendly smiles, low prices and the best street food satisfy every kind of traveler.” True to that description, Hanoi is rich in cultural sites that let you experience Viet Nam’s long history, and its shopping and entertainment facilities make it an ideal destination in its own right. The sea of motorbikes that fills the roads at rush hour can be startling at first, but after a few days you will find yourself getting anywhere with ease by ride-hailing or bus. Public bicycles have recently appeared and a metro has opened, giving you more ways to get around. Beyond its well-developed infrastructure, the cost of living is another advantage, easy on the wallet for long stays. In Hanoi, you can use a coworking space at a reasonable rate, or settle into a local café with a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee and focus on your work.
Work & Living Guide
Coworking spaces cluster in Hanoi’s Đống Đa and Hoan Kiem districts. Đống Đa is the most densely populated residential area in Hanoi and is home to the city’s Korean community. Hoan Kiem, packed with major tourist sights, restaurants and shops, is always lively with travelers and locals alike. In this district, several operators, including Toong, the local brand that opened the first coworking space in Viet Nam, offer shared office services for digital nomads. In Ba Đình, a quiet neighborhood close to the Old Quarter, you can even find coworking spaces with distinctive facades created by renovating old Hanoi villas. A hot desk for one person at a Hanoi coworking space costs about 2 million dong (roughly 100,000 won) a month.
For a short-term workation stay, a serviced apartment makes more sense than a regular apartment. The Mỹ Đình area has many large villa-style apartment complexes with more than 2,000 households, and because it is close to Hanoi’s downtown office district, many office workers live there. A fair number of Koreans live there too, so it is sometimes called a second Koreatown. The Tây Hồ area is dense with studio apartments well suited to people living alone. A studio apartment that is easy to reach and in good condition rents for about 600,000 won a month. Of course, you can also stay long-term at a hotel or on Airbnb with reasonably priced rates.
For daily necessities and groceries, Hanoi residents most often shop at Đồng Xuân Market, the largest traditional market in Hoan Kiem. On the outskirts of the city, where development is in full swing, you will also find several shopping centers, including Lotte Department Store, Royal City Vincom Mega Mall and The Garden Shopping Center. In August 2021, Seoul Made Street, a faithful re-creation of a Korean street, opened at the Royal City Vincom Mega Mall Times City branch. It is said to be popular with Vietnamese Gen Z and millennials as a place to quench their thirst for travel to Korea. Most of Hanoi’s cafés and dessert shops offer free Wi-Fi, so you can start your workday with a Vietnamese coffee at a spot that suits your taste. Even in pubs specializing in local Vietnamese craft beer, you often see foreigners working on laptops during the day.
What to Eat and Do
Phở, the dish that symbolizes Viet Nam, was born in Hanoi and spread across the country. It is usually made with a beef or chicken broth, sometimes with seafood such as shrimp, and eaten with rice noodles, onions, bean sprouts, cilantro and fresh lime. Bún chả is another of Hanoi’s signature dishes. When former U.S. President Barack Obama visited Hanoi, he famously tried bún chả with the American chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain at an ordinary restaurant favored by locals. Rice noodles are dipped in a cold broth made with charcoal-grilled pork, fish sauce, sugar and lemon, then eaten with vegetables. The appeal lies in the balance of the sweet-and-sour broth and the smoky pork.
Bánh mì is the Vietnamese baguette sandwich, a dish that reveals the influence of French culture. It is made by stuffing a baguette with various meats, vegetables, cucumber, cilantro and more. It is also a classic street food that is easy to find all over the city. Egg coffee, born in a Hanoi café in the 1940s when milk was scarce and egg yolk was used instead, is a coffee you must try in Hanoi. It is sweet and rich, made with sugar and condensed milk.
On your day off, start with the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake, an important part of daily life in the city. After exploring the lakeside and the Old Quarter, visit the Temple of Literature, a shrine built in the early 11th century to honor Confucius and the site of Viet Nam’s first university, to take in the city’s historic charm. To glimpse traces of the French colonial era, head to the French Quarter, where the Hanoi Opera House, built in an elegant neoclassical style in 1911, stands. You can also tour its interior. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, built to mark the 100th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh’s birth, and the Vietnam National Museum of History, which presents Vietnamese history from the 3rd century BC to the modern day at a glance, are also worth a visit.
Working Like You’re Traveling, at a Small City’s Pace — Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai is known as the “Rose of the North.” Founded in 1296 as the capital of the Lan Na Kingdom, it boasts a long history and deep cultural heritage. From its walled old town to its intricate, gold-gleaming temples, the city holds a wealth of cultural treasures, and the nature of northern Thailand that surrounds it serves as a retreat for locals. Even after growing into the economic hub of northern Thailand today, Chiang Mai’s timeless charm continues to draw travelers in.
First-time visitors begin to fall for the city as they come across trendy shops and cafés on the streets of the centuries-old old town. The night markets, where you can find handicrafts by local artists, are fascinating, and festivals and events such as Loy Krathong and Songkran offer a different kind of fun. Outside the city, there are mountains and national parks for all kinds of outdoor activities, along with magnificent scenery of lush green hills, rice paddies, jungles and waterfalls. For these reasons, Chiang Mai ranked second on the 2016 list of the world’s 15 best cities to visit selected by the American travel magazine “Travel + Leisure.”
In recent years, Chiang Mai has been reinventing itself as one of Thailand’s smart cities, where a creative culture that moves between tradition and modernity combines with the IT industry to produce strong synergy. The Tourism Authority of Thailand describes Chiang Mai this way: “The cultural center of northern Thailand has emerged as a popular destination for digital nomads. With nomad workshops, conferences, seminars, meetups and coworking spaces, it is virtually the perfect city for nomads.” In fact, after Bangkok, Chiang Mai is considered the city with the most active startup scene in Thailand. It is easy to find digital nomads from around the world hard at work in the city’s cafés and shared offices, and you can join their active communities to share workation know-how and get plenty of help.
Work & Living Guide
The best neighborhoods for a workation stay in Chiang Mai are Nimmanhaemin and Santitham. Nimmanhaemin was once called the “Garosu-gil of Chiang Mai” for its dense concentration of stylish cafés and restaurants. Santitham, just north of Nimmanhaemin, is popular because it is close to the center yet relatively inexpensive. Most of Chiang Mai’s coworking spaces operate like cafés: order a drink and you get the Wi-Fi password. Digital nomads on short stays tend to prefer working in cafés like these. Some let you stay as long as you like, while others limit use to one hour per drink. CAMP and Wake up Café, both in the MAYA shopping mall, are popular. Membership-based coworking brands include PunSpace and The Brick. Memberships range from 24 hours to a week or a month, at 5,000 to 9,000 won per day.
One of Chiang Mai’s advantages is its reasonable cost of living compared with other major Thai cities. Walk through the Old Town, Nimmanhaemin, or Santitham, and you will spot banners advertising long-term rentals everywhere. The Old Town has the lowest living costs in Chiang Mai, along with a wide variety of food and sights. Many people book long stays at hotels, and a budget of about 20,000 to 30,000 won per night will do. Nimmanhaemin is a pricier neighborhood, but you can still find reasonably priced residences from time to time.
East of the Old Town, you will find many traditional markets. At the Sunday Market, the Night Market, or Somphet Market, you can buy fruit and groceries cheaply. To the west lies a modern shopping district, where seasoned workation travelers pick up daily necessities at Rimping Supermarket at Maya, the warehouse-style store Makro, or Tops Supermarket on the first basement level of the Kad Suan Kaew shopping mall. Part of Chiang Mai’s charm is that, with so many artists and foreign residents, flea markets of all kinds pop up often. Seeking out places like Rustic Market, which sells handmade clothes, vintage dishes, and international food, or Chamcha Market, home to stylish clothing boutiques, is a pleasure in itself.
What to Eat and Do
Khao soi, a curry-paste soup topped with crispy egg noodles, is one of the dishes you must try in Chiang Mai. The curry paste is made with spices such as lemongrass, lime, garlic, turmeric, coriander seeds, cardamom, and chili, and the addition of coconut milk gives it a smooth, creamy flavor. It usually comes with chicken or beef, though versions with pork or seafood exist too. Pad Thai, Thailand’s signature dish, is another must. Fish sauce, tamarind juice, and palm sugar come together in a stir-fried rice noodle dish that is sweet, salty, and sour all at once, with a wonderfully complex flavor. Khao soi is served with lime, shallots, and pickled greens, while pad Thai is eaten with crushed peanuts and a squeeze of lime. Miang kham, which originated in northern Thailand, is a popular appetizer. As its name, meaning “one-bite wrap,” suggests, a leafy green is topped with shallots, ginger, garlic, lime, toasted coconut, chopped peanuts or cashews, and dried shrimp, then drizzled with sweet syrup.
Chiang Mai’s city center is not very large, and the Old Town holds many historic sites, making it easy to explore in snatches of free time. Wat Chedi Luang, built in the 15th-century Lanna style, is one of them. The chedi, a reliquary tower 82 meters tall with a base radius of 54 meters, lost part of its upper section to an earthquake in the 16th century and a Burmese invasion in the 18th, yet in its day it was considered the largest structure in the Lanna Kingdom. Wat Phra Singh, built even earlier in the 14th century, is another of Chiang Mai’s signature temples, famous for the giant golden pagoda at the center of its grounds. If you want to learn more about the Lanna Kingdom, which ruled northern Thailand from the late 13th century to the 18th century, visit the Lanna Folklife Museum. Set in a former provincial courthouse, it recreates a Lanna village at actual size. From architecture and murals to crafts and Buddhist art, you can glimpse the daily life and art of the Lanna era.
Experiencing Diverse Cultures — Singapore
Singapore is a hub of Asia-Pacific trade and counted among the smartest cities in the world. This city-state has long been a gateway for trade into Asia, and its colorful cultural background, epitomized by Peranakan heritage, gives it an ever-impressive charm. It is no wonder that startups and global companies competing on the world stage are rushing to gather here.
Workation travelers visiting Singapore may be impressed by its nearly flawless infrastructure and services, because everything a workation requires is packed densely together. A range of spaces awaits, from customized co-working offices to luxury hotel suites, and from street food stalls to Michelin-starred restaurants, there is no place where business networking cannot happen. Public transit swiftly connects the central business district (CBD) with exotic neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Little India, and Haji Lane, revealing the true face of a global city. A short break to recharge or a refreshing weekend getaway is no problem either. Even in a downtown lined with skyscrapers, a walk of just ten minutes or so brings you to a park wrapped in greenery.
According to the Singapore Tourism Board’s Korea office, “Singapore is home to more than 7,000 multinational companies and offers cutting-edge meeting and convention spaces, making it an ideal place for a workation.” It adds that “with diverse cultures and nature coexisting, Singapore is also a perfect place to step away from a busy routine and rest,” and stresses that “using hotels and workspaces with SG Clean certification, part of a national campaign for safe sanitation and management, can raise work efficiency to the maximum.”
Work & Living Guide
Startup communities interact actively around Singapore’s central business district. A defining trait of Singapore’s co-working spaces is that each has a distinct concept. To create a cozy, comfortable atmosphere, some are decorated like ordinary homes or converted from old buildings that preserve their original heritage, while women-only workspaces emphasize a soft ambience, all actively reflecting users’ tastes. Co-working spaces specialized for professionals and artists raise convenience and efficiency with designs tailored to each occupation, such as those equipped with photo studios or offering design workrooms. A single hot desk at a co-working space in Singapore’s central business district usually costs 350 to 400 Singapore dollars (about 350,000 won) a month.
Singapore imports much of its food from neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Shopping malls and supermarkets are convenient, but traditional and street markets let you buy ingredients and settle your meals at relatively low prices. Well-known traditional markets and hawker centers can be found in Chinatown and Little India, so pay them a visit. Haji Lane, steeped in Islamic culture, is a good place to experience individualistic boutiques and street food. If you are looking for premium imported ingredients or indulgences such as wine, we recommend the shopping malls clustered along Orchard Road.
Housing costs in Singapore are quite high. Long-term accommodation options for workation travelers include studios, condos, and public housing. Rent for a studio, a one-room unit with a bathroom and kitchen, starts at a minimum of 1,500 Singapore dollars (about 1.48 million won) a month, and a new studio at Raffles Place, the most central district, can climb to around 3,500 Singapore dollars a month. Lodging can also be found in public housing known as HDB, at around 1,000 Singapore dollars a month. For this reason, international students and workation travelers often live in shared housing to save on initial housing costs.
What to Eat and Do
From hawker centers where you can sample all kinds of food at low prices to upscale restaurants run by famous chefs, Singapore offers a range of culinary experiences to suit any budget and taste. Among them, don’t miss chili crab, first made and sold at a Singapore street stall in the 1950s. Fried crab is served in a tomato chili sauce, and the harmony between the sweet, spicy, and savory sauce and the crab meat is superb.
The culture of multiethnic Singapore shows itself fully in its food. In particular, Peranakan culture, formed chiefly by Chinese and Malay immigrants, contributed to the unique food culture. Chicken rice, in which tenderly poached chicken is placed over rice and eaten with chili sauce, was influenced by China’s Hainan, while carrot cake, made by stir-frying rice flour with pickled radish, eggs, and garlic, originated in the Kaohsiung area. Noodle laksa, in which coconut milk meets spicy seasonings, is another signature Peranakan dish. After a meal, kaya toast, crisply toasted bread spread with kaya jam made of coconut and eggs plus butter, goes perfectly with sweet local coffee.
Singapore has several art museums and other museums that are good to visit in short stretches of free time. In particular, the National Gallery Singapore, housed in the historic City Hall and the former Supreme Court building, is the place to see the world-renowned level of Singapore’s art scene. You can survey, at a glance, the art of East Asia, including Singapore, from the 19th century to the present. To better understand Singapore’s identity, shaped by many races and cultures, head to the Asian Civilisations Museum. The vast collection of artifacts from across Asia housed there is vivid evidence of Singapore’s history as a center of international trade. At Marina Bay, you can enjoy Singapore’s lively present. The city’s signature attractions are all here, including Gardens by the Bay, where cutting-edge technology and design blend with nature, and Marina Bay Sands, the giant integrated resort that changed the city’s skyline.
A Sustainable Workation Destination — Boracay, the Philippines
Whenever the world’s best islands are discussed, Boracay, tucked into the Visayas in the central Philippines, is never left out. It ranked ninth on “The 25 Best Islands in the World,” a list compiled by the international travel magazine “Travel + Leisure,” which is fitting for a place that serves as a role model for beach resorts. There are the emerald, transparent waters, the powder-soft white sand, beaches lined with long green palm trees, and sunsets that stain the whole sky red. Though the island covers only about 10 square kilometers, Boracay’s nature may well be a gift for the fortunate. For this reason, the island is considered among digital nomads to be an ideal destination for making “working on the beach” a reality. The Philippine Department of Tourism is also actively promoting Boracay worldwide as a destination for sustainable travel and wellness workcations. The department’s Korea office describes Boracay as “the perfect place for a workcation, where you can swim in calm turquoise waters, see uniquely shaped caves and rocks formed by nature, and enjoy picture-perfect sunsets all year round.”
The resorts lining White Beach, which stretches four kilometers along Boracay’s west coast, offer excellent infrastructure for a workcation. Tour groups may occasionally change the mood of the beach with their noise, but they are unlikely to disrupt for long the hours you spend focused on work while the breeze blows through the palms. Come sunset, head to the lively cafés, restaurants and shops downtown, and you can fully enjoy the leisure that follows a day of work.
The efforts to protect this beautiful island are also worth emulating. The Philippine government once enforced a strong policy that closed the island to visitors for six months to protect Boracay’s natural environment. Visitors to the island must pay an environmental fee of 150 pesos, and tricycles, the island’s public transportation, have begun running on electric batteries. In many respects, Boracay is undeniably a good destination for experiencing a sustainable workcation.
Work & Living Guide
Digital nomads in Boracay either use cafés or stay at beachfront resorts. When looking for a place to work in Boracay, the first thing to consider is a stable internet connection. Because the island is small, connection speeds can slow down depending on the area. If you are working on a project that involves sending and receiving large files online, we recommend the Balabag area. There are quite a few cafés with air conditioning, which is hard to find on the island, and branches of global coffee brands such as Starbucks and Tom N Toms are open 24 hours a day, year-round. A night at a three-star resort near the beach with a swimming pool typically costs 4,000 pesos (about KRW 90,000). Resorts such as Hue Hotel and Resorts and Residencia Boracay also offer workcation packages. Stay for a week or a month and you get perks such as free breakfast and discounted rates.
Because it is a resort destination, service fees tend to be high, but the prices of groceries and daily necessities are not a real burden. There is a shopping street lined with large malls and a variety of shops, so it is also convenient to pick up all kinds of necessities and groceries. D’Mall, nicknamed Boracay’s “Myeongdong,” is a shopping complex that gathers a wide range of food stalls, clothing shops and currency exchange counters. Travelers and locals alike love it, and it is especially crowded on weekends and weekday afternoons. City Mall, Boracay’s first large shopping mall, is known for its very popular food court. You can also shop on a modest budget at Talipapa, a traditional market near Station 3 of White Beach, and at supermarkets run by local Philippine brands.
What to Eat and Do
Start with adobo, the signature dish beloved by Filipinos. Meat, seafood or vegetables are marinated in seasonings such as vinegar, soy sauce and garlic, then simmered, much like Korean jjim (braised or steamed dishes). The word can also refer to the traditional cooking method of the Philippines’ indigenous people, who preserved food in vinegar and salt to keep it longer in the tropical climate. Because vinegar is the heart of the method, the dish is characterized by a flavor that is sweet, salty and tangy all at once. Bulalo, a Filipino beef stew, is made by simmering beef shank and bone marrow for a long time with vegetables such as corn, napa cabbage and taro. It is a good choice when you crave a hot broth or a hearty dish to restore your strength. Paella, interpreted in the Philippine style, is a dish introduced during the Spanish colonial era. Boracay’s paella, made with fresh seafood and ingredients, is regarded by travelers as among the best. Add to that colorful tropical fruits such as pineapple, papaya and mangosteen, and fresh seafood such as shrimp, lobster, oysters and fish, and your culinary experience in Boracay will be that much richer.
White Beach is the center of any trip to Boracay. Along the picture-perfect shoreline stand many hotels, restaurants, bars and shops specializing in water activities. Even if you don’t dip into the sea, you can take a light stroll or jog early in the morning, or relax with a drink at a bar in the evening once the day’s work is done. After the sun goes down, live music drifts out from every corner and unusual sights add to the excitement. Among the areas, Station 1, home to high-end resorts and restaurants, is a paradise for nightlife. Smaller than White Beach, Diniwid Beach, popular with locals, and Ilig-Iligan Beach, surrounded by rocks, are just two of the 32 beaches, large and small, along the island’s coastline. Find the one that suits you and enjoy a leisurely time.
A Glimpse of Everyday Buddhist Culture in Yangon, Myanmar
Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and economic center, welcomes entrepreneurs and digital nomads full of an adventurous spirit. Since the once-veiled country opened its doors to the world, Yangon has been undergoing rapid change. New high-rises and commercial buildings multiply by the day, and the roads are clogged with busy cars and motorbikes. The same goes for the startup ecosystem, which is only just beginning to sprout. Modern coworking spaces are opening, and young startup workers are pioneering a wider stage.
At the same time, Yangon is a cradle of long-standing tradition and history, sharing with every visitor a rich Buddhist culture that has endured through the centuries. This is another reason Yangon is recommended to workcation travelers, because here you can immerse yourself in an alluring culture found nowhere else in the world. Awe-inspiring golden pagodas, giant Buddha statues and relics of the royal dynasties are the true stars of the city. Colonial-era British architecture stands around them like supporting actors, marking the changes of the times, and as a result Yangon is also famous for preserving the most beautiful early twentieth-century cityscape in Asia. In a city where hundreds of years intersect, locals follow the tradition of the eight-day week, which splits Wednesday into morning and afternoon, and always show reverence to Buddhism and the legacy of the kingdom. After closing your laptop and finishing work, you can find stillness in the middle of the city and clear your head. Time spent in peaceful parks and lakes such as Kandawgyi Nature Park invites you to imagine the old days when this was a tranquil kingdom.
Work & Living Guide
Most local offices are located in Sanchaung, a district with thriving business activity. Coworking spaces near hotels and large shopping malls actively run programs that connect entrepreneurs and companies of many nationalities. A single desk typically costs about KRW 10,000 per day. KLOUD Junction City Tower, Hintha Business Center and Keier Labs are among Yangon’s best-known coworking brands.
Suitable housing for workcation travelers includes serviced residences and apartments, with prices varying widely by size and service. Generally, about KRW 300,000 a month can get you an apartment with basic amenities. If you want a more relaxed workcation, the long-stay programs offered by foreign-brand hotels and luxury residences are also worth trying. Lodging costs are reasonable compared with other major cities in Southeast Asia. For a stay of a week or more at a five-star hotel with a swimming pool and fitness facilities, the average nightly rate is around KRW 100,000.
Bogyoke Aung San Market, boasting the largest scale in Yangon, is the city’s most famous and lively market. You can find everything needed for local life here. More than 1,800 shops, large and small, are packed together, with an abundance of sights including traditional crafts, shoes and clothing, groceries and fruit. Junction Square, Myanmar’s premier shopping complex, houses more than 240 fashion, beauty, food and consumer goods brands. It also offers a range of amenities such as a hotel, serviced residences, a cinema and a spa, so it is a must-stop for travelers visiting Yangon. Chinatown is also one of Yangon’s busier neighborhoods. Street stalls line the roads from morning until late at night, and from early evening the smoke of grilling barbecue hangs thick over the streets. People of all ages end their day tasting local beer and food.
What to Eat and Do
Mohinga is one of Myanmar’s signature dishes. Put simply, it is a Burmese rice noodle soup built on a fish broth. It uses thin noodles made from rice flour, and the broth is distinctive for being made with fish commonly caught in Myanmar, such as catfish, along with lemongrass, onion, garlic and ginger. A breakfast favorite among locals, it is easy to find at street stalls and restaurants selling mohinga from early morning. There is also Shan kauk swe, a rice noodle dish that came from Myanmar’s Shan State. It differs from mohinga in that it uses sticky, flat noodles and is topped with a tomato sauce containing chicken or pork. After the meal, finish with laphet yay, Myanmar’s traditional milk tea, made with strongly brewed black tea and condensed milk. Owing to the influence of British rule, English-style afternoon tea is also a popular habit in Yangon.
In Yangon, you simply can’t pass by Shwedagon Pagoda. It is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Myanmar. A landmark that catches the eye from afar, it features a stupa about 100 meters tall, adorned with roughly 27 tons of gold leaf, thousands of diamonds, and a variety of other gems. It is especially beautiful at dawn, when the temple glows ever redder as the sun rises. Sule Pagoda, another Buddhist cultural site, can be called the heart of Yangon. Roads radiate out in every direction from it, and historic buildings stand alongside modern high-rises. Be sure to visit the Chaukhtatgyi Buddha as well, the largest reclining Buddha in Yangon. The giant statue, about 66 meters long, is striking for its delicately rendered face and the reliefs on the soles of its feet depicting the 108 defilements. If you want a short break from the city, head to Kandawgyi Nature Park. With walking paths and gardens laid out around Kandawgyi Lake, it is an ideal spot for a stroll or a quiet moment in nature. The National Museum, where you can see rare Myanmar treasures and artworks, including the lion throne once owned by the country’s last king, and the National Races Village, which offers a glimpse into the daily lives of the various ethnic groups living in Myanmar, are also worth a visit.