From Japan to South Korea, Asia offers so many unbelievable experiences, whether that’s exploring temples, attending a ping pong match or river tubing down the river. But it’s the evening where these countries really come to life and you get a very different experience. Below are the biggest and most exciting evening experiences you should try while travelling across Asia.
Karaoke in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines or Taiwan
Realistically, there are a lot of countries where karaoke is a hugely popular activity, whether that’s China or Vietnam, but it was Japan that jumped out to me initially, where you have the karaoke boxes.
In South Korea, these are known as Noraebang, where you get a private booth, so you don’t have to worry about others watching, something I much prefer and has been spreading across the UK. In fact, I recently did this with my family in Brighton, where they brought cocktails to your booth when you pressed a buzzer, that’s my kind of service!
Tokyo has a huge amount of karaoke venues, including in Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ikebukuro. You could even turn this into a bar hopping experience, depending on how your lungs do, I know an hour of singing will leave me with a dry throat!
Watch Muay Thai in Thailand
The immense experience of seeing a live fight in Bangkok is meant to be incredible, while if you don’t have the budget for a proper match then you can go to the more tourist-based ones, where they offer to fight people in the crowd, don’t take those ones seriously though.
The traditional Muay Thai fights tend to last five rounds, if both athletes last that long, but some of the events are three rounds.
Don’t let their height fool you either, these guys and girls are lethal, I wouldn’t fancy getting kneed by one.
Visit A Mega Casino in Manila
The capital of the Philippines has some ridiculously huge casinos, while they also have live shows and events that you should keep an eye out for, including global superstars playing there, plus the regular shows that take place.
The casinos also tend to have luxury hotels on-site, nice if you don’t want to travel far after a day spent in there, just make sure to opt for one with a pool as it can get pretty hot.
If you don’t get a chance to head inside, you can also try the casino online which is increasingly common nowadays. I’ve seen people try e-games competitively, which really does blow my mind.
You have City of Dreams, Okada Manila and Solaire Resort Entertainment City as the main 3 to pick from, but again Manila isn’t the only key destination where you could try a casino, with Macau providing arguably the biggest casino in the world!
Visit The Taiwanese Night Markets
I love a market, but in England you tend to be limited to Sunday morning, not ideal if you’re slightly hungover and have to get up on your weekend at 7am to get there in time for the best deals. In contrast, Taiwan has a number of markets in the evening when the temperature has cooled off.
If this sounds good to you, then the big one is Shilin Night Market, but beyond this, you also have Huaxi Street, Liuhe and Zhonghua. Many of these have a food focus, so make sure to turn up hungry for some Taiwanese fried chicken.
Over to Hong Kong, the Temple Street night market is also meant to be amazing, a great place to pick up a gift for someone back home and even to get your fortune told (if you believe in that, not so much for me).
If you head to Indonesia then you could try Pasar Badung in Denpasar, which is a 24 hour a day market! I’m not sure how they handle the rotation but that is mindblowing to me, one I’d love to visit one day.
Stargazing in the Maldives, Nepal or Mongolia
Again, you could highlight this activity almost anywhere, but some of the best spots are in these 3 countries.
The Maldives is almost perfectly on the equator, allowing you to see both the Northern and Southern hemisphere viewpoints.
Plus, you’re not in a big city, with loads of light pollution, you’re on a small island surrounded by the dark ocean, therefore your view should be spectacular if you turn off the lights in your hut. I couldn’t however find star gazing tours at the time in the Maldives, which was a bit disappointing, but they do have those available in Nepal and Mongolia.
If you’re on a Himalayan trek, which is one of the biggest reasons for tourism in Nepal, then you’re most likely thousands of metres from a big city, meaning the sky view is once again mindblowingly special.
Just the same, a trip to the Gobi desert in Mongolia will also offer beautiful views of the night sky, with all the stars above you.
