The Banana Pancake Trail in 2026: six countries, four weeks, one eSIM

The route: overland where it works, flights where it does not

That is 23 nights before the optional week, which leaves slack for the thing every trip on this route acquires: the island you extend by two days because someone at breakfast said so. For Vietnam at a slower pace, Vietnam north to south in two weeks has the long version.

Bangkok, then an island chosen by the calendar

Start on Khao San Road, because everyone does. The name means milled rice — it was a rice market long before it was a backpacker institution — and it is where Leonardo DiCaprio's character checks into a travellers' hotel at the start of The Beach (2000). The stalls still sell T-shirts printed same same but different, Thai-English for "close enough". Everybody buys one. The city itself has its own guide.

One rule changed this month. Since 15 September 2026, the passports on Thailand's visa-exemption list, the UK, the US and the whole EU among them, get 30 days without a visa, down from 60, and visa-free entries are normally limited to two a calendar year. On this route that is plenty.

Then pick the coast by the month, not by the algorithm. The Andaman side — Krabi, Railay, Phi Phi, Phuket — gets its rain from May to October. The Gulf islands of Samui, Phangan and Tao run the other way, wet from about November into the new year.

Samui is also having a moment. The White Lotus filmed its third season there, in Phuket and in Bangkok, with the Four Seasons on Samui playing much of the resort. Weeks after the February 2025 premiere, the Thai government said foreign bookings on the island for the Songkran holiday were up 65% on a year earlier. Nobody in the show has a restful holiday. It put nobody off.

The border that closed

For a generation of backpackers the trail crossed into Cambodia at Aranyaprathet and Poipet, the most famous land border on the route and the most complained about.

It is closed. After fighting along the frontier in July and December 2025 and a ceasefire on 27 December, the land crossings between the two countries are still suspended. The UK Foreign Office, updating its advice on 18 September 2026, advises against all but essential travel within 20 km of the border, and Cambodia's own e-visa site lists Poipet as temporarily closed until further notice. The through buses stopped in June 2025, whatever an older blog post says.

So fly. Bangkok Airways from Suvarnabhumi and Thai AirAsia from Don Mueang both reach Siem Reap in about an hour, several times a day. The new airport is 50 km from town, and the shuttle minibus costs about US$8.

Buy the temple pass on Angkor Enterprise's official site: US$37 for one day, US$62 for three days within a week, US$72 for seven within a month. Then the unpopular opinion: do the 5am sunrise once, and only once. Unlike most Angkor temples, Angkor Wat faces west, so at dawn you are photographing its silhouette over the heads of everyone else photographing its silhouette. The front catches the sun in the afternoon.

Into Vietnam on the bus

From Phnom Penh, the bus to Saigon is the best overland leg left on the trail: 6–7 hours, departures hourly from 7am into the early afternoon, about US$30, and a border at Bavet and Moc Bai where both countries accept e-visas. Short on time? Siem Reap has direct flights to Hanoi, Da Nang and Saigon.

Vietnam gives 45 days visa-free to a list of mostly European passports, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain among them. Most other passports, American and Australian included, need the e-visa.

Then take the GrabBike ride of your life. A motorbike taxi through Saigon at rush hour is the cheapest thrill ride in Asia: the fare is fixed in the app, nobody haggles, and you see the famous traffic from the inside. Wear the helmet — the law requires one — and hold your bag in front of you.

Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, and a last week

Fly from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur and you are in the country that invented the app you have been using since Bangkok: Grab started in Malaysia in 2012 as MyTeksi, a taxi-booking app. Kuala Lumpur has the towers; Penang has the breakfast. The ETS train runs from KL Sentral to Butterworth, and the ferry covers the last stretch into George Town.

Singapore is the tidy end of the trail and the one with the famous rules. Selling chewing gum has been illegal since 1992; chewing it is not. Durians are banned on the MRT — as they have been on Bangkok's city buses since 2023 — and in plenty of hotels across the region, so eat yours at the stall like everyone else.

Singapore also has direct flights to both options for the last week. Bali carries the most paperwork on the trail, including a tourist levy paid online before you fly. The Philippines asks only for eTravel and gives many passports, the UK's included, 30 days without a visa; Palawan and Siargao are the islands, and the islands run on tricycles and cash.

The paperwork, in one table

Visa rules depend on your passport; the forms do not. Checked on 27 September 2026 against the government sites and the UK Foreign Office:

Money, one line per country

• Thailand: most ATMs add 220–250 baht to every foreign-card withdrawal, so take out more, less often — and when a screen offers to charge you in your home currency, say no.
• Cambodia: US dollars come out of the ATM and riel comes back as change, at 4,000 to the dollar. Torn notes get refused and fakes turn up, so check yours.
• Vietnam: prices drop the thousands, so "100k" means 100,000 dong. Ask the ATM for 4.9 million rather than 5 million, and part of it comes out in smaller notes instead of ten 500,000s that street stalls hate breaking.
• Malaysia: QR codes are more common than card terminals; visitors can pay them through the Touch 'n Go eWallet, linked to a foreign card for a small fee.
• Singapore: a price marked "++" gets a 10% service charge and 9% GST added at the end; "nett" already includes both.
• Bali: change money at a bank or a bank-affiliated counter, and count it before you leave.
• The Philippines: a cash society. Carry small notes for tricycles and boats; ATMs thin out quickly beyond the cities.

One eSIM, and the apps to put on it

Every country on this route, plus Laos if you detour, is on the regional Asia plan, so one package covers the loop. Myanmar and Timor-Leste are not on it.

Install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi and leave the line switched off. A package starts the first time the phone connects in a country on its list, so switch it on when you land in Bangkok; switch it on during a Singapore or Kuala Lumpur layover and it starts there instead. Start it within 30 days of buying it. It is data only: your home SIM stays in for calls and texts, with its own data roaming off. Hotspot works on every package. If the trip outlasts the package, buy another Asia package and it lands on the same eSIM.

Grab works in every country on this route, and GrabBike in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia; add Gojek for Bali, PassApp for Cambodia's tuk-tuks, and Be or the electric Green SM in Vietnam. Set them up at home, where the sign-up code reaches your own number. Each stop has its own page: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.