Sandals NOT Shoes (and socks) are ‘the way’ in SE Asia

Are you a sandals 🩴 type of person?

Upon arriving in Southeast Asia, you may end up ditching shoes & wearing sandals everyday – up to you.

Why Sandals in SE Asia?

Sandals are engrained in the culture and somehow life just makes sense wearing sandals every hour of everyday. After a while, you won’t even notice that you aren’t wearing non-sandals (shoes), because why would you ever do that!?

It’s hot outside so letting your feet breath.

Sandals slip on/off easily. Too easily, as a matter of fact. Without a backstrap, they slip off easily during raining season – not good.

But, it’s better to have sandals than soaking wet shoes. Slipping shoes on/off is also part of the culture – taking shoes off before entering a building is common.

No smelly socks! Do you wear socks with sandal? If so, at least your feet can breathe and air out.

Types Of Sandals

Sandal Features

There’s all sorts of fashion statements out there – we’ll let you sort that out. If you want those pins to put on your crocks that’s your prerogative.

The true fashion statement in SEA is Crocks (fake ones) + Charms for decoration.

Hiking sandals are made to have good grip. You don’t want to slip and slide all over the place, right?

When it rains it pours – that’s our reference to the SE Asian rainy monsoon season when the ground it extra wet and slippery.

So, have good grip – you’ll need it! You will most likely rely on walking around, so having a high quality sandal is needed.

Having straps that you can loosen and tighten ensure a proper fit. It provides comfort and prevents the sandal from falling off, too.

This is overlooked, but something you should consider in your next pair of sandals.

This prevents the sandal from slipping off of your foot. This is great for hiking and wet conditions.

The cost may be higher, but the quality is also higher, and they last longer. You get what you pay for.

You can easily and cheaply replace a standard pair of SE Asian purchased sandals, but you can’t replace a good quality pair bought from your home country – they just aren’t as readily available, unfortunately.