Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand

pontovic

Hi

Me and a couple of friends will be going to Thailand for about 7 weeks in the summer, and we will be flying into Bankok and staying there for a few days and then heading on up to Chiang Mi in the North of the country.

Thing is that we are undecided as to what other countries to visit and where exactly to go in them. Is Laos any good ? Wheres the best places to go there ? What about Cambodia ? Is Ankgor Wat near to Pnom Penh ? We would like to make it to the Islands in the South of Thailand for the Full Moon party on the 11th of August, so basically we would have a month to travel all the other countries. I think realistically we could do Thailand and then one or two other countries.

What are your experiences ?

PunyHuman

Personally, I think a month is too short a time to effectively visit more than two countries. I'd go for Cambodia as my first choice. Angkor is incredible, and not that far from Phnom Penh, maybe a few hundred kilometres - shouldn't be hard to find out.

For additional information, try searching the boards here; there have been several posts about SE Asia recently

adrian522

I think you could go to Bangkok for a few days and then take an overnight train to Chaing Mai for a day or 2.
You could then head to Pai in Northern Thailand which is a really nnice town(or was in 2001). It's also a good place to organise a trek into the hill tribe villages for 3 days or so.
You can then go into Laos from the North of thailand on a 14 day visa and spend a couple of weeks in Laos which is an amzing unspoiled country. From Vientienne you can go back into Thailand or continue through South Laos into Cambodia,

Depends if you want a lot of beach time in thailand or not......

Ankor wat is definatly worth a visit, I thought Cambodia was an amzing experience also, particlarly the sights pertaining to the Genocide of the 1970's, but again depends what you are into....

No matter what you'll do youll have a great time though...


Enjoy SE asia....

gerire

I got this last year off "Blink1" when I was planning to travel. We did get through all the countries in less than 7 weeks but usually involved missing out on certain places. If you have time my blog of travels should be in my sig at the bottom. We pretty much followed Blinkys trip but got some extras in that I would definately reccomend.

Kanchanaburi, about 2 hours outside bangkok where the famous "Bridge over the river Kwai" is, but the reason to go there is the Tiger Temple which you book in your hostel and is an amazing experience to be petting and touching these huge animals

Pai. A small village with 1 main street about 3 hours North west of chang Mai, a complete hippy town we went for 2 days and came out 5 days later. I dont know why, we did nothing there, but it was an amazing experience. Id reccomend the Blue Lagoon to stay in, a bit more expensive but luxury.

Do a Trek in Chang Mai, we only did a 1 day trek and went to 2 villages, done bamboo rafting and rode elephants. If you do the 2/3 day trek you do the same except walk for longer, stay in tribal vilages and smoke opium with them at night << so we were told.

If you go into Laos make sure you go to see the waterfalls near Luane Prabang its 7-8 levels of spectacular waterfalls.

Full Moon party: Twas cool. You will really enjy it we stayed in the Blue Lotus in Ban Kai which is 1 beach before Haad Rinn, much quieter if you want it and the "taxi ride" back of a pick up truck, is a great roller coaster trip.

Cambodia was really eye opening, it is so poor its a really amazing experience, Angkor Wat shouldn't be missed, for a 1 day trip dont really understand how people go on the 3-4 days there unless they are either really religious or studying architecture.

Also from Siam Reap, where angkor wat is, I fully reccomend a life changing trip to the Cambodian Landmine Museum. If Aki Ra's life story doesn't inspire you, nothing will!!


Ok I went on a bit, Sorry. Hope you really enjoy your time and if you have space in your suitcase Ill happily jump in it.

Blinky1 wrote:

Hello there
Sorry bout taking ages to reply, havent been on this site in a while.
Anywho...
First things first,Im dead jealous of your trip. i'd give anything to go back to asia right now!
Anyway it seems like your planning properly unlike I did. I dunno how much you'll honestly need per day. I was hopeless at keeping track of how much i was spending daily. We were there for 7 weeks in total and I spent somewhere between 2000 and 2500 euro though. BUT this was quite a bit extra than one of the other girls. You could get away with 1500 for 7 weeks I reckon, but sure its better to have more so you dont miss out on anything. I splashed out loads. (bout 14 handbags! Then I got perfume at the airport in Bangkok on the way home...and got a free handbag! Score!) Also wasted 40 euro on a flight that we missed cos our bus from Cambodia broke down for about 3 hrs in the middle of nowhere. Be prepared, this happens alot
Anyway...
I reckon you will get all 4 places done in a month though seriously, but make sure you plan it well. We spent a whole week on an island at the end, so we did what your planning to do about 5-6 wks.
Not sure what else to tell you really. Have you gone travelling before? Your probably more experienced than I am so I dont wanna tell you obvious stuff that you probably already know.
I would urge you to visit Chang Mai to do the hill tribe treck though. Loadsa guesthouses etc organise them, and you can even book them in Bangkok which is handy. We got visas for Laos,Vietnam and Cambodia, the treck in chang mai, our train to chang mai, accomodation there, some day boat trip to see temples etc in Ayuttya just outside Bangkok, bus to the slow boat etc all organised through one tourist info place (TAT office). Paid there (i'll find out how much it cost in total off one of the other girls if you want,cant remember myself at the mo) and left our passports with them. Got the train to chang mai the following night (it was a dead comfy sleep surprisingly!) , stayed the guesthouse the following night, then went off to do the trek for 3 days 2 nights, and when we got back to the guesthouse in chang mai our passports and visas were waiting for us! It was cool cos it meant we didnt have to waste too much time hanging around for them.
Anyway as for your q on how we got around. Got that train to chang mai. Then a bus from there to Chang Kong. (didnt do much research here, we thought it was a short one hr trip or something, hell no, 6 hrs later we arrived, no air con on the bus either which sucked, but sure its all part of the experience.
Opted for the slow boat from there down to Luang Probang in Laos. Takes 2 days. I think its 5 hrs on the boat each day. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A CUSHION! Seriously. The seats are planks of wood, and the one we had did allow much room to walk around. No food on it or anything either. It was fun though. Everyone chats away and you stop along the edge at foodstalls etc every couple of hrs. It stops in Pakbeng one night then and everyone gets hounded by the ghouse owners, its quite funny really.

(im gonna try to summarise the rest, this is getting really long,sorry!)
From Luang Probang we got a bus to Vientianne (didnt really like this place 2 be honest, only stayed one night) (Luang P is fab though, we loved it, stayed longer than planned. The 12midnight curfew in the country sucks tho. They have so many cake shops though, yum) Anyway from Vientainne we got a really long 25 hr bus to Hanoi (my fave place of all) Stayed there about 5 nights. Its amazing. Theres just motorbikes everywhere. Saw one with 5 people on it one night. (ah, the memories!)
From there we got a train down it down to Hue. It was the best sleep I had ever!! The bed on it was so so comfy. I think the movement of the train just lulled me into a really deep sleep or something, i slept for the whole day on it)
Then bussed it to Hoi An (bought loadsa clothes) (not sure if Hue was b4 Hoi An actually, doesnt matter though, i'll continue )
Then bussed it to Na Trang, and got a bus an hr later to Saigon. We were so dissapointed we didnt stay in Na Trang though, it looked brill, but we had our bus to Saigon paid for already.
Then got a long long bus from there to Phnom Pen or Siem Riep, dunno which was first, cant remember the layout of the country. Cambodia was amazing. Then bussed it back to Bangkok. Then bus and boat to Kho Phi Phi.
If you get planes you'll save alot of time though and they aint too dear.
I hope my ramblings helped even a little!
Gonna havta run cos bro needs computer, but please pm again if you've any more q's!
Oh, and make sure you spend a few nights in Bangkok! Everyone says to just pass through it, but dont. I loved it. I was prepared to find a really sleezy place that was filthy, but i loved it. Such an amazing atmosphere in it. We stayed a night in china town there too which was cool simply cos it was so different.
Ok im rambling again. Pm me with ANY questions you have!