Traveling during Asia Rainy Season

Notch000

Hi, I had been thinking of a two month holiday to Thailand & cambodia, laos & mabye vietman area, not necessarily all countries but around that general area for 2 months. We have May & June booked off work and are fixed to this dates. I did a quick checkl and seen that this is probably rainy season there !! bugger. how bad is the rainy season. Is it a big no no to consider travelign there around this time fo year or will it still be ok, i'l be traveling with my GF and were both pretty hardy, arrrrhhh

patser grey

I wouldnt worry about the rainy season, its a tropical climate all year round, i've been to the area a few times around this time and loved it, it does rain heavily but comes from nowhere, buckets down for an hour or two then vanishes to reveal lovely blue skies again, usually in the evening, and these monsoon rains really need to be felt to be appreciated. You also have the advantage of better bargaining power as its low season, but definately dont let the rain put you off, it will probably rain more here anyway!.
Even though its rainy season you'll probably never be out of shorts and t-shirt, i loved swimming in the warm sea as raindrops the size of golf balls fell, go for it, i envy you.

Notch000

cheers dude,
thats all the reassurance i need

Riamfada

I travelled the area in the rainy season and they days were still long and hot with the odd heavy downpour but they were a welcome change to the tropical sun and heat. Which I would now give my left arm for.

RATM

Yeah Id agree with other posters, dont let the monsoon put you off. Just be wary though that in mountainous areas landslides can occur and can shut roads for a couple of days. This is more relevant to Laos than to Thailand.

Notch000

Sounds good,
how long do the down pours last usually 10, 20mins 2hours ? Are they regular or do they come down at random times day and night ????

Arcee

Rainy season happens at different times of the year in each country in asia. In thailand you can have 3 seasons going on all at once depending where you are in the country. You're going to be covering a lot of ground by the sounds of it so try and plan your route so you avoid the worst of the rains in each of your destinations if you can. It's not gonna be raining all over asia for those 2 months. It's generally not prohibitive to anything anyway except if you want to travel to very remote regions where roads might be washed away. I've found the lonely planet forums useful for getting weather info from people who are actually over there and the lonely planet site in general for country-specific conditions. Enjoy you're trip - those countries are all amazing :-)