SE Asia for 4 weeks in 1 week

strawdog

hey I'm flying from Dublin to Bangkok in just over a week, I have 4 weeks in Asia on my own and am struggling to figure out how best to do it. I am thinking few days in BKK/Thailand maybe flying to Hanoi from Bangkok and working my way back through vietnam and cambodia (I gather I don't really have time for Laos)

Is that realistic in 3/4 weeks? Besides a Vietnam visa, malaria tablets, is there anything I need to organize in advance such as the flight, accom etc? Anyone know a better way of doing the region in that short a timeframe? Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

jank

If it was me. Id just spend my time in Thailand and Laos/Cambodia.
You need loads of time in Vietnam so dont bother IMO. Plus Laos and Cambodia are both better.

Larianne

I think you'd be pushing it for time. Just decide on one or two countries and enjoy the sights and culture. I've been to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. If you do want to get a bit of Vietnam into the journey a trip to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam is well worth the visit and it's not too far from the Cambodian border. I preferred Vietnam to Cambodia but it just depends on the person I think. And remember the transport system isn't going to be great.

Travelfish.org was what I used when travelling in these countries for info

S.M.B.

How long would it take to travel from Hanoi to HCM stopping at a few interesting places along the way (and obviously see Hanoi/Halong Bay/HCM)?

I'm considering doing this trip but I've no idea how much time I should spend there.

Larianne

S.M.B. wrote: »

How long would it take to travel from Hanoi to HCM stopping at a few interesting places along the way (and obviously see Hanoi/Halong Bay/HCM)?

I'm considering doing this trip but I've no idea how much time I should spend there.

3/4 weeks.

dory

Also OP, check out Thai visas. Pretty sure they changed recently so you'll only get 15 days at a time unless you sort it out beforehand. But with only 4 weeks you'll probably not spend that long anywhere anyway.

Personally, I'd go straight to Cambodia from BKK. Depends what you're into. I didn't like Thailand because of all the tourists, the islands reminded me of Gran Canaria, but if that's what you're after you'll love it.

I'm guessing like most travellers you'd prefer to see a small bit of every country rather than explore one in depth. In that case, flying to Viet Nam might be a good idea, up into Laos and down into Cambodia. If you have time check out the Charley Boorman series, By Any Means (should be online or youtube) he does that exact route, sees some great things and ends up in Bangkok.

S.M.B.

Larianne wrote: »

3/4 weeks.

Really?

Now that I look at travelfish they say 10 days/2 weeks at the bare minimum and a month is ideal.

How would you compare the likes of Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang to other places in S.E. Asia?

I might just shorten my trip down to a flight to Hanoi, visit Halong Bay and return to Thailand.

belleray

Hey,
I'm heading off myself soon and to be honest I've no clue what we're going to do.
We fly in and out of Bangkok and are there for about 4 weeks, the basic idea I was thinking was to cross through Loas towards Hanoi, hit Halong bay and then head down to Ho Chi Minh City and then back to Bangkok through Cambodia. Can anyone advise me if this is realistic, are the transport links good enough or would be get into trouble and be better getting flights? Has anyone done this before?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I'm fairly clueless about this.

Larianne

S.M.B. wrote: »

Really?

Now that I look at travelfish they say 10 days/2 weeks at the bare minimum and a month is ideal.

How would you compare the likes of Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang to other places in S.E. Asia?

I might just shorten my trip down to a flight to Hanoi, visit Halong Bay and return to Thailand.

I didn't get to go to Hue but I was in Halong Bay, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta.

I didn't find Hanoi that interesting to be honest (can't remember why) but it's where are base was before doing Halong Bay. That was a nice experience. I would recommend it.

I'd skip Nha Trang. It's just a resort town with nothing really in the place. I was there doing diving courses. The diving was pretty crap as the water was over fished.

I liked Ho Chi Min City. From there I did a 3 day trip of the Mekong Delta. This was one of the highlights of S.E. Asia for me. You really get to see how the Vietnamese live along the water. The floating markets were great to see. Also, the war museum in HCMC was just amazing, very informative.

We were short on time so didn't travel through Vietnam. We flew from Hanoi to Nha Trang and then took a night bus from there (Horrible if you are anyway tall!) to Saigon. If you wanted to could fly into Hanoi, then fly to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon. Vietnam Airlines are the only airline that flies domestically so the prices can be steeper than average flights around Asia but the service is great!

You could then from HCMC travel over land (or by SLOOOW boat) into Cambodia. I'd recommend this route. But have a look on Travelfish and Thorntree forums for more information. And make sure to get talking to fellow travellers and seek their opinions.

Belleray, Yeah you probably could do all countries in 4 weeks but you wouldn't enjoy it I don't think. You really need to think why you want to go to sucha country - is it to sample the culture and it's people or to get another stamp on your passport and say 'yeah I've been there'. I haven't been to Laos but I heard the transport there is very poor so you might be taking a chance. The whole country is in fact very poor.
Cambodia isn't too bad and you could fly in and out of Siem Reap and see the temples and be happy. I think Vietnam would need more than a week to fully appreciate it.

S.M.B.

Larianne, thanks for the detailed reply. Think flying BKK - Hanoi, Hanoi - HCM, HCM - BKK is what I'll end up doing. Travelling back by land is a bit pointless as I've already been to Cambodia/Laos.

belleray, trying to fit the 4 countries into 4 weeks is very ambitious but could be done if you just used internal flights. You really would be rushing from place to place and having a flexible plan is half the fun.