ROUTE ADVICE for Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos please!

macy10

Hi All,
Am travelling for 5 weeks on July 1st to Thai, Vietnam, Cambodai and Laos and am wondering form anyone that has done these 4 if I should do the route

Thailand (Bangkok to Chang ma)i- Laos - Vietnam - Cambodia - Thai Islands
or
Thailand - Cambodia - Vietnam - Laos & Chang Mai - Thai Islands

Are there benefits/ disadvantages to doing either route.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Annuv

I would very interested in anyones opinions on macy10s questions since I'm taking a similar trip in July

catbear

Ok, here goes.
Did similar route about five years ago (would love to go back). Rather than five weeks, we had five months (ah those days drinking beer lao with a good book)

With five weeks I highly recommend flights where ever possible. There is only one bus trip I think is worth the pain and that's from Vientienne up to Luang Probang (do not leave out Luang Prabang, it was lovely). There's not much in Vientienne, a stopover at most. I'd actually advise you skipping it to save time. www.airasia.com has great cheap flights.

Our exact route was Bangkok, Siem Reap (Ankor Temples, planning on revisiting them), Phnom Phen (don't stay too long), onto Saigon (good food). then we turned north to Hoi an, and eventually to Hanoi. Flew to Laos from there as we were sick on the overnight buses (very dangerous too).
Didn't do much of the Thai beaches, we were fed up of Thai hawkers but the best beach experience we had was in Cambodia, it was quiet and we had whole beaches to ourselves.

It's all doable in five although if you want to take it slow I'd say leave out North Vietnam, my least favorite place.
I don't think there are any advantages in taking either route.

macy10

Thanks catbear.

Am leaving on Wednesday and really thinking what we should actually do is leave out 1 country either Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. Question is which one????? Husband not major on travelling so not a great help when it comes to route planning..... Ah 5 months catbear...I wish!!!

catbear

OK
I'll make it easy for you.
Leave out Laos.
With only five weeks it's far better to sample a bit of Vietnam and Cambodia.
Cambodia and Laos have more similarities with each other than with Vietnam or Thailand. Vietnam and Thailand are very different to eachother so are worth it.
Ankor is the highlight of Cambodia.
You can also leave out North Vietnam, it was my least favorite place.

All of the above is personal opinion and by no means definative.

Enjoy.

Just remember to drink lots of water and buy Dxycycline cheap in Boots in Bangkok.

Gatica

I am resurrecting this thread as the schedule and itinerary seems similar to mine. I'm in a similar situation to the poster on this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64355924
no responses there though.

My bf and I are planning on going to SE Asia mid-September (I know it's wet season; and have return flights to Bangkok already purchased) for exactly 4 weeks (-1 day due to travel and time difference). I would like to see all 4 countries: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, in that order, with a final visit to some sunny Thai island.
We are planning on flying between all destinations due to time constraints. I know it's an ambitious itinerary, but I really just wanna see/visit the places without "delving" too much (no time for that) and get a taster for a more prolonged visit in the future.

I have read a few of the SE Asia, and Thailand/Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia threads and I got some advice from a number of friends who have travelled there as well. So I am not expecting a lot of recommendations or advice on places to see.
However, I want to run an itinerary past a few of the experienced travellers who visit these forums and get some feedback.

I have done the schedule based on flights and consolidated feedback on some of the cities:

• Bangkok 2 days
• Chiang Mai 2 days
• Luang Prabang 4 days
• Hanoi/Lao Cai/Sapa 4 days
• Dalat 3 days
• Saigon(Ho Chi Minh) 3 days
• Phnom Penh 2 days
• Siem Reap 3 days
• Phuket/Phi Phi (via Bangkok) 4 days

The only place we're getting a bus is Saigon->Phnom Penh, and then speedboat Phnom Penh->Siem Reap.
My problem is that I just cannot pick what to drop off that list! We're not planning on spending any time in Hanoi itself. We want to get the overnight train to Lao Cai and see the Sapa region. My bf is a bit more chilled out than me and would prefer a more laid back approach, stay longer in places we like and not take-off as required by the tight schedule.
How insane is my plan??

I had also thought of maybe dropping the leg between Dalat and Phnom Penh and flying Hanoi to Siem Reap (more expensive though). We're both very keen on keeping Sapa on our itinerary, and then we may even be able to include Ha Long Bay in our visit to Hanoi.

In terms of visas, I think we'll apply for the online Vietnamese visa at www.vietnamvisapro.com, and an e-Visa for Cambodia.
We're getting vaccinated this week at tmb. I compared cost with some posts made over a year ago (200 odd was the norm) and the prices seem to have shot up like crazy - it's costing us something like 500 each (excluding Malaria tabs)!
We included rabies and Japanese Enc. because we wanna walk around/trek the Sapa region, visit the Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai and generally walk the cities where I'm told there are many stray dogs.
Does that sound about right?

I really hope someone can provide their view on this or add any personal experience.

Gatica

why can't I edit my post above??

anyway, I've moved my query above to a new thread.