Malaysia - Vietnam

Lucifer-0

Hi.

I'm booking a holiday soon and sort of have this planned. Basically looking for advice on whether or not this is doable or even a good idea.

It's a 2 week holiday in January/February.

Land in Kuala Lumpur, mess around there for 3-4 days, head over to a couple of neighbouring islands/Singapore.
Then up to Thailand for 3-4 days.
Then over to Cambodia for 2-3 days.
The remainder of the trip in Vietnam possibly via Laos if it's worthwhile, all I know is the flight home will be from Vietnam.

Any advice is welcome. Too much travelling in the space of 2 weeks?

Thanks in advance.

whatsyourquota

Sorry to burst your bubble but noway is that possible. I spent 6 weeks in Asia this summer and only made it to (koh phangan, koh samui, bangkok, chang mai) Thailand,(luang prabang, vang vieng, vientiene) Laos, (hanoi and halong bay)Vietnam. I did spend longer in some of these places than I should have but I still think what your trying to do just isnt possible. You havent taken into account how long it takes to get to places, you would have to fly everywhere and even then you wont have enough time. In two weeks you might see bits of Malaysia and then fly straight to Vietnam and travel there for the remainder of your time.

Lucifer-0

whatsyourquota wrote: »

Sorry to burst your bubble but noway is that possible. I spent 6 weeks in Asia this summer and only made it to (koh phangan, koh samui, bangkok, chang mai) Thailand,(luang prabang, vang vieng, vientiene) Laos, (hanoi and halong bay)Vietnam. I did spend longer in some of these places than I should have but I still think what your trying to do just isnt possible. You havent taken into account how long it takes to get to places, you would have to fly everywhere and even then you wont have enough time. In two weeks you might see bits of Malaysia and then fly straight to Vietnam and travel there for the remainder of your time.

Fair enough, I presumed there were trains or buses but I guess it is a long journey from country to country.

Cheers.

whatsyourquota

Ya there are plenty of trains and buses but just as a rough guide it took me nearly 20 hours to get from bangkok to koh phangan so as you can imagine that sort of time would cut right into your 2 weeks

Lucifer-0

whatsyourquota wrote: »

Ya there are plenty of trains and buses but just as a rough guide it took me nearly 20 hours to get from bangkok to koh phangan so as you can imagine that sort of time would cut right into your 2 weeks

Boll0x, I might have to rethink this trip so. I can only really go for 2 weeks unfortunately, trying to figure out a trip where I can see as much as possible in 2 weeks is not easy.

dory

You'll be going from Dublin to France on a bus/train every day or two. Not fun.

How about making a list of the things you really want to see? And pick one or two countries.

Google 'suggested itinerary cambodia' for example to see what one should see there. I got this one from the top google result: http://www.travelfish.org/trip_planner/cambodia-one-week-trip

dearg lady

yeah, deffo too much to fit in, as dory suggested pick maybe two countries and stick to that. On top of long travelling times(these can be done overnight in Thailand and Viet Nam but still massive journies!!) you'll have to get several visas which is a pain, crossing borders is time consuming and visas cost in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore you get stamped on arrival...assuming you're Irish

Lucifer-0

dearg lady wrote: »

yeah, deffo too much to fit in, as dory suggested pick maybe two countries and stick to that. On top of long travelling times(these can be done overnight in Thailand and Viet Nam but still massive journies!!) you'll have to get several visas which is a pain, crossing borders is time consuming and visas cost in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore you get stamped on arrival...assuming you're Irish

Ye I'm Irish Thanks for that, think I'll just travel around Malaysia and maybe travel towards Thailand. Vietnam direction will have to wait till I've more holidays built up at work

dearg lady

Lucifer-0 wrote: »

Ye I'm Irish Thanks for that, think I'll just travel around Malaysia and maybe travel towards Thailand. Vietnam direction will have to wait till I've more holidays built up at work

tbh there's a heap of great places to go in Thailand and Malaysia, I wouldn't sorry about fitting in lots of countries. You'll have a ball! Train is handy for travellin between Malaysia and Thailand

quicklickpaddy

dearg lady wrote: »

yeah, deffo too much to fit in, as dory suggested pick maybe two countries and stick to that. On top of long travelling times(these can be done overnight in Thailand and Viet Nam but still massive journies!!) you'll have to get several visas which is a pain, crossing borders is time consuming and visas cost in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore you get stamped on arrival...assuming you're Irish

How roughly much are the paid visas?

Basically, a few of my friends wanna head over next summer and do pretty much all those countries over about 2 months. Realistically what would be a reasonable ball park figure to budget for everything included?

Any general tips would be much appreciated

darrenh

Just stay in Malaysia. The things you can do in two weeks there would be amazing. Try a quick trip to Borneo to see the Orangutans, stay with ex-headhunters, see the worlds biggest cave. Swim with giant green turtles in the Perinthian islands and "friendly reef tip sharks". The Cameron highlands are meant to be amazing. Melaka and Panang are not to be missed.

whatsyourquota

quicklickpaddy wrote: »

How roughly much are the paid visas?

Basically, a few of my friends wanna head over next summer and do pretty much all those countries over about 2 months. Realistically what would be a reasonable ball park figure to budget for everything included?

Any general tips would be much appreciated

Laos visa is $35, Thailand is free and I paid $55 for my Vietnam visa bit that was to get it processed in one day when I was in Laos it was cheaper the longer you waited. Dont know about the rest though

dory

darrenh wrote: »

Just stay in Malaysia. The things you can do in two weeks there would be amazing. Try a quick trip to Borneo to see the Orangutans, stay with ex-headhunters, see the worlds biggest cave. Swim with giant green turtles in the Perinthian islands and "friendly reef tip sharks". The Cameron highlands are meant to be amazing. Melaka and Panang are not to be missed.

Totally agree. But it depends on what you're into. Booze is heavily taxed in Malaysia so if you want all night partying you'll be paying a lot (I remember €6 for one beer). There are some tax free islands however such as Tioman (which I loved but I like chilling out, not partying). Malaysia is incredibly varied and there is so much to do.

You could always head up to Thailand for a bit if you want. But to me it paled in comparison with Malaysia.

Lucifer-0

darrenh wrote: »

Just stay in Malaysia. The things you can do in two weeks there would be amazing. Try a quick trip to Borneo to see the Orangutans, stay with ex-headhunters, see the worlds biggest cave. Swim with giant green turtles in the Perinthian islands and "friendly reef tip sharks". The Cameron highlands are meant to be amazing. Melaka and Panang are not to be missed.

Sound, I'll make sure to check all those out, thanks for the advice.

Lucifer-0

dory wrote: »

Totally agree. But it depends on what you're into. Booze is heavily taxed in Malaysia so if you want all night partying you'll be paying a lot (I remember €6 for one beer). There are some tax free islands however such as Tioman (which I loved but I like chilling out, not partying). Malaysia is incredibly varied and there is so much to do.

You could always head up to Thailand for a bit if you want. But to me it paled in comparison with Malaysia.

I'm a bit of a scabby b@stard so I won't be paying 6 euro for a drink too often over there! I think I'll finish off with a couple of days in Thailand or maybe start off there, depending if the flights are much cheaper either way around.

thanks for the tips.