Thailand and Vietnam (or possibly Cambodia/Laos)

Tusky

Heading to Thailand + 1 other country in August and looking for some advice in building an itinerary. I'm guessing there's no point in trying to do more than two countries in four weeks?

With that in mind, would people recommend Vietnam over Cambodia or Laos?

The only thing that worries me about Thailand is how horribly touristy it seems to be in places. I'm not interested in that, especially not stuff like 'tubing' etc. Looks fun, but not what I would be going to somewhere like Thailand for. Looks more like a Spanish package holiday or something.

Any help on planning the trip would be much appreciated. Was thinking of budgeting €1,500 (+ flights). This is more than enough I'm guessing?

MrJoeSoap

Tusky wrote: »

Heading to Thailand + 1 other country in August and looking for some advice in building an itinerary. I'm guessing there's not point in trying to do more than two countries in four weeks?

With that in mind, would people recommend Vietnam over Cambodia or Laos?

The only thing that worries me about Thailand is how horribly touristy it seems to be in places. I'm not interested in that, especially not stuff like 'tubing' etc. Looks fun, but not what I would be going to somewhere like Thailand for. Looks more like a Spanish package holiday or something.

Any help on planning the trip would be much appreciated. Was thinking of budgeting €1,500 (+ flights). This is more than enough I'm guessing?

I'd recommend Cambodia or Laos over Vietnam, to be honest. Never been to a place like Siem Reap in my life, I loved every minute of it.

Is the €1,500 for spending money alone, or does that include accomodation and internal transport? How much will you be booking before you go over? What sort of accomodation are you looking for or expecting? You can do it on a shoestring but it won't be comfortable or luxurious.

Also, what parts of Thailand are you looking at? It can be a very varied country, from the jungle in the north to the touristy islands in the south.

Tusky

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

I'd recommend Cambodia or Laos over Vietnam, to be honest. Never been to a place like Siem Reap in my life, I loved every minute of it.

Is the €1,500 for spending money alone, or does that include accomodation and internal transport? How much will you be booking before you go over? What sort of accomodation are you looking for or expecting? You can do it on a shoestring but it won't be comfortable or luxurious.

Also, what parts of Thailand are you looking at? It can be a very varied country, from the jungle in the north to the touristy islands in the south.

I'm not sure, it's all really up in the air. Nothing is set in stone. Wasnt planning on booking much in advance apart from flights and maybe the first hostel we will stay in. Not planning on fancy hotels or anything like that. We are 26 year olds and used to roughing it around South America etc. Don't want to do it on a shoestring, but we will be on a budget, if that makes sense.

I really don't know much about any of the countries mentioned or what they offer when compared to each other.

Siem Reap looks amazing.

wallpaper12

Tubing is in Laos btw. I love Cambodia but hated Siem reap. You say you dont want touristy well Siem Reap is probably the most touristy place in South East Asia.
Id spend all four weeks in Vietnam, you would need at least that amount of time to do Vietnam justice and it is truly amazing.

jadie

I would pick Thailand, Laos and Cambodia over Vietnam any day. I had planned to spend a month there but had enough after two weeks. For me Vietnam was the most touristy country and I found the people will try and rip you off all the time unfortunately

The last two comments sum up Vietnam. Some love it, some hate it.

Give northern vietnam a shot for 2 weeks.. Hanoi, Sa Pa and Ha Long Bay are the main places but if ya want an adventure, check my trip report on this page. Great way to spend 5 days.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056315429&page=2

Tusky

Cheers for the replies.

When I said touristy I more so meant the 'lads on tour' (or on gap year) type of touristy atmosphere that you seem to get in parts of Thailand.

In terms of experience, what are the differences between Vietnam and Cambodia?

Cheapest flights I can find are around €550 each way. Is that about right or a tad expensive?

Sounds about right based on my friend doing a return trip from hanoi to london during the summer for $1,300.

Cambodia and Vietnam are very different experiences.. Cambodia for me felt like a "do this, then that, then leave" sort of country.
Most people spend 2/3 days in Phnom Penh and don't see much of the real city. All the motorbike taxis know exactly where you will want to go and charge accordingly. The places you do go are depressing but definitely worth seeing. "The killing tree" being by far the most in my face horrific example of evil I've ever seen. On the same day, you will go to S21 prison and that's about it. I ended up spending an extra week in the city and although I think it's beautiful, it all felt like it was inaccessible to me outside of the tourist stuff.
Siem Reap is the unfortunate result of an amazing piece of history sitting in the middle of a backpacker trail. Ankor deserves to be situated in a hard to reach place and not have such an opposite in culture sprout up next to it.. Even then, Ankor only caught my attention for a few hours before I felt like I was done. It's definitely a fun town but is full of what you dont want to see OP.. It's as famous now for messy partying as it is for the ruins.
And finally, the shlthole of SEA.. Sihanoukville. Again, a massively fun town and I did have a blast here but I had to leave after a week or so because the underage prostitution and general using of children for money started to grind me really bad. Nice beaches, nice people, crazy little place but for me, a constant feeling that there were alot of bad bad things happening in the place.
Battambang is a relaxed little city.. A few little trips to do and a general lazy feeling. Spent a few days after Siem Reap just sitting in a hammock reading books.

Vietnam for me felt alot more accessible compared with Cambodia.. There's a strong economy here that isn't dependent on tourism and it's quite obvious straight away. You can organize your tours and stuff but out walking the streets feels like you're in their country, not in a tourist bubble. Even in the most touristed spots of Ha Noi or Ho Chi Minh, you still have VNese people carrying on with their day to day lives. I found it the easiest country to just jump into a shop / situation / restaurant and have an interesting time. Even after a year, the tourist mecha of Hanoi is still where I most go out because there are so many regular VNese who like western style bars. Same in HCMC.
As for sights, Vietnam is covered in beauty and history.. Too much for me to go into again now but one point is that compared with Cambodia, Vietnam's war history is something they are proud off.. They're proud of how they fought the Americans. It's alot more enjoyable and historically interesting to a tourist compared to the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia which in reality was just a slaughterslaughtering of human lives.

I can see why people love both countries and hate both countries.. For me, Cambodia is a place I never want to see again. In heinsight, I wish I had spent that time and money in Burma. Vietnam is a place I came back to work in instead of flying on to australia and now it's a place I dont want to leave in the foreseeable future.

MrJoeSoap

If you do decide to head to Siem Reap, I'd recommend taking one of the quad bike tours that bring you off into the countryside and the "real" Cambodia. I still swear that I've skydived, swam with dolphins, travelled all around the world and nothing has had an impression on me the way that it did.

Every single child we passed on the road had a massive smile on their face for us, and a wave. Kids were running hundreds of yards just to wave at us. And it's not like in the big cities where people smile at you expecting money, this was for real. I took my favourite photo ever that day too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af_pfnxft1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv7iywc4b1g

http://www.quad-adventure-cambodia.com/

Tusky

Great posts, thanks guys.

Sappa

As Ads by Google has said above,Cambodia for me was one of those countries once I spent a month traveling it I never really yearned to go back there.
I first toured it back in 2002 and have since just done a few visa runs but it has not got the same diversity as Vietnam or Lao which in my opinion is a cracking little country.
If I were to choose it all depends on time,if you have a spare month I would do 2 weeks in north Nam and 2 weeks in north Lao,possibly the most stunning scenery of all of Asia.

kraggy

Sappa, how far north in Laos did you go? I only saw Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng Vientiane and Don Det (4000 islands) in Laos when I was there. Didn't go further north than Luang Prabang as I got the impression that there was nothing much else further north or that it was inaccessible.

I've a feeling that I was wrong. Were you further north than Luang Prabang?