South East Asia with girlfriend 2013

BobTerwilliger

Hi all,
Myself and my girlfriend are looking to head away for around a month in June or July next year. Mainly to Thailand, but it'd be nice to see other parts of SE Asia too. Looking for advice on a few things.

Are there certain companies you should/shouldn't book with? Is it better to do a package deal? She'd like to relax a lot, but I'd like to do a bit of hiking etc too. What kind of price range are you looking at? Basically, I don't know where to start...

solerina

Give trailfinders a ring or call into one of their offices (Cork and Dublin)...they will tell you all you need to know and are very good to book through as well...even if you dont end up booking with them they will def steer you in the right direction !!!

Gatica

We went to SE Asia for a month last September. It is an amazing destination. Check with travel agents on what they can offer you, but I found that it was quite easy to organise things yourself at a reasonable price.
Most hotels we stayed in were around 30-50 a night per room, we stayed in good hotels but sometimes ended up being a little further out of town than we would've liked. I've reviewed them all on Tripadvisor.
If you're staying in small towns, try to get something central. They see distances in proportion to the town-size. For example in Cambodia we were charged more for going out to our hotel because it was 2km away, which to me is walking distance! It was just too hot and tiring to walk it every day so we got tuk-tuks.

Try not to do too much. We spent around 3-4 nights at every destination and flew in between (went to 4 countries: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia). I'd rather now have cut out one location and spent 4-5 nights per location.
If you're taking malaria medication it can take its toll (I was quite fatigued, had nausea and bad stomach from it, not the food) so keep that in mind if you think you'll be on "top of your game" the whole time.

Highly recommend Vietnam. It's really green and lush and the hiking in Sapa was my favourite part of our trip. You can arrange all your visas in advance too. Can share any of that info if you're interested.

BobTerwilliger

That's great info thanks guys. Will be sure to check out Trailfinders. I like the sounds of that trip Gatica. Something similar would suit. What kind of price range overall are we talking? I might PM at some stage if we decide to go ahead with it?!

Hidalgo

I did Vietnam, Cambodia & some of Thailand (Bangkok and Ko samui) in 3 weeks a few years back.

I'd highly recommend Vietnam. Absolute class country, amazing scenery. You can either start in Saigon and trail up to Hanoi or vice versa. If your going to Cambodia after it makes sense to start in the north, work south and cross into Cambodia via the Mekong delta.

Halong Bay off the coast of Hanoi is a must imo.
Some of the smaller towns down along the coast have beautiful beaches for relaxation time and far better quality tailors than cities like Bangkok.

You should be able to get a bus ticket pre your first leg which does the whole way from Hanoi to Saigon. Handy in the fact that it saves having to buy individual tickets as you go.

I did very little planning, just booked places as I went and had no problem (that was in April).

One important piece of advice, check the seasons for rain before you book flights, can't imagine arriving in the middle of rainy season would be the best craic.

Your budget may decide on how much you get to take in, if you can afford to fly rather than long bus trips, then you'll obviously get more in

Hidalgo

[QUOTE=Gatica;81505758

Highly recommend Vietnam. It's really green and lush and the hiking in Sapa was my favourite part of our trip. You can arrange all your visas in advance too. Can share any of that info if you're interested.[/QUOTE]


I just got my visa for Vietnam in Bangkok, took a day if I remember correctly. Our tour guide sorted out visa for Cambodia as we were crossing the border.

Gatica

yeah, drop me a PM no problem.

Our SE Asia "internal" flights (excluding getting to Asia) cost us around 1500 total for the both of us, that's 7 one-way flights. We flew everywhere because we were short on time for the number of places we wanted to visit. If we'd left out one of the places, e.g. Cambodia, we'd have had 1 less flight and would've saved ourselves around 400 Euro, as those were the most expensive flights.

Busses and trains are of course cheaper but we wanted to get around fast with minimum tiredness from travel. For most flights we got into airport and checked-in around 1 hour before the flight and were very lucky that none were late. Most flights were only around 1 hr duration. In Luang Prabang and Siem Reap the airport is like 15 mins away. However in Bangkok and Hanoi it's closer to an hour.

We went during wet season but had a lot of luck. We'd just missed some flooding in Bangkok (some streets were flooded when we arrived but dried up the next day). Missed the landslides and the rain in Sapa by 2 days and returned from Halong bay the day the typhoons hit central Vietnam. Overall though, wet season has meant some rain in the night with pretty good days. Some days had some light rains but nothing an irishman/woman can't handle.

Four of a kind

Myself and my girlfriend spent 4 months around SE Asia last year and loved every minute of it. So much so that we are moving there next year and trying to incorporate work/travel.

You'll love Thailand. Its amazing. Drop me a pm if you need any specific info or you can check out my blog www.nextstopwhoknows.com

Gatica

Hidalgo wrote: »

I just got my visa for Vietnam in Bangkok, took a day if I remember correctly. Our tour guide sorted out visa for Cambodia as we were crossing the border.

Cambodia does e-visa now, so you can get it done online for $25. They also didn't charge us the departure tax for some reason.
Thailand didn't require a visa at all, not even visa on arrival. Laos I think did visa on arrival for $36 plus $1 or $2 if you don't have a photo with you.
We got visa pre-approval letter for Vietnam done before travelling for $15 and they give you the visa at the airport then with a fee for a photo if you didn't bring one.

Hidalgo

Gatica wrote: »

Cambodia does e-visa now, so you can get it done online for $25. They also didn't charge us the departure tax for some reason.
Thailand didn't require a visa at all, not even visa on arrival. Laos I think did visa on arrival for $36 plus $1 or $2 if you don't have a photo with you.
We got visa pre-approval letter for Vietnam done before travelling for $15 and they give you the visa at the airport then with a fee for a photo if you didn't bring one.

e-visa is a great job. Think I gave $50 for mine, and in the back of the head I'd be wary of giving anyone my passport.

Getting the Vietnam visa at the airport is the way to go alright. When I was there I met a Scottish couple who got theirs from the embassy in London before they left home. They maintained that method was a lot of hassle.

Also do you still need to put your arrival date in when applying. can lead to a loss of days if you spend more time than originally planned in any of the other countries, especially if you plan on spending the full month in Vietnam (which I'd recommend to anyone if they have the time to do so).

Gatica

yeah, we had to give date of arrival but we had flights booked so it wasn't an issue for us. Otherwise, I don't know how it works...

Hidalgo

Gatica wrote: »

yeah, we had to give date of arrival but we had flights booked so it wasn't an issue for us. Otherwise, I don't know how it works...

If you put down todays date as the entry point on your visa but get sidetracked/delayed and don't get there for 10 days, i think that you then have only 20 days remaining.

That's what I was told anyhow.