South East Asia

TheZooBox

Howdy,

Few of us heading to SE Asia for 6 weeks this summer and trying to get an idea of the best route. Trying to work out how much to try and see in 6 weeks without over-doing it.
We plan on going straight to the islands in Thailand for the full moon and staying for 2 or 2.5 weeks, then on to bangkok for a few days. Unsure how to fill the next 3 weeks in terms of cambodia/vietnam/chang mai/laos. Any suggestions would be sweet!

Cheers

Ed_Stephens

You could quite easily spend the 6 weeks in Thailand but as you're there it's as easy to travel around. Cambodia is your easiest and cheapest option bar Laos but Cambodia is more tourist ready than Laos. If you go there you can get an evisa online from the Cambodian government, cost about 40 dollars but it will save you time and hassle at immigration. Phnom Penh and Siem Reap/Angkor Wat are great spots. Chiang Mai isn't really a lads place, more touristy group tours, it's also a ten hour train journey from Bangkok, if it's a group of lads then you'll probably enjoy Koh Samui/Koh Phangan for the full moon party or Phuket. Both easy to fly to from Bangkok. Vietnam needs a visa from the embassy in the UK which involves you posting your passport.

How long you want to spend at each location is more up to you in that how much you like cities or the beaches. Bangkok can be expensive especially now with the bad exchange rate but there's lots of cheap decent accommodation and it's cheap to get around it.

cson

Ed_Stephens wrote: »

Vietnam needs a visa from the embassy in the UK which involves you posting your passport.

You can do that, but its ridiculously expensive (~£90). What you should do is get a flight into Vietnam and have the pre visa form ($20 online) and then get a visa on arrival in Vietnam ($50).

If I were you guys I'd do 3 weeks in Thailand & 3 weeks in Vietnam. Fly into Bangkok; fly up to Chiang Mai for 4 days or so, fly down to Surat Thani and trip around the Islands for the remaining 2.5 weeks. Flight to Hanoi, do Castaways and bike down the coast to Ho Chi Minh. Fly into Bangkok, do a night there and then home. That'd be a deadly trip.

Ed_Stephens

cson wrote: »

You can do that, but its ridiculously expensive (~£90). What you should do is get a flight into Vietnam and have the pre visa form ($20 online) and then get a visa on arrival in Vietnam ($50).

If I were you guys I'd do 3 weeks in Thailand & 3 weeks in Vietnam. Fly into Bangkok; fly up to Chiang Mai for 4 days or so, fly down to Surat Thani and trip around the Islands for the remaining 2.5 weeks. Flight to Hanoi, do Castaways and bike down the coast to Ho Chi Minh. Fly into Bangkok, do a night there and then home. That'd be a deadly trip.

Another option is to go to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh and get the Vietnam visa there, usually do it in a day if not there and then.

Don't just do one night in Bangkok there is so much to see and do, I would much rather 4 nights here than Chiang Mai but it's up to you.

Ed_Stephens

cson wrote: »

You can do that, but its ridiculously expensive (~£90). What you should do is get a flight into Vietnam and have the pre visa form ($20 online) and then get a visa on arrival in Vietnam ($50).

If I were you guys I'd do 3 weeks in Thailand & 3 weeks in Vietnam. Fly into Bangkok; fly up to Chiang Mai for 4 days or so, fly down to Surat Thani and trip around the Islands for the remaining 2.5 weeks. Flight to Hanoi, do Castaways and bike down the coast to Ho Chi Minh. Fly into Bangkok, do a night there and then home. That'd be a deadly trip.

Another option is to go to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh and get the Vietnam visa there, usually do it in a day if not there and then.

Don't just do one night in Bangkok there is so much to see and do, I would much rather 4 nights here than Chiang Mai but it's up to you.