My s e asia travel itinery...

Im sure hundreds of these have been done before. I need to plan my trip to asia and want to get most out of it. its ok reading stuff online but the people who have been there and bought the tee shirt are the peoples brains I want to rack...

12th feb i fly to bankok and it goes like this.

bankok - 2 days there shopping for trip get a fel for the place

Bankok to chang mai - do 3 day jungle trek couple of nights in the city

bus to pai - stay there 2 nights see waterfalls etc

pai to mae hong song 1/2 nights

bus to chang rai 1/2 nights

chang rai to Luang prabang - trip on mekong with waterfalls

Luang Prabang bus to vang vien

van vien to vietnenne

vietnenne - to hanoi <between here im unsure where to go and stay off?>

Hanoi to sapa - over night train

hanoi to ho chi minh city using bus service you get on and of at will...

stopping at ninh binh 1 night

ninh binh to hue

hue to danang

danang to hoi an

hoi ang to na trang

na trang to chi minh city

at this point il get a bus to Phnom penh

go to kampot

kampot to sihanoukville

sih - siem reap

siem reap - battambang

then back over to thailand

pattaya

then get a boat or fly to ko pa-nang

to ko samui

to surat

to phuket

Its alot to take in i know and any feed back will be much appreciated.this is the first time iv tried to plan a trip like this so any info for me to jot down will be great. me and my freind have 4 months to do this were both 24 and looking for parties treks and good stuff to do. £4k each...so what have you guys done...where would you advise us to go/not to go, estimated time in places.

rough guide so far

2 weeks for north thailand
2 week laos
1 month vietnam
2 week cambodia
6 week south thailand

cheers for reading :@)

A few thoughts...

I think the bus from Vientiane to Hanoi is 24 hours, we had friends that did this last year, it's quite a tough journey.

Vietnam - I think only spend one night in Hue (not really that much to do, quite a slepy town) and miss out Danang completely. Definitely don't miss Halong Bay north of Hanoi. In between Nha Trang and HCMC stop off at Mui Ne just to break the journey a little bit.

Cambodia - I would go north first. Go to Phnom Penh, then Siem Reap, then back to Phnom Penh. Battambang is nice but not really worth a special trip, worth it for one night only as there is not a lot to do there. The border crossing at Poipet (which you would go through from Battambang) is horrendous, avoid it at all costs! From Phnom Penh go south to Sihanoukville via Kampot. From there you can then go through to Thailand on a through ticket (around $25) to Pattaya or Bangkok - takes about 12-14 hours. Personally I think you might want to spend more than 2 weeks in Cambodia, maybe 3 weeks will be a better timeframe. From what you have said you like, Sihanoukville will probably be somewhere you like - laid back beach bars with cheap drinks!

Thailand - there is no boat from Pattaya to Koh Phang Ngan, there isn't an airport on Koh Phang Ngan either. Closest airport is on Samui but this is extortionate to fly into and out of because it is privately owned by Bangkok Airways. You could also fly air asia from Bangkok to Surat Thani on the mainland and then get a ferry to Koh Phang Ngan.

Phuket is a sh*thole don't go! It's very expensive and not nice people or atmosphere. It's just like Spain (like the Costa del Sol) in Thailand!

[ Edit: Edited on Nov 13, 2008, at 9:15 AM by loubylou ]