itinery help pls- south east asia

hello!

i need ur thoughts on my suggested itinery for my eight week south east asia solo trip!

fly from melb(aus) to ho chi minh

bus or plane to phnom penh - 2 week intrepid tour

bus back to ho chi minh - 3 days

over night train to hue, hoi an- 6 days

over night train to hanoi

2 day ninh binh tour
2 day halong bay tour
3 day sapa tour

hanoi - 3 days

hanoi to vientiane 3days- vang vieng 3days- luang prabang 3 days

2 day slow boat to huay xai- 3 day gibbons experience

bus to chaing mai- 6 days

overnight train to bangkok

home!

thats roughly what i have so far

i dont know whether to travel by air or bus into laos! i dont want to fly lao air and i dont want to sit on a bus for 24 hrs!!

i have read that viet air often use lao planes to fly into laos

do u think its worth just flying from hanoi into bangkok and just get the overnight train to laos? thought it may be easier..

and

because i have never travelled before i wasnt sure whether to fly from ho chi minh to phnom penh or get bus.

anyways share ur thoughts!!

thanks

Don't know why you're flying into Saigon just to get to PP? Why not go directly to PP via Bangkok and save having to get a double entry visa for Vietnam. As for Laos, domestic transport is also the reason I've avoided the area - I'm waiting for Air Asia to start LP! I do know that overland travel from Hanoi to Laos is very rough (perhaps a little better from Hue?) I would fly, but then again, I would choose Viet Air over Lao Air also. There is a way to check which Viet Air planes are flown on that route - the cost of those flights is outta sight though!

You don't say what time of year you're traveling - I'll have to assume summer or early fall? I was just in Bangkok/Chiang Mai/Hoi An and Hanoi this spring. Thailand was just ok and while it was interesting and beautiful, I much prefer Vietnam - I can't get enough of Hanoi. The mistake I made was making too many plans and reservations ahead of time. You might want to give yourself more flexibility to stay longer in any one spot if you really like that place over another. By avoiding peak travel times this is easily done (my sources tell me travel is way down in the area and this benefits the independent traveler greatly).

[ Edit: Edited on 30-May-2009, at 11:18 by Daawgon ]