Travel plans for Thailand/Combodia/Vietnam

grubby23

Hi all,

I would like to explore the three countries Thailand/Combodia/Vietnam and potentially Laos. I have around 5 - 6 weeks time and I will be traveling alone.

I am wondering whether anyone could recommend any good, cheap tour that I could join, the more people the more fun I guess.

FUrthermore, what is the cheapest flight option, multi destination, arrival in Bangkog and return from Hanoi?

Thanks for your input!

PS.: Or can anyone recommend cheap tour operators? Sta-travel is the only one that comes to mind.

Doshwaster

Personally, I wouldn't be looking at joining a long tour as they can be very expensive and don't give you much time to do what you want. Travelling around SE Asia is about following your nose rather than being escorted around in a large group.

Wherever you go there will be loads of local tour operators who will run day tours (and often longer ones) in the area. They are a great way of doing things that you wouldn't be able to do on your own and for meeting people - but you aren't stuck with the same group for the whole of your trip.

For a trip of 5-6 in length, I'd leave the planning fairly open. Fly to Bangkok, spend a few days hanging around there are then move on. You'll find loads of independent travellers (esp around the Khao San Rd) who will offer loads of tips and stories.

I'm not sure that returning from Hanoi is the best idea in terms of keeping prices down as it's not a major airline hub. It would be much easier if you could make your way to Hong Kong or loop back to Bangkok.

There's loads of threads on this forum from SE Asia regulars. Try this one for starters where totallybored plans a trip from Hong Hong to Bangkok: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3898417

Proxy

Vietnam certainly isn't cheap to fly to/from.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't go though, it's a fantastic country and I much prefer it to Thailand.

But yes, don't get a tour unless you are very nervous about independent travel. You'll regret it within a week of being there.

PompeyPete

Like Doshwaster says most of the tracks are well beaten and trodden, you'll never be far away from like minded people.

5-6 weeks sounds a long time, but you don't want to be rushing around too much, as plenty of places are well worth lingering.

My suggestion is:

Fly to Bangkok, and spend no more than 3 nights there. Try and stay somewhere close to the river or skytrain. Khao San Road area is where you'll find most backpackers and the cheaper accommodation.

Take the overnight sleeper train to Nong Khai (see https://www.seat61.com), which sits on the Meekong River on Thai/Laos border. It's a lovely laid back place, with not a lot of traffic. Have a couple of nights there. Here's a lovely place to stay...

http://www.mutmee.com/

A short tuk-tuk ride fron Nong Khai is the Friendship Bridge, which is a border crossing into Laos. You can buy your Laos visa there. Once over the bridge, take a tuk-tuk or bus to Vientiane (the capital). It's only 20kms.

Your stay in Laos will be at three places, Vientiane, Vang Vieng and finally Luang Prabang. You'll find plenty of people in Vientiane doing exactly the same route. How long you stay in each is down to you. Just book a seat on a bus the day before you want to move on.

On your first day in Luang Prabang book a flight to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

Fly to Chiang Mai, and enjoy a few days there. It's a bit of a mini Bangkok, with lots of mopeds choking the place up. But it's very popular with loads of activities to keep you busy.

Fly or get the train back to Bangkok, but don't linger.

Fly from Bangkok to Phnom Penh (PP) by Air Asia. Buy your Cambodia visa on arrival.

Have a few days in the PP, with perhaps a couple of nights in Kampot or Kep. PP is famous for the Killing Fields and the days of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It's very atmospheric, and like everywhere I've mentioned you'll find lots of other people of all nationalities doing exactly as you are.

Bus from PP to Siem Reap (SR). The Angkor Wat historical and archaeological site will eat up a couple of days of your time.

Bus to Battambang. Underrated, but well worth a visit.

Bus to Poipet on the Thai/Cambodia border, and back into Thailand.

You'll probably find that most of your 5/6 weeks will be up by now, and you'll be ready for your final couple of nights in Bangkok before flying home.

There are loads of other itineraries that you can make up depending on what you're into. Lots of planning is a good idea, and if I were you I'd be spending a lot of time on the Trip Advisor discussions forums picking up lots of tips for wherever you plan on going.

43 days and counting down fast for us. We've got just under 6 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia, and doing a different itinerary to the one above as we've done most of it before. Travel light too.

grubby23

Wow, thanks a lot guys for the helpful comments! The thing is, for me there is nothing more boring than traveling alone, therefore I was considering joining a tour.

The are quite expensive, 500 pounds for 7 days with basic accommodation seems a lot of money to me in SE Asia.

It seems that I will need Visas for combodia and vietnam which is a bit annoying. Thailand should be fine without visa.

I better get this stuff sorted soon if I want to leave by end of February/beginning of march ...

As it was suggested 5-6 weeks is a bit long, would you suggest 30 days as more than enough time to explore the area?

Doshwaster

grubby23 wrote: »

Wow, thanks a lot guys for the helpful comments! The thing is, for me there is nothing more boring than traveling alone, therefore I was considering joining a tour.

The thing about SE Asia is that you are never alone - you aren't hiking across the Sahara - there will be thousands of similar independent travellers doing the same thing. It's so easy to meet up with some people, hang out together for a few days, then move on. If you encounter someone who is a pain it's easy to lose them.

If you do join a long organised tour then I guarantee that within a few days
a) you'll want to be doing your own thing
b) you'll hate at least half of the people in your group.
c) you'll think it a waste of money

I've come across some of these tours when travelling and they are mostly full of people with more money than sense (chiefly Americans) who just want to to tick of the sights without actually experiencing the country.

If the idea of going solo sounds so scary or boring then maybe SE Asia isn't for you. Either that or try a shorter trip as a taster - in 10-14 days you could still see a few places and see if the region is worthy of further exploration.

grubby23

Doshwaster, you might be right and you can get unlucky with the people! However, I did a 3 week trip exploring South Africa for 21 days. The bunch of people was great, and I just paid 900 Euros which was a bargain.

By the looks of it, I have not found any cheap tours so far in the SE Asia region on Sta travel. Last year I was in India for 3 weeks, luckily with my cousin, there were almost no tourists and we people just tried to scam us all the way!

grubby23

PompeyPete: Great route suggestion, however, there are quite a few domestic flights, can I book them at short notice and get still a good deal or needs this to be done in advance?

If possible, I would like to include Vietnam in my trip, even if it is just for a couple of days, it would be good to have a taster of this place.

So the places I consider visiting so far include:

Vietnam: Hanoi, Ha long Bay, Da Nang (?), Hoi An (?), Mekong Delta(?), Saignon

Laos: Vientiane (?), Luang Prabang

Cambodia: Phnom Penh (side trip to Kampot), Siem Reap

Thailand: Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Bophut on Koh Samui or some other beach resort before returning

How about I fly into Bangkog, spend there a couple of nights, then fly to Hanoi and start there the trip Hanoi -> Cambodia -> Laos -> Thailand and return then from Bangkog?

Doshwaster

grubby23 wrote: »

PompeyPete: Great route suggestion, however, there are quite a few domestic flights, can I book them at short notice and get still a good deal or needs this to be done in advance?

There's always a balance between booking in advance vs late in terms of price vs flexibility but if you look at Air Asia (excellent airline) there isn't that much difference between booking a flight in 3 days compared to 3 months on a few random dates I've just tried the prices are £40 vs £30 for Bangkok to Chiang Mai (just be warned that Air Asia use the "old" Bangkok airport at Don Muang)

On a longer trip it's a good idea to have rough itinerary planned but you still need to leave yourself some flexibility to change your plans en-route because of bad weather (always unpredictable in SE Asia), transport delays or simply because you either love or hate a particular place (no point in stopping somewhere for a few days that you hate - move on!)

These days booking travel and accommodation en-route is easy. There are travel agents and Internet cafes everywhere and many hotels and bars will have free wifi.

agrinnall

I spent 4 months doing Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, and still didn't get to see a lot of the places that I would have liked to. I think if you try to do it in less than half the time you'll find a huge proportion of your time is spent on the move (the distances are quite big and travel is often quite slow).

While PompeyPete's itinerary is a great one, even that might be pushing it in the time that's available. I would consider using Bangkok as a staging post only and concentrate your time on two of the countries (probably either Laos and Combodia or Cambodia and Vietnam), with flights out of and into Bangkok at either end.

grubby23

Excellent, 30 or 40 quid does not make a big difference!

I am sure you could spend months and months traveling these countries, but as it is my first trip I just want to get a taster of all the countries and then come back in the future to explore the area more that I liked.

So I still like the idea of spending 5 weeks in these 4 countries, and making less stops in each of them. I guess Vietnam can be done in around 6 days, so 4 weeks left for the other stuff!