Southeast Asia forum

With one month you can do this trip, but it would be very tight, especially if you are not flying. I imagine you'll want to spend a few days in Bangkok before you head to Siem Reap , so that would be your first week. You could go to Vang Vieng by cutting through Eastern Thailand, but I imagine it'd be slow rolling, and the same for Southern Laos, if you're passing through the region it's a shame to only see it through the bus window. For this reason, I'd suggest that you at least take a flight from Siem Reap to Vientiane and from there you can go to Vang Vieng.

Here again, getting from Vang Vieng to Chaing Mai will be a little time consuming. I honestly think the best bet would be to make your way through Luang Prabang up to Huay Xia and cross into Thailand there. However, with this overland crossing into Thailand the visa is a lot shorter. Anyway, if you fly to Vientinne, spend a couple of days there, then a couple of days in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang you'll end up eating another week and a half easy before you get to Chiang Mai.

Here you could decide how much time to spend in that area depending on how much beach time you want to have. The other option if beach is more important would be to go overland to Vientiane from Siem Reap - go to Vang Vieng and then skip Northern Thailand instead heading back down to the South, back tracking through Vientiane. If you wanted to overland through Laos you could stop at Si Phon Don/Pakse to break up the journey.


There is a feature article that tells you all about the different ways to get from Bangkok to Siem Reap:

http://www.travelfish.org/feature/71