Southeast Asia forum

Me and a friend are planning a 3 month trip to SE Asia next summer, June- September.

We had high hopes of getting quite a few places in there:

Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
Malaysia
Indonesia

However I am now conscious of the practicality of getting it all in. There are places I have been before and therefore only want a short stay so as to maximise the length of time we have in other places. (KL, HK, Singapore, Bangkok)

We are flying to Bangkok, so will be starting our travels from there, and our budget once we arrive will be about £2500/£2700 for the 3 months.

For Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam we were planning 14 days in each (42 days altogether of which can be moved about depending on whether we decide to stay longer somewhere), then working our way down to Malaysia from where we will have a month to make our way to Bali where we plan on finishing.

We will also being going to Hong Kong for five days before we go back to the UK, we aren't going for long as I used to live in HK.


I know that these are high expectations, the 14 days we will spend in each of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand means we will have to be pretty brutal in our choices of where to go, and we are pretty happy in doing this and getting the most out of a more specific area choice.

This is our only opportunity to go travelling for at least the next few years so really want to make the most of our time.

We are travel newbies, want to avoid the big beach parties and commercialized/western like areas, more interested in culture, but aware that as newbies the beaten track may be a sensible option especially with the time frame!

Can anyone help, we really need a starting point and some tips on the best places to see!