Southeast Asia forum

Hi Sean,

Yeah, you'll be doing a fair amount of travel -- not every day, but still very frequently. So if you were trying to do that trip in ten weeks, plus a couple of add ons and a week in the islands at the end, you'll need another holiday to get over it!

Perhaps look at saving some time by skipping some of southern Laos -- you could save a week there and add it to an island break.

Plan out your trip roughly, day by day over the ten weeks. If you travelling more than once every three days, I'd say reconsider how much you're trying to fit in.

More questions? ask away!

Flying Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang will save you a lot of time -- to do it overland takes at a minimum three full days (one to border, then two on the boat downriver -- longer still if you take the road).

Phnom Penh to saigon isn't sucg a time saver -- the trip is easily done in a day, so at most you'll save yourself half a day.

4,000 islands is absolutely worth the time to see -- very laid back, relaxing area. You can always fly Vientiane to Pakse, or take an overnight bus from Vientiane -- both will save you a few days.

cheers

Hi

My boyfriend and I just did the trip in 8 weeks at a pretty comfortable pace (stayed in most places 3 nights) although we had to cut out southern laos and did not hit mui ne, sapa, or ayutthaya.

If you have 9 weeks because you are subtracting the week you'll be spending in southern thailand I think you will have to choose some places to cut out or do some flying. The boat trip from chiang mai to luang prabang was a great way to meet people but definitely not a highlight of the trip in terms of sightseeing so flying that leg would be a great way to save 3 days that you can then spend in southern laos.

Also I know a lot of people choose either sukhothai or ayutthaya. People have different preferences. We headed to sukhothai and really enjoyed our day there.

In vietnam I would highly recommend dalat which was not on the itinerary posted on travelfish. It is in the mountains so very cool which is a welcome change from the heat in other places and also has these guides called the easy riders that drive you around the countryside on their motorbikes. They were by far the highlight of our trip. Our first day with them around dalat was so great that we hired them to take us to nha trang. It was fabulous. The people I spoke with all recommended dalat over mui ne but if you are looking for quiet relaxing beach supposedly mui ne is good for that.

Feel free to ask anymore questions. Also as was already said bus ride from phnom penh to saigon was only 5 hours so not really worth flying. We flew Hue to Hanoi because it saved us taking an overnight bus and was almost the same price as the train.