Southeast Asia forum

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You really should have posted this on SE Asia. Maybe you should think about reposting.

I'm an Australian and live on the coast. Beach stuff is so good here, and SE Asia so less than appealing, I don't bother. You say your sort of the same, but are planning to spend time doing same. I believe I can chill out anywhere, I don't need the beach scene. You can see I'm biased!

Why do you want to go to Pattaya. As others have demonstrated here on Travelfish, its largely a brothel town.

You need to allocate 1 full day from Siem Reap to PP. Also, I'd allocate 4 full days in Siem Reap (3 in temples, and 1 at Tonle Sap).

PP needs at least 1 full day to 'do' museums & Royal Palace.

PP to Saigon is either overland by bus (1 full day) of down the Mekong and to Saigon by bus - this route is 2 full days.

You don't say where you'd like to go 'up the VN coast'. As a rule, I suggest people get off the beaten track, VN touts are pretty full on.

From HaNoi, are you intending Halong Bay (recommend 2 nights on water - try www.columbustours.com)? And are you thinking of SaPa? If so, get to Lao cai (where the train terminates for SaPa on a Sunday am, and 'do' the BacHa market, then go to SaPa. You can go overland from SaPa to Luang Prabang, or back to HaNoi and fly. Depends on the sort of journey you want.

Some of the best trekking and also the Gibbon Experience (check out here) is in the north, so you may have to rethink this part of Laos.

From the border of Laos/Thailand to Chiang Mai is 5 hours on VIP minibus. I say that because I think the scenery and activities in northern Thailand are better in the western area than the eastern side (again, my prejudice). Try Pai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, Mae Sot, (deviate to Um Phang & return), Sukhothai, then to Bangkok.

KL is great, but its just a bigger, dirtier (and slightly cheaper) version of Singapore. I'd consider Penang or Malacca instead.

Hope this helps start the ball rolling.

Cheers

Hi,

I don't have time to give much specific advice right now, but your itinerary strikes me as being a bit much for the amount of time you have. Unless you're flying a lot, it would be a lot of travel time. That said, look into Jetstar and Air Asia for cheap flights. Jetstar flies all over Vietnam and Air Asia flies all over Thailand and Malaysia.

Beyond that, I wouldn't go to both Koh Samui and Phuket. And, as Bruce and Mac mentioned, Pattaya is one seedy place. It may actually be my least favorite place in Southeast Asia that I've been to, but hey, if you want to get wild, I ain't gonna judge. If you're just going for the beach, Pattaya's is not nice; save it for the south.

I just spent 2 and a half months in Vietnam, so if you have any specific questions there I can try to help.

DL